The Darker Side of Virtue: Corruption, Scandal, and the Mormon Empire

Focusing on the highly visible Mormons, Shupe, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Indiana/Purdue universities, observes no lack of moral difficulties among this religious minority; indeed, he argues, their old-fashioned values place the Mormons at special risk within the American mainstream. Citing loyalty to the ``Mormon Mafia'' as the ``dark side'' of patriotism, and detailing the Latter-day Saints' disturbing involvement with the U.S. intelligence community, Shupe draws a startling picture of Mormon influence, including preferential treatment of LDS agents in the FBI and the Church's supposed culpability in the Challenger explosion, a case of white-collar crime. His controversial, negative view of the Latter-day Saints is not altogether credible. (May)