The Book of Mammon: A Book About A Book About The Corporation That Owns The Mormons

by Daymon M. Smith

So, the book is an accidental satire? Sort of. It poses practical and metaphysical conundrums, meditates on the moral dilemmas avoided, embraced, and stumbled upon, when God and Mammon are made to synergize. A compelling, light-hearted but serious memoir, fictional ethnography, and, yes, even apocalypse, this book crosses genres, fact, fancy, and everything between. With this key it opens the doors to Mormon corporate offices, the most secret of spaces, and invites you inside. Come. See the author "work" as a media evaluator with the Mormon Church's corporate arm. At the Church Office Building (it's actual name) spiritual ambitions speak through quarterly evaluations, mission statements, digital personas, and website designs. Look! There is no conspiracy, although as at any office, there's lots of unintentionally humorous, fatuous banality. Here employees chant "cultural beliefs" composed by Human Resources and test whether a new DVD hits your "spiritual hot buttons." See us market food storage to religious consumers. Read a stack of documents never before published which declare and depict the "best practices" of the corporation, from smuggling underwear into banana republics to marketing strategies for the Book of Mormon. The author, a cultural anthropologist, provides insight into a place where men argue about DVD scripts and the color of book bindings, while children starve. Woven through his constant surprise at encountering religion fed through the pomposities of corporate-speak, you'll find revelations of the financial "waste" and this-world investment strategies of this wealthiest of religions. And understand the internal power struggles and culture of the same. See corporatized religion battle spirituality, art, welfare and people. Come with me and have a look around. (This text refers to the New Faith-Promoting Book of Mammon.)

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Mormonism, Lds

402 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2010

Reviews

[Frank R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mammon=the gods of this world, Power and Money

The author could have seriously benefited from an editor. Dense prose, in some places absolutely opaque. The book could have been much shorter, if certain narrative sequences were tightened up. There were sections that I skimmed.

The author uses his experience as an employee at the Church office building as the basis for this account. There are numerous tangents, however, which are often the most enjoyable sequences. The stories of his employment reveal a corporate bureaucracy much like any other, full of petty office politics. Ass-kissing, budget battles, turf wars, fraud, blame-shifting, etc. All under the shiny veneer of supposedly being divinely guided. Such human pettiness goes hand-in-hand with "Prayer as a Management tool," weekly devotional meetings, etc. These were the parts of the book that could have most used editorial input, as some of the dialogues and accounts were too lengthy, and the points being made too difficult to glean.

Nonetheless, there were many segments that were laugh-out-loud funny, or incisively insightful. From Correlation to Member Records, from the production of church materials (and an utter lack of any interest in the actual efficacy of same) to General Conference, from attempts to "control the brand" to the enthronement of Obedience as the prime virtue of Mormondom, from the City Creek Mall boondoggle to the crushing conformity and control-freakiness of mormon art and architecture, all the ways in which the modern LDS church has succumbed to Mammon are illustrated.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really hard to read. Stylistically, I just could not get into the meat of what was being discussed and the dripping satire got in the way of an objective understanding of his subject matter.

Replace the mormon church in this story with any other large organization and you don't have a story that is in the least bit remarkable, so I was also jaded throughout knowing that what he was dissing was simply the vanilla behavior of all large corporations. Yawn. But continue to remind yourself that it's a church, not a company or government organization, and it becomes a bit more interesting and far more disturbing.

I had heard the interview with Daymon on Mormon stories and came into the book with far higher expectations based on that interview.

[Kate E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the LDS Church as corporation. This book is not recommended for those who are unfamiliar with the history of LDS Church correlation. The writing isn't the best and is pretty snarky at times, and it is sometimes difficult to tell where he is joking and where he is in earnest. Overall, though, the book gave me insight into the LDS Church Office Building and how moneys are spent at the corporate level.

