The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Firstly, let me apologize quite profusely for my absence of several months. Many things have been happening in the "Real World" in addition to having some rather odd Internet problems. However, this account has been rebuilt and the blog restored, and ready to more forward once more.

Now, on to the topic of the series of posts I am about to begin. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known to much of the world as 'the Mormons'). I would like to delve into the issues behind the rather vehement dislike, spite, and even hatred that is consistently shown to the Church as a body by other Christian denominations. But first, for today, I would like to educate those who do not know the basics - for I believe strongly that this is a good part of the problem - people simply do not know what other denominations believe, something that is especially true when speaking of the LDS church, and therefore they believe what they are told by misinformed or malicious others. This is not out of enmity on the part of some of these people, but merely ignorance. So, here are some basic facts I think that educated people ought to know about the Church:

- The Church believes in Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God, who came to earth, performed miracles, suffered, died, and was resurrected, atoning for the sins of us all. Many teach that the Church does not believe in Christ. On the contrary, he is the epicenter of our faith.

- The Church believes in the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit, of course, is believed in by many and most Christian sects. We believe that his influence can touch anyone, but that a person who is given the gift of the Holy Ghost, that is, the right to have him with them always (as long as they are worthy of his presence) will have the Spirit with them incessantly, whereas before they only had his influence from time to time. This point, as Joseph Smith said something about, really contains all of the differences that separate the Church from other Christian faiths.

- The Church believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The membership does NOT worship Joseph Smith. This rumor saturates many, many uneducated conversations and statements about the Church, but it is simply not true. Joseph Smith was a great man, and a prophet, and was the one through whom God chose to restore the Church to the earth - but he is not, I say again, not, revered above Christ.

- The Book of Mormon is a record of the peoples who lived and died in the Americas during the time of part of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The records were kept upon many plates, or sheets of metal, and were passed down from generation to generation. The second to last writer of the book took the rest of them, abridged the whole bit onto plates of gold. This, in addition to the last writer (Moroni) is what Joseph Smith found (with the help of an angel) and translated (by the power of the Holy Ghost). He did not write the book, he merely translated it. It is called after its abridger, Mormon. This is where the nickname comes from ("The Mormons") not the other way around.

- The Church does not condone polygamy. Some members, when the Church was restored, did practice it. Many have, throughout generations, including key Biblical characters. It isn't unique to this Church. However, in this day and age, such a practice is not reasonable. The leader of the Church at one point told the Saints that the practice would be punishable by law, suggested that they not practice it, and made clear that the Church does not condone it.

- The Church is led by The Quorum of the Seventy, which is superseded by the Quorum of the Twelve (Apostles), which is superseded by the First Presidency. The First Presidency is made up of the President of the Church - the man who is the living prophet of God on the earth today - and his two councilors, all of whom are apostles themselves. These 15 apostles are the absolute authority in the Church, and the President is of course the head of these. The current President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Gordon B. Hinckley.