Robin Jackson Blog

Years ago when I was still a practicing, doubting and unhappy Jehovah’s Witness I crossed paths with two Mormon missionaries. The two knocked on our door and introduced themselves to my father. Dressed in their distinctive black and white attire with name tags pinned to their crisp white shirts, my father invited them in. They started their well rehearsed talk much like the Jehovah’s Witnesses do. My dad, a Jehovah’s Witness too, did not have any qualms about discussing doctrine with them and I promptly joined in. They gave us a bit off background to the Book of Mormon and the religion in general. For the next two weeks they visited our home and my father acquired a copy of the Book of Mormon from them. But only on condition they take one of our Watchtower publications.

Discussions continued during those two weeks culminating in a Sunday lunch at our home. The two missionaries must have thought that they were surely making headway with this Jehovah’s Witness/Congregational Church family.(My mum and two younger sisters never really became Witnesses.) However, our indoctrination proved to be to strong to convert us to another cult and The Book of Mormon was eventually stashed away in the family library. But my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to secretly read this Book of Mormon that was supposed to be an extension of the Bible.

Like many of the Watch Tower publications, the literary quality of the book was appalling. It is a hopelessly disjointed affair which plods on convoluted and repetitive. Furthermore large chunks of it is unintelligible due to the difficulty in navigating its alien geography.(Please tell me where are Bountiful, Cumeni, Manti, Zarahelma, Sidon, Antionum, and Jashon?) The best that can be said about it is that it comprises a series of books named after prophets or chroniclers just like its so-called counterpart, the Bible. Joseph Smith even attempted to give it an authentic King Jamesian ring but he consistently fell short of the mark. Notice this feeble attempt; ‘For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become unto a flint’. Mark Twain branded the book ‘chloroform in print’ for he was lulled into a stupor by it.

However, if the Book of Mormon is a miserable effort by literary standards, it is a masterpiece as a work of myth. It relates the history of two tribes of Hebrew origin that migrated to the American continent in separate waves. The first to arrive were the Jaredites who fled Judea when God destroyed the Tower of Babel. They built a great civilisation in the New World and committed their records to a set of brass plates. The brass plates were later discovered by the second group of Israelite immigrants,the Nephites who arrived by ship around 589 BC. The book then goes on and on and details conflicts between the Nephites and the Lamanites.

Looking back on the history surrounding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it is fascinating to see how this mythical epic story of two great rival cultures has given rise to Joseph Smith’s Kingdom that today numbers over twelve million adherents. But then again, isn’t this how many of the great religions and cults have started out?