The semi-annual conference was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for 132 years, but in 2000, the church completed construction of the Conference Center and has held the conference there since April 2000. The Conference Center's primary feature is an auditorium that seats 21,000.
==Controversy==
===Relationship to Christianity===
====Position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints====
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider themselves Christians. They worship Jesus Christ as their Creator (see John 1:3), their Savior and Redeemer, and ultimately their eternal Judge. They believe that the events described in the New Testament in reality occurred, including Jesus Christ's virgin birth, his sinless life and miraculous ministry, and his suffering, death, and literal resurrection, through which forgiveness of sin, salvation (understood in LDS doctrine to indicate resurrection and immortality, a free gift to all; see 1 Corinthians 15:22), and ultimately exaltation (returning to and eternally dwelling in the presence of God and Jesus Christ and becoming "joint-heirs with Christ"; see Romans 8:17), are made possible.
The eleventh of the above-mentioned thirteen articles of faith contains the following statement:
<blockquote>“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." (see Articles of Faith 1:11)</blockquote>
====Positions of Various Christian Groups ====
There are significant differences between Mormonism and other Christian denominations. These differences have led to the desire on the part of some to actively speak against the LDS Church and its members. Doctrines of the church have been distorted or even fabricated to highlight these differences, and many misconceptions exist. Several Christian churches have released statements in opposition to the church and its doctrines.
The [[United Methodist Church]] has stated that the Mormon faith has "some radically differing doctrine on such matters of belief as the nature and being of [[God]]; the nature, origin, and purpose of [[Jesus Christ]]; and the nature and way of [[salvation]]."<ref>http://www.apologeticsindex.org/news/an200513.html#21</ref> The [[Lutheran Missouri Synod|Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]] goes further, stating that it, "together with the vast majority of Christian denominations in the United States, does not regard the Mormon church as a Christian church."<ref>http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2239</ref> However, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't have high regard for the theology of the Lutheran Church or most other protestant denominations either.
While the [[Southern Baptist Convention]] states that the Mormon religion is "not consistent with biblical Christianity."<ref>http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/southern_baptist_convention_wa.php</ref> Beliefnet.com details a number of differences between the Mormon faith and traditional Christianity.<ref>http://www.beliefnet.com/features/mormonism.html</ref>
Mormons differ from other Christian denominations on a number of key issues:
* They believe that God and Jesus Christ are separate and distinct yet glorified beings.
* They do not believe in the concept of "original sin" but instead that all people will be held accountable only for their ''own'' sins and transgressions.
* They believe that works (e.g. faith in Christ, repentance, baptism by water, receipt of the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and living a Christlike life) are required to ''qualify'' oneself for salvation but that salvation is only ultimately attained through the grace of God and the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (as opposed to the belief in salvation through works, i.e. somehow acquiring ones own salvation independent of God or Jesus Christ, a belief ''not'' held by the LDS church).
* They believe that God was once a mortal man and that all individuals who have ever lived or who will yet live, including [[Jesus]] and [[Lucifer]], are the spirit children of God the Father.
* They believe that all people have the ultimate potential, through the grace of God, of not only returning to His presence (salvation) but becoming like Him (exaltation; see Romans 8:16-17).
* They believe that Joseph Smith was visited by God and Jesus Christ when he was 15 years old and was chosen to be the prophet through whom Christ's church was restored to the earth.
* They believe that after His resurrection, Jesus Christ visited and ministered to believers who lived in the western hemisphere, and that the spiritual records of these people were collected and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon into a single work subsequently completed by his son Moroni and ultimately buried in a hill in upstate New York circa 421 A.D.
* They believe that the angel Moroni, in his resurrected state, appeared to Joseph Smith when he was 17 years old and told him of this record which Joseph eventually retrieved, translated through the power of God, and published as ''The Book of Mormon'', later retitled, ''The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ''.
* They believe that God has continued to call prophets and apostles in the present day just as he did in Biblical times, starting with Joseph Smith, and that these men lead the restored church by revelation from Jesus Christ rather than through the sole reliance on human understanding.
* They believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (see Doctrine and Covenants 1:30).
===Views on Same-Gender Attraction===
In October 2007, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wrote an article in the Ensign magazine entitled "Helping Those Who Struggle with Same-Gender Attraction". <ref>[http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=e5cbba12dc825110VgnVCM100000176f620a____ Helping Those Who Struggle with Same-Gender Attraction]</ref> In 2007, the Church published a pamphlet "God Loveth His Children", for those suffering from same-gender attraction. <ref>http://www.lds.org/topics/pdf/GodLovethHisChildren_04824_000.pdf God Loveth His Children</ref>
On June 7, 2006, ABC’s Nightline ran a story on members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who struggle with same-gender attraction. The Church published a response to the inaccuracies in the Nightline story. <ref>[http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d4ec39628b88f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD&vgnextchannel=f5f411154963d010VgnVCM1000004e94610aRCRD Church Responds to Nightline Story on Mormons and Homosexuality]</ref>
The Church has a section on same-gender attraction on the Newsroom website. <ref>[http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=27f71f1dd189f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD&vgnextchannel=726511154963d010VgnVCM1000004e94610aRCRD&vgnextfmt=tab1 Same-Gender Attraction]</ref>
===Polygamy===
Early ill will towards Mormons was sparked in part by its early practice of [[polygamy]], which was sanctioned from 1840 until 1890. Even though it was officially discontinued in 1890, Mormonism and polygamy continue to be associated in the minds of the uninformed.
A 1998 statement by current LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley states:
:This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. . . . 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.<ref>[http://www.mormon.org/question/faq/category/answer/0,9777,1601-1-114-1,00.html What is the Church’s position on polygamy?] LDS website</ref>
However, in addition to "the" Church (the 12.5-million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), there continue to be small splinter groups, which also consider themselves to be Mormons and do practice polygamy. The most notable is the "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (often called "Fundamentalist Mormons.") This group numbers about ten thousand. It broke from the Mormon church in 1890 over the issue of polygamy. It made headlines in 2006 and 2007, when leader Warren Jeffs was arrested by the FBI and indicted by a grand jury on charges of arranging illegal "marriages" between male followers and underage girls.
==References==
*[http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3282.html Are Mormons Conservative?]
====Links to Groups Not in Favor of the Mormon Church====
*[http://jesusnotjoseph.com JesusNotJoseph]
*[http://www.mrm.org Mormonism Research Ministry]
*[http://www.evangelicalbible.com/jw.htm#LDS The Mormon Church & the Nature of God]
[[Category:Christian Denominations]]
[[Category:LDS Church]]