Mormonism

• Main
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New
  Analysis Characters Laconic Recap Trivia Setting YMMV Fridge Fanfic Recs Haiku Headscratchers Ho Yay Image Links Memes Radar Quotes Reviews Useful Notes WMG Awesome Funny Heartwarming Nightmare Fuel Tear Jerker

/wiki/Mormonismwork

Joseph Smith finding the Gold Plates with the help of the angel Moroni

"11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." —The 13 Articles of Faith

Mormons are probably one of the most misunderstood group of Christians. They share some beliefs with most mainstream Christian denominations, with many key differences. The Latter Day Saint movement may perhaps be viewed as Christianity's very own Expanded Universe material. This Expanded Universe material includes a number of canonical works alongside the Bible, most famously the Book of Mormon (which, oddly, teaches none of the distinctive attributes of the Mormon religion).

The movement was started by Joseph Smith, Jr, who described having several visions leading to the establishment of The Church of (Jesus) Christ (of Latter-day Saints) in 1830. While this church, commonly referred to as the "LDS Church" (colloquially as "Mormonism", even amongst some of its members) is the largest denomination of Mormonism, they are often erroneously presented as the only denomination. Consider it a parallel to Christianity Is Catholic: Mormons Are Latter-day Saints.

They're really dedicated to spreading their religion, as this article shows - being the most active modern practitioner of proselytism, fielding over 52,000 full-time missionaries as of 2010. Those teenagers you see dressed in shirt and tie, who want to share great news with you? Always knocking on your door? Mormons. (Or sometimes Jehovah's Witnesses, a vastly different group, although sometimes conflated by outsiders.)

Names and Denominations

The church was initially named the Church of Christ, but this name was hardly unique and it was renamed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838. ("Saint" here means one who attempts to follow Christ, and refers to any member of the church; there's no implication of perfection or canonization.) A succession dispute arose after Joseph Smith, Jr's death in 1844. Most of the church ended up following Brigham Young, but a significant minority followed Joseph Smith's son, Joseph III, to form the Reorganised Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS). This was renamed the Community of Christ (CoC) in 2001. Although it is considered part of the Latter-day saint movement, the CoC does not consider itself to be Mormon, and belief in the Book of Mormon is not a requirement. Other denominations arising from this period include the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and Church of Christ (Fettingite).

Another significant split came around 1890 when the church stopped the practice of polygamy (see below). Several groups left to continue the practice, including the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and the United Apostolic Brethren.

That Other Wiki has an extensive list of denominations. However, around 90% of Latter-day Saints are LDS, and probably around 90% of this article refers to that church; it outnumbers the next-largest denomination by over sixteen million as of 2020.

The name "Mormon" comes from the Book of Mormon, which is named after one of its prophets. The book was promoted enthusiastically even before the church was established, leading to "Mormon" becoming a ubiquitous nickname for the movement - but at first it was almost exclusively used by the church's critics, as a derogatory term. In recent decades, "Mormon" became something of a reclaimed word that church members would use to refer to themselves, though not to any non-LDS groups; other Latter-day Saint groups very in their acceptance of the name.

Church leaders periodically encourage the membership to avoid overuse of both "Mormon" and "LDS" because, as church president Russel Nelson put it, they both "remove the Lord's name from the Lord's church". This has had an effect in recent years, including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir being renamed the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

Scripture

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an open canon - meaning the works considered canonical can be expanded, contracted, or re-arranged at any time by unanimous agreement of the church's Presidency and presiding council, which would then be submitted to the membership for sustaining vote. Protestant scholar Bruce Metzger defined the difference between an "open canon" and a closed canon thus: "An open canon is a list of authoritative books: a closed canon is an authoritative list of books."

The church teaches that anything spoken "when moved upon by the Holy Ghost" is scripture, but there is a specific canon consisting of four "Standard Works", all of which are open to change.

The Bible

I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers —Joseph Smith, Jr.

Despite what others may think, Mormons believe in The Bible. However, due to changes made by "the great and abominable church" (as recorded in the First Book of Nephi, in the Book of Mormon), they believe that many "plain and precious truths" were removed from the Bible before it was assembled. As such, they view the Book of Mormon as a more complete record of the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the Bible and the Book of Mormon conflict, the Book of Mormon wins.

