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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is shared by the larger Latter Day Saint movement, which originated in upstate New York under the leadership of Joseph Smith, Jr.. With the important assistance of Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon, Smith dictated and published works of scripture, claimed to be visited by angels, and formed a new church. This church grew rapidly, and was chased by angry mobs through various locations including Kirtland, Ohio, Independence, Missouri, and finally Nauvoo, Illinois, until July 26, 1844, when Smith was assassinated in a prison at Carthage, Illinois.
After the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., there was some confusion over who would be his successor, leading to the formation of several factions. The majority of Mormons followed Brigham Young, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; however, a significant fraction of Mormons, including very prominent Mormons and the majority of Joseph Smith's family, followed the leadership of others, leading to such groups as the Strangites and the Hedrickites, who did not follow Brigham Young to Utah. Eventually, many of these groups coalesced behind Joseph Smith's son Joseph Smith III and became what is now known as the Community of Christ, the second-largest Mormon denomination.
See History of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Under the leadership of Brigham Young, Church leaders planned to leave Nauvoo, Illinois in April of 1846, but amid threats from the state militia, they were forced to cross the Mississippi River in the cold of February. They eventually left the boundaries of the United States to what is now Utah where they founded Salt Lake City.
(the Mormon migration is a seminal event for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More should be said here.)
Originally, Brigham Young denied that he was the successor of Joseph Smith, or that anyone could be his successor. Eventually, however, after the majority of Mormons moved to Utah, Brigham Young would be sustained as a member of the First Presidency on December 25, 1847, (Wilford Woodruff Diary, Church Archives), and then as President of the Church on October 8, 1948. (Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 3:318).
Groups of converts from the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere were encouraged to gather to Utah in the decades following. Both the original Mormon migration and subsequent convert migrations resulted in much sacrifice and quite a number of deaths. Brigham Young organized a great colonization of the American West, with Mormon settlements extending from Canada to Mexico. Notable cities that sprang from early Mormon settlements include San Diego, California and Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1856-1858, the Church underwent what is commonly called the Mormon Reformation. See Peterson, Paul H. "The Mormon Reformation of 1856-1857: The Rhetoric and the Reality." 15 Journal of Mormon History 59-87 (1989).
In 1857-1858, the Church was involved in a bloodless conflict with the U.S. government, entitled the Utah War.
In September 1857, paranoia over the Utah War led local officials in southern Utah to join with Indians to massacre a company of settlers traveling from Arkansas. See Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Brigham Young died in August 1877.
After the death of Brigham Young, the First Presidency was not reorganized until 1880, when Young was succeeded by President John Taylor, who in the interim had served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
For several decades, polygamy was encouraged as both in keeping with God's law and good for the protection and care of the many widows and orphans. Brigham Young, the Prophet of the church at that time, had quite a few wives, as did many other church leaders.
This early practice of polygamy caused conflict between church members and the wider American society. In 1862, the United States Congress had enacted legislation permitting the confiscation of church assets and the assets of church leaders. This law was not enforced however, until 1879, when the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Reynolds v. United States, upholding antipolygamy laws. The Reynolds case led to a crackdown against polygamy, and a barrage of anti-polygamy laws.
To end the conflict, and as a condition of Utah statehood, Church leadership prohibited the practice in 1890, claiming that the practice ended in the same manner as it began, with a revelation from on high. Church members today who attempt to marry more than one wife are excommunicated. However, some small groups refused to accept the prohibition of polygamy, were cut off from the Church, formed their own churches and continue to practice it to this day.
Beginning soon after the turn of the Twentieth Century, four influential Latter-day Saint scholars began to systematize, modernize, and codify Mormon doctrine: B.H. Roberts, James E. Talmage, John A. Widtsoe, and Joseph Fielding Smith.
In 1955, the Church began ordaining black Melanesians to the Priesthood.
Thus, the Church underwent a number of important changes in organization, practices, and meeting schedule. In addition, the Church became more media-savy, and more self-conscious and protective of its public image. The Church also became more involved in public discourse, using its new-found political and cultural influence and the media to affect its image, public morality, and Mormon scholarship, and to promote its missionary efforts. At the same time, the Church struggled with how to deal with increasingly pluralistic voices within the Church and within Mormonism. In general, this period has seen both an increase in cultural and racial diversity and extra-faith ecumenism, and a decrease in intra-faith pluralism.
See generally: Armand L. Mauss, The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Strugle with Assimilation (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994); Gordon Sheperd & Gary Sheperd, "Mormonism in Secular Society: Changing Patterns in Official Ecclesiastical Rhetoric," Review of Religious Research 26 (Sept. 1984): 28-42.
In 1973, the Church recast is missionary discussions, making them more family-friendly and focused on building on common Christian ideals. The new discussions, named "A Uniform System for Teaching Families", de-emphasized the Great Apostasy, which previously held a prominent position just after the story of the First Vision. When the discussions were revised in the early 1980s, the new discussions dealt with the Apostasy less conspicuously, and in later discussions, rather than in the first discussion. The discussions also became more family-friendly, including a flip chart with pictures, in part to encourage the participation of children.
In 1995, the Church announced a new logo design that emphasized the words "JESUS CHRIST" in large capital letters, and de-emphasized the words "The Church of" and "of Latter-day Saints". According to Bruce L. Olsen, director of public affairs for the Church, "The logo re-emphasizes the official name of the Church and the central position of the Savior in its theology. It stresses our allegiance to the Lord, Jesus Christ."
On January 1, 2000, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles released a proclamation entitled "The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". This document commemorated the birth of Jesus and set forth the Church's official view regarding Christ.
In 2001, the Church sent out a press release encouraging reporters to use the full name of the church at the beginning of news articles, with following references to the "Church of Jesus Christ". The release discouraged the use of the term "Mormon Church".
During and after the American Civil Rights Movement, the Church faced a critical point in its history, where its previous attitudes toward other cultures and people of color, which had once been shared by much of the white American mainstream, began to appear racist and neocolonial. The Church came under intense fire for its treatment of blacks and native Americans.
By the late 1960s, the Church had expanded into Brazil, the Caribbean, and the nations of Africa, and the Church was suffering criticism for its policy of racial discrimination. In 1969 the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency voted to end the discriminatory policy; however, the move was later vetoed by First Counselor and later President Harold B. Lee on the grounds that a revelation was required for such a policy change. In 1978, under the administration of Spencer W. Kimball, the Church leadership claimed it had finally received this divine sanction to change the long-standing policy. See Doctrine and Covenants, OD-2. Officially, the move into Brazil and other countries predominately of African decent was the primary reason for the change in policy, rather than external civil rights pressures.
Today, there are many black members of the Church, and many predominantly black congregations. In North America, black members have organized branches of an official Church auxilliary called the Genesis Groups. In 1990, the Church ordained Helvecio Martens, its first black General Authority.
In 1981, the Church published a new LDS edition of the Standard Works that changed a passage in The Book of Mormon that Lamanites (considered by many Latter-day Saints to be Native Americans]] will "become white and delightsome" after accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead of continuing the original reference to skin color, the new edition replaced the word "white" with the word "pure", emphasizing inward spirituality. See Lamanite.
While promoting convenience and making church practice compatible with non-Utahns, this new schedule has been criticized for eroding fellowshipping opportunities among North American Latter-day Saint youth. This erosion, in turn, has been blamed for decreasing LDS participation of young women to below that of young men, and for a downward trend in the percentage of LDS males who accept the call to serve a full time mission. See Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power.
In the early 1980s, the Church was rocked again by the apparent discovery of an early Mormon manuscript called the "Salamander Letter". This letter, reportedly discovered by a scholar named Mark Hofman, alleged that the Book of Mormon was given to Joseph Smith, Jr. by a being that changed itself into a salamander, not by an angel as the official Church history recounted. The Church purchased this document, trusting the advice of experts that it was genuine and highly unusual. The document was placed in the First Presidencies office and many feel that information about it was supressed. When existence of the document was publicized, some Mormon apologists including LDS Apostle Dallin H. Oaks suggested that the letter used the idea of a salamander as a metaphor for an angel. The document, however, was revealed as a forgery by Hoffman in 1985, and Hoffman was arrested for two murders related to his forgeries.
Many of Hoffman's documents are forgeries, however, many have been proven as authentic. Documents including a record of a blessing Joseph Smith gave his son appointing him as his successor was one document proven false (although there are other accounts of the event that are authentic), and a document called the 'Anthon transcript' that contains Reformed Egyptian characters allegedly from the Book of Mormon plates is still in dispute, although the characters have been highly circulated both by the Church and other individuals. Due to Hoffman's methods, the authenticity of many of documents he sold to the Church and the Smithsonian will likely never be sorted out. For a more thorough discussion see Salamander Letter and Mark Hofman.
A number of other Controversies regarding Mormonism can be considered a part of the Church's history.
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