Sunday 15 March 2015

American Mormons

The Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The Mormon Church is a denomination of the Christian faith, which was founded by Joseph Smith who was allegedly visited by a 'heavenly angel' in 1823, who instructed him on how to find some gold plates buried in a hill in western New York, which had the true word of God inscribed on them. From this came the Book of Mormon, which are the Mormons' holy scriptures, alongside the Holy Bible which is familiar to all Christians. After the Book of Mormon was available to the wider public, Joseph Smith became considered as a prophet of God. In the early days of the faith, Mormons were subject to much criticism and persecution, so many of them relocated to, what is now, Salt Lake City in Utah, which was founded by Brigham Young in 1847, and is quite often seen as the heart of the Mormon faith, being the headquarters of the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Upon arrival in Salt Lake City, designs for the first Mormon temple were drawn up, and upon completion 40 years later, Salt Lake Temple became an icon of Mormonism as well as a famous landmark.


Though the Mormon faith is a fairly recently established religion, it has developed considerably and spread across the globe, with over 15 million followers of the religion worldwide. Missionaries are a vital aspect of the Mormon faith, which is why a majority of young adult Mormons leave their homes and spend two years of their life going around the world, to try and convert people to Mormonism.

Upon first glance of the website, it is clear that the Mormon are a wealthy faith, just because of the the setup of their website. The homepage has slides showing a few examples of people who are Mormons from all parts of the United States, and on each slide it shows a small profile of each person, and to me, this seems like a way of Mormons reaffirming that they live a normal life, which is not changed because of their faith. These pictures are also showing that the Mormons are a diverse range of people, and to quote their homepage 'united by a commitment to Jesus Christ'. This could  be seen to reaffirm the notion of the 'melting pot', because the founding of the Mormon faith appears to have brought many different types of people together, first of all immigrants in the United States, and now people from all different countries across the world. The message that this website puts across is that being a Mormon enhances every aspect of your life, by living to work for God. Mission work is one of the main characteristics of Mormonism which most non-Mormons will immediately associate with the faith. However, this is not the only voluntary and humanitarian work that the Mormons do. Just from seeing the headings under the 'values' tab on the website, it is clear that to be a Mormon, you must be dedicated to your faith and be willing to help other people in various aspects of life.

In my opinion, it can be argued that the Mormon faith in general can be seen as very 'American'. This is mainly due to the fact that less than 50 years after the faith was established, they became renowned for their wealth and success within Salt Lake City, which became populated and vastly developed primarily because of the Mormons. The Salt Lake Temple is evidence of this wealth, because of its grandeur and unique design. The innovation and determination shown by the early Mormons demonstrates key values that were very much prevalent across the whole of the United States during the years of westward expansion and development. The faith was founded by Joseph Smith, essentially, on the basis of needing a fresh start, looking at Christianity in a new way, which is also why a lot of people migrated to the United States in the first place.

However, this being said, the website itself does not immediately strike me as overly 'American'. The only thing on the site that makes it American, is the mention of the origins of the faith, which are only actually specify as being American in the 'FAQs' section on the Book of Mormon, which briefly mention that Joseph Mormon was visited by an angel whilst living in New York State. The impression here is that Mormonism does not necessarily pride itself on being American, or the origins of it.

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