{"id":4078,"date":"2007-09-09T00:37:38","date_gmt":"2007-09-09T04:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=4078"},"modified":"2007-09-09T01:14:51","modified_gmt":"2007-09-09T05:14:51","slug":"a-french-view-of-mormonism-1941","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2007\/09\/a-french-view-of-mormonism-1941\/","title":{"rendered":"A French View of Mormonism, 1941"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve referred a time <\/a>or two to one of my heroes, Leon Fargier, the only Melchisedek Priesthood holder in France during World War II. <\/p>\n

He preserved in his scrapbook this article that appeared in the newspaper Paris Soir<\/em> on 21 July 1941. (The translation is a little rough, but not too bad.)<\/p>\n

Mr. Fargier, Sole Mormon Minister in the Free Zone, Has Baptized 15 Converts in the Municipal Swimming Pool at Grenoble<\/strong><\/p>\n

(By our special correspondent, Merry Bromberger)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGrenoble.<\/p>\n

\tWith a wave of his hand, the Latter-day Saint indicated the carved Henri II buffet, covered with a floral tapestry, and the sewing machine of his sister-Mormon in the corner. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We meet in this room from time to time, to sing our songs, to preach to each other, and to share the bread and water of the Sacrament.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\tBut when there are more than five meeting together, the Mormons of the Grenoble district have to meet in an even stranger chapel: Although they are firm enemies of alcohol \u00e2\u20ac\u201c of every fermented drink, and wine \u00e2\u20ac\u201c of coffee, and even of tea, they hold their worship in the back room of a saloon, their songs ringing over the clatter of trays filled with cocktails and the burst of voices from the billiard players.<\/p>\n

\t\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a chapel in Europe. But Zion is everywhere that God can be, especially where a member of the Church is found.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Spiritual Mimicry<\/em><\/p>\n

\tThe accent of Valence rolls from the throat of Brother Fargier, the only Mormon priest in the free zone, living in Valence. The accent of Grenoble is heard in the voice of Sister Morard.<\/p>\n

\tBut to look at them without listening to them, one is struck by the internal mimicry that transforms them. He has the cool and energetic face of a minister from the other continent. One would guess by looking at her, with her glasses reflecting soft light, that she was an elderly American woman. Those who have lived for a long time in the Far East take on the slanted eyes and high cheekbones of that place; these devotees of Salt Lake City have ended up with the physical appearance of disciples of the prophet Smith.<\/p>\n

\tA hundred years ago, he (Smith), a great oaf of a farmer from New York State, founded in Illinois the ideal city, Nauvoo, whose 25,000 residents were more numerous than those of Chicago. It was Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, whose revelations, since the age of 15, had exasperated his fellowmen, be they Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist.<\/p>\n

The Angel of the Far West<\/em><\/p>\n

\tHe told of having had a vision of the Angel Moroni, son of the prophet Mormon, who had led one of the lost tribes of Israel to America, 600 years before Jesus Christ. The Angel showed him a mountain where Mormon had hidden gold plates containing the new gospel. He copied them. Followed by his people, the prophet Smith fled from persecution to build a holy city in the desert. He was a young giant with blond hair, who lifted weights and boxed, and held daily interviews with the Lord, or with Moses or Elias, and dictated the rules for a new banking organization, and ran for president of the United States. After one particular revelation and a bolt of lightning, he instituted polygamy and took 30 women for his personal quota, while at the same time recruiting an army of 5,000, the strongest in the United States. <\/p>\n

Mr. Fargier Follows the Teachings of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Angel of the Far West\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n

\tThe people of Illinois, already scandalized by this illustrious man, fought against him and his faithful with an unheard of ferocity. A Mormon having threatened to kill the governor, the prophet was arrested for the fifth time. He was going to be acquitted. The mob lynched him in prison.<\/p>\n

\tThen his successor, Brigham Young, ordered a great migration, and the Mormons struck out for the promised land. At the head of their convoy rolled the black carriages of the 30 widows of Joseph Smith. They crossed the far west and the Rocky Mountains, decimated by Indian arrows, starvation, and sickness. Finally, at the mouth of the Rocky Mountain canyons, a great shining lake appeared in their sight in the midst of the sands, on the 202nd day of their march.<\/p>\n

