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:

Contents

1 General note concerning criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
2 List of controversial subjects
3 See also
4 External links
5 Further reading

General note concerning criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Although The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not usually respond to criticisms directly, some LDS Church members have taken apologetic positions in defense of Mormonism. However, even when supported by General Authorities of the church, apologetic positions do not necessarily represent the official position of the LDS Church, nor reflect the beliefs of every Latter-day Saint in good standing.

List of controversial subjects

Joseph Smith's First Vision and its various accounts and versions[link]
Book of Mormon
*Golden Plates
**Reports of hefting, in a bag, are claimed to be inconsistent with real weight of gold
**Translated by peering into the Urim and Thummim at the bottom of a hat without the plates being in the room
*The Spalding-Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon origins[link]
*Ethan Smith and his View of the Hebrews as a possible direct influence on the Book of Mormon
*Use of flawed Bible passages
**Modernly known mistakes found in Isaiah cited in Book of Mormon without correction
**The word Lucifer misapplied to mean Satan throughout Mormonism, originally a mistake in Isaiah
*Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
*Anachronisms such as: chains, coins, wheat, barley, figs, olives, grapes, goats, sheep, oxen, bulls, asses, horses, elephants 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
**No mention of existing Mesoamerican civilizations known to have existed from 600 BC to 400 AD

Testimony of the Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses

Book of Abraham
*Translated using "brown peep stone" (officially changed to Urim and Thummim)
*Symbols were assumed to be ideograms, before ancient Egyptian was discovered to be phonetic
*Declared by Egyptologists worldwide 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[link]
*Plural marriage to women already married
*Plural marriage to girls aged 14-17
*Plural Marriage after the 1890 Manifesto
Crisis of succession
Labeling critics anti-Mormon to stigmatize controversy

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)[link]
*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)
**Veiled faces for women during prayer (discontinued)
**Swearing to throat-slitting or disembowelment for those who reveal temple rites (discontinued)
**Portrayal of a 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
*Joseph Smith's belief in his birthsign of Jupiter and use of related talismans
*Significant Mormon dates pertaining to Joseph Smith's birthsign or local almanac folklore

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
*Joseph Smith comparing himself favorably to Jesus

Pre-existence
*Doctrine of valiant spirits in pre-existence, determining advantageous earthly conditions or skin color
*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 martyrdom of Joseph Smith
The influence of Emanuel Swedenborg and his three degrees of heaven[link]

Financial prosperity of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
*Tithing the poor
*Tithing perceived as necessary for salvation and earthly blessings
*Discouragement of receiving government welfare while touting its own welfare program

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 as a government if protection of Mormons not granted
*Treasure to be soon found in Salem, Mass.
*The coming of the Lord before 1891
*Pestilence, earthquake and famine to soon destroy the wicked in the U.S.
*Lost tribes living at or near the North Pole

Prophetic fallibility of successors
*The Adam-God doctrine (Brigham Young)
*Men dressed as Quakers living on the sun and moon (Brigham Young)
*The Salamander Letter

Authoritarianism and Mormonism
*Destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor
*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
**The September Six
**Grant Palmer
**Thomas Murphy
**Fawn Brodie
**Sonia Johnson
**Martha Beck

Failure of the United Order communism 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
*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 children
*Obedience to husband
*Early marriage and large families encouraged, careers discouraged

The Word of Wisdom
*Germ theory not mentioned although discovered recently thereafter as cause of most disease
*Hot drinks and soups discouraged as part of early American temperance and health beliefs, explained today as ban on 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 1980's
*Questionable membership claims, such as counting inactive or missing members[link]

Mormonism and society
*Utah highest in use of antidepressants nationally[link]
*Utah consistently has highest rate of bankruptcy in nation[link]
*Utah labeled as fraud capital of nation[link]

External links

Peggy Fletcher Stack, [Exiles in Zion], Salt Lake Tribune, August 16, 2003, p. C1.
[Utah Lighthouse Ministry] Evangelical Ministry of Jerald and Sandra Tanner]
[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
[Larry McMurtry, Angel in America] (New York Review of Books, Vol. 52, Nr. 18, 17 November 2005) skeptical review of recent biography of Joseph Smith (article not available for free);
[McMurtry's response to criticism] of his review in the letters section
[The Mormonites: Their Churches and Schisms]

Controversies regarding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

General note concerning criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

List of controversial subjects

See also

External links

Further reading