Last week 8,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints gathered in Salt Lake City's Mormon Tabernacle to commemorate the 137th anniversary of the founding of the largest and strongest made-in-America faith. As usual, church leaders presented impressive testimonials to the thriving success of Mormonism. Since 1940, membership in the church has more than tripled, to 2,600,000. Last year alone, the church gained 117,000 new members. Two-thirds of the new comers were converts netted by the 12,000Mormon missionaries who toil from New England to New Zealand.
Financially, the church is thriving too. The vast Mormon-owned business enterprises—ranging from Utah's largest department store to a 360,000-acre Florida cattle ranch—help produce an income that some church observers estimate at $1,000,000 per day. The exact total is a closely guarded church secret.
Updating Doctrine. Outwardly secure and successful, the unique religion created by Joseph Smith and carried to Utah by Brigham Young is nonetheless at a testing time. Much as in the churches of mainstream Christianity, Mormonism is being prodded out of its old ways by a new generation of believers who temper loyalty to the faith with a conviction that its doctrines need updating. Worried about the relevance of Mormonism, some of them are all but openly critical of the policies fostered by the church's venerable, conservative hierarchy, headed by President David O. McKay, 93, and his Council of the Twelve Apostles.
Latter-Day Saints can now question some of the church's peculiar disciplines without being stigmatized by their neighbors. Although the U.S. Surgeon General's report on smoking confirmed the Mormon conviction that tobacco is an evil, there is widespread feeling that the church should relax its ban on cof fee and tea. "A lot of good Mormons drink coffee now," says one Utah saint. "The church should not make its prohibition a commandment." Still another quaint tradition is the Mormons' use of "temple garments"—a torso-covering form of underclothing signifying their covenant with the Lord—which devout believers, both women and men, are expected to wear.
A more serious complaint is that Mormonism is too much concerned with the perfection of its own organization, too little with the problems of the world. J. D. Williams, a professor of political science at the University of Utah and a former member of a stake (diocese) high council, argues: "It's time that the church indicated its concern for more things than simply internal structure and processes." He notes that the Salt Lake City League of Women Voters, in a city that is 52% Mormon, is almost exclusively staffed by "Gentiles" (non-Mormons). Church members should devote more of their energies to politics and community service.