Joseph Smith, Jr. began a Joseph Smith Translation. This was not a translation from earlier languages but was done by rewriting, expanding, and explaining the King James Version, claiming that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to restore lost information, and, as in other things, was made to "work it out in his [own] head" for himself. Unfortunately, this "translation" was never completed and the LDS Church does not use it as their official version, although excerpts from it are included in LDS-published versions of the King James Bible. Part of it is canonised in the Pearl of Great Price (see below).

The Community of Christ (RLDS) publishes the Joseph Smith Version, the manuscripts of which were in the possession of Emma Smith (Joseph's wife) and his son, Joseph Smith III, when they founded the RLDS Church. It is sometimes entitled the "Inspired Version".

The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a religious text that Joseph Smith claimed to have translated "by the gift and power of God" from an ancient record engraved on gold (or golden) plates. More information is available in its work page. It has been referred to over the years as "the Mormon Bible", to the annoyance of anyone who's read it.

The text centres on one family who were warned by God to leave Jerusalem shortly before the Babylonian captivity and ended up sailing to the Americas. Over the course of fifteen books, it describes them, their descendants, and a couple of other groups, always focussing on the spiritual and ecclesiastical side of their history, which lasted from around 600 BC to Ad 421. The stated purpose of the book is to convert people to Christianity, and the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" has been added to most editions since 1982.

The church offers the book as tangible proof that Joseph Smith, Jr. was a prophet of God, since the story of its finding and translation relies pretty heavily on divine intervention, and encourages everyone to read it and ask God to reveal to them whether it is true.

The Doctrine and Covenants

The D&C is a collection of revelations received mostly during the early years of the Church. It covers church organization and various doctrinal topics, such as the "plan of salvation" outlined below.

The Doctrine and Covenants is divided into numbered sections, each section typically dealing with one topic. Content varies between denominations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints version has 138 sections, the most recent added in 1981, and Two "official declarations", statements of the church's position on specific (once-)controversial subjects. The Community of Christ version has been updated more frequently and had 167 sections in 2005, some of which were not considered revelation.

The Pearl of Great Price

The Pearl of Great Price is the shortest of the four. It contains two portions of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, titled "the Book of Moses" (an expanded version of the first part of Genesis with additional details about Moses' visions) and "Joseph Smith - Matthew", a rewriting (or restoration, depending on your point of view) of the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

There's also the Book of Abraham, translated from an Egyptian papyrus ; extracts of the official History of the Church detailing Joseph Smith's first vision and his obtaining the Book of Mormon; and the Articles of Faith, written by Smith as a summary of the church's beliefs.

The Books of Moses and Abraham are the main canonical sources for the polytheistic or monolatristic ideas that would later most distance the church from mainstream Christianity.

Doctrine

Nature of God

The godhead consists of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

• God, or Heavenly Father, is an all-knowing, all-powerful being of flesh and bone, and has been from all of our known existence. However, "What man is, God once was. What God is, man may become." This means that God was once a mortal being that had to go through temptations, but He was able to keep His god's commandments and become a God to rule over his own domain.
  • This is a subject of argument, even among Mormons, because the man/god concept falls under Talmudic-like leadership opinion rather than official doctrine. Many point out that being like man doesn't preclude being a God. After all, Jesus was God both before and during his Incarnation, so the same is true of God the Father. Which leads to the alternate interpretation that God while God gained a mortal body (which then was transfigured into an immortal body).
• Jesus Christ is the spiritual and physical son of God and a separate being from Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost. LDS do not worship Jesus Christ, but only God the Father. He was sent to earth to pay for our sins, teach a new covenant (replacing the Law of Moses), and provide a perfect example for us to follow. He is the advocate of humanity, and the mediator between us and the Father (thus all Mormons end their prayers, "In the name of Jesus Christ"). His suffering in the garden of Gethsemane was Him taking upon Himself everyone's sins. His crucifixion and resurrection was so that everyone could have their bodies restored. In order to return to Heavenly Father's presence (called "Eternal Life" by the LDS), one must accept His sacrifice by being baptized, repenting and doing the best that one can. Like us, He started as a spirit, gained a body here on earth, and was baptized. Unlike us, Jesus was God from the beginning (due to His perfect unity in purpose with the Father) and was Jehovah of the Old Testament, creating the world under His Father's direction. After he was resurrected, he has a perfect body like God. Occasionally referred to as 'the firstborn son', 'the eldest brother', and 'the inheritor son' in more detailed theological discussions.
• The Holy Ghost, or the Comforter, is the main messenger between God and man, and can act as a guiding influence. He has not gained a physical body, mainly because in order to dwell within someone, a physical body would significantly impede His purpose. If someone sins or doesn't heed His advice, it drives Him away, leaving that person to act without His influence.

