Mormonism

Mormonism is the religious belief system of the Latter-Day Saint movement that Joseph Smith founded in upstate New York in 1830. Mormonism is a Restorationist Christian organization. Restorationism is the belief that Christianity has diverged from the original teachings of Jesus and requires a total restoration to the ancient version of the religion rather than incremental reforms of existing Christian churches.

Smith claimed he had been visited by heavenly figures in his dreams since the early 1820s. These included God, Jesus, and an angel named Moroni. Smith asserted that Moroni told him to retrieve golden plates on which Israelites-turned-Christians of ancient North America had recorded the word of God. Smith translated these plates into what became the Book of Mormon, the sacred text of the Latter-Day Saint movement. He officially founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), then known as the Church of Christ, in 1830. The entire religious tradition of this church is known collectively as Mormonism, based on the church's belief in the ancient prophet Mormon. Smith eventually brought Mormonism to the American Midwest, while Brigham Young, his successor as president of the LDS Church, settled the religious community in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In the twenty-first century, Mormonism encompasses the LDS Church, the Community of Christ, and various smaller Mormon organizations. The LDS Church is the largest of these, claiming about fifteen million members worldwide. The church features a hierarchical organization, with a male-only presidency and bishop's office and various male and female assemblies and societies. Only male members of the church can become priests, while anyone older than a specified age may become missionaries for the church. The LDS Church is headquartered at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, which features structures such as the Salt Lake Temple, the largest Mormon temple in the world, and the Church Office Building, the church's administrative center.

Background

Joseph Smith founded the religious movement of Mormonism in the late 1820s and early 1830s in upstate New York. He was born in Vermont on December 23, 1805, and grew up mostly on farms in the northeastern United States. He was never formally educated but eventually achieved basic literacy. Smith was highly influenced by the Second Great Awakening that was occurring throughout the United States in the early 1800s. This was a Protestant religious revival in which large numbers of people reconnected to their faith or joined a church for the first time.

In 1820, the teenaged Smith traveled alone to a forest near his Manchester, New York, home to pray to God for guidance on which church to join. Smith later claimed that both God and God's son, Jesus Christ, visited him while he was praying and instructed him not to join any church at all. Smith said the angel Moroni visited him in 1823. Moroni told Smith of an ancient civilization of American Christians who had left behind a text of the revealed word of God. These Christians were the descendants of Israelite tribes who had settled in North America about 600 B.C.E. Moroni went on to say that Jesus visited and preached to these tribes after he was crucified and resurrected in the first century C.E. In the late fourth century, a Christian prophet named Mormon began writing a history of his people in America on a set of golden plates. He gave the plates to his son Moroni before he died. Moroni finished writing the plates and then buried them. He died in 421. Smith said Mormon's son Moroni visited him as an angel.

Smith said Moroni told him the plates were buried only a few miles from his family's farm, but Smith was not yet permitted to retrieve them. He was instructed to return to Moroni once each September for the next four years to hear the word of God. In September 1827, Smith dug up the plates and took them home, but he was forbidden from letting anyone else see them. He asserted later that God's power had allowed him to translate the words and dictate them to his wife, Emma, and others, who recorded them in English. The English text became known as the Book of Mormon, published in 1830.

On April 6, 1830, Smith and a group of about fifty followers founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in a farmhouse in Fayette, New York. The organization was originally known as the Church of Christ. At the meeting, Smith and his close follower and companion, Oliver Cowdery, were ordained as elders of the LDS Church. Smith became its first president and was regarded as a prophet. The church's members would be known informally as Mormons, based on the name of the prophet Mormon.

Mormon missionaries began traveling west later in 1830, seeking to spread the teachings of the Book of Mormon to the Native Americans of Ohio and Missouri. Smith said he had a vision instructing him to move his Mormon community to Kirtland, Ohio. He and his wife arrived there in early 1831, and Smith soon established a headquarters. He remained in Kirtland into the late 1830s, informing his followers of his revelations of how the LDS Church should be organized. Throughout this time, Smith's followers had spread into Illinois and Missouri, building up new cities that included large Mormon temples.

By the late 1830s, the LDS Church had generated harsh criticism from those who opposed its teachings and practices. Of particular concern to them was polygyny, in which Mormon men married numerous wives. Conflict between Mormons and their critics quickly escalated. In 1838, a mob inflamed with anti-Mormon sentiment murdered seventeen Mormons in Missouri. With anger against the LDS Church at a tipping point, Smith was arrested for treason and sentenced to death. His executioner refused to kill him, however, and Smith ultimately spent several months in prison instead.

In 1843, Smith announced two new revelations: that Mormons could baptize the dead and that polygyny was allowed and encouraged among Mormons. Brigham Young, a Mormon since the early 1830s, was initially outraged by the idea. He later changed his attitude and had scores of children with more than fifty wives.

