Response to somebody's bad Mormon economics

The newest Harper's Magazine has a cover story called "Pennies from Heaven: How Mormon Economics Shape the GOP." I was actually excited to read it--I have had some pretty penetrating questions about how Mormon economics fit into a federal model, and I was hoping the author would give me a comprehensive approach. You see, I love Harper's--it has has wonderful writing and thoughtful contributors. I have been less excited about it since Thomas Frank became editor, though; he is a great writer and I mostly agree with him, but he also tends to exaggerate sometimes and also misrepresent certain people. Anyway, I should have taken a cue from the magazine's cover, which shows Elders putting their palms together in a way that Mormons really never do. If they were folding their arms it would have been much more effective.

So I read the article, which is here (although you need a password to really read it, so if you email me I can send you it, or you just get it at a local library. Or, even better, buy the magazine, which could use your support and, like I said, almost always delivers as a really well-written magazine with thoughtful commentary--this same issue has a wonderful piece on for-profit universities, like the University of Phoenix). And then within 20 minutes of finishing the article, I wrote a letter to the editor, which I am attaching below. UPDATE (27 September 2011): Hal Boyd from the Deseret News responds, and has the room to do it more thoroughly, here.

Chris Lehman seems to be on to something in his article “Pennies from Heaven,” but rather than a more accurate reading of how the Gospel of Wealth has infiltrated Mormon culture, he suggests that it is already built into Mormon theology. This argument seems unconvincing on several levels, primarily because of Lehman’s strange notions of what constitutes authoritative sources. He cites Mark Skousen and Glen Beck as much as anyone, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a Mormon that would identify either of those figures as authoritative, let alone representative of their religious beliefs. Most Mormons do not know nor care about Skousen and his crazy uncle Cleon, who had his own run-ins with actual Church authority for espousing a theology that did not quite cohere with the official one. Of the Mormon economists from Harvard that Lehman is fond of quoting, I am not sure they ever say anything that remotely resembles his thesis. In fact, their quotes seem to have little to do with the virtue of individual wealth. Rather, they speak more of a kind of progress of the soul, sounding much more like Plato than Joel Osteen. Lehman does not bother to cite any current official Church representatives, and any quotes from former Church leaders are also conspicuously absent. Lehman opts instead for biographers’ assessments of the much more sensational treasure hunting of a teenage Joseph Smith, and he suggest that significance lies in what is “not” present in Joseph Smith’s book of revelations. This, to me, hardly counts as actual citation from the man on whose theology the Church is based. A quick perusal of The Book of Mormon, the central text for believers, or even a peek at the index would quickly disabuse Lehman of several notions. The Book of Mormon is basically the story of a group of people that grow to prosper, “set their heart on riches,” and eventually perish for their pride and materialism. This same cycle is so often repeated in The Book of Mormon that most believing Mormons can quickly identify the “pride cycle” as what happens when people become too material and wealthy. At one point in the book, “riches” is even attributed to Satan. All of this leaves us with a more interesting research question than the one Lehman has attempted to answer: How is it that there is little to no official Mormon theology that would support a view of sacred riches, yet many Mormons buy into the Gospel of Wealth? That is something that, as a Mormon, I have been trying to figure out for a while now, and I would have appreciated it if Lehman had helped answer the question. James Lambert Iowa City, IA