Dictionary:
Mor·mon (môr'mən) 
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Mormon |
For more information on Mormon, visit Britannica.com.
| British History: Mormons |
Mormons, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, result from visions experienced in Manchester, NY, during the 1820s by Joseph Smith (1805-44), enabling him to locate and translate The Book of Mormon (1827), a history of American religion from Babel to the 5th cent. AD, written on gold tablets in ‘reformed Egyptian’ and deciphered by sacred crystals which Smith had to return to the angel Moroni on completion. There followed seventeen years of sectarian vagabondage: founded in 1830, the sect reached Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah, in 1847. In that time twelve apostles were appointed, Smith became first president, received his revelation about plural marriages (1843), and was killed in prison. Mormonism's survival, therefore, owes most to Smith's successor Brigham Young (1801-77), who shaped Utah into a model state (polygamy was abolished in 1890). The whole was expressed in lives of strenuous simplicity and aggressive missionary endeavour. The first Mormon missionaries reached England in 1837.
| US History Companion: Mormons |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called the Mormon church) was founded at Fayette, New York, on April 6, 1830, by Joseph Smith, Jr. Smith, the recipient of dreams and heavenly manifestations in the 1820s, dictated to scribes the translated text of a holy book he said had been engraved on gold plates by an American Indian historian about a.d. 400. The six-hundred-page Book of Mormon was published in the spring of 1830.
The Latter-day Saints church, as it is more accurately called, was intended to be a restoration of the primitive church established by Jesus and his apostles. God was a personal being, Jesus his literal son, and at the head of the church was a prophet, functioning under divine leadership and through an appointed, male, lay priesthood. The church accepted the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and revelations of the prophet as sacred Scriptures.
Missionaries preached throughout New England, the Old Northwest, Canada, and England, and within five years there were more than eight thousand converts. The religious beliefs of the Mormons and their attempts to institute a government in which the godly ruled, however, ran counter to the democratic pluralism of American society, and the Mormons experienced repeated difficulties with their neighbors. Mormon settlers were driven by hostile mobs, in succession, from New York to Ohio, to Missouri, and to Nauvoo in Illinois. In these moves, the Mormons lost most of their property, and many were killed or died from illness.
In Nauvoo Mormons established a well-planned city and began building a temple, the University of Nauvoo, and a number of mills and shops. But once more the Mormons had difficulties with their neighbors, and in 1844 a mob, including members of the state militia, stormed the jail where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were being held on the charge of inciting a riot and murdered them.
Within a few weeks, Brigham Young, leader of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was "sustained" as the new prophet. Under his leadership preparations were made for removal of the church to the Great Basin in western America. Nauvoo was abandoned in 1846. A pioneer company of 148 persons reached the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847, where they made preparations for those to follow. About 2,000 wintered in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847-1848, and the remainder of some 16,000 exiles migrated to the Great Basin at a rate of about 3,000 per year. Meanwhile, the 30,000 or more converts in the eastern United States, Great Britain, and Scandinavia were arriving at a similar rate. By 1860 there were 40,000 Latter-day Saints in Utah; by 1900, more than 200,000.
Some believers who chose not to follow Brigham Young founded the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1860 in Amboy, Illinois, with Joseph Smith III as their president. Headquarters were later removed to Iowa and still later to Missouri, where a large auditorium and other facilities were built. There were approximately 220,000 members of the Reorganized Church in 1990.
The Utah Mormons colonized 350 settlements in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, and Idaho and established industries required for their relatively self-sufficient agricultural economy. Community growth and welfare were supported by a system of voluntary "consecrations" and tithing.
Although the Mormons had hoped to establish a state government, Congress instead set up Utah Territory (which included present-day Nevada). This meant that Mormon settlers had to deal with officers appointed by the president. Although Brigham Young was the first governor, most of the federal appointees were hostile to the Mormons, and few, from any point of view, were competent.
Because the Mormons failed to cooperate with the "outsiders," President James Buchanan, accusing them of being in "a state of substantial rebellion" in 1857, sent the U.S. Army to occupy the territory. The troops remained until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
Federal appointees and visiting journalists complained of three problems: the attempt of the Mormons to control the political life of the territory at the expense of the non-Mormon minorities; exclusivist economic practices, which inhibited the activities of "outside" businessmen; and the practice of plural marriage, even if by only a small minority. Federal legislation was directed at each of these practices during the 1860s and into the 1880s, culminating in the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. This act disincorporated the Mormon church, placed regulation of elections in the territory in the hands of a commission appointed by the U.S. president, disfranchised Mormon women (who had been given the vote in 1870), and required the seizure by the territorial marshal of all assets of the church, except chapels and burial grounds. After Mormon leaders agreed in 1890 to refrain from performing plural marriages, to disband the church's political party, and to disengage from church-supported business enterprises, Utah was granted statehood in 1896.
Mormon religious beliefs have continued in the twentieth century essentially as promulgated by Joseph Smith and his successors. A worldwide network of forty thousand voluntary (unpaid) missionaries, usually young people, has continued to preach the gospel in some 110 countries and make conversions. The membership of the church rose from 300,000 in 1900 to 700,000 in 1930, 3 million in 1970, and 7 million in 1990. Approximately half the membership is in the United States.
Mormons emphasize strong family life, the work ethic, education and group progress, and abstinence from tobacco, harmful drugs, and alcoholic beverages. The church operates Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; Ricks College, in Rexburg, Idaho; Brigham Young University (Hawaii Branch), in Laie, Hawaii; and other educational institutions in New Zealand, Mexico, and elsewhere. The church operates Institutes of Religion adjacent to most universities where college-level training in religious subjects is given, and seminaries adjacent to high schools where early-hour instruction is offered.
The local congregation, called a ward, consists of five to six hundred members in a given part of a city or settlement and is run by an appointed unpaid bishop. From five to ten wards make up a stake, with an appointed, unpaid stake president. The central church of the Latter-day Saints church, still headquartered in Salt Lake City, is headed by a president or prophet, with two counselors. The governing board of the church consists of the Council of Twelve Apostles, assisted by a Council of Seventies who hold various administrative posts. The Women's Relief Society is directed by a president and two counselors.
The church operates a daily newspaper, the Deseret News, a network of television and radio stations, a large printing establishment, and other enterprises to assist in its programs.
Bibliography:
James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (1976); Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints (1958; paperback ed., 1966); Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: History of the Latter-day Saints (1979).
Author:
Leonard J. Arrington
See also Missionaries; Religion; Smith, Joseph; Young, Brigham.
| Wikipedia: Mormon |
Mormon is a term used to describe the adherents, practitioners, followers or constituents of certain denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement. The term most often refers to a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which is commonly called the Mormon Church. The LDS Church claims that "Mormon" should properly be applied only to its members, to avoid possible confusion with Mormon fundamentalist groups which practice plural marriage. However, the term is nevertheless used to refer to many other sects that recognize Brigham Young as a prophet, including Mormon fundamentalists. The term is not usually applied to other sects within the Latter Day Saint movement, such as the Community of Christ, who did not associate with Brigham Young after the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the movement.
The term originated from the Book of Mormon, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. According to the Book of Mormon,
Contents |
The term "Mormon" is taken from the title of the Book of Mormon, a sacred text adherents believe to have been translated from golden plates revealed by an angel to Joseph Smith, Jr. and published in 1830. According to the text of the Book of Mormon,
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the earliest published usages of the term "Mormon" to describe believers in the Book of Mormon was in 1833 by the Louisville (Kentucky) Daily Herald in an article, "The Mormons and the Anti-Mormons".[3]
The terms "Mormon" and "Mormonite" were first used in the 1830s as pejoratives to describe those who followed Joseph Smith and believed in the divine origin of the Book of Mormon. The term was soon adopted by Mormons themselves, however, and has lost its generally pejorative status.
The term "Mormon" is most often used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). However, the term is also adopted by other adherents of Mormonism, including adherents of Mormon fundamentalism. The term "Mormon" is generally disfavored by other denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, such as the Community of Christ, which have distinct histories from that of the LDS Church since Smith's death in 1844.
The term is particularly embraced by adherents of Mormon fundamentalism, who continue to believe in and practice plural marriage,[4] a practice that the LDS Church officially abandoned in 1890.[5] Seeking to distance itself from polygamy and Mormon fundamentalism, the LDS Church has taken the position that the term Mormon should only apply to the LDS Church and its members, and not other adherents who have adopted the term.[6] The church cites the AP Stylebook, which states, "The term Mormon is not properly applied to the other Latter Day Saints churches that resulted from the split after [Joseph] Smith’s death."[7] Despite the LDS Church's position, the term Mormon is widely used by journalists and non-journalists to refer to adherents of Mormon fundamentalism.
The official name of the Salt Lake City, Utah-based church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the term "Mormon Church" has long been attached to the church as a nickname, it is an unauthorized title, and its use is not encouraged by the church, although the use of "Mormon" in other contexts is not generally considered offensive and is commonly used by the church's members.[8][9][10] LDS Church leaders have encouraged members to use the church's full name to emphasize the church's focus on Jesus Christ.[11]
J. Gordon Melton, in his Encyclopedia of American Religions, subdivides the Mormons into Utah Mormons, Missouri Mormons, Polygamy-Practicing Mormons, and Other Mormons.[12] In this scheme, the Utah Mormon group includes the non-polygamous organizations descending from those Mormons who followed Brigham Young to what is now Utah. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is by far the largest of these groups, and the only group to initially reside in Utah. The Missouri Mormon groups include those non-polygamous groups that chose not to travel to Utah and are currently headquartered in Missouri, which Joseph Smith, Jr. designated as the future site of the New Jerusalem. These organizations include Community of Christ, Church of Christ (Temple Lot), Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and others. Polygamy-Practicing Mormon groups are those that currently practice polygamy, regardless of location. Other Mormon groups include those that are not headquartered in Utah or Missouri and do not practice polygamy, such as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite).
