The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or the Mormons, was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, who claimed to have received a revelation from the Angel Moroni. It migrated from New York to Illinois to Utah where they have many members there and worldwide. The Mormons perform enormous amounts of missionary activity. Today, there are about 11 million Mormons.
The Mormons, like other small denominations, have been the target of discrimination. Mormons are depicted as "bad guys" in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1890 novel, A Study in Scarlet, and Zane Grey's 1912 Riders of the Purple Sage.
In 1847, Mormons, led by Brigham Young, travelled west to escape persecution and founded Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake City is famous for its wide streets, which were made wide enough to allow a wagon team to turn around. Salt Lake City is home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which has been recording since 1910 and broadcasting since 1929. Its recordings usually feature hymns and patriotic music. The Choir has made five gold and two platinum recordings.
Church members follow a law of health known as the Word of Wisdom that promotes healthy eating as well as avoiding tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea and illegal drugs.[1]
Mormons' relationship to Christianity
Mormons are somewhat out of the mainstream of U. S. Christian denominations, because they accept the Book of Mormon as well as the New Testament. The Book of Mormon includes what Mormons regard as divine revelations made to Joseph Smith.
Nevertheless, modern Mormons consider themselves to be Christians.
The LDS website says "We believe in the Jesus of the New Testament, and we believe what the New Testament teaches about Him. We do believe things about Jesus that other Christians do not believe, but that is because we know, through revelation, things about Jesus that others do not know."[2]
Polygamy
Early prejudice against 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 popular mind.
A 1998 statement by LDS Present 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.[3]
However, in addition to "the" LDS Church (the 11-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
- ↑ The Word of Wisdom Mormon.org
- ↑ Is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a Christian church? As answered on the LDS Church's website
- ↑ What is the Church’s position on polygamy? LDS website
