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Mormons believe in a form of spiritual pre-existence -- though not in reincarnation. They have a complex system of the afterlife as well -- there is a three-tier realm of glory with the highest echelon reserved for believers, the next for well-meaning nonbelievers, the last for the devil and his angels. Adherents worried about the fate of their nonbeliever ancestors can have deceased relatives baptized vicariously. Thus Mormons zealously compile genealogies so all ancestors can eventually be baptized. Meanwhile, males must become lay "priests" and serve as missionaries (currently numbering more than 48,000).
There are, however, no "priestesses." Benson said, "Adam, not Eve, was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother's calling is in the home, not in the marketplace." That kind of male chauvinism has been challenged by feminists in the church. "It's an organization that can't find balance between men and women or between formal authority and individual conscience," says Maxine Hanks, a fifth-generation Mormon whose book Women & Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism claims women exercised priesthood powers in the 19th century when church followers were struggling to establish themselves in the Utah desert. "Contemporary Mormon women should reclaim their lost authority," she says. For holding such views, however, Hanks and other women have been excommunicated.
Another serious challenge comes from historians. David Wright was fired from Brigham Young University, which is run by the church, for his unpublished opinion that Joseph Smith, not ancient authors, wrote The Book of Mormon, the church's original scripture. Wright, who still professes belief in Smith as a prophet, now teaches at Brandeis University. Meanwhile, D. Michael Quinn resigned under pressure from B.Y.U. for publishing Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, which detailed Smith's involvement with folk magic and the occult before becoming the church's first prophet. Quinn had earlier published an article indicating that despite the church's official disavowal of polygamy in 1890, high officials secretly continued to practice and sanction additional polygamous nuptials. Both Quinn and Wright have been excommunicated. The very act of reporting on dissent is severely discouraged. When Lavina Fielding Anderson, editor of Journal of Mormon History, published a piece detailing the pressures faced by church intellectuals, she too was excommunicated.
Some time during the Benson presidency, the secret "Strengthening Church Members Committee" was created to monitor doctrinally troublesome writings and beliefs. Old-style polygamists have suffered as much as liberal Mormons from excommunication. Says Jan Shipps, a religious historian at Indiana University-Purdue University: "It's the steering of a middle course." That strict patrolling of dissent is likely to continue under the new leadership; it may even deepen. Next in the line of succession after Hunter are Benson's chief counselors, Gordon B. Hinckley, who will turn 84 this month, and Thomas Monson, 66. After them may come Boyd K. Packer, 69, an ardent promoter of doctrinal purity.