Church stands at heart of nation

The westward trek of the LDS pioneers made for an impressive journey.

And so has the trek of the LDS Church into the 21st century and mainstream America.

President Brigham Young's declaration "This is the place" marked the success of the first trip. And one could say that President Gordon B. Hinckley receiving the Medal of Freedom marks the success for the second.

For many decades, the LDS Church was viewed as a renegade religion. It was seen as existing on the margins of American life. The irony, of course, is the church has always seen itself as squarely in the American grain, as the most American of institutions. It was a Yankee church, a westering church for a westering nation. In the Book of Mormon, Captain Moroni's declaration — "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children" — seemed like a perfect quote for a sampler stitched by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In other countries, many people saw clearly the link between Mormonism and America.

Near the end of the 19th century, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy asked about the "American Church." He meant the LDS faith. For foreigners, Joseph Smith — from his name to his bold visions and broad style — has always embodied the American spirit.

Now, in the past few years, American academics and historians have begun seeing it, too. Even those who ridicule the church are saying Joseph Smith was an authentic prophet of the people. And when Harold Bloom, the nation's "intellectual in residence," declared him the American prophet, a sea change took place. The church was finally recognized for standing where it had actually always stood: at the heart of the heart of the country.

And now comes the Medal of Freedom for President Hinckley. When he says, "This is an honor to my church, more than it is to me," he is not simply being deferential. The medal brings a fresh stamp of legitimacy, a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, to the organization he has loved and led.

But more, the medal doesn't mean the church has finally found a place in America.

It means America has finally come to see its own reflection in the church.

I don't know everything President Hinckley feels about the honor. I'd like to think he harbors many of the same thoughts he shared with the Bolivian people the day he dedicated the temple there. After listing the amazing accomplishments of the missionaries and members of the church in Latin America, he looked out over the congregation.

"And now," he said, "it is time to begin."

For, in the end, the LDS Church not only hopes to be the most American of churches, it hopes to become the most Bolivian, Bosnian and Brazilian of churches.

That seems like an impossible task — unfathomable, beyond possibility.

Kind of like crossing the Plains and establishing a civilization in the citadel of the mountains.

Kind of like making the long trip through time from being abused and cast out by a nation to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the hands of that nation's president.

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E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com