Smith announced in 1844 that he would seek the presidency of the United States. These plans were interrupted when he was arrested for directing his followers to attack a newspaper that had criticized him. Smith and his brother Hyrum were imprisoned for the act in Carthage, Illinois. On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the prison and shot Smith and his brother in their shared cell. Smith was thirty-eight years old.

Thousands of Mormons then scattered to various Midwestern states. Young replaced Smith as president of the LDS Church in 1847. That year, Young led his own party of Mormons to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he announced the church would permanently settle. Tens of thousands of Mormons arrived in the expanding city over the next few decades. The LDS Church banned any form of polygamy, marriages involving multiple wives or husbands, in 1890. Church membership continued to grow over the ensuing decades until the organization acquired its millionth member in the 1950s. The LDS Church claimed it had more than fifteen million members and tens of thousands of missionaries around the world in the 2010s.

Overview

Mormons consider their faith a sect of Christianity, as many of the central beliefs of Mormonism derive directly from that religion. The Articles of Faith, a document written by Smith, describes the most fundamental doctrines of Mormonism. The creed asserts that Mormons believe in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Humans can be saved only through the death and resurrection of Jesus and obedience to the laws of the Gospels. These laws require the faithful to believe in Jesus, repent of their sins, be baptized in water, and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Articles of Faith also assert that Jesus will one day return to Earth to establish Zion, his promised land, in North America. This claim can also be found in the revelations of Smith and in the Book of Mormon.

Mormons believe their faith and their churches possess the only true authority to teach about God and Jesus because Mormonism restores the Christian Church to its true apostolic-era state. This was the period during the first century C.E. when Jesus's twelve apostles, or disciples, spread the teachings of Christianity all over the world. Mormons believe Christianity became corrupted at the end of this period. Mormonism, with its brand of Restorationist Christianity, believes itself to be the only true teacher of the Christian faith.

Mormonism has formed many of its own religious views, but these are still influenced by more mainstream Christian doctrines. For instance, Mormons believe in a certain plan of salvation for all people. In Mormonism, every individual exists before, during, and after his or her time on Earth. In the pre-mortal world, people live with God as spirits, learning the skills and abilities that will help them exist as mortals. Once born into a mortal body on Earth, individuals must choose between good and evil for their entire lives. People's spirits travel to the spirit world after death. God then judges their earthly actions. The people who followed God's word will live forever in God's kingdom. Those who did not will live far from God's light.

The religious tradition of Mormonism is practiced perhaps most famously by the LDS Church, which is informally known as the Mormon Church. The church is structured as a hierarchy. The general authorities are the primary leaders of the church. Several groups are contained within the authorities. These positions can be held only by males. The first presidency is composed of the president of the church and two counselors. Each president is considered a prophet and serves in the position for life. Below the presidency are several assemblies of high-ranking church leaders, including the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the First Quorum of the Seventy, the Second Quorum of the Seventy, and the presiding bishopric, which consists of a bishop and two counselors. The LDS Church also features various other groups and societies composed of women and children. These are known as the general auxiliaries. They include the Primary, the Relief Society, and Sunday School.

Individuals enter the LDS Church through baptism. Children are baptized at age eight, while adult converts to Mormonism may be baptized at any age. Only Mormon men may become priests in the LDS Church. Young men from ages twelve to seventeen may become Aaronic priests, while men aged eighteen or older can become Melchizedek priests. Mormon men and women can become missionaries to spread their church's teachings around the world. Single men serve for two years, while single women serve for a year and a half. Mormonism forbids its followers from smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, coffee, and tea. Mormons in the LDS Church are expected to tithe, or give as a tax, 10 percent of their annual income to the church.

The LDS Church is based at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. This ten-acre property of the church features the Church Office Building, the Salt Lake Temple, and various other congregation centers and buildings. Mormons in the LDS Church consider all temples to be sacred spaces where God himself resides. As such, non-Mormons are not permitted to enter the temples to witness the ceremonies performed inside. Some of these ceremonies are family-oriented rituals, since the family is an important unit in Mormonism. The temples are used for marriages, family sealing, and baptism of the dead. Family sealing involves symbolically sealing a husband, wife, and children together for eternity. Baptizing the dead allows living Mormons to represent family members or others who have died who did not have the chance to convert to Mormonism. The representatives are baptized in place of these individuals so the spirits of the deceased may join their baptized family members in God's kingdom.

In 2024, the LDS Church reported that it had more than 17.2 million members worldwide in 2023. More than half of these live outside the United States. The Community of Christ denomination of Mormonism has roughly 250,000 members. Several American Mormons have reached prominent positions in public life in the United States. These include US senator from Utah Harry Reid, who served as Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who was the Republican Party nominee for president in 2012.

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