The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(abbreviated as the
LDS Church, commonly referred
to as the
Mormon Church) is a
restorationist Christian church, and the largest
denomination originating from the
Latter Day Saint movement
founded by
Joseph Smith, Jr. circa
1830.
The
church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah
, and has established congregations (called wards or branches)
worldwide.
Adherents are usually referred to as
Mormons,
Latter-day Saints, or
LDS.
They view faith in
Jesus Christ as the
central tenet of their religion. Latter-day Saints are often
considered by other faiths to be a non-traditional member of
Christianity despite their belief in
Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world. LDS Church
theology includes the Christian doctrine of salvation only through
Jesus Christ. The church has an
open
canon which includes four
scriptural
texts: the
Bible (both
Old and
New
Testaments), the
Book of Mormon,
the
Doctrine and
Covenants, and the
Pearl of Great
Price. Other than the Bible, the majority of the LDS canon
constitutes revelation dictated by Joseph Smith and includes
commentary and
exegesis about the Bible,
texts described as lost parts of the Bible, and other works
believed to be written by ancient
prophets.
Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus leads the church by
revealing his will to the
President of the Church,
whom they sustain as a modern-day
prophet, seer, and revelator.
Individual members are expected to receive personal revelation from
God for specifics in conducting their lives. The President heads a
hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local
congregations. Male
bishop, drawn from the
laity, lead local congregations. Worthy male members,
after age 12, may be ordained to the
priesthood. Women do not hold
positions within the priesthood but serve in an array of other
leadership roles. Both men and women may serve as
missionaries, and the church
maintains a large missionary program which
proselytizes and conducts humanitarian service
worldwide. Faithful members adhere to laws regarding
sexual purity,
health,
fasting,
and
Sabbath-day
observance. Members also voluntarily
tithe, donating 10 percent of their income to the
church.
History
The
history of the LDS Church is typically divided into three broad
time periods: (1) the early history during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, Jr. which is in common with
all Latter Day Saint movement churches, (2) a "pioneer era" under
the leadership of Brigham Young and
his 19th century successors, and (3) a modern era beginning around
the turn of the 20th century as Utah
achieved
statehood.
Beginnings
After being
visited by
God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820,
Smith began sharing his experience, and others began to follow him.
He began dictating the Book of Mormon, which was a translation of
words found on a set of
golden plates
that had been buried near his home in western New York by an
indigenous
American prophet. Smith was in contact with an
angel, who showed him the plates' location.
On April 6, 1830, in western New York, Smith organized the
religion's first legal church entity, the
Church of Christ. The
church rapidly gained a following, who viewed Smith as a prophet.
In the
1830s, missionaries from the church converted thousands of new
members and established outposts in Kirtland, Ohio
. Smith said in 1831 that God intended the
Mormons to "retain a strong hold in the land of Kirtland, for the
space of five years."
As persecutions increased and after Smith had
received death threats, by fall 1838 Smith and most other Ohio
Mormons had left Kirtland for the Mormon strong hold in Missouri
.
There, Smith intended to build a
"city of Zion". Joseph Smith and
his followers were plagued by persecution in both Missouri and
Illnois. Finally Joseph Smith and some few others went to prison to
answer charges brought against them. While in prison, Joseph Smith
and his brother Hyrum Smith (second in line to the church
presidency),
were
assassinated on June 27, 1844, by an angry mob.
After Smith's death, a
succession
crisis ensued, and the majority of the members of the church
followed Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to
whom Smith had given the keys of the priesthood. Young had been a
close associate of Smith's and was senior
apostle of the
Quorum of the Twelve. Other groups of
Latter Day Saints followed other leaders to form other
denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Pioneer era
In 1846,
after the difficulties experienced in Missouri (culminating in an
extermination order issued
against the Mormons) and with continued persecution in Illinois
, Young led
his followers, the Mormon pioneers,
in the largest forced migration in American history from Nauvoo
and the
United States to what would later become known, in 1850, as the
Utah Territory in search of religious
freedom.
