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Criticism Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been subject to scholarly and religious criticism and public debate since its inception in the early 1800s. The discussion encompasses a wide range of issues from the church’s leaders, origins, and teachings, to its social and political stances. The historical claims of the church, including the authenticity of foundational books of scripture such as the ''Book of Mormon'' and '' Pearl of Great Price'', as well as the church's former practice of polygamy have faced public scrutiny. Changes in church teachings, as well as former teachings perceived as harsh or extreme face criticism as well. In the modern day, its historical teachings and policies around skin color and those around Black and Native American people, along with its past and current views on LGBTQ people and women have received greater public attention. Other controversies include church leaders' handling of sexual abuse cases, church finances, ...
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Kirtland Safety Society
The Kirtland Safety Society (KSS) was first proposed as a bank in 1836, and eventually organized on January 2, 1837, as a joint stock company, by leaders and followers of the then-named Church of the Latter Day Saints. According to KSS's 1837 "Articles of Agreement", it was intended to serve the financial needs of the growing Latter Day Saint community in Kirtland, Ohio. Its preamble stated it was: ... for the promotion of our temporal interests, and for the better management of our different occupations, which consist in agriculture, mechanical arts, and merchandising. However, by November 1837, KSS failed and its business closed. In the aftermath, Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was fined for "running an illegal bank," though he was employed as the institution's Cashier. While Smith appealed the fine and made arrangements to have Oliver Granger settle the affairs of the quasi-bank, many financially harmed Latter Day Saints left the church because the ...
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Brigham Young
Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. He also served as the first List of governors of Utah, governor of the Utah Territory from 1851 until his resignation in 1858. Young was born in 1801 in Vermont and raised in Upstate New York. After working as a painter and carpenter, he became a full-time LDS Church leader in 1835. Following a short period of service as a missionary, he moved to Missouri in 1838. Later that year, Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs signed the Mormon Extermination Order, and Young organized the migration of the Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois, where he became an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty. In 1844, while he was traveling to gain support for Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign, Joseph Smith's presidential campaign ...
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Mormons
Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and ethnocultural group, cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several groups following different leaders; the majority followed Brigham Young, while smaller groups followed Joseph Smith III, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. Most of these smaller groups eventually merged into the Community of Christ, and the term ''Mormon'' typically refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership statistics, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), as today, this branch is far larger than all the others combined. People who identify as Mormons may also be independently religious, secular, and non-practicing or belong to List of denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement, other denominations. Since 2018, the LDS Church has ex ...
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Succession Crisis (Latter Day Saints)
The succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement occurred after the killing of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, on June 27, 1844. For roughly six months after Smith's death, several people competed to take over his role, the leading contenders being Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young, and James Strang. The majority of the Latter Day Saint movement elected to follow Young's leadership, which eventually resulted in the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), but several smaller Latter Day Saint churches emerged from the succession crisis. This significant event in early Latter Day Saint history precipitated several permanent schisms. Background The Church of Christ was organized by a small group of men led by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. Between that time and Smith's death in 1844, the administrative and ecclesiastical organization of the new church evolved from an egalitarian group of believers into an institution based on hierar ...
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Death Of Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, United States, on June 27, 1844, while awaiting trial in the town jail on charges of treason. The '' Nauvoo Expositor'' newspaper was newly established by anti-polygamist ex-Mormons who had recently been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The newspaper's first (and only) issue criticized Smith and other church leaders, correctly reporting that Smith was practicing polygamy, marrying the wives of other men, teaching a " plurality of Gods", and alleging that he intended to set himself up as a theocratic king. After a vote of the Nauvoo City Council, mayor Joseph Smith ordered the ''Expositor''s press destroyed.