The debate over Mormons being Christians stems mostly from this non-Trinitarian perspective of the godhead (which is variously viewed as polytheist, monolatrist [meaning "one worship"], or, in the words of apostle Orson Pratt, "plurality of gods"). For Mormons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are separate and distinct Beings working together with a common purpose. A rough analogy would be a modern republic: separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches which collectively form one government. Mainline trinitarian Christianity considers the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit to be of one single essence and nature: one absolute monarch who functions in all roles, as described in the Nicene Creed.

Mormons do not subscribe to the Nicene Creed, which all mainstream Christians (Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox) consider to be the hallmark of orthodoxy. Thus, in the eyes of most of Christianity, Mormons are a new religion, just as Christianity is a new religion and not just a "splinter sect of Judaism"; in the eyes of many Mormons, they are Christian and it was the Council of Nicea that got things wrong; in the eyes of outsiders, no one cares, the internecine struggle is either funny or ridiculous, and they're all counted together as long as they say something about Jesus (along with Moonies, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodists, and all sorts of crazy groups).

Plan of Salvation

The Plan of Salvation also contributes to the idea that Mormons aren't Christian, because it's significantly different from the traditional heaven/hell afterlife of most denominations. It's a bit complicated at first, so taking a look at this diagram might be useful.

• First, you have the pre-mortal existence, which is covered later on this page.
  • The "Veil" is what makes us forget what it was like in the pre-mortal existence, in order to test our faith.
• Next, you have mortality, which is most likely where you are right now.
• At death, your body is temporarily separated from your spirit. Your body goes into the grave, and your spirit goes to...
• The Spirit World! Consisting of:
  • Paradise, where generally good people go to await final judgment. It is there that they will learn the complete gospel and accept the ordinances that will prepare them for eternal life.
  • Spirit Prison, where the not-so-good and those who haven't accepted the gospel go to await final judgment. They are taught the gospel by people who are in Paradise, and are given a chance to accept the plan of salvation and the ordinances that go along with it.
• The church teaches that all people, not just the righteous, will be resurrected, meaning their body and spirit will once again be united. Despite the limitations of mortality, a body is considered a good thing that will be missed when we die, as it provides the spirit with abilities it would not otherwise have.
• Following the resurrection, everyone gets judged one last time.
• Basically, there are three different levels of "heaven":
  • The Celestial Kingdom is the highest, where one can regain the presence of God. The Celestial Kingdom itself is divided into three heavens or degrees.
    • By attaining the highest degree one becomes a god.
  • The Terrestrial Kingdom is next, which is still good but not as good
  • And the Telestial Kingdom is the lowest, and even though it's the lowest, it's still greater than we can comprehend as mortals.
  • There's also Outer Darkness, where you go only go if you deny the Holy Ghost, meaning you reject and deny Christ despite having perfect knowledge of his divinity. Lucifer and those who rebelled with him will also reside here.

To complicate things further, you'll still hear Mormons talking about "heaven" and "hell", even though "heaven" could refer to the pre-mortal existence, the spirit world, or the Celestial Kingdom. Broadly, heaven is the place where God dwells (which encompasses all three places), and hell is the state of mind of people who are cut off from God's influence.