The group branched out and colonized a large region now known as
the
Mormon Corridor. Young
incorporated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a
legal entity, and initially governed both the church and the state
as a
theocratic leader. He also publicized
the previously-secret practice of
plural
marriage, a form of
polygamy.
By 1857, tensions had again escalated between Mormons and other
Americans, largely as a result of accusations involving polygamy
and the theocratic rule of the Utah territory by Brigham Young. The
Utah Mormon War ensued from 1857 to 1858,
which resulted in the relatively peaceful invasion of Utah by the
United States Army, after which
Young agreed to step down from power and be replaced by a
non-Mormon territorial governor,
Alfred
Cumming. Nevertheless, the LDS Church still wielded significant
political power in the Utah Territory.
At Young's death in 1877, he was followed by other powerful
LDS Presidents, who resisted
efforts by the
United States
Congress to outlaw Mormon polygamous marriages. Conflict
between Mormons and the
U.S. government
escalated to the point that in 1890, Congress disincorporated the
LDS Church and seized all its assets. Soon thereafter, church
president
Wilford Woodruff issued a
Manifesto that officially suspended
the practice. Although this Manifesto did not yet dissolve existing
plural marriages, and did not entirely stop the practice of
polygamy, relations with the United States markedly improved after
1890, such that Utah was admitted as a
U.S.
state. Relations further improved after 1904, when church
president
Joseph F. Smith disavowed polygamy before the
United States Congress and issued a
"
Second Manifesto" calling for all
plural marriages in the church to cease. Eventually, the church
adopted a policy of
excommunicating
its members found practicing polygamy and today seeks to actively
distance itself from “
fundamentalist” groups still
practicing polygamy.In 1998 President Gordon B. Hinckley stated,
“If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage,
they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can
impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the
civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, "What Are People Asking About Us?"
Ensign, November 1998, 70
Modern times
During the 20th century, the church grew substantially and became
an international organization, due in part to the influx of
missionaries across the globe. In 2000, the church reported 60,784
missionaries, and global church membership stood at 11,068,861. As
of 2007, membership had reached 13,193,999.
The church
became a strong and public champion of the nuclear family and at times played a
prominent role in political matters, including opposition to
MX Peacekeeper missile bases in
Utah and Nevada
, opposing
the Equal Rights Amendment,
opposing legalized gambling, support of
bans on same-sex marriage, and
opposition to legalized physician-assisted
death. Apart from issues that it considers to be ones of
morality, however, the church usually maintains a position of
political neutrality.
A number of official changes have taken place to the organization
during the modern era. One significant change was the
ordination
of black men to the priesthood in 1978, which reversed a policy
originally instituted by Brigham Young. There are also periodic
changes in the structure and organization of the church, mainly to
accommodate the organization's growth and increasing international
presence. For example, since the early 1900s, the church has
instituted a
Priesthood
Correlation Program to centralize church operations and bring
them under a hierarchy of priesthood leaders. During the
Great Depression, the church also began
operating a church welfare system, and it has conducted numerous
humanitarian efforts in cooperation with other religious
organizations.
Teachings and practices
Sources of authority
The theology of the LDS Church consists of a mixture of biblical
doctrines with modern revelations and other commentary by LDS
leaders, particularly Joseph Smith, Jr. The most authoritative
sources of theology are the faith's canon of four religious texts,
called the
Standard Works.
Included in the
Standard Works are the
Bible, the
Book of
Mormon, the
Doctrine and
Covenants, and the
Pearl of Great
Price. Among these books, the church holds in equal esteem
as the other standard works the Book of Mormon, said by the church
to be "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" that Joseph Smith
translated from buried golden plates. The church characterizes the
Book of Mormon as "the most correct of any book on earth and the
keystone of [their] religion".
The Bible, also part of the church's canon, is believed to be "the
word of God as far as it is translated correctly". Most often, the
church uses the
Authorized King James
Version. Sometimes, however, parts of the
Joseph Smith Translation
of the Bible are considered authoritative. Some excerpts
of Joseph Smith's translation have been included in the
Pearl
of Great Price, which also includes further reputed
translations by Smith and church historical items. Other historical
items and reputed revelations are found in the
Doctrine and
Covenants.