\t\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is the promised land, the New Jerusalem!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d cried Prophet Young. It was the Great Salt Lake. There was born Salt Lake City, the Mormons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 holy city.<\/p>\n

Baptism of the French Dead at Salt Lake City<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Until very recently when immigration to the United States became difficult,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brother Fargier told us, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153most European Mormons set out for the New Zion and went to live by the shores of the Great Salt Lake. That is why there are only 30,000 Mormons in Europe \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 200 in France, 14,000 in Germany. We have 15 members in Grenoable who have been baptized by immersion in the city pool, 11 at St. Etienne, 3 at Lyons, 4 at Valence, 3 at Marseille, 2 at Nimes, and one family at Saint-Chamas.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Even if we no longer emigrate to Salt Lake City, we must at least baptize our ancestors,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the Latter-day Saint. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We send the birth certificates of our parents, our grandparents, and more distant ancestors to the Temple in the New Zion. The faithful there go down to the baptismal font as proxies for the dead. In that way our ancestors are assured of going to Paradise, having been baptized as we are. All Mormons do their genealogical research in order to send their ancestors to Eternity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

From the Henry II buffet, the Saintess took out several civil documents and a family tree which she spread out, all of them papers she hopes to be able to send to the Promised Land soon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a temple in Europe. It is only in Salt Lake City that we can have our dead baptized.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Platonic Polygamy<\/em><\/p>\n

\tToo, only there are the mysteries of the temple accessible to the faithful, where spiritual marriages are made which permit the Mormons to enjoy platonic polygamy.<\/p>\n

\tSince 1890, Mormons have had only one wife. The American law of that era threatened Mormon patriarchs with multiple households with severe punishment. The prophet of that day had a revelation, forbidding the Latter-day Saints from engaging in plural marriage from that time forward. But in the secrecy of their temple, the Mormons still contract spiritual marriages which prepare for the union of pure spirits in the world to come. God looks without displeasure on celestial polygamy.<\/p>\n

Their detractors, referring to the weakness of the flesh, still fire angry screeds at these platonic unions.<\/p>\n

In any case, the Mormons of France don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t participate in these \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vicarious works\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the New Zion; they are legally and spiritually monogamous.<\/p>\n

\t\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You must understand that this polygamy which has cast so much reproach on the Mormons,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sister Morard, warmly, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was not inspired by sensuality or depravity. It was given as a remedy for the disproportionate number of men and women, and to fight against prostitution. The holiest families were the most numerous. Wives submitted joyfully to polygamy in obedience to the revelations of the Angel, and the word of the Bible to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmultiply and replenish.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Call of the Promised Land<\/em><\/p>\n

\tOn the floral tapestry, the Mormon priest, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Elder,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d opened a colored folder with pious care. Salt Lake City, the Latter-day Rome \u00e2\u20ac\u201c their Paradise, even, because it is a reward for the just on the earth until God decides to end the world and remove His elect from this present fallen existence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was displayed there in warmly colored postcards. Skyscrapers, store buildings, a university that looked like a sauna and a bath house that looked like a university, the lighted buildings of the local Broadway, hotels, movie houses, a white cathedral crowned with a statue of the Angel Moroni 200 feet tall, the gleam of the nearby lake, a horizon of tall mountains, small homes set in green bowers …<\/p>\n

\tFrom the priestly pocket emerge more leaflets, proselyting brochures, travelers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 accounts testifying of the morality of that city without taverns, where Prohibition still reigns, of the comforts of its large homes, of the benefits of its agricultural schools which have made the Far West prosperous through \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dry farming\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (the scientific exploitation of dry ground), ruled theocratically by an 86-year-old prophet, successor to Brigham Young, where business, farmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work, and the banker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s telephone call are all acts as pious as prayer, and where the prosperity encouraged by the Church through raising sugar beets is sanctified through tithing.<\/p>\n

In This, We Are All Mormons.<\/em><\/p>\n

\t\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our religion has great merit,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d adds the smiling Latter-day Saintess. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It has prepared us for the present restrictions in having us give up wine, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol, and allowing us only a small amount of meat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\tIn this respect, at least, all Frenchmen are more or less Mormons!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve referred a time or two to one of my heroes, Leon Fargier, the only Melchisedek Priesthood holder in France during World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}