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A church founded by Joseph Smith at Palmyra in western New York in 1830 and having its headquarters since 1847 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its doctrines are based chiefly on the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other revelations made to church leaders. Also called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Mormon Church traces its origins to founder Joseph Smith's vision of 1820, which upheld the view that no existing church had "right" doctrine. Mormonism avowed a belief in the Trinity but denied original sin. It stressed faith in Jesus Christ, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit. While it accepted the Bible as the word of God, Smith's discovery of an alternative scripture, the Book of Mormon, provided an account of an Israelite prophet, Lehi, who was commanded by God in 600 B.C. to lead a small group of people to the American continent. It also recorded the appearance of Christ, after his Resurrection, to the people in America. Early Mormonism held that there would be a literal gathering of Israel to the United States and that Zion would be built upon the American continent. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) was organized on 6 April 1830.
The Early Years
The new Church settled in Ohio, where it fostered a communitarian lifestyle, created a collective religious leadership, and launched the first mission to England in 1837. It then moved to Missouri, where political and religious controversy led to the Mormon War of 1838. The Saints withdrew to Illinois where they established the new city of Nauvoo in 1840, an agricultural rather than a commercial center. At Nauvoo, the Relief Society was established in 1842 to improve community morals. During this period, Joseph Smith also received a revelation, enjoining members of the Church to practice plural marriage (polygamy), based on precedents from the Old Testament.
Nauvoo and the Migration
While the Mormons engaged in Illinois politics, sympathy for the idea of a Mormon kingdom in the West increased during the early 1840s. After the governor of Illinois ordered a trial of the Church leadership for the destruction of the press of a newspaper critical to Mormonism, Joseph Smith and his brother were murdered in Carthage, Illinois, on 27 June 1844. The state legislature revoked the Nauvoo charter in January 1845 and the Church announced plans for removal in September 1845. In 1846, 12,000 Saints left Illinois, dedicating the Nauvoo Temple before their departure, and the Pioneer Company reached the Salt Lake Valley on 24 July 1847. The state of Deseret was established in January 1849 as the civil government of the territory.
Settling Utah
In 1850, LDS Church President Brigham Young sought statehood within the United States, but this was blocked in Congress, and territorial status was accepted in 1851. Young encouraged colonization to the south of Salt Lake City and along the Wasatch Front, where communities were organized to encourage community life and religious activity, with common pastures and the cooperative raising of grain. Missionaries were sent to Latin America and Europe, and the notion of the Gathering of Zion (the migration of converts to Utah) was fostered by means of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund in the late 1850s. Given the Church's political dominance, tensions soon arose with federally appointed officials. President James Buchanan sent a force to Utah in 1857, in the face of protests about Brigham Young's dictatorial rule. Young recalled distant colonists, declared martial law, and forbade the entry of federal troops and in June 1858 a peace formula was negotiated.
The Church in the Nineteenth Century
During the Civil War the Latter-day Saints remained generally loyal to the Union. After the war, mining and cotton production developed in southern Utah and railroad connections in 1869 broke down the territory's isolation. A new Mormon cooperative system discouraged trade with outsiders, and after the depression of 1873, an effort was made to foster strongly collectivist cooperative organizations, called the United Orders, but these did not endure. A movement to Arizona and Wyoming took place in the late 1870s, and Mormons settled in Mexico in 1886. By 1880, the Church had 134,000 members, 80 percent of whom lived in Utah. Missionary work was pursued in Mexico, Polynesia, and the domestic United States, though Mormons faced violent reprisals in the American South. Missions increased between 1890 and 1900, as 6,125 missionaries were sent out, but immigration to Utah was discouraged after 1890.
The War Against Polygamy
In the late 1860s, a war against polygamy was unleashed in Utah Territory and other parts of the West inhabited by Latter-day Saints. The anti-Mormon Liberal Party was formed in Utah in 1870 to oppose LDS political and economic dominance, while James McKean, chief justice of Utah Territory, launched a campaign to prosecute those who practiced polygamy, including Brigham Young. In Reynolds v. United States (1879) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862. Non-Mormons in Utah called for resolute action on polygamy and the Edmunds Act of 1882 assured penalties for polygamy and disenfranchised twelve thousand Saints. Over one thousand men were sent to jail in Utah, and similar prosecutions took place in Idaho and Arizona. Five years later, the Edmunds-Tucker Act threatened to destroy the Church by dissolving it as a legal corporation, a move upheld by the Supreme Court in 1890. Fearful that all members of the Church would be disenfranchised, President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto against polygamy in 1890, accepted willingly by most Mormons, and a new understanding was reached with the federal authorities.