The Mormons also believe that in order to go to the Celestial Kingdom, one must have undergone several "ordinances", such as baptism and temple marriage (though the latter is only required to obtain the highest degree). Children under 8 are considered pure of any sin, as 8 is the "age of accountability" when they become responsible for their actions -- this is why the Mormons baptize people at the age of 8 or older.

Because God understands that not everyone has a chance to be baptized during their lifetime, there is an ordinance called Baptism For The Dead, where righteous members are baptized as proxies for those who have died. Other ordinances can also be performed by proxy for the dead. Then those people can decide whether they accept it or not. Therefore, they still have a chance to enter the Celestial Kingdom. (Also, see below section on Temples).

Priesthood

Priesthood is defined as "the power of God given to mankind", and includes the authority to perform ordinances (rituals) such as baptism. Without proper authority, such ordinances are invalid. The church maintains that this authority was given by Jesus Christ to ancient prophets, and again in person to His apostles and other followers during His ministry. This authority was lost when the apostles died and the church fell away during the Great Apostacy. It therefore had to be restored to allow the modern church to function (see "Restoration").

Temples

First off, temples are a holy place, considered the actual House of the Lord, and the things done there are sacred. To avoid such ordinances being abused, what actually goes on there isn't talked about casually by members. However, they do do Baptisms for the Dead, where they baptize a dead person by having a living person stand in their place. That is one purpose of finding your ancestors.

Also performed in temples is Celestial Marriage, where someone can be married for time and all eternity (not just until death) to their spouse. This ordinance can also be done by proxy for the dead.

Another temple-related item is the wearing of the garment, sometimes called "Mormon underwear". Much like a priest's collar or cardinal's vestments, the garment is an article of sacred clothing (almost exclusively simple white fabric) worn (in this case under regular clothing) to remind practicing members of the covenants they have made. It is sometimes believed to provide spiritual and/or physical protection, much in the same way that other Christians might view a cross/crucifix or pocket bible. Another purpose is to maintain modesty; the general rule is that if one's outfit would expose the garment, it's too skimpy.

Prophecy

Members of the Church believe in active revelation from God to man, and that all human beings can receive guidance from God if they pray for it with faith. Individuals can receive revelation for themselves and for anyone they have stewardship over so, for example, parents can receive revelation to benefit their children, a teacher for his/her class, and a bishop for his congregation.

A prophet receives revelation for the whole world. Members of the Church believe that a living prophet's words are as valuable as scripture - although, as Joseph Smith commented, "a prophet [is] a prophet only when he [is] acting as such."

Missionary Work

The Church sends out missionaries in teams of two or three to share the church's message with others. These missionaries are volunteers and receive no financial compensation, although there is an allowance system that effectively subsidises those who can't afford to cover their own living costs. They are primarily unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 years; however, older married couples and women over the age of 19 can also volunteer as missionaries. Unless they are married, men are always paired with men, and women with women.

The world is divided geographically into "missions," which are each led by an individual Mission President. Each missionary is assigned to a specific mission and is usually expected to stay within the mission boundaries for the duration of his/her mission - typically two years for a man or eighteen months for a woman. Older missionaries and those with health or other challenges can serve for different periods and may be given non-proselytizing roles, such as helping set up farms in impoverished areas. Full-time missionaries refrain from most non-spiritual activities (such as hobbies and dating) during their mission so they can fully concentrate on their service.

Missionaries teach the doctrines of the church, focussing on faith, repentance, baptism and revelation, and invite people to pray to know the truth of their message, and then to be baptised into the church. They also work with existing members to support the wider work of the church.

Families

The family is one of the major focal points of the Church, and all gospel study is supposed to be "family-led and church-supported". Sunday meetings at the church provide adapted teaching for each member of the family based on age and gender. Specific wards are created for the young single adults in the church in order to meet others of their own age group and find prospective partners for marriage.

In 1995, the leaders of the Church released "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", an official declaration regarding several of the church's doctrines and beliefs regarding the family, including that the family unit was created by God for the benefit of His children on earth; that marriage is sacred and is to be shared between only a man and a woman; sex outside of marriage is sin; and that abusers of spouse or of children will one day account to God for their acts. The full document can be found here.