The terms "Utah Mormon" and "Missouri Mormon" can be problematic if interpreted to mean more than the location of the various groups' headquarters.[citation needed] The majority of members of "Utah Mormon" groups and "Missouri Mormon" groups no longer live in either of these U.S. states. Although a majority of Utahns are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the LDS Church has a worldwide membership with the majority of its members outside the United States. Nor do most "Missouri Mormons" live in Missouri.
The May 15, 1843 issue of the official Mormon periodical Times and Seasons contains an article, purportedly written by Joseph Smith, Jr., deriving the etymology of the name "Mormon" from English "more" + Egyptian mon, "good", and extolling the meaning as follows:
It has been stated that this word [mormon] was derived from the Greek word mormo. This is not the case. There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of Mormon. Let the language of that book speak for itself. On the 523d page, of the fourth edition, it reads: And now behold we have written this record according to our knowledge in the characters which are called among us the Reformed Egyptian ... none other people knoweth our language; therefore [God] hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof." ... [The] Bible in its widest sense, means good; for the Savior says according to the gospel of John, "I am the good shepherd;" and it will not be beyond the common use of terms, to say that good is among the most important in use, and though known by various names in different languages, still its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say from the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, goda; the German, gut; the Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; and the Egyptian, mon. Hence, with the addition of more, or the contraction, mor, we have the word MOR-MON; which means, literally, more good.[13]
Whether Smith was the actual author of this passage is uncertain. Official LDS Church historian B. H. Roberts removed the quote from his History of the Church compilation, saying he found evidence that W. W. Phelps wrote that paragraph and that it was "based on inaccurate premises and was offensively pedantic."[14] LDS Church apostle Gordon B. Hinckley noted that the "more good" translation is incorrect but added that "Mormon means 'more good'" is a positive motto for members of the LDS Church.[9]
According to the Book of Mormon, a man named
[The prophet]
Mormon was not named after his father; he was named after the land of Mormon. He had been taught about his heritage by his parents and understood the sacred significance associated with the name Mormon. No doubt his father also bore the name Mormon for the same reason. In 3 Nephi 5:12 he gives us a clear indication that the name Mormon is symbolically synonymous with the restoration of the covenant which took place in the land of Mormon by Alma and his people.A study of the Introduction of the Book of Mormon tells us its main purpose is to restore a knowledge of the covenants to the house of Israel. This adds weight to the understanding that the name Mormon was always associated with the place of the restoration of the covenant to the Nephites. In fact, the name Mormon became synonymous with the concept of restoring the covenants.
In light of this understanding, the Book of Mormon is not named for a man. It is named for the place where the covenant was restored. Symbolically, the Book of Mormon bears the name "Book of the Restoration of the Covenant."[16]
In some countries, Mormon and some phrases including the term are registered trademarks owned by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. (a holding company for the LDS Church's intellectual property).[17] In the United States, the LDS Church has applied for a trademark on "Mormon" as applied to religious services; however, the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application, stating that the term "Mormon" was too generic, and is popularly understood as referring to a particular kind of church, similar to "Presbyterian" or "Methodist", rather than a service mark.[18] The application is on appeal as of mid-2007.[19] In all, the Intellectual Reserve, Inc. owns more than 60 trademarks related to the Mormon Church.[20]
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| Translations: Mormon |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - mormon (rel.)
Nederlands (Dutch)
mormoon, mormoons
Français (French)
n. - Mormon
adj. - mormon
Deutsch (German)
n. - Mormone
adj. - mormonisch
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) Μορμόνος
adj. - των Μορμόνων
Português (Portuguese)
n. - mórmon (m)
adj. - mórmon
Русский (Russian)
мормон, многоженец
Español (Spanish)
n. - mormón
adj. - mormón, de la secta de los mormones
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mormon
adj. - mormonsk
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
摩门教徒, 一夫多妻主义者
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 摩門教徒, 一夫多妻主義者
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - モルモン教徒, モルモン, 一夫多妻主義者
adj. - モルモン教の
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مورمون وهي طائفه دينيه منسوبه لمؤسسها (صفه) المورمونيه
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| US History Companion. The Reader's Companion to American History, Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mormon". Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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