Controversies regarding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Many doctrines and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both past and present, are viewed by many as controversial. However, many of these controversies are based on misunderstandings and half-truths, and have been found at a later date to be pure forgery and fabrication (see Salamander Letter):
Contents |
[edit] List of controversial subjects
- Joseph Smith's First Vision and its various accounts and versions[1]
- Book of Mormon
- Golden Plates
- Smith's hefting them in a frock and running through the woods appears inconsistent with weight of gold
- According to some accounts, Smith translated them by peering into a seer stone at the bottom of a hat without the plates being in the room
- The Spalding-Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon origins[2], which purports that the Book of Mormon was not written by Joseph Smith
- Ethan Smith, View of the Hebrews as a possible influence on the Book of Mormon
- Reuse of Bible passages that were mistranslated in seventeenth-century England
- Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
- Anachronisms such as: chains, coins, wheat, barley, figs, olives, grapes, goats, sheep, oxen, bulls, asses, horses, elephants said to exist in pre-Columbian Americas
- Linguistics and the Book of Mormon
- Genetics and the Book of Mormon
- DNA inconsistent with Mormon claims of Native Americans as Lamanites, that is descendants of the house of Israel
- No mention of Mesoamerican civilizations known to have existed from 600 BC to 400 AD
- Golden Plates
- Testimony of the Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses
- Book of Abraham
- Translated using "brown peep stone" (officially changed to Urim and Thummim)
- Symbols assumed to be ideograms before ancient Egyptian was discovered to be phonetic
- Declared by all Egyptologists to be a bogus translation of a common funerary text
- Original papyri rediscovered in 1966, with further mistranslations in notes
- Plural Marriage and Eternal Marriage
- Initial secrecy and denial of Plural Marriage
- Abolishing Plural Marriage in Utah as a condition of statehood[5]
- Plural marriage to women already married
- Plural marriage to girls aged 14-17
- Plural Marriage after the 1890 Manifesto
- Crisis of succession
- Stigmatizing controversy by labeling critics anti-Mormon
- Temple (Mormonism)
- Vicarious baptism for the dead and other earthly ordinances for the deceased
- Temple "oath of revenge" against the United States (discontinued in 1927)[6]
- Changes to temple ordinances (1990)
- Chanting "Pay Lay Ale" (discontinued, allegedly due to controversial Hebrew translation)
- Women swearing obedience to husbands instead of to God as their husbands do (discontinued)
- Swearing to throat-slitting or disembowelment for those who reveal temple rites (discontinued)
- Portrayal of a Protestant preacher hired by Lucifer to preach salvation by grace (discontinued)
- Use of the Masonic "Five Points of Fellowship" to gain admittance into the Celestial room and the presence of God (discontinued)
- Occult influences on Mormonism
- Joseph Smith fined for treasure-scrying in New York state[7]
- Joseph Smith's belief in his birthsign of Jupiter and use of related talismans[8]
- Significant Mormon dates pertaining to Joseph Smith's birthsign or local almanac folklore[9]
- The existence of supernatural beings that exist present day called the Three Nephites.
- Mormonism and Christianity
- Tritheistic, Godhead (Mormonism) versus the mainstream Christian concept of God and the Trinity
- Similarities to Arianism
- Mormonism and Freemasonry, see Endowment (Mormonism)
- Deification in Mormonism
- Exaltation or becoming like God
- Claims by Joseph Smith that God was once a man[10]
- Joseph Smith comparing himself favorably to Jesus[11]
- Pre-existence
- Doctrine of valiant spirits in pre-existence, determining advantageous earthly conditions
- Doctrine of children dying before age of accountability receiving salvation in highest kingdom
- Continuous revelation versus a closed Biblical canon
- Great Apostasy, loss of Priesthood Authority, and restoration
- Blacks and Mormonism
- Apostates as sons of perdition
- Blood Atonement and Danites
- The Mountain Meadows Massacre
- The Kirtland Safety Society
- The Kinderhook Plates
- The murder of Joseph Smith during which he fired shots at his attackers
- The influence of Emanuel Swedenborg and his three degrees of heaven[12]
- Financial prosperity of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Prophecies of Joseph Smith
- The Civil War Prophecy based on the Nullification Crisis at the time of the prophecy
- The U.S. government to be overthrown in a few years
- Congress to be broken up if protection of Mormons not granted
- Treasure to be soon found in Salem, Massachusetts
- Pestilence, earthquake and famine to soon destroy the wicked in the U.S.