Another source of authoritative doctrine is the pronouncements of
the current Apostles and members of the
First Presidency. The church
teaches that the First Presidency (the prophet and his counselors)
and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles are prophets and that their
teachings are generally given under inspiration from God through
the
Holy Spirit. Members of the church
acknowledge (sustain) them regularly as prophets, seers, and
revelators—this is done publicly twice a year at the church's
worldwide general conference broadcast.
Comparisons within Christianity
In addition to a belief in the Bible, the divinity of Jesus, and
his
atonement and
resurrection, other LDS
teachings are shared with other branches of Christianity. For
example, LDS theology includes belief in the doctrine of salvation
through Jesus alone, his
virgin
birth,
restorationism (via a
Restoration of Christ's
church given through Joseph Smith, Jr.), rejection of
original sin,
millennialism,
continuationism,
penal substitution, and a form of
Apostolic succession. The
practices of
baptism by immersion
and the
Eucharist (referred to as
the
Sacrament) are
also held in common.
Nevertheless, the LDS Church differs from the many other churches
within Christianity, and some Christians do not believe that the
LDS Church is part of Christianity. The faith itself views other
modern Christian faiths as having departed from true Christianity
and that it is a restoration of 1st century Christianity and the
only true and authorized Christian church. Differences between the
LDS Church and most of traditional Christianity include
disagreement with aspects of the
Nicene
Creed, belief in a unique
theory
of human salvation that includes three heavens (referred to as
"
degrees of glory"), a doctrine of
"
exaltation" which
includes the ability of humans to become gods and godesses in the
afterlife, a dietary code called the
Word of Wisdom, and unique
sacramental ceremonies performed privately in
LDS temples, such as the
Endowment and
sealing ceremonies.
Officially, major Christian denominations view the LDS Church as
standing apart from
creedal Christianity, a
point the LDS Church itself does not dispute. From the perspective
of Christians who hold to creeds, the most significant area of
departure is the rejection by the LDS Church of certain ecumenical
creeds such as the Nicene Creed, which defines the predominant view
of the Christian God as a
Trinity of three
separate persons with "
one substance".
LDS church theology includes the belief in a "
Godhead" composed of God the
Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost as three separate
persons who share unity of purpose or will; however, they are
viewed as three distinct beings making one Godhead. This has led to
some doctrinal comparisons with
Arianism
and
Semi-Arianism. Other significant
differences relate to the church's acceptance of additional
scripture, doctrine, and practices beyond what is found in the
Catholic or
Protestant versions of the Bible.
Distinctive doctrines and practices
Several doctrines and practices of the LDS Church are unique within
Christianity. For example, the
Mormon
cosmology, a
Plan of Salvation
that includes a
pre-mortal life,
three heavens, and the doctrine of
exaltation are
distinctive among Christian sects. In particular, the LDS Church
teaches that every human spirit is a literal spirit child of God.
Moreover, the church teaches that humans may achieve
exaltation, which means that they may become gods and
goddesses as "joint heirs" with Jesus. They believe that exaltation
includes the reuniting of the mortal family after the
resurrection and the ability to have spirit
children in the afterlife. To obtain this state of godhood, the
church teaches that one must have
faith in
Jesus, participate in a sequence of ceremonial
covenants (called
ordinances), The LDS
sealing ceremony reflects a singular LDS view with respect to
families. According to LDS church theology, men and women may be
sealed to each other so that their marital bond continues
in the afterlife. Children may also be sealed to their biological
or adoptive parents to form permanent parent-child bonds. The most
significant LDS ordinances may be performed via proxy for and in
behalf of those who have died. (See, e.g.,
baptism for the dead). The LDS Church
teaches that all will have the opportunity to hear and accept or
reject LDS theology and the benefit of its sacraments, in this life
or the next.
