Mormonism: Difference between revisions

'''Mormons''' are probably one of the most misunderstood group of Christians. They share some beliefs with most mainstream Christian denominations, with many major key differences. The Latter Day Saint movement may perhaps be viewed as Christianity's very own [[Expanded Universe]] material. This Expanded Universe material includes the Book of Mormon (containing about a dozen other books, which, oddly, teach none of the distinctive attributes of the Mormon religion), the Doctrine and Covenants, containing 132138 sections of varying length, from several sentences to several pages and two "Official Declarations;" The Pearl of Great Price, containing the Book of Abraham, the Book of Moses, (these last two are where the LDS Church got the germ of the polytheistic or monolatristic ideas that would later most distance it from mainstream Christianity), Joseph Smith-Matthew and Joseph Smith-History. These are called the "Standard Works", and, along with the King James Version of the Bible, comprise the (current) Mormon scriptures, which are "open" - meaning they 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. Eminent Protestant Christian scripture scholar Bruce Metzger (head of the translation committee for the RSV and NRSV Bibles, and long-standing editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible until his death in 2005) defined the difference between an "open canon" (canon, from the Greek, meaning "measuring stick", in this means a list of authoritative books for a religion) and a closed canon (common to all mainstream Christianity, even if the contents are disagreed upon) thus: "An open canon is a list of authoritative books: a closed canon is an authoritative list of books."

While [http://www.lds.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], commonly referred to as the "LDS Church" (colloquially as "Mormonism", even amongst some Latter-day Saints) is the largest denomination of Mormonism, they are erroneously often presented as the only denomination. Consider it a parallel to [[Christianity Is Catholic]]: Mormons Are Latter-day Saints. Other significant Mormon denominations include the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (known for polygamy, a practice condemned by the LDS Church). The Community of Christ (sometimes referred to as RLDS from its former name, the Reorganised Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) split from Mormonism over a succession dispute after Joseph Smith, Jr's death: although it is considered part of the Latter-day saint movement, it does not consider itself to be Mormon, and belief in the of-questionable-historicity Book of Mormon is not a requirement. [[That Other Wiki]] has an [[wikipedia:Category:Latter Day Saint denominations|extensive list]]. However, around 90% of Latter-day Saints are LDS; it outnumbers the next-largest denomination by over ten million. (LDS are generally reluctant to refer to non-LDS as "Mormon"; this treatment varies among non-LDS groups, which may or may not refer to themselves as "Mormon".) Most of this article is focused on the first group listed - the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Also, while it is common for the media and people who are not members to refer to them as "Mormon", LDS members more commonly use "Latter-day Saints" or just "Saints", as while Mormon is the name of both a key scripture and a prominent prophet in the church, it is not the actual name of the church. Historically, members never referred to themselves as "Mormon", but nowadaysthis theyhas frequentlychanged referin to themselves asrecent such, even amongst other Mormonsdecades. As an adjective, "LDS" remains more common, as in "LDS culture" or "LDS fiction". Church leaders periodically encourage the membership to avoid overuse of both "Mormon" and "LDS" because, as church president Russel Nelson put it, both "remove the Lord's name from the Lord's church".

Another temple-related item is the wearing of the ''garment'' or "Mormon underwear" as it is commonly known. Much like a priest's collar or cardinal's vestments, the garment is an article of sacred clothing (almost exclusively simple white cotton/polyfabric) worn 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.

The Church geographically organizes its membership across the world into "wards" and "stakes". In areas with less members, the resulting smaller groups are called "branches" and "districts", respectively. A ward is what other denominations frequently refer to as a "congregation"; each ward covers a certain area, and members living in that area are assigned to a specific building to meet in on Sundays at a fixed time. A ward is presided over by a bishop ("branch president" in branches), who calls counselors to aid him in his duties as bishop, which include the spiritual and temporal welfare of both members and non-members of the Church. The ward is further divided into more specific groups for children, adults, and adolescents, and between male and female in order to provide more applicable teachings to each stage of life. These smaller organizations report to the bishop for his oversight. None of these leaders in the Church receive compensation for the work they do; they hold regular jobs outside of their "callings". A "stake" is composed of several wards, and a stake has a stake president and his two counselors to preside over it. The bishops within the stake report to the stake president. None of these leaders receive compensation for the work they do; they hold regular jobs outside of their "callings". The stake president supervises the activities and well-being within his stake and reports the status of his stake to the general authorities of the Church.

The Church sends out missionaries in teams of two (occasionally three) to share the church's message with others. These missionaries are volunteers and receive no compensation from the Church or from the people they teach. They are primarily youngunmarried male adults, between the ages of 1918 toand 25 years of age; however, older married couples and female adults over the age of 2119 can also serve as missionaries of the Church. Unless they are married, men are always paired with men, and women with women. The world is divided geographically into "missions," such as the California San Fernando mission and the Mexico Tijuana mission, which are each presided over by an individual Mission President. The Mission President receives revelation from God about what needs to be done within the mission he presides for the benefit of the people living therein.<br /><br />Missionaries share the message that Jesus Christ has restored His ancient Church on the Earth through modern prophets that He has called. They invite those they are teaching (sometimes referred to as "investigators") to learn more, to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to God to know the truth of their message, and to make commitments correlating to the principles of repentance. Because the authority to perform saving ordinances is held only within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they invite the investigators to be baptized and confirmed once they have come to believe the message is true, and to continue on to other saving ordinances as well as membership in the Church.<br /><br />Male missionaries serve for at least two years, and are referred to as "Elder". Female missionaries serve for at least eighteen months and are referred to as "Sister". They refrain from any non-spiritual activities (such as hobbies and dating) during their mission so they can fully concentrate on their service. The exception for this is older missionaries, who serve for anything from a few months to several years, and often have very specific jobs, such as helping set up farms in impoverished areas, or being Mission President.

The church has put out many different movies in an effort to help broaden understanding of church doctrine, history, and scriptures themselves. Many are meant to be used specifically for the Church Education System, but there are a handful of feature-length and one-hour movies designed for non-members and shown in various visitor centers located at specific temples. Also for non-members, there is a large series of videos that can be obtained for free by calling a phone number or going online to [httphttps://www.mormonchurchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist www.mormonchurchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist]. These videos cover both LDS-specific beliefs, such as Eternal Families, as well as other videos focused on universal Christian beliefs such as the Atonement of Christ.

If there is any question that you have that is not answered, ask it in the discussion. Other more-knowledgeable individuals will try to answer it in the discussion as well as in this article. For a more exhaustive source, the church has a website designed for non-members at [httphttps://www.mormonchurchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist www.mormonchurchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist].