Part 7: The Mormons
Mormons are followers of Mormonism, a religious movement founded in the United States of America in the early 1800s. They derive their name from the Book of Mormon, a collection of scriptures written by Joseph Smith Jr., the movement’s founder.
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| Joseph Smith, Jr |
The next day, Smith visits the hill and finds the plates in a stone box hidden beneath a huge rock, but a supernatural force prevents him from retrieving them. That night, another angel informs him that he was unable to retrieve the plates because he sought them for the wrong reason – for the gold rather than the information they contain. It is only after the fourth attempt that Smith manages to take them home, after which he begins translating them into English from the ancient Egyptian script in which they are written.
The book claims to be the work of an ancient prophet named Mormon and describes itself as "a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It contains the entirety of the everlasting gospel and is a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas."
In 1830, Smith establishes the Church of Christ, whose primary source of teaching is the Book of Mormon. Its adherents are known as Latter Day Saints or Mormons, and they consider Smith a prophet.
Soon after, Smith and his followers move to Independence, Missouri, with the goal of establishing Zion, a Mormon-only settlement where Mormons can live in absolute righteousness. Some residents of Independence, however, don’t like Mormons’ teachings and lifestyle, particularly their practice of polygamy, so they chase them away in violent confrontations.
They relocate to an uninhabited part of Illinois near the Mississippi River, where they build the city of Nauvoo from the ground up, with Smith serving as mayor and ruling it with an iron fist.
In 1844, Smith incites yet another wave of resentment against Mormons throughout the state of Illinois after word spreads that he ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor’s printing press when it published a story critical of his power and practice of polygamy.
Fearing that Nauvoo will be invaded, he surrenders to state authorities, but a mob storms the prison where he is being held and kills him and his brother. All Mormons are then given two months to leave Nauvoo or be killed.
These events cause a split in the church, with different groups dispersing and establishing their own versions of Mormonism elsewhere.
One of them, led by Brigham Young, a devoted disciple of Smith, becomes the most successful.
From Nauvoo, it moves west to Utah, a Mexican territory, and constructs from the ground up the settlement that later becomes Salt Lake City. It renames itself the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and constructs a massive temple from which it spreads its influence all over the world.
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| Salt Lake LDS Church |
Three criticisms have dogged the church since its inception. First is polygamy. Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were polygamous, and they encouraged their followers to embrace plural marriage. The church claims, however, that the practice has been prohibited since the early twentieth century and that anyone who engages in it does so in his personal capacity, not as a church member. Second is racial discrimination. Until 1957, it did not allow the ordination of black clergy. Third is plagiarism. Critics say that the Book of Mormon was not a result of a revelation to Joseph Smith as the church claims. They say it was plagiarized from Manuscript Found, an unpublished novel by Solomon Spalding. Spalding had taken the manuscript to a printing press for review but died before it was published. Smith's friend worked at that printing press, and it is believed he was the one who gave it to Smith.