The LDS faithful observe a health code called the Word of Wisdom in
which they abstain from the consumption of
alcoholic beverages,
coffee,
tea, and
tobacco. Their moral code includes a
law of chastity that prohibits sexual
relations outside of heterosexual marriage. LDS faithful donate a
10 percent tithe on all their income. They also perform volunteer
service in their local church. Moreover, all single young men
between 19–25 years old who have sufficient health and many retired
couples are encouraged to volunteer up to two years as a missionary
to proselytize and/or provide humanitarian service. Unmarried women
21 years and older also may serve as missionaries for 18 months,
but it is not considered their duty to do so as it is with the men
who are ordained elders. Members are further instructed to set
aside one night a week, typically Monday, for a
Family Home Evening, where families
study gospel principles together and enjoy wholesome family
recreation.
Comparison with other Latter Day Saint movement faiths
Church missionaries typically commit
to 18-24 months of full-time service
The LDS Church shares a common heritage with a number of faiths,
with smaller memberships, that are collectively called the Latter
Day Saint movement. In common with the LDS Church, these faiths
believe in Joseph Smith, Jr. as a prophet and founder of their
religion. They also accept the Book of Mormon, and at least some
version of the
Doctrine and Covenants.
Other branches of the Latter Day Saint movement may be considered
off-shoots of the LDS Church, mainly as a result of disagreements
about plural marriage. In the LDS Church, the practice of plural
marriage was abandoned around the turn of the 20th century, but it
has continued among the fundamentalist groups, who believe the
practice is a requirement for exaltation. The LDS Church, by
contrast, believes that a single celestial marriage is sufficient
for exaltation. Fundamentalists also believe in a number of other
doctrines taught and practiced by Brigham Young in the 19th
century, which the LDS Church has either abandoned, repudiated, or
put in abeyance.
Stung by bad publicity in the 19th century over its former practice
of plural marriage, the LDS Church has taken efforts to distance
itself from polygamy and from Mormon fundamentalist groups. The
church has long excommunicated any members caught practicing
polygamy.
Church organization and structure
Name and legal entities
The church teaches that it is a continuation of the Church of
Christ established in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. This original
church underwent several name changes during the 1830s, being
called the
Church of Jesus Christ, the
Church of
God, and then in 1834, the name was officially changed to the
Church of the Latter Day Saints. In April 1838, the name
again was officially changed by reputed revelation to
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After Smith died,
Brigham Young and the largest body of Smith's followers
incorporated the LDS Church in 1851 by legislation of the
State of Deseret under the name
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which included a
hyphenated "Latter-day" and a lower-case "d". In 1887, the LDS
Church was legally dissolved in the United States by the
Edmunds–Tucker Act because of the
church's practice (now abandoned) of polygamy. Thereafter, the
church has continued to operate as an "unincorporated religious
association" under what remains its formal name, The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Accepted informal names include
the
LDS Church, the
Latter-day Saints, and the
Mormons. The term
Mormon Church is in common use,
but the church began discouraging its use in the late 20th century,
though takes no issue with the term
Mormon itself. The
church requests that the official name be used when possible or, if
necessary, shortened to "the Church" or "the Church of Jesus
Christ".
The church has organized several tax-exempt corporations to assist
with the transfer of money and capital. These include the
Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized in 1916 under the laws
of the state of Utah to acquire, hold, and dispose of
real property. In 1923, the church
incorporated the
Corporation of the President of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah to receive and
manage money and church donations. In 1997, the church incorporated
Intellectual Reserve,
Inc. to hold all the church's
copyrights,
trademarks,
and other
intellectual
property. The church also holds several non-tax-exempt
corporations. See
Finances
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Geographic distribution and membership
Church congregations are organized geographically. Members are
generally expected to attend the congregation with their assigned
geographical area; however, some geographical areas also provide
separate congregations for single adults or for speakers of
alternate languages. For Sunday services, the church is grouped
into either larger (~200 to ~400 people) congregations known as
wards, or smaller congregations
known as branches. Although the building may sometimes be referred
to as a
chapel, the room used as a chapel for
religious services is actually only one component of the standard
meetinghouse, of which the church
maintains
a virtual tour of a typical example and also an
online meetinghouse
locator which can be used to find the locations and meeting
times of its congregations all over the world. Regional church
organizations larger than single congregations include
stakes,
missions,
districts,
areas, and regions.
