“Jack Mormon” is a term that early in church history referred to non-Mormons who supported and helped the church, but in modern times is used as derogatory term to describe Mormons who do not live the standards of the church. This might apply to a member who attends his meetings, but still drinks tea, coffee or uses tobacco or even someone who watches football on Sunday or unabashedly views rated “R” movies. Another term that has been applied to such people is a “Cafeteria Mormon”

About such individuals, Apostle Russell M Nelson warned:

“Teach of faith to keep all the commandments of God, knowing that they are given to bless His children and bring them joy. Warn them that they will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments. It takes faith to obey them, and keeping His commandments will strengthen that faith.”

(“Face the Future with Faith” Russell M. Nelson, April 2011 General Conference lds.org)

The insinuation in these types of warning is that those who choose not to follow every commandment are not keepers of the faith. We remember that “obedience is the first law of heaven“. These faithless individuals are then suspect. If one chooses to openly break God’s commandments and disregard the words of His Prophets, then how can they be trusted at all. They are rejecting the morals of the church and since they are clearly not standing for Mormon values then do they have any moral compass at all?

Such questions and suspicions are faced by “Jack Mormons” as well as individuals who have left the church not due to personal iniquity, but instead because of irreconcilable problems with church history and doctrine.

There is a historical example of one such “Jack Mormon” who actually rose to national political prominence and yet faced ridicule from within the Mormon faith for his willingness to publicly make statements contrary to the messages being given by the Prophets and Apostles.

Meet Stewart Udall

Stewart Udall was born in 1920 to parents who were of Mormon pioneer heritage. Both his grand-father and his father were Stake Presidents in St. Johns Arizona at a time when such callings were rare. The Udall family was “a religious family, a strong family”

Stewart lived a life that is exemplary by all accounts. He was the eldest child who was a dutiful young Priesthood holder who was active in the church and served a mission to the Eastern states. He attended the University of Arizona, voluntarily enlisted in the Air Force as a gunner on bombers flown out of Italy during World War II and returned to finish law school at UA.

In 1954 he was elected as a representative to Congress and served for 3 terms before being appointed by newly elected President John F Kennedy to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of the Interior in 1961 where he would serve under both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He expanded the National Parks, supported cultural initiatives such at the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, and was a pioneer of the environmental movement. In his post-government years, in addition to championing the environmental movement he fought to defend victims of radiation exposure which were effects of the governments cold war nuclear policy.

An outsider viewing his career would find it inspirational. Mormons familiar with Stewart, however would see another dimension to Mr. Udall’s life. While he was an active and dedicated Mormon during his youth, after returning from the war and finishing school he became inactive in the church. He married an LDS woman and raised 6 kids, but in their family life church meetings and activities were not a priority outside of what they felt obligated to do for the purposes of “parent pleasing” to keep his very active father pacified. The family that Stewart Udall kept and raised was not an active, church going Mormon family.

Mormons who see Udall’s inactivity, particularly in the setting great professional and political achievement, are given reason to look down on him as a “Jack Mormon” and view his life as a warning of putting worldly concerns ahead of God, rather than the inspiration his life would be to outsiders.

As we will see, the proof of this is the fact that this accusation of being a “Jack Mormon” was thrown at him any time his political activities were not in lockstep with conventional LDS norms. Udall was a Democrat with strong liberal ideals at a time when Mormons were even more overwhelmingly Republican than we see today.

Familiar Journey

What were the first steps on Udall’s journey away from orthodoxy? In an 1997 interview later in his life, Stewart described aspects of his transition. Like so many people today – it started with the study of Church History.