The Church in the Progressive Era
In the early twentieth century, the LDS Church displayed a greater readiness to become involved in the affairs of the nation. In 1903, Apostle Reed Smoot was elected to the Senate despite charges of disloyalty to the nation. The Church solved its debt problem with bond issues and curtailed its direct involvement in business ventures. Established missions were strengthened and a new training system for missionaries established. Signs of Mormon integration came with the increasing national popularity of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Church's support for national prohibition after 1916, and its contributions to the war effort. During World War I, twenty-four thousand Latter-day Saints enlisted in the armed forces, the Church and its auxiliaries bought $1.4 million worth of Liberty bonds, and the Relief Society sold its store of wheat to the government.
The Response to the Depression
During the 1920s, the agricultural depression drove many Saints to the cities and made them a more urban people. The Church's Relief Society created a Social Welfare Department in 1919, and the Church began to undertake more intensive studies of social problems and foster cooperation with some secular agencies. The coming of the Great Depression in 1929, therefore, did not catch the Church entirely unprepared. Although opposed to the dole, it did not condemn federal work relief. A survey of need was carried out in 1933 and local units were urged to create community enterprises. In 1936, the Church launched the Welfare Plan under Harold B. Lee, reviving the idea of the bishop's storehouse and calling on local units to establish coordinating committees. An exchange system was formed and make-work projects created where necessary, based around agriculture. This provided positive publicity for the Church, and even progressive periodicals like Time and The Nation started to reflect a more positive view of Mormon life.
An International Church
During World War II, one hundred thousand Mormons entered the armed forces, and the LDS Serviceman's Committee was organized to provide programs and guidelines for them. Missionary activity was resumed in 1946, and by 1950, there were five thousand missionaries, twelve hundred of them in Europe. A new sense of internationalism was evident, with the shift of missionaries to Asia. Efforts also were made to keep young men and women involved in church life through recreational activity, and seminary involvement grew from 28,600 to 81,400. Student wards were created in university towns, enabling students for the first time to hold church offices. A new churchwide home teaching program was begun in 1964, with priesthood holders expected to get to know the families in their charges, and the family home evening program was launched in 1965. By the end of the 1960s, the church had achieved a membership of 2.8 million, with new growth in Latin America and seventeen thousand missionaries in the field.
The Latter-Day Saints Today
In politics, the Church shifted sharply to the right during the 1960s, although Apostle Hugh Brown supported some social welfare programs and was a Democratic candidate for U.S. senator. By the late 1970s, however, the Church eschewed direct political participation in favor of taking stands opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment, legalized abortion, and gambling. In 1978, LDS Church President Spencer Kimball received a revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy male believers (prior to this date, black males had been excluded from the otherwise universal male priesthood), solving the problem of the priesthood in South America and Africa as well as the United States. In 1998, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that church members who practiced polygamy risked excommunication, but the Church was drawn uncomfortably into the spotlight in 2000 when Tom Green of Utah was prosecuted on charges of polygamy. The Church in the 1990s, led by President Hinckley since 1995, was an expanding force, though more outside the United States than within it, with over five million members in 1998.
Bibliography
Alexander, Thomas G. Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-Day Saints, 1890–1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
Allen, James B., and Glen M. Leonard. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Books, 1992.
Bushman, Claudia L., and Richard L. Bushman. Building the Kingdom: a History of Mormons in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Gottlieb, Robert, and Peter Wiley. America's Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power. San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
Mauss, Armand L. The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Quinn, D. Michael, ed. The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1992.
Shipps, Jan. Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.
Organization and Beliefs
Mormon belief is based on the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and various revelations made to Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon, ascribed to the prophet Mormon, recounts the early history of peoples in America from c.600 B.C. to c.A.D. 420. The Aaronic priesthood (deacons, teachers, and priests), which includes every worthy male between the ages of 12 and 19, is primarily concerned with the temporal affairs of the church; that of Melchizedek (elders and high priests) is concerned with the spiritual leadership. High priests are represented in the Council of Twelve (the Apostles) and in the first presidency (the president and two counselors—three high priests vested with supreme authority). The territorial divisions of the Mormon settlements are wards and stakes. Each ward has a bishop and two counselors; five to ten wards compose a stake.
