Zondervan Academic posted the last installment of their teasers on a new book out on the LDS use of the book of Mormon. The experience I had reading it was similar to what I had reading the previous installments. The sociological tracking and piety habits between the LDS and American evangelicalism which was foundationally shaped in the 19th century track so closely. In this installment he notes how stories from the book of Mormon and characters within it become identity shaping and guiding for Mormon youth. He also notes the merchandising of book of Mormon characters on t-shirts and bracelets. This tracks with American evangelical so tightly it’s freeky. American evangelicals have long “dared to be a Daniel” or imagined themselves to be like David. I remember first picking up a copy of the book of Mormon in a hotel room in Idaho and thinking “this reads like someone trying to speak KJV as a second language” but the beauty of a rewrite is that you can endow the work with our cultural habits keeping your heroes pure. David can withstand the temptation of Bathsheba and Solomon doesn’t have to be brought under by all those foriegn wives. I sometimes think that Mormonism is the religion that many evangelicals wish they could be if they didn’t have that pesky Bible with all of its awkward oddities and lapses getting in the way. You’ve got a dictation theory of inspiration for your holy text so you can claim it be bullet proof in a way that the organic theory never measures up to. You’ve got a more pure 19th century style penetrating your iconic imagery and cult practices. You’ve got a top-down moralistic control structure that Pentecostals would die for. You’ve got an evangelistic army and regime that covers the world. Could some of the antagonism between the two groups be born out of envy? 🙂