“I was interested in the beginning in church history; I absorbed a lot of that. That still is a fascination of mine today…” “While I was in the service, I did a lot of reading and spent a lot of my time—you know, army time is 90 percent wasted waiting—and I spent most of my time in libraries. I’d done some of that on my mission; I began being a very wide reader in terms of religion and literature and history and so on.” “During all of my reading during the war, I developed what is now called pejoratively a “liberal conviction.” “As I read more and more widely, I became a kind of free thinker, and that encouraged the side of me which is to be free and non-conforming. And as a result of that—it was a slow drift—I began having more and more reservations about doctrine. It was painful for me, too—partly because of my parents but partly because of my attachment to Mormon history and Mormon culture. I wanted to maintain my ties. I say proudly today that “I’m a Mormon” and always have been and I’m proud of that heritage.”

(Excerpts from Chapter 6 of “Leaving the Fold” James W. Ure, editor, signaturebooks.com)

Note that it was not a desire to engage in sin and debauchery that drove Udall’s transition. It was a broadening of his mind and an increase in knowledge and perspective. To the outside observer, such self improvements may seem like a desirable thing. Mormons view such attainments with great suspicion, however. This is fueled in part by the linking of Satan and education which is taught in the Book of Mormon:

“O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”

(Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:28-29, lds.org)

With scriptures such as this and the conference sermons and Ensign articles that are derived from it – it is no wonder that faithful Mormons question the motives and morality of anyone who becomes educated and finds that their conscience does not align with all the edicts of the Brethren.

A Statement of Conscience

People distancing themselves from the church, but wanting to still be loved and accepted by their LDS family as good moral people with integrity frequently have to articulate their new principles to reassure their loved ones that they are not amoral miscreants. Stewart Udall made such a statement and in doing so drew a line of distinction between his own personal conscience and the effects of the doctrine and culture of Mormonism. He wrote a personal document articulating the reasons that he cannot be a full, practicing Mormon in 1947, a few years after returning from the war and around the time of his going inactive.

The statement was contained in his archived papers at the University of Arizona and can be seen in its scanned original form at archive.org:

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I feel to state some of the reasons why I cannot be a practicing Mormon in full fellowship:

1) The Church is out of sympathy with people whose views on social and political questions might be described as “liberal” … Said my friend, “I’ve never met a Mormon who was pro-Labor.”

2) The economic views its leaders espouse — views contrary to the traditional cooperative spirit of the Mormon people — award the bread of the world to him who can get it;

3) While playing lip-service to knowledge and “truth” its hierarchy has consciously and aggressively been obscurantist in thot [sic] and act;

4) The Church has been so busy proving to itself that it has all truth that it has entirely neglected the life-illuminating insights of most secular poets, prophets, and students;

5) By subtle endorsement, unconsciously given, its leaders (who are for the most part successful businessmen) underwrite the proposition that man can serve two masters…. on going to the marketplace too often its adherents leave their Christian principles at home;

6) The Church places its whole emphasis on ”obeying commandments” — commandments which are superimposed over all other experience and learning; and correspondingly it has neglected the paramount truth that man’s first duty is to be true to himself…. for after all, men should find in the prosecution of their daily tasks fulfillment and not frustration of their

human natures;

7) Its followers have erected a “health code” into a super-religion which itself overrides whatever real content the worship and religious activities of the Church have: anticipated outward behavior has obscured the vital inner man; the letter has killed the spirit;

8) Its absorption in “personal religion” — which at times is much too personal — borders on irreligion ;

9) The believers view themselves self-righteously and society complacently; their obsession with personal piety to often is a form of social impiety;

10) fellowship is made difficult because too many members find it easy to be simultaneously devout Mormons and devout anti-Semites, lovers of their fellowmen in public and Negrophobes in private;

11) It is a dangerous half-truth to say, as the Church has said, that if we change the individual we will of necessity change the social order – more dangerous yet when its companion half-truth is forgotten and unspoken;

12) In their preoccupation with a future life its worshipers adopt attitudes of unconcern, and policies of inaction, which are insensitive to the press of the present;

13) The Church has recoiled so far from traditional religion that it has created, in its services, an esthetic wasteland, and has allowed the true mystical impulses go unfed;

14) There is only a place in its rooms for the orthodox : the sensitive conscience which would avoid hypocrisy must choose between 100% regularity and 100% non-participation ;

All this is said respectfully, in the realization that the Church contains much that is good, true, and beautiful …. and that it fills a felt need for most of its adherents. I nevertheless feel that I cannot enter into full communion with the church, indeed cannot commune with it at all in good conscience, as long as these attitudes, ideas and principles — and the men who further them — dominate the church.