Self-Reliance

Members of the Church are instructed to build up their lives and to help others to do the same. Self-reliance is a recurring principle within the Church. While bishops can provide people with temporary help in the form of food or money, they try to avoid people becoming dependent on hand-outs and focus on helping them find suitable work to support themselves. The church runs a university and an employment service, and encourages members to "get all the education [they] can" in order to provide for themselves and their families. Members are encouraged to produce and store food for their own use where they can.

Humanitarian Service

Members of the Church are asked to serve others, whether by helping a neighbour or joining larger-scale projects such as rebuilding after natural disasters, and to offer what they can for humanitarian projects. The Church provides supplies such as clothing and food, and volunteer work, in disaster-stricken areas of the world.

The Word of Wisdom

Latter-day Saints follow a set of instructions on health and eating, found in section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is commonly known as "The Word of Wisdom", referring to its origins as a set of guidelines rather than a strict requirement - although nowadays members are expected to at least keep the main prohibitions.

According to this doctrine, it is bad to consume alcohol, tobacco, coffee, or tea; and it is good to eat a balanced diet including fruits, vegetables, and grains. Meat is acceptable but should not be over-used. This fits with the wider doctrine that bodies are gifts from God and should be looked after, and the church also encourages people to get proper sleep and exercise.

Organisation

Positions in the church are filled by assignment: a group of leaders pray about who's best for the role, then privately ask whoever they choose if he/she is willing to take on the "calling". If so, all affected members are invited to vote to "sustain" or "oppose" the call.

Global

Members of the church believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, leading it via the prophet, who is also the President of the church. The President is assisted by a number of "counsellors", usually two, forming a unit referred to as the "first presidency". As of 2023, the current prophet is a retired heart surgeon named Russel M. Nelson. Further detail about the current Presidency of the church can be found here.

The church also has 12 apostles and a number of "seventies", named after the seventy ministers appointed by Jesus in Luke chapter ten. The seventies look after stakes and missions (see below) under the direction of the apostles, who in turn are directed by the first presidency.

All of these roles are full-time, requiring the individuals to give up their careers and live on an allowance (although some are retired by the time they are called), and normally last until death.

Local

The church geographically organizes its membership across the world into "wards" and "stakes". A ward is what other denominations frequently refer to as a "congregation"; each ward covers a certain area and has a specific place to meet on Sundays. A ward is presided over by a bishop helped by two counsellors, and is further divided into demographic groups for lessons and activities.

A stake is a group of several wards, led by a stake president and - again - two counsellors. The bishops report to the stake president, and the stake president reports to the Seventies.

Small or remote congregations can form "branches", which are essentially cut-down wards, each led by a "branch president" (who you could think of as a bishop lite). Depending on the location, a branch may be part of a stake or may be in a district within a mission.

None of the local leaders receive compensation for the work they do; they hold regular jobs outside of their "callings", which typically last for a few years. They are almost always chosen from within the congregation they serve.

Ancient History

Pre-mortal life

Pre-mortal life was when the human race lived with God as His spiritual sons and daughters. Here, God introduced the Plan of Salvation, including the opportunity to be tested in a mortal life on Earth. Lucifer said he had a better idea that would ensure that all the children of God would return to Him, at the cost of their free will. Free will, or agency, is more or less the entire point of the plan. When God rejected Lucifer's suggestion there was a "council" or "war" in heaven, during which one-third of God's children chose to follow Lucifer. They were cast out of heaven as a result. The remaining two-thirds accepted God's plan, and Jesus Christ was chosen as the Savior who would make repentance possible. The Earth was then created to serve as mankind's home during mortal life. Lucifer and his followers were allowed to reside on the Earth, still as disembodied spirits, and tempt those who are born here as part of their test.

Incidentally, the LDS Church does not believe that Earth is the only planet bearing life, but that God has created "worlds without number," and many of these are also inhabited by His children.

The Fall

Adam and Eve were put in the garden of Eden as described in Genesis. They were commanded not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and told that if they did, they would die. Sure enough, when they broke that commandment, they became mortal, and eventually died. They were also sent out of the garden, away from the presence of God.