2007 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Survey
|
Mormons (U.S.) |
U.S. Avg. |
| Married |
71% |
54% |
| Divorced or separated |
9% |
12% |
| 3 or more children at home |
21% |
9% |
| Weekly (or more) Attendance at Religious Services |
76% |
39% |
The church reports a worldwide membership of over 13 million with
approximately 6.7 million residing outside the United States.
According to these statistics it is the fourth largest religious
body in the United States. The church membership report includes
all baptized members and their children. Although the church does
not release attendance figures to the public, researchers estimate
that actual attendance at weekly LDS worship services globally is
around 4 million. Members living in the U.S. and Canada constitute
46% of membership,
Latin America 38%,
and members in the rest of the world 16%.
A survey by the
City College of
New York
in 2001 extrapolated that there were 2,787,000
self-identified LDS adults in the United States in 2001, 1.3% of
the US population, making the LDS Church the 10th-largest religious
body in their phone survey of over 50,000 households. The
2007
Pew Forum on Religion &
Public Life survey, conducted by Princeton Survey Research
Associates International, found 1.7% of the U.S. adult population
self identified themselves as Mormon.
For a list of notable Latter-day Saints, see
List of Latter Day Saints.
Priesthood hierarchy
The LDS Church is organized in a hierarchical priesthood structure
administered by men. Mormons believe that Jesus leads the church
through revelation and has chosen a single man, called "the
Prophet" or
President of the
Church, as his spokesman on the earth. The current president is
Thomas S. Monson. He and two counselors (who usually
are ordained
apostles)
form the
First Presidency, the
presiding body of the church; twelve other apostles form the
Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. When a president dies, his successor is invariably
the most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who
then reconstitutes a new First Presidency. These men, and the other
male members of the church-wide leadership (including the first two
Quorums of Seventy and the
Presiding Bishopric) are called
general authorities. They exercise
both
ecclesiastical and
administrative leadership over the church and direct the efforts of
regional leaders down to the local level. General authorities and
mission presidents work full-time
and typically receive stipends from church funds or
investments.
At the local level, the church leadership are drawn from the laity
and work on a part-time volunteer basis without stipend. Like all
members, they are asked to donate a tithe of 10 percent of their
income to the church. An exception to that rule is for LDS
missionaries who work at the local level and are paid basic living
expenses from a fund that receives contributions from their home
congregations; however, prospective missionaries are encouraged to
contribute the cost of their missions to this fund themselves when
possible. Members volunteer general custodial work for local church
facilities.
Men in leadership roles are generally considered to be part of the
priesthood and are
ordained to the priesthood as early as age 12. Ordination occurs by
a ceremony where
hands are laid
on the head of the one ordained.
The priesthood is divided into an
Aaronic Priesthood for young men 12 and up and a
Melchizedek
Priesthood for men 18 and up. Since 1978, membership in the
priesthood has been open to all races.
Church programs and auxiliary organizations
Under the leadership of the priesthood hierarchy are five auxiliary
organizations that fill various roles in the church:
Relief Society (a women's organization), the
Young Men Organization and
Young Women Organization
(for adolescents aged 12 to 17),
Primary (an organization for children
up to age 12), and
Sunday
School (which provides a variety of Sunday classes for
adolescents and adults). The church also operates several programs
and organizations in the fields of proselytizing, education, and
church welfare. Many of these auxiliaries and programs are
coordinated by the
Priesthood Correlation
Program, which is designed to provide a systematic approach to
maintain worldwide consistency, orthodoxy, and control of the
church's ordinances, doctrines, organizations, meetings, materials,
and other programs and activities.
