As a young girlie, I grew up in a small town in the North. Every county had the same churches, a Christian, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, and a Quaker Church. My knowledge consisted of knowing the Catholic Church and the Seventh Day were very different- different books, beliefs; but all were thought of as Christians. I’d say I had been to them all at some time or another. Not a dime’s worth a difference in any of them. Same practices, teachings, and rituals, like communion every Sunday. Oh, some may have used bread instead of the cool little crackers, or not played instruments, but, you get the point. Any major differences weren’t something that disagreed with the Bible. And we all used the same Bible. I was taught that it was a man’s heart and beliefs that God would look at. All were trying to be good Christians.
Since I was the youngest, I tended to stay out of the religious and political discussions at my house. My brother coming home from Cornell U in the 60’s thought he knew everything, and the discussions were lively. Maybe I should have listened more, but I was only 6. To the point of watching the show, “Sister Wives” the only facts I knew about Mormons was that the Osmond’s were, and that their LDS genealogy site was filled with mistakes. In other words, I was a Mormon “dummy”. I had no idea what their theologies were. I’ve been trying to learn about the Mormon religion ever since. It’s puzzling because everywhere you read, you get a different explanation.
Questions keeps popping up in my head.
WHAT do all Mormons believe, and why are the different churches of Mormons calling the other churches NOT Mormons?
Now, we know there are (and I assume more); LDS, FLDS, Independent Fundamentalists, Johnston Group, Kingston Group, I’m sure many others. The LDS, Latter Day Saints, quit practicing polygamy in 1890 for Utah to become a state. NOT because their religion really changed in any way. The rules changed. In fact, the Mormon religion was steeped high in polygamy.
Here’s some Basic Mormon Beliefs, Polygamist or not- that differ with Christianity that I didn’t know prior to the show:
1. Mormons can become gods and goddesses.
2. Goddesses will spend eternity in full submission to their god-husband.
3. Mormon women will give birth "forever and ever" to spirit-babies.
4. Mormon men can have multiple wives in heaven-eternal polygamy.
5. Heavenly Father is an exalted man who lives with his goddess wife, Heavenly Mother, on a planet near the great star Kolob.
6. American Indians are descendants of the wicked Lamanites, who were Israelites that God cursed with dark skin.
7. God the Father had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, who is the half brother of Lucifer.
8. All Christian churches are an abomination.
9. Mormons need 4 secret handshakes to get into the Celestial heaven.
10. Joseph Smith revealed that the actual Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri.
11. The Mormon religion was founded in upstate New York in 1830, when Joseph Smith published a translation of writings he said he found and translated from Egyptian-style hieroglyphics into English. After publishing what he said was an English translation of the plates as the Book of Mormon, he organized branches of the Church of Christ, a church whose adherents were later called Latter Day Saints, Saints, or Mormons.
12. Joseph Smith had a revelation that men should be polygamists. (Someone is writing on Joseph, we’ll leave that for later).
13. You must wear the Special undergarments for protection and remembrance of your covenants, which have resemblances of free Masonry symbols. That’s enough for now, there’s many more!
All this was very hard for me to absorb, polygamy or no. Basically, Joseph Smith created a Mormon book, started the Mormon Church with these just a speck of his teachings, and had a revelation they should all practice polygamy to get to their planet and be gods.
When Polygamy was outlawed, the LDS church outlawed it also; hence, many splinter groups came into play that continued on with polygamy. Since it was at the very core of Smiths’ teachings, if you were going to ARGUE, you might say the practicing polygamists are the true Mormons.
HOWEVER, with Clowns like Warren Jeffs and the like, the LDS church is distancing themselves.
So, I looked around to see what a “Mormon” was defined as.
According to Wikipedia: The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second great Awakening. Most Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, (LDS Church), while a minority are members of Mormon Fundamentalist or other independent churches. Many Mormons are also either independent or non-practicing. Mormons are often associated with polygamy, although the majority of Mormons are now not.
BUT WAIT: That’s not what the LDS Church says:
Use of the Word Mormon in News Reports. In a Request to the News Media from the LDS Newsroom:
The Associated Press Stylebook has recognized this difficulty and specified that the term Mormon is a nickname that should be applied exclusively to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that it is not accurately applied to any other person or organization (see entries on “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The” and “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”).
In the public mind, the word Mormon has come to mean something very specific It has become a synonym for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Consequently, when Mormonis used to describe polygamist groups, it causes great confusion about our beliefs among the general public and frustration to our members.
Polygamists and polygamist organizations that occasionally make the news are not dissident wings of the Church or fundamentalists. They have no affiliation whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of their members have never had any association with the Church either. It follows that because Warren Jeffs is not affiliated with the Mormon Church, and since he is not Mormon, reporters should look for more accurate and less misleading descriptions of him in the media.
Nutshell: LDS wants the use of the name MORMON, and no other MORMON group should use it! It bothers them so much they put a press release out!
When I queried, I got some good responses:
Also…"The word Mormon is loaded in arguable definitions and contexts but the original label as proclaimed by the brethren was to proudly differentiate themselves from Christians and choose a hero from the ‘Book of Mormon’ to give this new label a more distinctive separation.”
I am going to tick someone off, I'm really not trying to, it's just my humble viewpoint.
If you are following Joseph Smith and his teachings, you are a MORMON are you not? If you marry underage girls or not, if you practice polygamy or not, your still using the same basic teachings. Like with Christians, there’s good and bad in all Churches. LDS forgets they started out the same way. Kody calls himself an Independent Fundamentalist Mormon. The LDS would say he is not a Mormon. Confusing? Yep.
It reminds me of one of my favorite stories of Dr. Seuss, The Sneetches. Because the star-bellied Sneetches are being prejudicial to the plain-bellied Sneetches, a "fix-it-up chappie" named Sylvester McMonkey McBean appears and offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On Machine. Shows the reader that racism is not the way to go.
When my boys were little, I came home to find my husband and them all shirtless, with “stars upons thars”. It was the cutest thing I ever saw, I just wish I had taken a picture.
LDS, you shouldn’t be so stingy with the name. It applies to all that adhere to the teachings of Joseph Smith. Actually, the polygamists are following it more, so I say they can call themselves Mormons. There’s good and bad in every group. Don’t be a Sneetch!
(Sources: http://newsroom.lds.org/article/use-of-the-word-mormon-in-news-reports
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=1588