Being away from God meant they had to rely on themselves more when it came to making decisions, and they had to learn to work as they struggled to survive in a relatively hostile world. They also knew what it felt like to disobey: sin was no longer an abstract concept to them. The whole "forbidden fruit" episode was a Batman Gambit by God, intended to let Adam and Eve leave their innocent state and be tested as mortals. Along with mortality they got the ability to bear children, allowing the rest of us to go through the trials of life on a fallen Earth.

Israel

The history of the world then proceeds as indicated in the Bible. Some people followed God, others didn't, and the people of Israel grew and were eventually conquered. Around 600 BC, a man named Lehi was warned by God to flee from Jerusalem with his family in order to escape the approaching Babylonian captivity; see the Book of Mormon section above for what happened to them.

The Atonement

The most significant event in the history of the world from the LDS perspective is the Atonement of Jesus Christ: in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, Jesus paid the price for the sins of mankind, allowing all who accept Him to become perfected and return to the presence of God.

The Book of Mormon tells of a visit by Jesus Christ to the people of the Americas after His resurrection, and states that He also visited several other groups around the world. People in each area lived righteously for a time after these events, but eventually the world fell into...

Apostasy

Apostasy means turning away from the truth and, by extension, from God. "An apostasy" is shorthand for a period of general apostasy, i.e. a time when everyone turns away from God, and in return He temporarily removes all major sources of revelation.

After the deaths of the apostles of Christ, priesthood authority was eventually lost because of deviations from the true word of Christ. Thus the world entered an apostasy that would last from the early centuries AD to the Restoration (see below) in the early 19th century.

There were no genuine, authorised prophets or other religious leaders during this "Great Apostasy", but individuals can still be guided by God. For example, the church teaches that Christian Reformers were inspired to prepare the way for the Restoration, and that philosophers and leaders of various religions received truth from God to enlighten the world.

The LDS Church teaches that there have been multiple apostasies throughout Earth's history, the Great Apostacy being the longest. The opposite of an apostasy is a dispensation, a period when knowledge is being "dispensed" from heaven. Many LDS authors see history as a series of dispensations interspersed by apostasies.

Modern History

The Restoration

In 1820, at the age of 14, Joseph Smith, Jr. was caught up in the Second Great Awakening, a time of great religious fervor and evangelism in the US. His family was greatly interested in religion, and different members joined different sects. After reading the Bible (and James 1:5 in particular) he decided to pray for direction about which sect to join. He went into a grove of trees, knelt, and prayed. He saw a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ, who instructed him not to join any church, but that the "fullness of the gospel" would be made known to him. This is known as the First Vision, and its end result would be the establishment of a new religion, claiming to be a restoration of Christ's original church.

Three years later, Smith was visited by an angel named Moroni, who told him of golden plates hidden in a hill near the Smith family's farm. Moroni directed Smith to the plates' location, but warned him not to take them until he was ready. In 1827 Smith was allowed to take the plates, and instructed to translate the writing on them into English. This was the source material for the Book of Mormon, which was published in 1829.

Persecution

When the church first started and even well into the 20th century, the members were not well liked, to put it lightly. It was common for mobs to force church members from their communities, with or without Tar and Feathers, and the threats and violence sometimes reached deadly levels. One of the most tragic massacres took place at Haun's Mill, where at least 14 adults and 3 children were killed, some after surrendering. In 1844, a mob of around 150 killed Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum in Carthage, Illinois, where they were jailed awaiting trial over actions taken against an anti-Mormon newspaper. This sort of persecution is what drove the Mormons to settle in Utah where no one would bother them.

The church today still has its detractors, some of whom are decidedly evangelical in their approach.

Polygamy

For starters, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints no longer practices polygamy. In fact, being married to more than one living wife is grounds for excommunication (being kicked out, with all saving ordinances rendered null and void).

As of 2023, there are said to be between 8,000 and 60,000 "fundamentalist Mormons" who do practice or support polygamy, including the FLDS, who have a history of legal trouble involving forced marriages and abuse. The current leader is serving a life sentence plus 20 years for two counts of child sexual assault, and no successor has been officially confirmed. Naturally, the FLDS is strongly denounced by the LDS church.

