KIRTLAND, Ohio — Weary of the "identity crisis" that has plagued the church from its inception, the Community of Christ is going through a revision process that focuses not on founder Joseph Smith's history, but where a prophetic vision might take the faith in the future.
At the same time, Smith's legacy in the 21st century continues to change, according to scholars.
Formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Community of Christ spent much of its first 143 years defining itself by the fact that it was not Mormonism, according to President W. Grant McMurray. He told participants gathered in the Kirtland Temple for the annual Mormon History Association meetings that an "identity crisis was at the heart of our movement" when he took the church's helm in 1996. Such had been the case ever since Joseph Smith III, son of the Palmyra prophet, was thrust into stewardship of "a tradition with a controversial history that he didn't really know."
Controversy over who would lead the early church led to the split, as the bulk of members and leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headed west in the late 1840s. Those who remained behind in the Midwest were left spiritually adrift until the Reorganized Church was established in 1860. A boy of 11 at the time of his father's martyrdom in 1844, Joseph III didn't understand or participate in the revelations and doctrinal discussions his father led, but was expected to lead the church anyway, McMurray said.
Pointed attempts to prove or disprove priesthood authority ensued, as did the quest to defend Joseph Smith from charges of polygamy — two points of difference the church had with Mormonism. Members constantly felt they were "just one diary entry or one historical account away from a complete crisis of faith."
At that point, "our history became our theology," he said. "And therein lies great peril, at least for the Community of Christ."
During his tenure as president, McMurray has purposely steered the church away from a historical focus and toward a vision of peace, justice, reconciliation and ecumenism. He tells members that any group that believes in "prophetic leadership ought to be very questioning and judicious about it." Seeking God's will for the church today "is a task for all, not one person locked alone in one closet."
As a fourth-generation member of the church, McMurray said the faith has been fractured over the ordination of women, the building of a temple in Independence, Mo., and other issues. Much of that dissent has come, he said, because members have been too focused on the past, particularly as membership of some 280,000 is now spread among several nations.
As LDS leaders have watched the changes and visited with McMurray, they view the Community of Christ as a "peace and justice church" that has moved away from its historic grounding and have offered to purchase the church's historic sites, he said.
The faith doesn't wish to dispose of its history. But it must "avoid sappy sentimentality" and "resist the temptation toward stifling literalism" from its past, and "accept the notion that God continues to be known to us in new ways," he said.
Yet change isn't reserved for a vision of one faith's theology.
Richard Bushman, professor of history at Columbia University and biographer of Joseph Smith, said though most theologians have dismissed Smith's theology, they can't dismiss the LDS Church because it has "won too much support around the globe to be considered weak and unintelligible." As such, the prevailing view of him as an "American prophet" is changing. As it evolves and the texts he generated are more carefully examined — particularly by Latter-day Saints — theologians and philosophers may yet find something in his ideas to merit consideration, he said.
And just as different factions of the original faith have different interpretations of who Smith was, future scholars will continue to write and explore all the facets of his personality, according to Jan Shipps, professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University.
As the LDS Church expands worldwide, continuing to focus on Smith as "an American martyr could diminish his significance as a prophetic figure" for an international church. But if he is poised to figure on the world stage of Christianity, the depiction of Smith as "a religious oddball might be headed into the trash bin of history."
Because of the church's continued growth, he is already moving into some prominence in U.S. history. If the growth continues, she said, he will probably appear at some point in the history texts of nations such as the Philippines and Mexico, where LDS membership has skyrocketed.
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com