[Gregg Lines · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of the book and a few sections along the way were a bit rough to get through. However, overall I found the author’s observations about working for the Church Office Building very interesting. The book addresses issues that come hand in hand with the shift from local congregations to a centralized and corporate model of church organization. It tackled interesting topics that I had wondered about before: 1) welfare, 2) investments in commercial enterprises, investment products, etc; 3) political involvement; 4) and what I found the most interesting “correlation.” I agreed with some points and disagreed with others, but overall I think a fair critique and interesting insight into the world behind the curtain. I also really enjoyed the historical perspectives on changes in temples, the scriptures, and participation.

At times the style was very enjoyable and had me laughing. You need pretty in depth familiarity with LDS culture to get some of the references and jokes. At other times the extended tangents and musings were a bit much and I skimmed over sections.

[Stuart Enkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're not Mormon this book may not be so interesting. Then again, even someone entirely unconnected from the mormon church might appreciate the byzantine world portrayed by the author. Nothing is what you think, everything is much much duller and dumber. And then there are the poor cogs who keep the machine going.

The writing can be a bit difficult to get through, especially the first few chapters would have benefited from a stricter editor. It is well worth the effort to push through into the meat of the book.

[Chris Webber · Rating 3 out of 5]

As it turns out, this book is just a flicker of the flame of financial greed in the LDS Church.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like dark humor, institutional analysis, and have a non-hagiographic interest in the LDS Church, consider The Book of Mammon. I found it laugh out loud funny in two dozen places.

I was most affected by a story of the focus group sessions that gathered on a Welfare DVD made for bishops on pages 110-115 and 133-142. The story demonstrates portrays the heartbreaking possibility that centralized institutions can never truly see and serve actual individuals. Committees, Boards, Approval Workflows, Mission Statements, Values Statement Cards: these things have lives of their own and are primarily concerned with their own survival and only secondarily concerned with whomever it is they should really be serving, whether that be God or some ill-conceived persona... or are those two the same thing? The gap between "general" and "local" might always remain a terrible gulf, but the COB runs on the illusion that everything is going according to plan. Just don't try to do research that might hurt someone's feelings by calling into question another department's cherished assumptions about the good they're doing in the world with all those uninspiring instructional DVDs that only the Utah Mormons even understand.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was interesting, but hard to get through. Not because of the subject matter, but due to the writing style -- tangents that lead off on other tangents, lots of hyperbole, etc. It was hard to tell what was fact and what was exaggeration. That said, the information in the book was new but not surprising or scandalous. The LDS church bureaucracy functions like a typical bureaucracy -- lots of wasted money and time, higher-ups making decisions for line workers when they don't have a good understanding of what they do, rule by committee, lots of focus on silly slogans and mission statements, anti-academic management, etc. Sounds alot like my job. The book doesn't paint a flattering, hagiographic picture of the church, but it's not an anti-Mormon book by any means. I can definitely see it making some people mad. Two stars seems kind of harsh for this book, but "it was ok" is exactly what I think.

[Kay (Amber) · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the subject of this book was ambitious and well-reviewed as far as I can tell, it was in severe need of an editor--one that had been trained for less patient audiences. As someone who has read thousands of pages of dry anthropological theory already, this writing style was familiar. However, less than one percent of people looking to read this book will appreciate it.

Annoyance is present, and so is some anger, but that's a typical result of most people coming out of any working environment. I'd suggest this book to anyone willing to see what the LDS Corporation looked like on the inside. That is, if they weren't about to strangle me first for daring assume that heaven didn't run the show with perfect ethics and morale--inside and out.

[Colt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book does provide some good lite hearted humor. The prose of the book is convoluted and can become difficult reading to the point of being too esoteric and at times pedantic, because it's sometimes difficult to establish who or what the narrator is.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and I feel that I along with countless others who have read it feel the same way. I gave it a good college try through the many starts and stops of reading it. (Ironically the same thing that happens with its counter in the Book of Mormon) had the author written it in a style that was more about reading to enjoy and understand, and less about writing it to sound clever, which ultimately hurts it overall rating.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hugely disappointing and rather awful.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good info, but a tough read.

[Michael S · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contains some great cultural analysis and some important disclosures about the LDS corporation, but the narrative frame is clunky. This makes the book difficult to read.

[Ascentury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the writing playful but not difficult (after the introduction). I'm not sure why it has a reputation for being unreadable.