Polygamy was introduced in 1842 by Joseph Smith, Jr. Members of the church accepted it as a revelation of God, and a significant proportion of them practiced it in the following decades, although the RLDS rejected it after the 1844 split. As a result, many modern Utah families have ancestors with multiple marriages. It was stopped by Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the LDS church, in 1890, largely as a result of the legal situation.

Exodus to The West

In 1839, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued an extermination order for all members of the Church in Missouri, forcing the saints to move again or be killed.

The main body of the Church resettled in Illinois, in and around a small town named Commerce. Eventually, the town grew to become one of the largest cities in Illinois at the time and was renamed "Nauvoo". Joseph Smith became mayor and a militia leader sanctioned by the state government, but bloc-voting and rumors of polygamy caused violence to flare up once more. As mayor, Smith was involved in the decision to destroy the press of an anti-Mormon newspaper, on the basis that it was inflaming local prejudice. The destruction was widely seen as an illegal act that itself increased tensions, and Smith was arrested and taken to nearby Carthage Jail. Soon, the jail was assaulted by a mob, and Smith was shot and killed, along with his brother Hyrum.

This precipitated a succession crisis, for there was no clear line of succession. The largest group chose to follow Brigham Young, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve. He was made President of the Church, and he decided, after a failed appeal for protection from the federal government, that the best course of action was to leave the United States entirely and head west, deep into Mexican territory. By 1846, the bulk of the LDS had left Nauvoo, leaving behind a newly completed temple that had taken five years to build. It would be burned down by arsonists in November of that year.

After a hard winter in Nebraska, the first wagon train, led by Young himself struck out across the Plains. Speaking with many trappers familiar with the region, Young decided to make for the Great Basin on the assumption that it would be too arid for anyone else to want. In July of 1847, the train reached Salt Lake Valley. Young proclaimed the site to be "the right place." The valley would become the destination of some 70,000 people for the next twelve years.

The most well-known emigrant groups from this period are the Willie and Martin handcart (a tiny wagon pulled by hand) companies. Due to poor communication and a shortage of handcarts being prepared, they had to either leave late in the season or stay for winter in a strange place (most were British immigrants) with little money. Despite appointed church guide Levi Savage's warning that "The bones of the elderly and the infirm will litter the trail," most of the emigrants set off for Salt Lake, hoping to make it before winter. They had some ox wagons for support, but some of the oxen were lost en route when a herd of bison caused a stampede, reducing the amount of food they could carry. After two months on the trail they were stopped by early October snow and took what shelter they could find at Martin's Cove. By the time the worst weather hit, help was already on the way: Brigham Young heard about their plight the night before the twice-yearly General Conference of the Church and effectively canceled the conference, deeming it more important for them to live the principles of their religion than to talk about them. Wagon teams were hastily prepared and sent out, reaching the immigrants two weeks later and saving many lives. Even so, somewhere over two hundred of the 980 immigrants died on the trail.

Settling Utah

Under Young's direction, various settlements were built over a wide area extending from present-day Alberta to Sonora. The Church followed a policy of "building Zion," sending missionaries worldwide and then encouraging converts to emigrate to Deseret, as the region was called. Within a year of arriving, Deseret found itself a part of the United States as a result of Mexico's defeat in the Mexican-American War. Young immediately petitioned to have Deseret added to the Union as a state, but Congress, wary of Deseret's enormous size (which included the majority of the Mormon settlements and stretched to the Pacific Coast, including the then-insignificant town of Los Angeles) chose to create the Territory of Utah instead. Young became the first Territorial Governor.

This time period in Utah is controversial, owing to Young's often tense relationship with the federal government and disputes over the amount of influence he wielded over the population as both political and spiritual leader. Poor communication and disgruntled federal officials who found it difficult to work with unresponsive LDS citizens caused the brief but highly-publicized Utah War in 1857-58, when an entire Army division was sent to remove Young as governor because President James Buchanan had been led to believe that Utah was in open rebellion. Sensationalist media reports, pumped by allegations of heathen polygamy, predicted a bloodbath when the division reached Salt Lake City. It was in this climate that a band of LDS militiamen waylaid a pioneer wagon train from Arkansas as it was passing through southern Utah. In an event known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they killed most of the travellers and sent their children to be raised with local families. The militia leader would later be executed by the territorial government after being excommunicated by the Church.

