Hanging by a Thread

An Off the Cuff Summary of Problems with Mormon Constitutional Theory

The US Constitution and the founding of the American Republic laid the groundwork for what followers of the traditions beginning with Joseph Smith call the Restoration. The basic idea is that European history unfolded as it did in order for the American Republic to exist so that Joseph Smith could restore the true form of Christianity because no other place on earth could allow it. This narrative folds the Mormon tradition within American exceptionalism and develops a narrative of Christian nationalism.

It’s always been so interesting to me that an all powerful deity couldn’t re-establish the true form of his religion anywhere else. But the narrative functions to overcome this seeming impasse by making God the shaper of European history. Erasmus, Martin Luther, Henry VIII, John Calvin, Christopher Columbus, John Winthrop, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, all these figures are links in a chain to Joseph Smith.

The really interesting thing to me is how the Constitution supposedly enabled The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to exist yet did absolutely nothing for them.

This narrative comes from a particular reading of the Constitution, through the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Essentially, Joseph Smith understood the Constitution and Bill of Rights as giving the national government a mandate of enforcement over and above state power. I don’t think it’s uncommon or laughable that he read it this way. I just don’t think his notion of the national governments power was a reality until after the 14th Amendment, after the New Deal, and after civil rights legislation.

When early Mormons came into conflict with state and local powers, Joseph Smith appealed to the national government for relief and was denied because they interpreted the Constitution as forbidding them from legally interfering in such matters. The Bill of Rights was not interpreted by those occupying the halls of political power as a mandate for enforcement, but as a mandate against action. So, that the 1st Amendment gives religious freedom is something of a misunderstanding. It grants religious freedom by forbidding the national government from interfering in matters of conscience.

So, Mormons are denied the help they seek because those in power don’t understand that help as constitutionally permissible. The Mormons interpret this as evidence that America is a fallen republic, abandoning its founding principles, and flee to the temporary safety of Mexican territory. The Constitution was impotent in assuring a place for Mormonism within the American Republic.

In the Utah Territory, under the management of the national government, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was later put under immense pressure to abandon its practice of polygamy. This required them to restructure their theology and doctrine. It was also deemed perfectly Constitutional because although the national government couldn’t dictate what you believe, it could sure regulate what actions your beliefs could manifest. Once again, the Constitution failed to allow a space for the practice of the Mormon faith.

Later again, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came under immense pressure from the national government to adapt its beliefs and practices to social requirements. This time in the form of desegregating their university. Once again, this was entirely within the powers granted to the national government by the Constitution.

The irony is that even once amendments and court decisions transformed the Bill of Rights into a mandate of enforcement for the national government, expanding its power to intercede over state and even private authority, once the national government had a form of the power Joseph Smith thought it did in the moment of its inception, it was once again weaponized against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So, how did the US Constitution lay the foundation for the Restoration? In no effective way at all.

So, what am I saying? I’m saying there is a narrative in Mormon culture that concludes the constitution was implemented by God to enable and protect the church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, even though historically it offered them no protection at all. It’s a reinvention of history to suit a culturally meaningful narrative that has little relation to reality. Early Mormons, including Joseph Smith, interpreted this as signifying America had fallen away from the principles enshrined in the constitution. I would argue they had a different interpretation of what those principles were. Early Mormon history offers a counter narrative on American identity.

It’s entirely possible the Constitution was applied in ways it wasn’t “meant” to be. But that goes exactly to the heart of my point. All the speeches and books produced within Mormon culture to say that the Constitution laid the foundation for the restoration are really saying the constitution should have laid the foundation but actually did nothing at all for the Restoration.

People try to take up Joseph Smith's line about America as a fallen nation, but they fundamentally misunderstand the powers of the national government Joseph Smith was advocating. The type of federal power he insisted was written into the Constitution was the kind of power FDR exercised in implementing the New Deal and that the Kennedy's implemented in mandating desegregation. That isn't to say that Joseph Smith wanted to do exactly what FDR and the Kennedys did. It's saying he thought the Constitution gave the federal government the ability to use that kind of power. So, people have to twist themselves into pretzels to maintain that the Constitution did what they say even though Joseph Smith's reading of the Constitution wouldn't be applicable until after the 14th Amendment and subsequent court decisions making it so. Even then, once the Constitution did give the federal government the powers Joseph Smith said it did, those powers were used against the church to force it into social compliance.