This essay will discuss Mormon fundamentalism and provide a brief history of the tenets and practices of the religion. The term Mormon fundamentalist refers to a religious group, sect, or individual who believes the teachings of the Mormon scriptures, and follows the teachings of early Mormon leaders. In Western New York in 1830, Joseph Smith Jr. organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS Church. Other early leaders of the church include Brigham Young and John Taylor, who along with Joseph Smith Jr., are accepted by Mormon fundamentalists as prophets of God. There are an estimated 38,000 Mormon fundamentalists living in North American territories, though the estimate is only based on the number of people who openly distinguish themselves as such. The majority of reported Mormon fundamentalists are located in the western states of Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho.
One of the most significant principles of this religion is plural marriage, which Mormon fundamentalists refer to as the Divine Principle. The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Jr., claims to have received direction from God to live a polygamist lifestyle. According to Smith, a man had to have a minimum of three wives to be able to reach the highest level of heaven. Members of the LDS Church practiced polygamy in relatively small numbers of approximately 30 percent between 1852 and 1890. The practice of plural marriage has been a controversial topic within the Western society of the
Joseph Smith dictated a revelation concerning plural marriage. He bought the act forward as a requirement from God (Jacobson 2015). In the present day Mormon religion they have in fact denounced their support of “plural marriage” after the congressional act to ban the practice, but there are still subgroups of the religion that still practice it. In addition to the religious backing of polygamy, there are reasons that individuals chose to practice it. It increased the profitability of children, especially when a wife is barren of gives birth to female children. An increase in the labor supply within a kinship network. You can deal with the problem of surplus women. It expanded the range of a man’s alliances so he is able to maintain or acquire a position of leadership. Lastly, it can also provide sexual satisfaction to men (Bailey 2015). Religions to date that practice polygamy are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons, Muslims, and Apostolic Untied Brethren. Polygamy was tied to religion many years ago because many of the early founders believed that it was very much related to God, and that it would be of his will and liking to have more than
The Mormon faith dates back to the year 1830 when Joseph Smith, the founder along with 5 other men gathered together to form what they initially called The Church of Christ. This was later changed to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
A homegrown religion originating in the late 1820s, Mormonism arose as a rejection of the existing Christian sects and a return to what the Mormons considered to be pure Christianity. Similarly, the members believed their desire for a new kind of government stemmed from their disillusionment with what they believed was a corrupt government and a desire for the reestablishment of true American values and the original intent of the founding fathers. This sentiment is epitomized by Joseph Smith’s presidential platform, which states “No honest man can doubt for a moment, the glory of American liberty is on the wane; and that calamity and confusion will sooner or later destroy the
The African Methodist Episcopal and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) were just two of the many important denominations that increased religious participation. The African Methodist Episcopal was appealing to the African Americans because of its simplicity and active recruitment for African Americans specifically. The image “Negro Methodists Holding a Meeting in Philadelphia” displays a gathering of Methodist Africans as they experience a physical religious service. Furthermore, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as argued by Shi and Tindall, was significant because of the introduction of the new practice polygamy. Both denominations helped change religious ideology and methods of worship through active religious services and polygamy, two concepts that display the notion of
He provided a good example due to the Market Revolution in the early 1800s. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, or Mormonism, created another model of a religious utopia (Keene, 301). Smith grew up in western New York, where the fires of the Great Awakening burned hot. In Smith’s Christian Religion environment, had a revelation on which Mormonism was based (Keene, 301). The Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra, New York, in 1830 and this town became the site of one of the earliest Mormon communities (Keene 301). Smith was influenced by the widespread belief that the millennium was at hand, bringing with it an end to debt and the return of Christ and a new era of peace, happiness, and prosperity. Smith’s revelations detail struck a resonant chord with small farmers and etc whose experience with the expanding market economy had been largely negative (Keene 301). The revelation attracted thousands of followers. Joseph Smith members were popularly known as Mormons. With the exception of the first generation of Mormon converts, American society does not seem to have been receptive to him; they were pushed from one location to another, and eventually after Smith’s assassination, they moved to Utah. Prior to their exodus the Mormons endured a long period of internal dissension and harassment by their non-Mormon
Despite the stereotype of Mormon women not having any rights living in a patriarchal lifestyle because of their polygamist beliefs, they ironically had more rights than most American women at the time. In the 1800’s, Mormon women and men were both given rights and they both dealt with child rearing (Kane 580). However, in typical American households, it was common for only women to handle child care in family life. Mormon women were involved in many different aspects of life including actions in politics, the economy and social gatherings (580). In an interview with Brigham Young, he said he loved, cherished and supported his wives. He even looked at some of them as mother figures (Greely). Women mattered in their husbands’ lives and were able to make a difference in the community.