Eventually, a non-LDS governor was installed in Young's place, as Young continued to lead the Church. During this time, the building of settlements went on, including the construction of more temples (including the iconic Salt Lake Temple). They also continued the practice of polygamy until after the deaths of Young and his successor, John Taylor, despite the passage of several Acts of Congress that explicitly outlawed it, and other steps to curtail LDS power in the territory. Wilford Woodruff became prophet in 1887. Faced with the arrests of dozens of practitioners of polygamy and the probable seizure of all Church property by the federal government, he issued the 1890 Manifesto, which declared that polygamy would no longer be allowed. In response, several fundamentalist groups broke away from the LDS Church and fled to isolated areas in the US, Canada, and Mexico in order to continue practicing polygamy.

The LDS Church has had something of a mixed record on social issues. Current issues aside (which we will not discuss here), the Church has been at times surprisingly progressive and alarmingly backwards. On one hand, women's rights were strongly advocated in the Territory of Utah. Utah would become the second territory (after Wyoming) to grant full suffrage to women in 1870. However, in 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which aimed to disenfranchise the Church and curtail its power in the territory, stripped this right from women. They would not regain voting rights until the admission of Utah as a state in 1896 (which enshrined the right of women to vote in the Constitution, about which the federal government could not do a thing).

The LDS Church also ran an extensive social-support network and effectively ran much of the economy in Utah from essentially the beginning until the 1950s or so. This tradition is derived from a system used in early Mormon communities, called the United Order, which an objective analysis could not fail to call a form of Christian socialism. Indeed, in the early 20th century, leftists and Mormons often found common ground on several issues, particularly on matters concerning the working poor. However, a desire not to be associated with the Left during the Red Scare led the Church to change its tune, hence the current association of Utah Mormonism with the political Right in general and the Republican Party in particular.

The Church's positions on race were often quite ugly, at least officially. This was eventually changed, although not without difficulty. Since this is a particularly controversial matter--even within the Church--we will leave it at that.

Outside Utah

In the early decades of the Church, converts from outside Deseret/Utah were encouraged to move there to help build up the church and avoid persecution. This migration continued into the twentieth century but eventually slowed until the Utah membership, and, by the late 1990s, the whole USA membership, was in the minority.

There are, unsurprisingly, cultural differences between "Utah Mormons" and those living elsewhere. While Utah is not entirely the "Mormon state" it's sometimes portrayed as, there are areas where whole communities belong to the church (at least in name), leading to huge overlaps between secular and religious life, and some...interesting headlines. Those in such communities are sometimes seen by outsiders either as sheltered from the "real world" or as "Jack-Mormons" (people who have been baptised into the church but never attend and don't really understand what it teaches). Conversely, church members from the rest of the world are traditionally seen by Utahns as Noobs who may or may not also be pioneers. This leads to a number of in-jokes and a certain amount of annoyance when news outlets assume that all Mormons live in Utah, attend BYU and play American Football.

Mormon Media

There have been plenty of references to the church and its members in all forms of media. A near-guaranteed joke to Mormons will be had if there is any mention of a man having multiple wives, though many Latter-day Saints think of this as a Dead Horse Trope.

The church has put out many movies in an effort to broaden understanding of church doctrine, history, and scriptures. Many are intended for the church's Education System, but others are designed for general consumption and shown in visitor centers or offered for download. These videos cover both LDS-specific beliefs, such as Eternal Families, and universal Christian beliefs such as the Atonement of Christ.

There has been a slowly growing industry of Mormon filmmakers who are producing movies that are unabashedly made for the LDS culture. They are not directly connected to the church, and quality and subject matter varies widely.

For more information

The church is always willing to tell people more about its beliefs. www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist is a good starting point.