The LDS Church operates a large
missionary program. Some members of
the church are encouraged to serve as missionaries either
full-time, part-time or as "service missionaries" in one of
hundreds of
missions throughout
the world. All missionaries serve on a volunteer basis, and their
expenses are paid by savings of the missionaries themselves, their
families, their local congregations, and in some cases from a
general church fund. Missionaries include young single men between
19 and 25 (who serve two year missions), single women over the age
of 21 (who serve 18-month missions), and mature couples who are
generally
retired (who serve terms ranging
from three to 36 months). Young single men are strongly encouraged
and expected to serve a mission; women and couples are encouraged
but not expected to serve missions. Missionaries generally have no
input on what part of the world they serve their missions, and if
necessary, the church will teach them a new language. Missionaries
are held to high standards of personal worthiness, which is
determined by interviews by ecclesiastical leaders about how well
the missionary has followed church standards such as the
Word of Wisdom (not consuming alcohol,
caffeine, tobacco, coffee, or tea) and the
law of chastity (abstaining from pre- or
extra-marital sex).
The church
operates a Church Educational
System which includes Brigham Young University
, Brigham Young University–Idaho
(formerly Ricks College), Brigham Young
University Hawaii
, and LDS Business
College. The church also operates
Institutes of Religion and an
LDS Student Association near the
campuses of many colleges and universities. For high-school aged
youth, the church operates a four-year
Seminary program, which provides religious
classes for students to supplement their secular education. The
church also sponsors a low-interest educational loan program known
as the
Perpetual Education
Fund, which provides educational opportunities to students from
developing nations.
The church's welfare system, initiated during the
Great Depression, provides aid to the poor.
It is financed by
fast offerings:
monthly donations beyond the normal 10 percent tithe, which
represents the cost of foregoing two meals on monthly
Fast Sundays. Money from the program is
used to operate
Bishop's
storehouses, which package and store food at low cost.
Distribution of funds and food is administered by local
bishops (congregational
pastors). The church also distributes money through
its
LDS Philanthropies division
to disaster victims and
third-world countries.
Other
church programs and departments include LDS Family Services, which provides
assistance with adoption, marital and family counseling,
psychotherapy, and addiction counseling; the LDS
Church History Department, which collects church history and
records; and the Family History Department, which administers the
church's large family history efforts
and operates the world's largest library
dedicated to genealogical
research. The church is also a major sponsor of
Scouting programs for boys, particularly in the
United States, where it the provides more
members of the
Boy Scouts of America than any other
church.
Finances
The church has not released church-wide financial statements since
1959, but in 1997,
Time
magazine called it one of the world's wealthiest churches
per capita. Its for-profit, non-profit, and
educational subsidiary entities are audited by an independent
accounting firm: ,
Deloitte &
Touche. In addition, the church employs an independent
audit department that provides its certification at
each annual
general conference
that church contributions are collected and spent in accordance
with church policy.
The church receives almost all funds from
tithes (ten percent of a member's income) and
fast offerings (money given to the church to
assist individuals in need). According to the church, tithing and
fast offering moneys collected are devoted to ecclesiastical
purposes and not used in for-profit ventures. About ten percent of
its funding also comes from income on investments and real estate
holdings.
The church uses its tithing funds to construct and maintain
buildings and other facilities; to print the Scriptures for
missionary work; to provide social welfare and relief; and to
support missionary, educational, and other church-sponsored
programs.
The
church has also invested in for-profit business and real estate
ventures such as Bonneville
International, Deseret Book
Company, and cattle ranches in Utah, Florida
, and Canada. However, these ranches are
split between Church Welfare Work (Bishop's Storehouse and Welfare
Square) for which funds are used from tithing and are not for
profit. For-profit ranching operations are partially self-sustained
but never use tithed money.
Culture
Due to the differences in lifestyle promoted by church doctrine and
history, a distinct culture has grown up around members of the
church. It is primarily concentrated in the
Intermountain West, but as membership of
the church spreads around the world, many of its more distinctive
practices follow, such as adhering to the Word of Wisdom, a
revealed health law or code, similar to Leviticus chapter 11 in the
Bible, prohibiting the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, coffee and
tea, and other addictive substances. As a result of the Word of
Wisdom, the culture in areas of the world with a high concentration
of LDS tends to be reflected.
