How old is the religion mormonism

Above all, it provided desperately desired structure for lives beset by unpredictability, disorder, and change. It gave its adherents enormous social, psychological, and economic support. In social terms, in fact, Mormonism can be seen as perhaps the most successful, dynamic, and enduring version of the communitarianism of the ls and s.

It provided isolated, struggling, often desperate families like the Smiths and Youngs from economically changing or declining countryside and small towns from the Northeast and Midwest with a new kind of economic security and cooperation.

In the early years in Kirtland, the Mormons, like the Shakers or the Moravians, practiced a form of economic communism in which the church held title to all property and possessions. Even when they abandoned church ownership of property, the Mormons made sure that those who joined their community had a beginning economic stake in the community and instituted a strict regime of tithing to insure that no member of the community would be abandoned to poverty.

Mormons extolled hard work and discipline and soon offered tangible proof that it would be rewarded with solid and secure property. The Mormon social order, referred to by some scholars as a theocratic-democracy, embodied a unique combination of democracy, hierarchy, and authoritarianism. All adult males possessed the franchise.

Moreover, Mormonism did not possess a priesthood or organized, specially trained, and paid clergy. In effect, it obliterated the distinction between clergy and laity by making all adult males from the age of twelve members of the priesthood who could ascend as they matured from the lowest to the highest rank or "quorum" of the priesthood.

After Brigham Young, the position of president and prophet devolved on the eldest surviving member of the Council of Twelve Apostles. Females, though "sealed" as "saints," were not admitted to the priesthood nor granted the vote, though they did have a series of special, gender-based roles and associations.

But at the core of the Mormon social order, especially as it developed in the Desert Kingdom of remote and isolated Utah, was its unique familial organization rooted in the practice of polygamy. The extraordinary motion and mobility of American society that launched thousands upon thousands of families into a kind of rootless nomadism destroyed most vestiges of the broader kinship networks that had characterized much of eighteenth-century America.

Again and again, in diaries and letters as well as in newspapers and tracts of various description, Americans decried the evils of "isolated households. Finally, Mormonism was organizationally, culturally, and intellectually comprehensive, cohesive, and complete. To many it proved a welcome antidote to a highly fluid society of rampant individualism in which people sought improvement and prosperity for themselves and their families at the same time as they craved a sense of belonging and sought out various forms of community.

The comprehensiveness of Mormonism, moreover, combined with its self-contained isolation and sense of itself as different, superior, and exclusive, provided its adherents with a sense of identity, belonging, and esteem comparable to that which Afro-Christian religions provided enslaved African Americans and which Roman Catholicism provided nineteenth-century Irish immigrants.

If Mormonism was so deeply embedded in broader religious ideas and impulses and so reflective of broader social processes, how do we account for the hostility with which non-Mormon Americans greeted it? In some ways, anti-Mormonism can be seen as a part of the deeper and violent intolerance of the ls and ls that was also turned against Masons, Roman Catholics, Native Americans, and blacks in the "free" north.

Mormons have since been the most hesitant Trump supporters among the religious right. So with Trump leaving office in a month, and the country battling its most partisan moment since the Civil War, where do the Mormons go from here as a culture and an institution?

KCRW stands by our mission to serve our community in all the ways we can during this difficult time. We are here to provide you with local news, public health information, music for your spirit, and cultural connection. The religion was officially founded in when The Book of Mormon was published. While Mormons embrace many Christian beliefs, they have their own distinct set of philosophies, values and practices.

Joseph Smith Jr. When Smith was 14, he said he received a vision from God and Jesus that told him not to join any Christian denominational churches. Three years later, Smith claimed that an angel named Moroni appeared to him. According to Moroni, this spiritual book contained information about the ancient people who inhabited the Americas. He revealed that the book was inscribed on golden plates near Palmyra , New York , which was close to where Smith lived at the time.

Although the plates were first revealed to him on September 22, , Smith said he was not allowed to retrieve them until September The Book of Mormon was translated and published in Smith also asserted that John the Baptist appeared to him while he was translating the Book of Mormon and instructed him to restore the church by preaching the true gospel. After the Book of Mormon was published, Mormonism began to spread and grow rapidly. Smith set up Mormon communities in Missouri , Ohio and Illinois.

Smith was criticized and persecuted by many for teaching his new ideas. In February , Smith and his brother were jailed on charges of treason. On June 27, , both Smith and his brother were murdered in jail by an anti-Mormon mob in Carthage, Illinois.

After Smith died, the church divided. Young led a large group of persecuted Mormons from Illinois to search for religious freedom. During the s, Young organized the migration of about 16, Mormons from Illinois to Utah. Young was named the President of the Church and kept this title until his death in Scholars believe Young significantly influenced the religious and political landscape of the American West.

Despite moving to a relatively isolated region in Utah, tensions between Mormons and other Americans continued. In September of , a Mormon militia murdered about people who were part of a wagon train from Arkansas. Mormons believe that the family is an eternal unit and central to God's plan. In fact, eternal progression toward Godhood is limited to those who marry for time and eternity celestial marriage in a ceremony conducted by a properly ordained member of the LDS priesthood in a Mormon temple.

Church President Hinckley has also stressed the importance of the family during mortal life, saying, "If you want to reform a nation, you begin with families, with parents who teach their children principles and values that are positive and affirmative and will lead them to worthwhile endeavors.

That is the basic failure that has taken place in America. And we are making a tremendous effort to bring about greater solidarity in families. Parents have no greater responsibility in this world than the bringing up of their children in the right way, and they will have no greater satisfaction as the years pass than to see those children grow in integrity and honesty and make something of their lives, adding to society because they are a part of it.

The Mormon interest in genealogy is closely linked to their doctrine of baptism for the dead and their belief that the family unit will continue to exist beyond mortal life. Mormons trace their family trees to find the names of ancestors who died without learning about the restored Mormon Gospel so that these relatives from past generations can be baptized by proxy in the temple.

Once baptized, if the ancestor's spirit has accepted the Gospel, they will be able to be together with the rest of their baptized Mormon family in the celestial kingdom.

For the Saints, genealogy is a way to save more souls and strengthen the eternal family unit. Mormon marriages are different from most marriages because they are considered eternal. If a husband and wife are sealed together in the temple, they can be together on into the celestial kingdom.

However, the church does have a process for annulment and sees divorce as an unfortunately necessary evil. I am not one to say that it is never justified. But I say without hesitation that this plague among us, which seems to be growing everywhere, is not of God, but rather is the work of the adversary of righteousness and peace and truth.

Just as a civil marriage does not automatically translate into a temple sealing for a Mormon couple, a civil divorce does not unseal them. If a divorcing couple wishes to become unsealed, they must receive a cancellation of sealing, which requires approval from high-ranking church officials.

A Mormon woman must receive a cancellation of sealing prior to remarrying if she wishes her next marriage to be sealed in the temple. However, because men are permitted to be sealed to more than one woman, they do not have to cancel a previous sealing in order to remarry in the temple.

Are Mormons Christians? Why is the temple so central? What happens there? Is it a secretive religion? Living a Mormon Life What are some rituals and restrictions of the faith? Why is family key? Why the interest in genealogy? Are Mormon marriages different? Can they divorce? Is excommunication common? How has the church dealt with dissenters? The church's stance on polygamy Are polygamists Mormon? Why the long refusal to ordain blacks?