Significant characteristics of the Mormon creed include the emphasis on revelation in the establishment of doctrines and rituals, the interdependence of temporal and spiritual life, tithing, and attention to community welfare. Mormons practice baptism for the dead; they believe that the deceased soul may receive the baptism necessary for salvation by proxy of a living believer. They also believe in “celestial marriage,” whereby individuals marry for all eternity. Mormons carry out a campaign of vigorous proselytizing which has, in the course of a century and a quarter, raised the church from a handful of followers to its present size.
History
Founding of the Church
The history of the Mormons began with Smith's claim that golden tablets containing the Book of Mormon had been revealed to him, and his establishment of a headquarters for his organization at Kirtland, Ohio (1831). His following grew rapidly, particularly from the intensive missionary activity in which members engaged, both in the U.S. and abroad. Stakes of Zion, as the Mormons called their settlements, were started in W Missouri, and Smith prepared to make the region the permanent home of his people. However, the intolerance of gentile neighbors toward the Mormons's communal economy and unconventional belief system led to persecution and violence. Finally, in 1838–39, Gov. Lillburn W. Boggs ordered their expulsion (see also Doniphan, Alexander William).
Violence in Illinois
The Mormons sought a new Zion in the Illinois town of Nauvoo. There, they received a charter giving them virtual autonomy, with the right to maintain their own militia, their own court, and the power to pass any laws not in conflict with the state or federal constitutions. The town expanded as converts poured in from abroad, and in 1842 it was the largest and most powerful town in Illinois. The growing wealth and strength of the Mormon community caused envy and fear among their neighbors.
At about that time, Joseph Smith, as mayor of Nauvoo, ordered the suppression of church dissidents. Violence resulted, and Smith called out the Nauvoo militia to protect the city. For this, he and his brother, Hyrum, were arrested by Illinois authorities (June 24, 1844), and charged with treason. They were jailed in Carthage, Ill., where three days later they were murdered by an angry mob.
After that many Mormons fled, dissension and suspicion were rife, and there was debate over the succession to Smith's leadership. Possible choices included another brother, William Smith, and several prominent leaders, notably Sidney Rigdon, James Jesse Strang, Lyman Wight, and Brigham Young, whom the church leaders ultimately chose.
The Mormons under Brigham Young
Young proved a forceful and able leader who dominated and worked for the good of his people. Again, it became necessary for the Mormons to find a home. Under Young's guidance, a remote spot was chosen, the valley of the Great Salt Lake in what is now Utah. Those who rejected Young's leadership and claimed the succession for a son of Joseph Smith declined to accompany the main body to Utah; they ultimately constituted themselves into a separate church (see Community of Christ).
In July, 1847, the first settlers reached what is now Salt Lake City and began an agricultural community. The first few years were extremely difficult, but the organization of the Mormons for community welfare, their great industry, and the determined leadership of Young made for their success. Through extensive irrigation, farming prospered.
In 1849, the Mormons wished to have their communities admitted to the Union as the State of Deseret, but the area became Utah Territory instead. Brigham Young was appointed territorial governor and superintendent of Indian affairs, but Mormon isolation was destroyed. Non-Mormons filtered in, resented by the Mormons. Young's formal announcement in 1852 of the doctrine of plural marriage, based on a vision of Joseph Smith in 1843, set the Mormons further apart from their fellow Americans. Thereafter, polygamy was luridly discussed in newspapers across the country. The antagonism was very strong in the 1850s, and when Col. Albert S. Johnston was sent out with an army force in 1857, Young prepared to defend the Mormon state. The Utah War did not rise to serious proportions, but the bitterness of feeling was shown after the massacre of the members of a wagon train at Mountain Meadows in 1857, for which the Mormons were blamed.
The question of plural marriage was the important point in Utah's bid for statehood. Congress passed laws against polygamy aimed solely at Utah. Despite persecution, the Mormon community was a thoroughly established commonwealth by the time of Brigham Young's death in 1877. Statehood was finally granted after Mormon president Wilford Woodruff made a statement (1890) withdrawing church sanction of polygamy: Utah entered the Union as the 45th state in 1896. Since then, the church has spread beyond Utah, becoming a world religion (about half of all Mormons live outside the United States and Canada); church membership roughly doubled in the 1980s and 90s.