Meetings and outreach programs are held regularly and have become
part of Latter-day Saint culture.
Home and family
In 1995, the church presidency issued "
The Family: A
Proclamation to the World", which stresses the importance of
the family. The presidency proclaimed that "marriage between a man
and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to
the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children." The
document further explains that "gender is an essential
characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal
identity and purpose," that the father and mother have differing
but equal roles in raising children, and that successful marriages
and families, founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ, can last
eternally. This document is widely cited by LDS members as a
statement of principle.
Four times a year, the adult women (members of the church's
Relief Society) attend a Home, Family
and Personal Enrichment Meeting. The meeting may consist of a
service project, of attending a social event, or of various classes
being offered. Additional Enrichment activities are offered for
women with similar needs and interests.
After interviewing and polling thousands of youth across America,
evangelical statistician Christian Smith writes, "... in general
comparisons among major U.S. religious traditions using a variety
of sociological measures of religious vitality and salience... it
is Mormon teenagers who are sociologically faring the best."
Social events and gatherings
A typical meetinghouse of the
church
In addition to these regularly scheduled meetings, additional
meetings are frequently held at the meetinghouse. Auxiliary
officers may conduct leadership meetings or host training sessions
and classes. The ward or branch community may schedule social
activities at the meetinghouse, including dances, dinners, holiday
parties and musical presentations. The church's Young Men's and
Young Women's organizations (formerly known as the Mutual
Improvement Organization, or simply "Mutual") meet at the
meetinghouse once a week, where the youth participate in activities
and work on
Duty to God, Scouting,
or
Personal Progress. Other
popular activities are basketball, family history conferences,
youth and singles conferences, dances, and various personal
improvement classes. Church members may also reserve the building
at no cost for weddings, receptions, and funerals.
Media and arts
The culture has created substantial business opportunities for
independent LDS media. Such communities include
cinema,
fiction,
websites, and graphical art like photography and paintings. The
church owns a chain of bookstores called
Deseret Book, which provide a channel through
which publications are sold. Titles including
The Work and the Glory and
The Other Side of
Heaven have found acceptance both within and outside the
church;
BYU TV, the church-sponsored
television station, also airs on several networks. The church also
produces
six pageants annually depicting various events of the primitive
and modern-day church. Its
Easter pageant Jesus the
Christ has been identified as the "largest annual outdoor
Easter pageant in the world."
Controversy and criticism
The
church has been subject to criticism and even Anti-Mormonism since its early years in New
York and Pennsylvania
. In the late 1820s, criticism centered
around the claim by Joseph Smith, Jr. to have discovered a set of
golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was reputedly
translated. In the 1830s, the greatest criticism was for Smith's
handling of a
banking
failure in Kirtland, Ohio, and the LDS Church's political and
military power in Missouri, culminating in the
1838 Mormon War. In the 1840s, criticism
of the church centered on the church's
theocratic aspirations in Nauvoo, Illinois,
and the then-secret practice of plural marriage, criticism which
appeared in the
Nauvoo
Expositor and led to a series of events culminating in
Smith's assassination in 1844.
As the church began openly practicing plural marriage under Brigham
Young during the second half of the 19th century, the church became
the target of nation-wide criticism for that practice, as well as
for the church's theocratic aspirations in the Utah Territory.
After the
Civil War, the church also came
under nation-wide criticism after the
Mountain Meadows massacre in
southern Utah.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, academic critics have questioned
the legitimacy of Smith as a prophet and the historical
authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the
Book of Abraham. In modern times, criticism
focuses on claims of
historical
revisionism, homophobia, racism, and sexist policies. Notable
20th century critics include
Jerald and Sandra Tanner and
Fawn Brodie.
In recent years, the Internet has provided a new forum for critics,
and the church's recent support of California's
Proposition 8 sparked heated debate and protest by
gay-rights organizations and others. While the church remains
opposed to Gay marriage it has come out in support of certain
protections for members of the LGBT community.
Notes
References
- .
- (published only to certain clergy—not generally available to
church members or the public).
- .
External links
Official websites of the Church
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