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Current Status:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also commonly referred to as the "LDS Church." They prefer the abbreviations "the Church" or "the Church of Jesus Christ." However, the latter abbreviations would be confusing to use in this web site because we deal with so many faith groups who regarding only themselves as the true Christian church.
Beliefs concerning the LDS church vary:
| Members believe themselves to be a restoration of the original church of the Apostles as it existed in the 1st Century CE. They believe that early in the 2nd century, after the death of the apostles, massive heresies developed within the Christian movement that caused it to permanently deviate from Jesus' teachings. From these heresies came the Roman Catholic church, Eastern Orthodox churches, thousands of Protestant denominations, etc. |
| Many Gentiles (non-Mormons) consider the LDS church to be a unique conservative denomination within Protestant Christianity, who have supplemented traditional Christianity with beliefs concerning an ancient American civilization and additional revelations from God. |
| Some Christian Fundamentalist authors, particularly those from the counter-cult movement, feel that differences between Mormonism and traditional Christianity are so great that the LDS church should be considered non-Christian, and a cult. |
All agree that:
| The LDS Church is one of the largest and most successful religious groups ever founded in North America; |
| They do have many practices and beliefs that isolate them from traditional Christianity. |
As of 1999, they had about 11 million members world-wide, with a slight majority living outside the U.S. They exceeded 12 million in early 2004. 1 Their end-of-year statistical report for 2005 shows:
| A total membership of 12,560,869 members including 52,060 full time missionaries. |
| 2,701 stakes, 643 districts, 341 missions and 27,087 wards and branches. |
| 122 temples are in operation, including temples dedicated during 2005 at San Antonio, TX; Aba Nigeria; and Newport Beach, CA. 2,3 |
| There are 5.7 million LDS members in the U.S., 3 million in South America, 1 million in Mexico, 448 thousand in Europe, 404 thousand in the South Pacific, and 172 thousand in Canada. 4 |
Their facilities are spread across 150 countries. Their main power concentration is in the state of Utah, where it is often estimated that about 70% of the adults identify themselves as Mormon. However, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York conducted a massive "American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) in the year 2000. It indicates that only 57% of Utah adults identify themselves as Mormon. 17% in the state have no religion, 6% are Catholics, and all other religious groups are each less than 3%. Other states with large Mormon populations are Idaho at 14%, Nevada 9%, Arizona at 6%, and Oregon at 4%. The Mormon population in all other states is 3% or less. 5
Their total membership has at least doubled every 15 years since 1945. Some of this gain is due to the large average size of their families. However, most of the increase from 1 million in 1947 to 11 million in the year 1999 consisted of new converts to the LDS church. The total growth rate in recent years reached a high of 6% in 1980 and has been generally declining since. In 2003, it dropped below 3% for the first time in recent years.
Mormons had traditionally separated themselves from other Christian groups -- particularly since 1846, when Brigham Young led most of the church on a long and difficult 1,300 mile (2100 km) trip to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. They had emphasized the uniqueness of their faith. However in the mid 1980's a movement intensified within the LDS Church to emphasize their points of similarity between themselves and traditional Christianity. They have joined with non-Mormon groups to actively fight drug abuse, abortion access, equal rights for women, and equal rights for gays and lesbians. In recent years, their extensive television ads have emphasized their "pro-family" beliefs which are indistinguishable from Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christian groups.
For about the past three decades, missionaries from the LDS Church have stressed the similarities between their beliefs and those of mainline Protestantism. There were some reports that in mid-2006, their policy had changed, so that they now emphasize the major differences in beliefs and practices between the LDS and other Christian denominations. However, there is a general consensus among the counter-cult movement that this difference is not a change in official policy. It merely represents personal or regional differences in evangelization techniques.
Recent developments:
| 2000-MAY: Rejection of the LDS church by other Christian groups intensified. The United Methodist Church approved a resolution which stated that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: |
"... does not fit within the bounds of the historic, apostolic tradition of Christian faith.... [They have] some radically differing doctrine on such matters of belief as the nature and being of God; the nature, origin, and purpose of Jesus Christ; and the nature and way of salvation."
