On, April 6, 1830, a then 24-year-old young man named Joseph Smith Jr. gathered in a small room along with six other people to organize a Church that would change American history. Since the age of 14, Joseph Smith had always been a source of contentment and ridicule by people of all social classes and religions. Ten years earlier, in the spring of 1820, this young boy declared that he had seen a vision, that he had been visited by both God, and His Son, Jesus Christ.
This vision is a cornerstone of the Church that is known today as, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nicknamed the “Mormons”, a religion that was built on the ideals of communal living and strict obedience to religious guidelines, a people that would be hunted by mobs, and that would eventually erect a “sanctuary” of 15,000 “saints” only 13 years after its foundation, a religion that Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum would be murdered for at the age of 38, a Church that would grow from 7 members in 1830, to a congregation of over 11 million in the year 2000.# Why did many early American settlers, both rich and poor, believe in the Mormon doctrines and, by contrast, why did so many early settlers despise these people for their beliefs?
In order for us to understand how the early Mormon Church grew at such a rapid pace, and why this particular new religion survived when many others started with the same fervor, but did not have the staying power of Mormonism, we have to first look at the time and region in which this new faith began. I don’t know if there could have been a time and place any where in the world that was more prepared for Joseph Smith Jr., and the Mormon religion, than western New York in the early 1830’s. At this time in U.S. history, what was called the “Second Great Awakening” was taking place throughout the country,# and western New York had been labeled the “Burned-over District” by a lawyer from New York, named Charles Finney, because it “had been scorched by the flames of religious enthusiasm.”# Revivals and religious fervor were taking hold, and many new denominations were being formed, this area of the country became famous “for its history of revivalism, radicalism, utopian experiments. It was fertile ground for new ideas to take root and spread to other parts of the country.”# Joseph Smith was able to capitalize on this when he founded the LDS Church ...
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Thomas Paine, in the pamphlet Common Sense, succeeded in convincing the indifferent portion of colonial society that America should secede from Britain through moral and religious, economic, and governmental arguments. Using strong evidence, targeting each separate group of people, Thomas Paine served not only to sway the public 's opinion on American independence, but also to mobilize the effort to achieve this ultimatum.
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During the late 17 hundreds the American colonies were split between separating from Great Britain or not. Some colonists felt they did not need to leave the rule of Britain, while others saw potential for the American colonies without Great Britain parliament. In the pamphlet titled Common Sense, Thomas Paine expressed his beliefs to separate from Great Britain in order to achieve greater opportunities for the Americans. He believed that nothing that came out of the monarchies was good, that America was oppressed and to structured to be run by Great Britain.
Since the mid 1800s, Mormons, or also referred to as the Latter-Day Saints, have been a thriving religion in the United States. Founded by Joseph smith in 1830, it has grown from a small group of outcasts to a significant size of nearly seven million followers. Joseph Smith was the first prophet and president of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. After the murder of Joseph Smith in 1844, a man named Brigham Young migrated with bulk of the Mormons to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1847, where they made their home. Today, president and prophet of the current Church is Thomas S. Manson who resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake City is the home of the Mormon Church headquarters, much like Rome, Italy is the hub of the Roman Catholic Church. Mormons accept the basic teaching of Christianity, but like all Christian denominations, they have their own particular take on things.
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8 Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm Company, 1972), 277
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