Of Mormons and Methodists

For my Religion and American Culture course, I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon watching a four hour documentary on the Mormons. It came out on PBS some years ago, around 2008, I think. Anyway, the Mormons are awfully fascinating. To be clear: I think there are plenty of great Mormon people. In junior high my best friend was a devout Mormon. 
But. There is a but, for me. With the lack of evidence for the historicity of the book of Mormon, the unorthodox theology of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are separate according to Mormonism), and the expansion of the cannon orthodox Christianity has known as closed for centuries... I have some problems with the Mormon faith. 
That said, there is a lot milquetoast Methodists and other mainlines can learn from Mormons. For one, the Mormons see themselves as a thoroughly separate people. As John says, they love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. To the point Broadway makes a great musical about them. Too many mainlines are, like Kierkegaard complained of the Danish Lutherans, inoculated with just enough of the Christian virus to be immune to the searing fever of the gospel. But Mormons have a distinct identity in the faith. To be not an employee, not a brother or sister or mother or father, not a student, not even an American-- but a Christian first.  That is what Jesus meant when he said give up everything and follow him. 
Mormons also know persecution. Mormons living today have grandparents who were killed for the faith in Jackson County, not far from where I sit typing this. (I'm home this weekend.) And in Illinois. They know ridicule, know the stinging loneliness of being in the world, not of it. I think we Methodists have gotten too comfortable. When was the last time I was persecuted for my faith in Jesus Christ? (Actually, I have been lashed for my convictions in the church, not the world. But I'm no martyr, except occasionally in the worst, psychological sense.) What would it look like in today's society to be a martyr with the awesome intensity of Joseph Smith?
Well, doing missionary work is certainly one way. (I'm getting to that later.) Beating the gay and abortion issues to death achieves the goal of distinction from the world, while also making Jesus look wrathful and obnoxious. I'm not really sure how martyrdom can be achieved in America. I think it starts with adopting a Mormon consciousness of separation from the world and dogged determination to live out the faith. 
One thing I love about Mormonism: no clergy! Yes, if I were born Mormon (I don't think any white clad hunks at my door could ever get me to convert; I think I'd end up Jewish first), I would not be contemplating professional ministry. Of course, as a woman I couldn't be in Mormon church leadership at all, but I digress.
There is something really cool about the church being run by laity. The pernicious cults of personality around a single charismatic pastor that dissolve the bonds of community, the abiding sense ministry is for the professionals... Mormons sidestep it all. The twelve disciples began as poor fishermen, but Jesus unleashed them for the sacred work of the kingdom. As surely as we are all member of the body of Christ, we all have a job to do. And when clergy start horning in on the laity's work, ceasing to equip them for ministry, the clergy are no longer fulfilling their jobs and the laity haven't gotten to, either. 
And get this-- they go on missions! From age eighteen through twenty, every Mormon man has to go on a mission. Not with a bunch of pals on a bus to go do some good work in the day and play Sardines at night-- but they actually go together with one partner to spread the gospel to everyone they find. In the documentary a church leader wept softly, explaining how he was ready to give up the faith, but went on this mission and felt the Holy Spirit draw him in. I think that if the Methodist church did something like this, we'd have so many more young adults and win so many people to Christ. Young, bright people my age want to make a difference in the world, and they'll go anywhere they can to do that. Teach For America and the Peace Corps and the whole bit... and those are great organizations and certainly sincere Christians participate in them and do God's work there. But as Methodists we believe the church must make disciples for the transformation of the world (which can and should be done by laypeople employed in a variety of ministries.) But do we believe it? Do we commission our young men and women to go on a dangerous task, the greatest adventure they've ever known, to find their identity in the church's mission? By and large, no. 
We milquetoast Methodists and other mainlines have a lot to learn from Mormons. Don't get me wrong; I like toast. Sometimes the world, wounded by the spear of Pharisaical zeal, needs some toast type Christians. But we have to ultimately be the salt of the earth, and the Mormons are doing a pretty good job.