This action follows similar resolutions previously passed by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Southern Baptist Convention.
| 2000-NOV: US News & World Report stated that Mormonism is the fastest growing faith group in American history. If present trends continue, there could be 265 million LDS members worldwide by the year 2080. 6 |
| Mid-2001: The LDS church asked the media to call them by their full name: "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," or simply "The Church of Jesus Christ." |
| 2001-SEP: According to Newsweek: "Utah’s governor, two senators and three congressmen are Mormons. So are all the state’s Supreme Court justices and 80 percent of the state and federal judiciary, 90 percent of the state legislators and at least 85 percent of the mayors, county commissioners and local school officials." 7 |
Mormon Religious Texts:
The LDS Church, and most other LDS Restorationist sects and denominations, recognize four source texts as divinely inspired and authoritative scripture. These are called the "Standard Works":
| The Hebrew and Christian scriptures in their autograph (original) version. | ||||||||
| The Book of Mormon, as translated from the original golden plates and published in 1830. It was translated into Danish in 1851. Currently, the full book has been translated into 72 languages; parts of it have been printed in an additional 32 languages. 8 About 129 million copies have been published. About 4.6 million copies were distributed in 2005. 3 | ||||||||
| Doctrine and Covenants is composed of:
| ||||||||
| The Pearl of Great Price, which is composed of:
|
However, the church recognizes that errors have crept into the copying of the Bible in ancient times, and that additional errors have been caused by faulty translation of the Bible into English from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. In cases of conflict between the Bible and the remaining inspired texts, the latter are judged to be authoritative.
In addition, the following books are considered to contain material of great historical and spiritual significance, but are not canonized as scripture:
| History of the Church: Seven volumes mostly written at the time of Joseph Smith. They document the early history of the church. |
| Journal of Discourses: Twenty six volumes from past General Authorities, who were close associates of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. |
| Lectures on Faith: Seven lectures prepared by Joseph Smith and delivered in the 'School of the Prophets.' They discuss theology, the nature of God and the principles of faith. |
| The Inspired Translation of the Bible: a revision of the King James Version of the Bible by Joseph Smith. |
| Other writings, such as conference reports, collected writings of modern prophets, etc. |
Like most non-Catholic Christian denominations, the LDS does not consider the Apocrypha to be important religious texts.
LDS Organization:
The church has an hierarchical organization:
| The "family" level is composed of a husband, wife and children; the husband is considered the head of the family; the wife is intended to be the primary care giver; both share authority over the children. | ||||||||
| Next are the "wards" or "branches" which correspond to churches in Roman
Catholicism. Each is each headed by a male bishop (equivalent of a
pastor or priest). Within the Ward there are:
Over the past three decades, there has been an enormous growth in new LDS wards worldwide, In the late 1970s, over 1,600 new wards were creating. Between that year and the end of the 20th century, there were about 400 or more new wards organized each year. Recently, this has dropped considerably -- only 59 during 2002 and 94 during 2003. There are currently on the order of 26,000 wards and branches within the LDS. 10,11 | ||||||||
| Next are the "stakes" which correspond to Catholic dioceses, and are each headed by a male president, and consists of several wards. A Stake President presides over each stake. The number of new stakes has followed the same trend as the creation of new wards. In 2002, there was even a reduction in the number of stakes. There are currently about 2,600 stakes in the LDS. | ||||||||
| Next are Area Authorities, each responsible for a group of stakes. | ||||||||
| Then there are the 1st and 2nd Quorum of Seventies, called General Authorities. They are responsible for Missions, Temples and church programs etc. | ||||||||
| Then the Quorum of the Twelve: the Apostles. | ||||||||
| Finally, there is the First Presidency which consists of the President (Prophet) and two counselors. Gordon B Hinckley is the current Prophet. |
Women have, so far, not been included in this chain of command. They control the Relief Society, which is a hierarchical organization - a mirror of the Priesthood governing body, from the ward right to the General level. They are also active in other auxiliary organizations, such as the Primary, Sunday School or Young Women. Men are not allowed to teach in Young Women, the primary (under 12 years of age) religion classes and the Relief Society. Women can teach anywhere except in the priesthood and the Young Men organization.
New members are often nominated to vacant positions. Sometimes they are nominated to an occupied position where they might be a better fit for the task. The church membership confirms their selection at ward meetings, stake conferences, or general conferences without public debate.
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- "The Ensign," the official magazine of the LDS Church, 2004-SEP, Page 76.
- F. Michael Watson, "Statistical Report, 2005," at: http://www.lds.org/
- "Key Facts and Figures," LDS, at: http://www.lds.org/
- "Membership Distribution," LDS, end of 2005, at: http://www.lds.org/
- "American Religious Identification Survey," by The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, at: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/
- Reported by Maranatha Christian Journal at: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/00b/20001109e.htm
- K.L. Woodward, "A Mormon Moment: America's biggest homegrown religion is looking more Christian. But it's still a different world," Newsweek, 2001-SEP-10, at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/622787.asp
- "The Ensign," the official magazine of the LDS Church, 2004-SEP, Page 75.
- The text of The Pearl of Great Price is online at http://scriptures.lds.org/pgp/contents
- "Trends in LDS Church Growth," The Cumorah Project, at: http://www.cumorah.con/trends.doc
- Rachel Woods, "LDS FAQs," About.com at: http://lds.about.com/
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Copyright © 1995 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2007-AUG-12
Author: B.A. Robinson
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