A number of Mormons, generally referred to as fundamentalists, continue to believe in plural marriage, either as members of a splinter church or quietly within the mainstream church, which excommunicates those who adhere to the practice. Some 10,000 people in North America belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the largest of the splinter faiths. Many of its members live in SW Utah and NW Arizona.
Bibliography
See J. Smith, The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1880 ed., repr. 1971); D. H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism (5 vol., 1992); studies by L. Arrington and D. Bitton (1979), R. Bushman (1984), T. Alexander (1986), J. Coates (1991), D. M. Quinn (1994), and R. N. and J. K. Ostling (1999).
The Mormon Church is a religious body founded in 1830 in Fayette, New York, by Joseph Smith. It is also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS Church. There are 7.7 million Mormons worldwide. Approximately two-thirds reside in the United States, with the highest concentration in the western states, especially Utah. The church, which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, encountered legal difficulties during its early years because of its practice of polygamy and its opposition to the use of common law as legal precedent. The church's differences with the U.S. government led to armed conflict in the late 1800s.
Joseph Smith based his teachings on his translation of hieroglyphic messages revealed to him on several golden plates. Smith's translation of these divine messages is known as the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon and the Bible form the basis of Mormon belief.
During the early 1800s, Smith and his followers settled in Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri, where they were persecuted because of their beliefs. They moved to Illinois and helped establish the town of Nauvoo, where the church prospered. However, local residents became inflamed over rumors that Smith and his followers were practicing polygamy, or plural marriage. Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested and taken to Carthage, the county seat. On June 27, 1844, they were both shot and killed by a group of townspeople.
Smith was succeeded by Brigham Young, the head of the church's Council of the Twelve Apostles. In 1846 Young organized and directed church members to follow him from Nauvoo to the Great Salt Basin in the Utah Territory. They settled there and established the headquarters of the church in Salt Lake City.
In Utah the Mormon Church prospered and grew. In addition to leading the church, Young became provisional governor of the Utah Territory in 1849. In that capacity he and the other members of the government, most of whom were Mormons, defied the U.S. government by rejecting common law as valid legal precedent in Utah. Common law, as distinct from statutory law, is English precedent adopted by U.S. courts. Over time, common law became part of U.S. jurisprudence except where it was expressly abrogated. Although Young patterned the structure of Utah's territorial government after the other state governments, with executive, legislative, and judicial branches, he believed that the United States should abandon all vestiges of English tradition. According to Young, the application of common law allowed judges too much latitude to impose standards that did not comport with public will.
Young's opposition to the application of common law reached its nadir over the issue of polygamy. By the mid-1800s, the Mormon Church had acknowledged polygamy as one of its tenets. Mormon teaching of the time held that men were obligated to have multiple wives. Common law provides that marriage to more than one living husband or wife is a felony and that any marriages other than the first are void.
When President Millard Fillmore assigned three federal judges to the Utah Territory in the 1850s, Young became concerned that the new judges would impose common-law precedent. He attempted to blunt their impact by urging the legislature to prohibit judges from using common-law precedent in Utah. On January 14, 1854, the legislature passed a bill that prohibited any law from being read, cited, or adopted in Utah unless it had been enacted by the legislature or the governor. This bill directly contravened the Organic Act of Utah of 1850 (9 Stat. 453) by which the U.S. Congress created the Utah Territory. The act gave the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal district courts of the territory both common-law and equity jurisdiction and established that the laws of the United States applied in the territory. In 1856 the Territorial Supreme Court held that the Organic Act extended common law over the Territory of Utah and that the legislature violated the Organic Act when it forbade the use of common law in Utah (People v. Moroni Green, 1 Utah 11 [1856]).
Tensions continued to mount between Mormons and the federal government. In May 1857 President James Buchanan dispatched 2,500 U.S. Army troops to Utah to remove Young from office and enforce federal authority. Anticipating the federal troops' arrival, a group of angry Mormons joined forces with a group of Paiute Indians who attacked and killed 120 settlers traveling through the territory in September 1857. Mormon leaders feared that the attack, known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, would lead to further reprisals by the federal government. They sent sympathetic church members to destroy the Army's supplies, thereby delaying the troops' arrival. The Mormons' resistance came to be known as the Utah War. By the time the troops arrived in the summer of 1858, tensions had eased considerably, and under a negotiated settlement, troops were stationed outside Salt Lake City without incident.