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I will leave it to the reader to decide if any of these points are still true today. Each of us have out own experiences in the patchwork world of Mormonism and may find some points more true than others depending on the particular ward or region we live in.

The point that I want to make is that Mr. Udall’s departure from Mormon orthodoxy was not an amoral descent into wickedness. It was a move predicated by personal conscience and principle.

Principles in action

One example from Mr. Udalls life serves to illustrate how he still held concepts of right and wrong, justice and injustice and compassion – even though he distanced himself from the teachings and regular attendance of Mormonism.

In the 1940’s Stewart was the Class President of the Law School at the University of Arizona where his younger brother Morris was the undergraduate Student Body President. The cafeteria on campus was segregated and the Udall brothers – both of whom were “Jack Mormons” – did something to end that injustice without waiting for the civil rights act or national desegregation to do it for them. They took a young black student who was relegated to eating separately outside and did something about it. The young man, Morgan Maxwell Jr. recalled the event:

“Morris and Stewart Udall escorted me to a table and we sat down. Both Morris and Stewart told the manager in a strong voice close to his face to serve me and that I was eating with them. The manager looked around and took our lunch orders of hamburgers and milkshakes. That was the best hamburger and milkshake I ever tasted (smiles). When I returned to the Old Main fountain my Black friends were waiting and the Udall brothers shook hands with everyone. We all thanked the Udall brothers and from that day on we were able to eat at the Coop. Since that day we all agreed that only the Udall brothers could have ended segregation at the Coop cafeteria, down the stairs of Old Main. All of the Black students admired and thanked the Udall brothers.”

(“MY OLD MAIN STORY: MORGAN MAXWELL, JR” saveoldmain.org)

Stewart Udall acknowledged that “the Church contains much that is good, true, and beautiful.” One of those things is the teaching that its members should be bold in standing up for what is right and caring for those who are downtrodden. Stewart exemplified those character traits in his life, regardless of his meeting attendance.

Conclusion

Of all the points made by Mr. Udall, the point with the greatest impact for his fellowship with the saints is the last one:

14) There is only a place in its rooms for the orthodox : the sensitive conscience which would avoid hypocrisy must choose between 100% regularity and 100% non-participation ;

I found this to be a great factor in my own life. If men and women of conscience were allowed to have differences of opinion, speak openly about them and not be accused of being an agent of Satan or being subject to church discipline or excommunication, then we might be able to stay among the Saints. Our ideas would stand or fall based on their merit. This is a privilege that people born into other faiths can enjoy and it is part of the reason why those faiths have been quicker to come to and accept enlightened concepts such as racial and gender equality. Those unorthodox thinkers have been able to stay within their faith tradition and be a voice for change, letting others know that it is not heresy or apostasy to follow your conscience on principles that matter.

For now, the excommunication of people like Kate Kelly, John Dehlin and Rock Waterman shows that dissenting views are not allowed. For this reason many of us leave the fold before the inevitable excommunication. The import of Stewart Udall’s story and statement is that we who have left should not be assumed to be bad people, under the thrall of Satan. In many instances, our dedication to the ideas of honesty, integrity and morality are the very things which drove our search and led us to see Mormonism in a different light. If more members can see this point, then the name “Jack Mormon” or “Ex-Mormon” need no longer be a source of ridicule or shame.

Next

This is the first post in a series that examines certain events in the life of Stewart Udall. His statement of conscience here is important background for what will be covered in Subsequent posts.