- Lost tribes living near the North Pole[13][14]
- Prophetic fallibility of successors
- The Adam-God doctrine (Brigham Young)
- The Salamander Letter
- Authoritarianism and Mormonism
- Destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor for exposing Plural Marriage
- Censorship and historical revisionism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Suppression of the Journal of Discourses
- Restricted access to historical documents owned by the LDS church
- Excommunication or disfellowshipping of LDS scholars and feminists
- Failure of the United Order Christian communism/communalism system in Mormonism
- 1856-57 church-wide rebaptism of all members, as commanded by Brigham Young
- Politics, Government and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Direct influence on Utah government[15]
- Official church activism against: state lotteries, gay marriage, pornography, abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment
- Women and Mormonism
- Women not allowed to participate in the lay priesthood given to their sons
- Obedience to husband
- Early marriage and large families encouraged
- Raising children given higher priority than having a career
- The Word of Wisdom
- Germ theory not mentioned although discovered shortly thereafter as cause of most disease
- Hot drinks discouraged, today interpreted as coffee and tea
- Mild drinks allowed, referring to beer and ale, although banned today
- Mormonism and church membership
- Refusal to grant name removal or resignation status without excommunication, until court ordered in 1980s
- Questionable membership claims, such as counting inactive or missing members[16]
- Mormonism and society
- Utah highest use of antidepressants in nation [17]
- Utah highest rate of bankruptcy in nation in 2004[18]
- As of 2005, Indiana is ranked 1st in bankruptcy, Ohio is ranked 2nd, and Utah is ranked 3rd[19]
- Utah labeled as fraud capital of nation[20]
[edit] General categorization of apologetics of Mormonism
- Apologists claim Mormonism is only bizarre or heretical compared to mainstream Christianity because mainstream Christianity is in apostasy, and does not understand the doctrinal basis of the practices that are considered heretical.
- Apologists consider the culture of Mormonism to be wholesome and good, to promote free inquiry for the development of faith, and point out that women are not only not "oppressed," but in fact the predominantly-Mormon population of Utah promoted such issues as women's right to vote (which was, in fact, stripped away by Congress in 1887 after being in effect for seventeen years) and own property long before this became the law in most other parts of the United States.
- Apologists claim that Church leadership is honest and open but protective of sacred symbolism and against hyper-criticism that leads to negativism, and that some critics of the Church use misleading and unscrupulous tactics.
- Apologists claim that Joseph Smith's version of the events surrounding the founding of the Church is true.
- Apologists claim that there are many evidences showing that the Book of Mormon is true and authentic.
- Apologists claim that the Church is Christian, since it teaches that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer and people should strive to follow him in their daily actions, showing kindness, charity (virtue), forgiveness, patience, integrity, and values that are consistent with the Ten Commandments as well as the Sermon on the Mount.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Links in support of the Church
- FAIR Topical Guide (Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research) Includes unofficial answers from members of the Church to the majority of topics listed above
- Jeff Lindsay's LDS FAQ One member's response to many questions and criticisms about the Church
- FARMS Brigham Young University's Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies
Links neutral or opposed to the Church
- Peggy Fletcher Stack, Exiles in Zion, Salt Lake Tribune, August 16, 2003, p. C1.
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry Evangelical Ministry of Jerald and Sandra Tanner]
- Living Hope Ministries
- www.lds-mormon.com A website devoted to many controversial Mormon issues and doctrines
- www.exmormon.org Discussion of recovery from Mormonism topics and secular commentary of Mormon controversies
- McMurtry's response to criticism of his review in the letters section
[edit] Further reading
- Abanes, Richard (2002). One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-219-6.
- Brooke, John L. (1994). The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34545-6.