The Mormon Church's resistance to the application of common law continued through the late 1800s. A number of cases reached the Territorial Supreme Court, which repeatedly affirmed that common law is valid in the territory. (See Murphy v. Carter, 1 Utah 17 [1868], and Godebe v. Salt Lake City, 1 Utah 68 [1870]). In First National Bank of Utah v. Kinner, 1 Utah 100 (1873), the court held that the people of the Utah territory had tacitly agreed to the application of common law. In 1878 the U.S. Supreme Court settled the question of whether the common-law prohibition of polygamy applied in the territory. In Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. (8 Otto) 145, 25 L. Ed. 244, the plaintiff argued that the common-law prohibition of polygamy was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion. The Court disagreed and held that religious freedom does not encompass the practice of polygamy and that laws prohibiting the practice are constitutional. The Court stated that to allow Mormons to practice plural marriage "would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances."
By the 1890s the Mormon Church had officially abandoned the practice of plural marriage. In 1896 Utah became a state, and in 1898 the legislature passed a measure that declared that the common law "shall be the rule of decision in all courts of this state" (The Revised Statutes of the State of Utah, § 2488). The common law continues to carry the force of precedent in Utah, except for the common law of crimes, which the legislature abolished in 1973 (Utah Code Ann. § 76-1-105; repealed, Utah Code Ann. § 68-2-3; replaced by Utah Code Ann. § 68-3-1).
| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | |
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| Classification | Restorationist |
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| Orientation | Latter Day Saint movement |
| Polity | Hierarchical |
| Founder | Joseph Smith, Jr. |
| Origin | April 6, 1830 |
| Statistics | |
| Congregations | 27,475 |
| Members | 13 million+ |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the LDS Church or the Mormon Church, is the largest and most well-known denomination originating from the Latter Day Saint movement. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and has established congregations and temples worldwide, reporting approximately 13 million members on its rolls.[1][2]
Adherents, usually referred to as Latter-day Saints, LDS, or Mormons, believe that Jesus Christ leads the church through revelation given to the President of the Church, who is considered to be a prophet. They believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, was crucified, and through his atoning sacrifice mankind can be forgiven of their sins. They believe Jesus was resurrected on the third day and currently sits on the right hand of God the Father. Though these are fundamental Christian beliefs, Latter-day Saints do not consider themselves part of the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions.
The church teaches that it is a restoration of the church instituted by Jesus Christ. It teaches that before Joseph Smith restored the true church, an apostasy occurred shortly after the death of Peter and the other original apostles. The church teaches that Christian denominations created during this period deviated away from Christ's original teachings. Latter-day Saints believe in the divine authority of the Old Testament and New Testament and also have additional books in their scriptural canon: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
Historically, the church has distinguished itself from other Christian denominations by its practice of temple ordinances such as baptism for the dead and the Endowment, its doctrinal views on the Godhead, and its former practice of plural marriage.[3] The church teaches that it is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth",[4] but it has cooperated with other religious organizations in promoting humanitarian and moral causes.
| The Latter Day Saint movement | ||
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| The Latter Day Saint movement |
Mormonism · Latter Day Saint · Mormonism and Christianity · Latter Day Saint Denominations |
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| Sacred texts | ||
| Founders and early sect leaders | ||
| Doctrines, beliefs and practices | ||
| Controversies | ||
| See also Latter Day Saints Portal – Category Mormonism | ||
The LDS Church is the largest of the denominations from the Latter Day Saint movement that claim to be a continuation of the Church of Christ, founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. on April 6 1830 in New York.[5] Joseph Smith legally established this early church soon after publishing the Book of Mormon. The church rapidly gained a large following of individuals that viewed Smith as their prophet. The growth of Smith's following was attributed by some to the convincing power of the Book of Mormon, which Smith said he translated from a book of golden plates that were buried near his home in a place shown to him by an angel.[6]
In late 1830, Smith envisioned a "city of Zion" in Native American lands near Independence, Missouri. In October 1830 he sent his second-in-command Oliver Cowdery and others on a mission to the area.[7] Passing through Kirtland, Ohio, the missionaries converted a congregation of Disciples of Christ led by Sidney Rigdon, and in 1831, Smith decided to temporarily move his followers to Kirtland until the Missouri area could be colonized. The church headquarters remained in Kirtland from 1831 to 1838; meanwhile, the church built its first temple and continued to grow.
