State of Protest

This is the first of a series of Religions Unearthed, where resident author Laura will explore the development and impact of specific religions, denominations, and other belief systems worldwide. We will begin with Mormonism. Enjoy. -Procrustes

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, originally known as the Church of Christ, currently claims nearly 13 million members worldwide. Its adherents are usually referred to as Latter-day Saints, LDS, or Mormons.¹ It is widely believed that their reported membership is inflated through counting inactive members, those who have moved on to other churches, those who have had their names removed from the rolls, and even excommunicated members. In 1998 their President, Gordon B. Hinckley, who they consider to be a modern-day prophet, stated: “We are experiencing a combined growth of converts and a natural increase of some 400,000 a year. Every single year, that is the equivalent of 160 new stakes of 2,500 people each.” This statement has been widely quoted as evidence of the Church’s rapid growth, yet these numbers are incorrect. The Church has never in its history experienced an increase as high as 400,000 members in one year, nor have they ever formed as many as 160 stakes.²

The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, Jr., wrote that in 1820 at 14 years of age, he went into the woods to pray and had a vision of God, the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ (referred to as the First Vision in Mormonism). This is the derivation of the Mormon belief that God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three different beings and that the Father and Son have physical bodies. According to Smith, God told him during this vision that all of the existing sects of Christianity were “wrong” and “an abomination in his sight.”³

In 1823, Smith claims to have had another vision, this time of a resurrected prophet named Moroni, who led Joseph to a hill near his home where he unearthed a book inscribed on golden plates, a record of God’s dealings with the ancient Israelite inhabitants of the Americas. Mormons believe a Great Apostasy occurred soon after Jesus’ ascension and continued until the truth was restored through Smith’s revelations and his interpretation of these plates (the Book of Mormon). Mormons view the Council of Nicaea as an example of how pagan philosophy corrupted Christianity early on.⁴

After Smith was murdered by an angry mob in 1844, several groups split off, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Church came under the direction of Brigham Young, who introduced Smith’s teachings of plural marriage to the public. Most estimates put the number of Joseph Smith’s wives at about 33 at the time of his death, although this was kept highly secret at the time, even among all but a few Mormons.⁵ Although Smith’s first documented plural wife was married to him in 1831, he did not record the polygamy commandment until 1843. Joseph’s first wife, Emma Hale Smith, was publicly opposed to polygamy and did not follow Brigham Young after her husband’s death, instead forming her own sect with her son as the head. Further evidence of Emma’s abhorrence of the practice can be found in the recorded revelation itself, wherein “God” directly addresses Emma: “And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me;… But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.”⁶ Over 50 other denominations (many now defunct) have been documented to have formed since Smith’s death, several of which continue the practice of plural marriage today, often employing legal loopholes to avoid committing a criminal act.

When Brigham Young led the Mormons west to the Utah territory, they began to participate in national politics. On July 8, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act into law, which forbade the practice of polygamy in US territories. The measure had no funds allocated for enforcement, and President Lincoln chose to leave the Mormons alone. In 1887, Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which disincorporated the LDS Church and authorized the federal government to seize all of the church’s assets. By September 1890, the church was losing control of the territory government, members and leaders were being pursued as fugitives, and federal officials were preparing to seize the Church’s four temples, when Wilford Woodruff, the Church President at the time, announced that he had received revelation from Jesus Christ that the Church should cease the practice of plural marriage.⁷ The timing speaks for itself. There were differences among members regarding the scope of Woodruff’s declaration, and so it was not surprising when the Smoot hearings of 1904 revealed that the practice was continuing unofficially. That year, under President Joseph F. Smith, the church finally and completely banned plural marriage everywhere in the world.

-Laura

1. Official LDS Website [<]
2. The Salt Lake Tribune [<]
3. Joseph Smith-History, Pearl of Great Price [<]
4. The Great Apostasy: Considered in the Light of Scriptural and Secular History by James Edward Talmage, 1909 [<]
5. In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith by Todd Compton [<]
6. Doctrine and Covenants 132 [<]
7. Wilford Woodruff, “Remarks”, Deseret Weekly, Salt Lake City, Utah [<]

Tags: America, ancient, apostasy, ban, belief, Brigham, Christ, Christianity, church, commandment, Congress, covenants, criminal, death, doctrine, god, Government, Hinckley, history, Holy, Israel, Jesus, Joseph, Law, LDS, legal, Lincoln, Lord, Monism, Mormon, mormonism, Nicaea, pagan, philosophy, president, Procrustes, prophet, Religion, Revelation, scripture, secular, spirit, temple, truth, Unearthed, Utah, war

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