Word: mormon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Added to this strange mixture is the church's strong affinity for capitalism. As if guided by the Weberian theory of the Protestant ethic, the Mormons tie prosperity to their religion; material success is taken as a sign of the Lord's rewarding Mormons. Larry Dewey's father, for example, believes that the good things that have come to him since his conversion to Mormonism are directly attributable to the church. The work ethic is evident in Mormon undergraduates, who are not coincidentally often...
Along with polygamy, the church's prohibition against African blacks holding the priesthood (which men can hold after age 12) has grown into a central Mormon issue in Cambridge and the East. The doctrine causes few problems in the lily-white far west; Larry Dewey say the only black he had talked to before he came to Harvard was a halfback for nearby Borah High. But mention of the ban brings stories of blacks who broke off friendships because of the prohibition, although this is not always true: Carlyn Christensen '74 roomed with a black woman sophomore year...
...Mormon undergraduates' attitudes toward the ban range from angry rejection ("I think it's total b.s., and I don't even want to talk about it," one says) to passive acceptance of the doctrinal justification with hopes that Prophet Kimball will have a revelation admitting blacks. Matt Thomas "77 accepts the prohibition as legitimately based on Mormon scriptures, but he becomes upset and ashamed when some Mormons take the "tiny fact [of prohibition] to say blacks are inferior." He adds, "I'm convinced that blacks at some point will receive the priesthood right by revelation...
...undergraduate Mormons here inevitably know each other; six live in Kirkland House, which Thomas calls the "Mormon ghetto." Yet even those in Kirkland rarely join each other outside church functions. Carlyn Christensen says she makes a point not to "stick around with Mormons; there are too many other interesting people." While none of the Mormons mind being identified as one, most are wary of being typed as a Latter-Day Saint, or, in Peterson's words, of wearing their Mormonism on their sleeve...
...Many Mormon parents are reluctant to let their children come out East. Peterson says that often, especially in his five years as dean of admissions and financial aid, he had to persuade Mormon parents that their children would not go to hell at Harvard. "If the kid has intellectual strength," he says, "This is the right place for him to come for church reasons." Indeed, in Peterson's eyes the four years at Harvard will provide Mormon undergraduates with a sort of mission. Harvard's regenerative effect on Mormons works best when Mormons broadly sample life here; a Mormon student...