On July 20, 1831 Smith circulated a written revelation that Independence, Missouri was to be the center place for the city of Zion.[8] Though many of Smith's followers attempted to colonize Missouri throughout the 1830s and Smith himself moved there in 1838, the church faced political and military opposition from other Missouri settlers. After a series of raids on Mormon settlements, the church formed its own militia to defend its members and the Mormon War of 1838 ensued, culminating in the religion being expelled from the state under an Extermination Order signed by the governor of Missouri. The church then established its new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois, a city they built on drained swampland by the Mississippi River, where Smith served as mayor. There, the church built a new temple, and thrived until Smith and his brother Hyrum, who was serving as assistant president and patriarch of the church, were killed by a mob in 1844. The Smith brothers were awaiting trial after the Nauvoo city council decided to destroy a local newspaper that accused Smith of practicing a form of polygamy and intending to establish himself as a theocratic king. Specific threats against the leadership of the church and violent action against its members were also made. While the legality of destroying a printing press that published violent threats against a community in 1844 is even today uncertain,[9] Hyrum and Joseph were nevertheless promptly charged with disruption of the peace and high treason. Joseph Smith, at the time, was a minor candidate for President of the United States with Sidney Rigdon as his running mate.
After the murder of the Smiths, a succession crisis ensued whereby a number of church leaders campaigned to lead the church. The majority of adherents voted to accept the succession claims presented by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, led by Brigham Young. Their claim was based on a March 1844 meeting wherein Joseph committed the "keys of the kingdom" on the twelve apostles with Young as their leader. After continued difficulties and persecution in Illinois, Young left Nauvoo in 1846 and led his followers to what later became the state of Utah (then part of Mexico), and began to colonize the area with numerous communities.
Young incorporated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a legal entity under the laws of the Territory of Utah. He initially governed his followers as a theocratic leader serving in both political and religious positions. He openly encouraged the practice of plural marriage. When this practice became known in Washington, D.C., the United States sent federal troops there in 1857, deposed Young, and replaced him with a non-Mormon territorial governor, though Young still wielded significant political power as President of the Church. Young was followed by other powerful leaders, who defiantly followed the dictates of their personal beliefs in the face of U.S. efforts to outlaw Mormon polygamous marriages. Political and legal wrangling over the polygamy issue escalated until 1890, when church president Wilford Woodruff issued a Manifesto that officially suspended the practice.[10] Relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, and especially after 1904, when church president Joseph F. Smith disavowed polygamy before the United States Congress and issued a "Second Manifesto" calling for all polygamous marriages in the church to cease. Since this time, the church has adopted a policy of excommunicating its members found practicing polygamy. In 1998, President Gordon B. Hinkley stated, "If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose." (Gordon B. Hinckley, "What Are People Asking About Us?" Ensign, Nov. 1998, 70).
During the twentieth century, the church experienced a period of strong growth resulting from both a high birth rate and extensive proselytism. Since the 1990s, the church's growth rate has moderated, but the church continues to gain approximately 300,000 new members annually.[citation needed]
The church has played, at times, a prominent role in political matters, including opposition to the repeal of Prohibition in the United States,[citation needed] opposition to MX Peacekeeper missile bases in Utah and Nevada,[11] opposing the Equal Rights Amendment,[12] opposing legalized gambling,[13] support of bans on same-sex marriage,[14] and opposition to legalized physician-assisted death.[15] Apart from issues that it considers to be ones of morality, however, the church maintains a position of political neutrality.[16]
The church's canon of sacred texts consists of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. These are more commonly referred to as the church's Standard Works. Though not canonical, many members of the church also accept the teachings and pronouncements of the church's general authorities—and in particular those of the President of the Church—as scripture, and even as taking precedence over the Standard Works.[17]
The church's most distinctive scripture, the Book of Mormon, was published by founder Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830, and is believed to be a spiritual history of various groups of pre-Columbian Israelites. Smith stated that he translated the Book of Mormon from plates that had "the appearance of gold" that he found buried near his home. The introduction printed with the book says that it is a history of the principal ancestors of the "American Indian" peoples.[18] Much debate has taken place on the subject of whether archaeology supports or denies the Book of Mormon's authenticity.[citation needed]
The church's acceptance of the Bible as the word of God comes with the provisional belief that it was not always translated correctly from the original manuscripts.[19] Joseph Smith worked on his own translation, said to be more correct, but this was never canonized by the church. For English language speakers, the church encourages the use of the King James Version.[20] The church regards parts of the Apocrypha,[21] the writings of some Protestant Reformers and non-Christian religious leaders, and the non-religious writings of some philosophers to be inspired, though not canonical.[22]
The church's Doctrine and Covenants is a collection of modern revelations, declarations, and teachings on various subjects, primarily written by Joseph Smith. The Pearl of Great Price contains an excerpt from Smith's 1838 autobiographical writings, two portions of his translation of the Bible, Smith's translation of an Egyptian papyrus known as the Book of Abraham, and an excerpt of one of Smith's 1842 letters describing church beliefs, now known as the Articles of Faith.
