Who are the Mormons?

The answer to the question of who the Mormons, at different times sounded differently. The representatives of this religion themselves consider themselves the representatives of the only true doctrine. However, this is not surprising.

Не существует ни одной религии, не объявившей oneself the owner of the most proper way of worshiping God. As for the environment in which the Mormons lived, the American Protestants perceived them as pagans, Europeans, regardless of religion, as one of the American sects, akin to Christians. In Russia, Mormons were considered at first as one of the many Protestant sects, and later they were rightly classified as a pagan religion based on the teachings of the Abrahamic religions and on the “revelations” received by Mormons through the founder of the religion, Joseph Smith.

Apparently, the last since childhood was subject tohallucinations of obscure origin. He did not undergo a medical examination, so the genesis of his “visions” remained unclear. It is authentically known that growing up in a fervently faithful Christian family, from the age of fourteen, Joseph Smith received certain “revelations” that convinced him that he was “chosen”.

Fanatics like Joseph Smith at all timesthere were a lot. But the overwhelming majority of them have sunk into obscurity, and only for some circumstances have succeeded, making them "teachers" and "saints" for more or less significant groups of people.

So, who are the Mormons and what is their peculiarity?faith? Along with the Bible, the holy text for them is the Book of Mormon, a kind of message given to Joseph Smith over 1830. He began to preach in the twenties of the nineteenth century. Gradually, Mormon teachings gained more and more supporters. Since they differed sharply from the Protestant-Puritans who lived around (for example, they practiced polygamy and had an extremely tough "vertical of power"), the Mormons were persecuted. Their leaders after the death of Joseph Smith (and he died at the age of thirty-eight) led the "chosen people" to the Wild West, hoping to establish their own state there. The diligence raised to the rank of religion allowed the Mormons to found a city (Salt Lake City) on the shores of Salt Lake, which began to grow rapidly.

Кто такие мормоны на самом деле, стало ясно после destruction by them of a caravan of immigrants who did not have the honor to belong to their religion. The morals that reigned among the Mormons are described by the Englishman Arthur Conan Doyle (Sketch in crimson tones) and American Jack London (Straitjacket).

The Mormon Church is not a monolith today.Some adherents abandoned the practice of polygamy - so as not to conflict with the laws of the United States, and some never practiced it. To date, the number of Mormons by the adepts themselves is estimated at about thirteen million people, most of whom live in the US state of Utah.

Their numbers tend to be slow.increase. Mormons conduct an active proselytizing policy, recruiting adherents in different countries of the world. Smiling missionaries roam the streets of cities on all continents, stopping passersby with the question: “Does everything suit you in life?”. The main thing is to start a conversation, and there too - how Mormon and Joseph Smith will help.

The answer to the question of who are Mormons,The Orthodox Church was also puzzled. Mormons are included in the list of totalitarian sects, compiled by ecclesiastical ideologists - they are included quite rightly, in my opinion. Mormons are a phenomenon completely alien to Russian spiritual practice. And management practices within the Mormon community are not very different from those adopted a century and a half ago.