LATTER-DAY SAINTS, CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF

Also called the Mormon Church, founded in upstate New York on April 6, 1830, by Joseph smith (1805–44), who reported divine visitations. In 1830 he published the Book of Mormon, claiming to have translated it from plates of gold given him by the angel Moroni, purportedly a record of God's dealings with the ancestors of the American Indians, alleged to have been Hebrews who came in three migrations to the New World. Mormonism was one product of the religious revivalism and turmoil characteristic of upstate New York in that period.

Historical Development. From 1831, with the founding of a Mormon community at Kirtland, Ohio, to 1844, when Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob in Carthage, Ill., the church had a stormy history. In those years, four attempts were made to build a community embodying Mormon ideals and giving expression to the group's separate existence. At Kirtland, the effort led to financial disaster. At Independence and Far West, Mo., two more attempts were made. After some success, the Mormons attracted the opposition of their neighbors and were driven out in violence and bloodshed. Their initial successes, northern manners, religious peculiarities, claims to make the area a holy land of their religion, and favorable attitudes toward the indigenous peoples combined to elicit Missourian hostility. They were driven from Independence in the winter of 1833–34 and went into Clay County, from which they were shortly asked to leave. In Far West, which they then founded, a similar pattern of success, hostility, and expulsion followed. Joseph Smith estimated losses of $2 million in Missouri, and the final expulsion in a small-scale "Mormon War" cost some 40 lives, all but one or two of them Mormon.

Mormon efforts in the Middle West were most successful on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Illinois at Nauvoo, which soon became an attractive city of about 15,000. This accomplishment issued in a second "Mormon War." In Nauvoo, rumors concerning the secret practice of polygamy contributed to antagonism, as did the palpable evidence of Mormon size and power. In the violence that ensued, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by the mob, and after considerable tension and some open fighting, the Mormons were driven out. They commenced evacuation of Nauvoo in sub-zero weather in February of 1846.

There followed a period of discouragement and dissension. Several groups broke off at this time, one of which later formed the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Brigham young (1801–77) took over the church leadership and organized migration across Iowa to the banks of the Missouri River, where he established winter quarters. After a season of great suffering, Young organized the Mormon trek to the West, and on April 7, 1847, he left with a party of 148 for the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, Utah. They arrived on July 22, and two days later Young entered the valley.

Thus began the Mormon migration to and settlement of the intermountain region. Thousands came by wagon train, handcart, and later by railroad. The Mormons developed their settlement on a planned basis, and the church "called" people to establish communities in irrigable valleys throughout the region. By the time of Young's death in 1877, the Mormons had established 357 Settlements, and Utah had a Mormon population of about 140,000. Settlement and emigration continued. By 1900 some 90,000 immigrant converts had been brought from Europe.

The Mormon communities succeeded in Utah, but the conflict with gentile opinion and government authorities continued. When in 1857 Pres. James Buchanan sent Federal troops under Gen. A. S. Johnston, the issue nearly came to open conflict. Gradually the lines of antagonism were drawn around the two issues of Utah's admission to the Union and polygamy, which had been practiced openly in Utah since 1852. In 1863 Congress passed the Morrill Law, forbidding polygamy, which the Supreme Court upheld in 1879. In 1882 the Edmunds Act was passed, followed in 1887 by the Edmunds-Tucker Act. These laws were more stringent; the latter dissolved the church as a corporation. Anti-Mormon sentiment was aroused among the small but significant non-Mormon group in Utah, and in the nation generally. With about 200 members in jail, the Mormons capitulated and in the constitutional convention of 1887 supported the outlawing of polygamy. In September of 1890, Church President Wilford Woodruff (1807–98) renounced polygamy as effective church teaching, and in 1896 Utah was admitted to the Union. There followed a period of accommodation, and Mormonism strove for and achieved acceptance and respectability. However, a small dissident and excommunicated sect advocating and practicing polygamy continues to exist in Utah.