The church also publishes several official periodicals, including the Ensign (for English-speaking adults), the Liahona (non-English languages),[23] the New Era (for youth), and the Friend (for children). Some older, discontinued English-language publications produced or affiliated with the church included Evening and Morning Star (1833–1834), Messenger and Advocate (1834–1837), Elders' Journal (1837), Times and Seasons (1839–1846), Millennial Star (1840–1970), The Seer (1853–1854), Journal of Discourses (1854–1886), The Juvenile Instructor (1866–1930), Woman's Exponent (1872–1914), The Contributor (1879–1896), Young Woman's Journal (1889–1929), Improvement Era (1897–1970), The Children's Friend (1902–1970), Relief Society Magazine (1915–1970), and The Instructor (1930–1970).
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have many beliefs in common with Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions, but also some significant differences exist. Some of the church's core beliefs, circa 1842, are discussed in Articles of Faith (Latter Day Saints). A comparison between LDS Church doctrine and traditional Christian faiths are discussed in Mormonism and Christianity. There are also numerous articles discussing Latter Day Saint movement perspectives on various doctrinal issues, which discuss the specific doctrines of the LDS Church as part of that movement. A summary of the church's major distinctive beliefs and practices are discussed below.
The church teaches that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are "one God" in the sense that they are one "in purpose", but does not accept the Nicene Creed's definition of Trinity, that the three are "consubstantial". Rather, the church teaches that the Father and the Son are two distinct beings, both with glorified, perfect bodies of flesh and bone, while the Holy Ghost is a distinct being with only a "spirit body".[24] God the Father is understood to be the literal father of all the spirits who inhabit this earth[25] and the father of Jesus' spirit body and his physical body.
The church teaches that Jesus is its central focus and emphasizes that his suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross paid for the sins of humanity. Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus' status as the son of a mortal woman gave him the ability to suffer temptations and experience physical death; while his status as son of God gave him the power to lay down and take up his life again at will. The church also believes in the physical resurrection of Jesus' body: that his physical body and spirit body were reunited, never again to be separated. Because of its emphasis on Jesus' resurrection and his status as the living head of the church, the church de-emphasizes Jesus' crucifixion and does not officially use the symbol of the Christian cross. Instead, the church tends to focus on the belief that Jesus overcame suffering and death and that he lives today.
The church follows what it understands to be the teachings of Jesus, both in the Bible and in other scriptures, such as the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The church also teaches that Jesus is the god Jehovah of the Old Testament. Because Jesus is thought to be omniscient and have the same purpose as the Father, the church teaches that Jesus Christ often speaks in the scriptures as though he were God the Father, because in so doing he is fulfilling the will of the Father.[26]
Official church materials refer to "Heavenly Parents," implying to some the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[27] Belief in such a figure is common among members, and she has been mentioned in sermons by church officials[28][29] and in some of the hymns of the church.[30] However, no specific doctrine on the subject of a Heavenly Mother has been released by the church.
In common with other Restorationist churches, the church believes in a Great Apostasy. It teaches that after the death of Jesus and the Twelve Apostles, the priesthood authority was lost and some important doctrinal teachings, including the text of the Bible, were changed from their original form, thus necessitating a Restoration prior to the Second Coming. That restoration, according to church doctrine, took place during the life of Joseph Smith, Jr.
According to church theology, the restoration took place through a series of visions and revelations, including Smith's First Vision in 1820, visits by various angelic messengers including Moroni, John the Baptist, Moses, Elijah, and the apostles Peter, James and John. Smith said these messengers gave him priesthood authority (first the Aaronic priesthood and then the Melchizedek priesthood) and various "keys" of the priesthood that had been lost through the ages, so that Smith finally possessed the "fulness of the Gospel". The restoration also included the formation of the Church of Christ. The LDS Church teaches that it is the successor of this Church of Christ and that the current President of the Church is Smith's modern successor.
