Health and Medicine among the Latter-day Saints

Science, Sense and Scripture
LESTER E. BUSH, JR

Despite its self-conscious "peculiarness," Mormonism (as the tradition popularly came to be known) is and always has been "the most American of religions" (so sociologist Thomas O'Dea). And few things are more widely known about Mormons than their refusal, for reasons of health, to use tobacco, alcohol, coffee, or tea. Thus it is surprising that there has been no book dealing with medical and health issues as they have been viewed within Mormonism until the present one. The author, a physician and recognized scholar of Latter-day Saint intellectual history, examines Mormon teaching relating to well-being and suffering, health and healing (through faith and medicine), death and dying, madness, sexuality and birth. He does this through a detailed analysis of the authoritative guidance issued by the church hierarchy during its 150- year history. In so doing he illuminates the past, present, and future of Mormon thinking on these themes. Based heavily on a wealth of previously unmined primary source materials, and addressing themes not previously treated in scholarly LDS writings, this work will establish the context within which future writings of Mormon medical themes will be judged.

LESTER E. BUSH, JR., M.D., a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has received numerous awards for his writings on Mormon medical and doctrinal subjects. He has been associate editor of Dialogue; A Journal of Mormon Thought and remains on its board of editors. He was coeditor of Neither White nor Black; Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church, and his own research into the origins of the Latter-day Saint policy of denying priesthood ordination to blacks is widely credited with having laid the foundation for the discontinuation of this practice.


"Mormonism, these pages remind us, is sometimes called the most American of the religions. The scenes in its holy book are set in this hemisphere, and its sacred writings say good things about the American Ways. Studying this tradition from Lester Bush's vantage may inform the Saints about how and why they got where they are and about what issues of illness and health will have to do with their general progress. It will inform the rest of us about neighbors, fellow citizens, people who care about care and who would cure and be cured--while pursuing ways which set them apart in a culture that generally bids people to blur and blend their ways. Here, then, is an intact tradition worth studying expounded by one of those rare individuals who is equally at home in the 'health/medicine' and 'faith' aspects of that dynamic tradition."

-Martin E. Marty

Contents

Foreword by Martin E. Marty			vii
Preface			xiii
1.	On The Mormon Context		1
2.	On Death and Dying		9
	Covenants and Guarantees		10
	Projections across the Veil		17
	Passages and the Plan of Salvation		22
	The Experience of Death		24
	Autopsies, Funerals, Burial, and Cremation		27
	Suicide, Euthanasia, and Prolongation of Life		34
3.	On Being Well and Suffering		41
	Health Then		41
	Disease Causality		44
	The Purpose of Suffering		45
	A Word of Wisdom		48
	Other Preventive Measures		60
	Health Now		65
4.	On Healing		69
	By Faith and Power		69
	Anointing with Oil		77
	Other Healing Ordinances		81
	Administrations by Women		84
	Herbs and Mild Food		89
	Scientific Medicine		93
	Healing Transformed		100
5.	On Madness		109
	Evil Spirits		109
	Physical and Moral Causes		116
	Asylum in the West		118
	Mental Hygiene, Health, and Handicap		121
	Reenter the Devil		124
	Gospel-based Psychotherapy		127
	Signs of Synthesis		134
6.	On Sexuality and Birth		139
	Sexuality and Sex Education		139
	Science, Sociology, Masturbation, and Dance		146
	Marital Sexuality and Birth Control		152
	Abortion		159
	Eugenics, Genetics, and Sterilization		167
	Infertility		169
	Homosexuality and Sex-Change Surgery		173
7.	On Caring		179
	Visiting, Teaching, Fasting, and Prayer		179
	Hospitals, Social Service, & the Welfare    Plan Health Service Missionaries    & Humanitarian Services		188
8.	On Morality and Dignity		195
	Authority, Agency, and Accountability		195
	Authoritative Guidance		201
Notes			205
Index			228

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