Mormonism's most striking achievement was settlement of the arid terrain of the intermountain West. This achievement finds its most appropriate monument in the establishment of irrigation as the basis for agriculture. The Mormons displayed both the cooperation and the discipline necessary for this accomplishment. By 1865 there were over 1,000 miles of canals in Utah, and by 1946, some 8,750 miles.

Basic Doctrinal Position. Mormonism is based upon Joseph Smith's claim that contemporary revelation began with his divine election as prophet-founder of the Mormon Church. The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, alleged revelations of the founder, are accepted, with the Bible, as scripture. The first claims to be a miraculously translated pre-Columbian scripture; the second contains revelations announced by Joseph from time to time, including that establishing polygamy; the third allegedly contains lost parts of the Pentateuch, some of which was transcribed by Smith from papyri, Smith's writings, and articles of Mormon belief.

While the Book of Mormon is a work obviously Christian in tenor, the later teachings introduced a number of innovations. These include the doctrine of human existence in a previous spirit world, a finite developing God, baptism for the dead, an interpretation of the Trinity as tritheism, marriage for time and eternity, humanity's eternal progression to god-like status, and polygamy. Mormonism emphasizes worldly virtues of a distinctively American kind: optimism, self-improvement, hard work, and respect for law. Recreation is highly valued and organized by the church, and abstinence from coffee, tea, tobacco, and liquor is enjoined. The importance of the family is stressed. The Mormons also hold that the U.S. enjoys a special providential position in the world and that its Constitution has been divinely inspired. Millennialism has long been an integral part of Mormon doctrine, and in one form or another remains of some significance.

Organizational Structure. Church structure is complex with a hierarchical priesthood embracing all males deemed worthy. There are two levels of priesthood: the lesser Aaronic priesthood with its stages of deacon, teacher, priest, and bishop; and the Melchizedek order, which contains two higher ranks—seventies, to which men are advanced after mission experience, and high priest. Important leaders on all levels are high priests. For a long time, admission to the priesthood was only opened to white European males, and this caused some internal protest and complications in external relations. In 1978, this decision was reversed, and it was held that "all worthy male members of the church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color."

The local unit is the ward; several wards comprise a stake. The ward is led by an unpaid leader who is called a bishop and is assisted by two counselors, this triumvirate form being characteristic of all offices of executive importance. While there is great rank-and-file participation, direction is centralized and authority comes strictly from the top down. Most officers are unpaid. At the top is the church presidency made up of the First President and his two counselors and the Council of the Twelve Apostles, which has selected a number of assistants. The top 24 officials are known as the General Authorities. The church is highly organized and characterized by tremendous activism. Large numbers of young men and some young women go on two-year missions at their own expense. The church conducts a large welfare organization that farms land by volunteer labor; it also has a Genealogical Society connected with temple work for the dead that activates many older people.

The Mormon Church continues to grow, and by the end of the 20th century it had more than five million members. The church is a dominant influence in Utah, where it represents a bulwark of conservatism and has contributed people of importance nationally in a wide number of fields. It is supported by payment of tithes and has large business investments.

Bibliography: w. a. linn, The Story of the Mormons (New York 1902). l. l. bennion, The Religion of the Latter-Day Saints (rev. and enl. Salt Lake City 1940). w. r. cross, The Burned Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850 (Ithaca 1950). l. nelson, The Mormon Village: A Pattern and Technique of Land Settlement (Salt Lake City 1952). k. young, Isn't One Wife Enough? (New York 1954). t. f. o'dea, The Mormons (Chicago 1957). l. j. arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter Day Saints, 1830–1900 (Cambridge, Mass. 1958). w. mulder and a. r. mortensen, eds., Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers (New York 1958). f. s. mead, s. s. hill and c. d. atwood, eds., Handbook of Denominations in the United States, 11th ed (Nashville 2001).

[t. f. o'dea/eds.]