In speculation on Mormon belief, should a man have one wife or multiple we each have our own opinion. Stenhouse a disappointed woman makes good points on how she feels about the practice of how after joining the faith she now criticizes it. Stenhouse tells us that it doesn't matter how much faith the woman has in her religion or in plural marriages, that when her husband does take another wife after her estrangement will begin. Most people now would
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) was formally organized in a small log cabin in upstate New York in 1830. It took 117 years — until 1947 — for the Church to grow from the initial six members to one million” (Mormon Newsroom). Many people associate polygamy with Mormonism, however polygamy has been banned in The LDS Church since 1890. Mormons believe they have a Christian faith, but many Protestant Christians do not accept Mormons as genuine Christians because of the differences in beliefs. While Mormonism is a fast growing religion with more than 15 million members, many non-Mormons have misconceptions about what Mormons actually believe (Mormon Newsroom). Although, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints share
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claim that they have 6.1 million members in the United States. Mormons make up 1.7% of the population in the United States. This makes it the fourth largest major religious group in the country with the vast majority of Mormons living in Utah, making up 58% of the state’s population. According to a study by the Pew Research Center Mormons, as a group, “are among the most devout and conservative religious people in the country.” The Mormons are well known for not only the two-year mission that all Mormon young adults are required to go on but also there lifestyle that keeps caffeine and other altering chemicals out of their body. Utah, the state founded by early Latter-day Saints, has the
In 1830 Mormonism began and came into existence, Mormonism also known as the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Joseph Smith, in the 19th century in Western New York was the first prophet and president of the Mormon Church. Joseph Smith’s family heritage is one of
Mormonism is a name meaning the spiritual principles of followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well known as Mormons. Mormonism defines the guidelines of the Church that were reestablished to the world by the Prophet Joseph Smith. If you would ask the question “what is Mormonism” to a member, there’s a high change they would respond by acknowledging their love of Jesus Christ, he is the dominant part of the religion. Where can you find a continuing participant of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, well they're instituted at every level of civilization. For instance, in a charity, business, education, science, political parties, government, news media, and lastly the entertainment productions. The originator of The Church, Joseph Smith, wrote, “the essential philosophies of our religion are regarding Jesus christ, he died and was buried, rose again and on the third day ascended into the heavens; all supplementary things which relate to our religion is only accessories to it.”The main beliefs and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are that Jesus Christ is the redeemer of the earth and the Son of our
“The practice or condition of having more than one spouse, especially a wife, at one time, is polygamy” (“Polygamy”). When pondering about the action and process of polygamy, individuals in the United States most likely think about the pioneers that traveled across the Mormon Trail to the area of present-day Salt Lake City, Utah, in the 1800s; these individuals yearned to escape religious persecution from others. Americans may look to former prophets, like those of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) that practiced and taught the doctrine of polygamy to their followers and believers in the mid 19th century ("Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo”).
Until recently, polygamy was the most common type of marriage in The Church of the Latter Day Saints. Over time, the Mormon church began to see problems occurring due to plural marriages, and eventually polygamy was outlawed by the Church of the Latter Day Saints in 1890 (Polygamy 3). At this point, polygamy had been illegal in the United States for 28 years. Because of this, The Fundamentalist Church Of The Latter Day Saints was formed. This branch of Mormonism is made up of the practicing polygamists today. Although the practice of plural marriage is illegal in all 50 states, there are still approximately 100,000 polygamists in the United States today. They believe that plural marriage or “Big Love” as some call it, is the right way to live even though it has been considered a crime in the United States for 153 years.
Many years ago a group of Mormon fundamentalist people existed who believed polygyny was acceptable to practice. They led very private lives and shied away from the public eye to avoid any conflict of their beliefs. As time has passed by, some people now believe that polygyny should be legalized. More monogamous marriages exist than do polygamous marriage. Most of the time we only hear of polygamous marriages on television. Although monogamous marriage still has the largest support as opposed to polygyny, the fact still remains that these individuals pursue to embrace polygyny. Some individuals would like for polygyny to be legalized as the author states the following:
In industrialized societies, it is something that has been made illegal, and is considered deviant. When most people think of polygamy they think of polygyny, the marriage of one man with multiple wives, and endless children. Here in the United States the most common occurrence of polygamy was in the 1800s, through the Mormon religion, and more specifically the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter-Day Saints. Through the reading of the Bible, the leader of the Latter-Day Saints church, Joseph Smith, had revelations that encouraged him take a second wife as many of the members of the Old Testament had done. The rest of the United States reacted negatively to polygamy and Congress passed several laws prohibited polygamy. However, Mormons continued to practice polygamy despite these laws because they believed it was within their right to do so based on the Bill of Rights which protected freedom of religion (Embry 2016).