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Joseph Smith And The Criminal Justice System
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was charged with approximately thirty criminal actions during his life, and at least that many financial civil suits. Another source reports that Smith was arrested at least 42 times, including in the states of New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. In 1844, Smith was killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, while in jail awaiting trial on charges of inciting a riot for ordering the destruction of the '' Nauvoo Expositor'', a newspaper critical of Smith that accused him of practicing polygamy, and for treason against the State of Illinois for calling out the Nauvoo Legion contrary to the orders of the Governor of Illinois. Overview While in New York, Smith faced charges of being a "disorderly person" in 1826 and 1830. In Ohio, he was arrested multiple times on a variety of charges including illegal banking, assault, and conspiracy to murder. On January 12, 1838, a warrant was issued for Smith's a ...
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Nauvoo Expositor
The ''Nauvoo Expositor'' was a newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, United States, that published only one issue. Its publication, and the destruction of the printing press ordered by Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council, set off a chain of events that led to Smith's arrest for treason and subsequent killing at the hands of a lynch mob. Smith, leader of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had a practice of secretly marrying his followers, including other men's wives. Smith is estimated to have married nearly fifty wives. While promoting polygamy in private, Smith publicly denied the practice of polygamy. In response, a handful of high-ranking church leaders denounced Smith as a fallen prophet, founded a reformed church, and announced plans to publish a newspaper—acts that resulted in their excommunication from Smith's church. Based on their testimony, Smith was indicted on state criminal charges of perjury and "fornication and adultery". The ''Nauvoo Expositor'', p ...
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Mormonism And Polygamy
Polygamy (called plural marriage by Latter-day Saints in the 19th century or the Principle by modern fundamentalist practitioners of polygamy) was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families. Polygamy among Latter-day Saints has been controversial, both in Western society and within the LDS Church itself. Many U.S. politicians were strongly opposed to the practice; the Republican platform even referred to polygamy and slavery as "the twin relics of barbarism." Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter-day Saint movement, first introduced polygamy privately in the 1830s. Later, in 1852, Orson Pratt, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, publicly announced and defended the practice at the request of then-church president Brigham Young. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the LDS Chur ...
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Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo ( ; from the ) is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa. The population of Nauvoo was 950 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Nauvoo attracts visitors for its historic importance and its religious significance to members of several groups: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS); other groups stemming from the Latter Day Saint movement; and the Icarians. The city and its immediate surrounding area are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Nauvoo Historic District. History The area of Nauvoo was first called Quashquame, named in honor of the Native Americans in the United States, Native American chief who headed a Sauk people, Sauk and Meskwaki settlement numbering nearly 500 lodges. By 1827, white settlers had built cabins in the area, and by 1829, it was sufficientl ...
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Theodemocracy
Theodemocracy is a theocratic political system proposed by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to Smith, a theodemocracy is a fusion of traditional republican democratic principles under the US Constitution with theocratic rule. Smith described it as a system under which God and the people held the power to rule in righteousness.'' Times and Seasons'', 5:510. Smith believed that to be the form of government that would rule the world upon the Second Coming of Christ. The polity would constitute the "Kingdom of God," which was foretold by the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament. Theodemocratic principles played a minor role in the forming of the State of Deseret in the American Old West. Political ideal Early Latter Day Saints were typically Jacksonian Democrats and were highly involved in representative republican political processes. According to the historian Marvin S. Hill, "the Latter-day Saints saw the maelstrom of competing faiths and s ...
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Lilburn Boggs
Lilburn Williams Boggs (December 14, 1796March 14, 1860) was the sixth Governor of Missouri, from 1836 to 1840. He is now most widely remembered for his interactions with Joseph Smith and Porter Rockwell, and Missouri Executive Order 44, known by Mormons as the "Extermination Order", issued in response to the ongoing conflict between church members and other settlers of Missouri. Boggs was also a key player in the Honey War of 1837. Early life Boggs was born in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, on December 14, 1796, to John McKinley Boggs and Martha Oliver. Boggs served for 18 months with the Kentucky troops during the War of 1812. He moved in 1816 from Lexington, Kentucky, to Missouri, which was then part of the Louisiana Territory. He was a member of the Smithton Company that would establish the Town of Smithton that would later grow into Columbia, Missouri. In Greenup County, Kentucky, in 1817, Boggs married his first wife, Julia Ann Bent (1801–1820), a sister o ...
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