The priesthood authority is given to all male members ages 12 and older who generally follow the church's code of morality. Men receive the priesthood by ordination, which consists of other priesthood holders laying their hands on their head and also providing a blessing. After the time of Joseph Smith, black men of sub-Saharan African descent were barred from being ordained to the priesthood and entering the religion's temples; in 1978, church president Spencer W. Kimball announced a revelation declaring that all worthy men could be ordained to the priesthood. (See Blacks and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) Women are not ordained to priesthood offices, although some adherents believe that women are given priesthood power and authority in the church's Endowment ceremony. (See Women and Mormonism.)
For the most part, ordination to the priesthood is a prerequisite to preside in the church, although women are given un-ordained leadership roles over children and other women, and they perform certain temple ordinances of women. The priesthood is structured in a hierarchical manner, emphasizing obedience. Members are encouraged to avoid public criticism of priesthood leaders; repeated public criticism by an individual may eventually result in excommunication. (See Mormonism and authority.) Although the church had a paid local clergy in the 1800s,[31] local and regional priesthood leaders currently serve as volunteers. Non-clerical church employees, general authorities (who serve life or five-year terms), and mission presidents (who serve three-year terms) are paid a stipend from church funds and provided other benefits. A general missionary fund covers the basic living expenses of single Mormon missionaries. Missionaries and their families are asked to contribute to this fund, and in the United States the missionary's congregation of origin is ultimately responsible to satisfy the monthly obligation to the general fund. Members volunteer general custodial work for local church facilities.
Latter-day Saint sacraments are called ordinances, and there are two types: saving ordinances and non-saving ordinances. All ordinances, whether saving or nonsaving, must be performed by a man ordained to the appropriate priesthood office, with the exception of certain parts of the Endowment and the initiatory or washings and anointings, in which women can perform the ordinance without being ordained to an office.
Saving ordinances are those required for salvation, and include
baptism by immersion, with "sacrament", taken each Sunday, to keep in remembrance of the covenant made at baptism, the
laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy
Ghost (
The church teaches that to obtain the highest degree of salvation (referred to as "exaltation" in the celestial kingdom), all people who have lived to the age of eight must participate in each of the saving ordinances. However, the church teaches that they may be performed for a person either during their lifetime or by proxy after the person has died.[33] Therefore, church members participate in the saving ordinances on behalf of dead relatives and others whose names have been extracted from historical records. The performance of these proxy ordinances are one of the functions of the church's temples. There have been certain exceptions to the church's policy of performing proxy work for all persons who have died: prior to the 1978 revelation admitting blacks to temple ceremonies, the church did not perform proxy ordinances for black men and women who had died, and since 1995, the church has agreed to discontinue performing ordinances for dead victims of the Jewish Holocaust.[34]
All the saving ordinances are currently open to all worthy members of the appropriate age. Prior to 1978, black members were barred from all saving ordinances other than baptism and confirmation, but this policy was changed in 1978.[35] Celestial marriage is open to one man and one woman at a time, but a widower may enter a second celestial marriage, which is considered to result in a plural marriage in the afterlife.
Apart from sealings to parents, the church does not perform saving ordinances for those younger than age eight or for those who have died before the age of eight (when children reach the "age of accountability"), because young children are deemed "alive in Christ" and not responsible for sin.[36] Likewise, the church teaches that the saving ordinances are not required for persons age eight or older who are "mentally incapable of knowing right and wrong".[37] However, if such persons express a desire to receive the saving ordinances, they are generally not prohibited from doing so.[citation needed]
Non-saving ordinances include the dedication of graves, the dedication of buildings, the prayer circle, the Hosanna shout, shaking the dust from the feet, and various kinds of blessings, including the patriarchal blessing.
The plan of salvation, as taught by the church, describes humanity's place in the universe and the purpose of life. The church teaches that there was a pre-mortal existence, a place which existed prior to mortality in which all people and all life were created in spirit form.[38] God the Father is said to have proposed a plan to send spirits to earth to be proven and, if worthy, receive added "glory".[39] Satan, one of the spirits, proposed a rival plan whereby every soul would be saved, Satan would receive God's power, and human agency would be eliminated.[40] When God rejected that plan, the
