You're probably aware that Mormons exist, and they probably live down the street from you. You may also think that they have crazy beliefs. Or maybe you're not quite sure what they believe, but you've heard that it's crazy. Utilizing a variety of sources, let's talk about the Mormons.

Joseph Smith is the founder of the Mormon religion, the actual, full name of which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, usually abbreviated "LDS." Smith was born in 1805 and grew up in upstate New York. He claimed to have visions that told him of nebulous secret records, but the visions never told him what the records said or where they were located. Finally, sometime between 1820 and 1824, an angel named Moroni appeared to Smith and told him that there were records of Christ's followers in America buried nearby. The records were written on golden plates in an ancient Egyptian-like language that Smith translated with the help of seer stones that he possessed.

How did Smith translate these plates? South Park episode 07x12, "All About the Mormons," depicts him as placing the plates and the seer stones into a hat and then reading the suddenly illuminated English text that appeared on the plates. Actually, that's pretty much how it happened, according to early LDS church documents:

Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.

Martin Harris, the man who transcribed Smith's translation of the first plate, the Book of Lehi, took the 116-page manuscript with him to his home in New York. Smith, who was living in Harmony, Pennsylvania, hadn't heard from Harris for two weeks, so he decided to go see him. When Smith finally got to Harris, Harris broke down and admitted that he had lost the manuscript. At this point, notes this webpage, Smith made the transition from translator to prophet. Before Harris lost the manuscript, Smith was merely translating others' work into English. Now, he was receiving communication directly from God. In this instance, God refused to tell Smith where the golden plates were. In a later revelation, Smith was commanded not to re-translate the Book of Lehi, but to translate from the Book of Nephi, located on another plate. It just so happened that both plates recounted the same story, but since they were written by different authors, the translations would be slightly different.

God later commanded Joseph Smith and his followers to move to Kirtland, Ohio. I used to live in Mentor, a scant five minutes from Kirtland. I also did volunteer work at the Lake County Historical Society, where they have a whole archival box labeled "Mormons." The Mormons still have a presence in Kirtland. They recently bought a lot of land near the temple there and turned the area into a sort of pioneer village. (The Mormons love the "pioneer" image.) The life of the Mormons in Kirtland was somewhat tumultuous. Smith, together with right-hand man Sidney Rigdon, raised money from the locals for the construction of a temple in Kirtland. As Lake County Historical Society curator Karon Tomlinson told me once, the locals really didn't care about Smith messing with their religion, so they loaned him money. Key word here: loaned. Well, Smith built his Mormon temple, but he was unable to pay back his investors. The locals may not have cared about Smith messing with their religion, but they did care about him messing with their pocketbooks. Curiously, at about this time, Smith received a revelation that the Mormons should move to Nauvoo, Illinois.

That was probably a bad idea, for it was in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith was killed by angry townspeople. Brigham Young took over leadership of the Mormons, and he instructed them to move to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. And there they live to this day.

But what do they believe? For one, they believe in genealogy, the study of one's ancestors. They believe in it so much that the genealogy library in Salt Lake City, located in Temple Square along with the central temple (the tallest building in Salt Lake City), is the world's largest and most sophisticated genealogy library. So what's with this obsession with family history?

Turns out it's not just a simple hobby. In Mormon belief, a dead person's descendants can perform all the same Mormon rituals on that dead person, effectively making him a Mormon posthumously. The person can be baptized as a Mormon posthumously and the person can be endowed (the marriage ceremony) posthumously. The Mormons can then count these dead people as part of their membership. So, even if the relatives were atheists, Catholics, Muslims, whatever, they can be re-baptized as Mormons. And this is why Mormons are obsessed with genealogy: they want to find out who their ancestors are, not as a hobby, but so those ancestors can become Mormons, too.

For another, they're not conventional Christians. They're actually quite heretical in their belief in the Book of Mormon, subtitled "Another Testament of Jesus Christ," because the New Testament was canonized in 375 A.D. Most Christians believe that this is a "closed canon" -- nothing more can be added to the Bible; it is authoritative as-is. Mormons have added three books to the canon: The Book of Mormon, which tells the story of two ancient tribes from Jerusalem that came to America; Doctrine and Covenants; and The Pearl of Great Price. These three books are the center of Mormon scripture.

What else do Mormons believe? For one, that God used to be a human being, and even though he is now an omnipotent being, he still has a "body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s." God was appointed the supreme being of Earth by a counsel of other gods. Human beings, too, can become gods, through holy living and good deeds, and may someday become gods of their own planets.

As for heaven, there are three of them in Mormon theology: The Celestial Kingdom, the Terrestrial Kingdom, the Telestial Kingdom, and the outer darkness, in descending order of desirability. The Celestial Kingdom is the goal of all Mormons, attainable only if you have atoned for all your sins in this lifetime. The Terrestrial Kingdom is for people who do not believe all the teachings of Mormonism, but are otherwise good. The Telestial Kingdom is for people who have lived unclean lives. The outer darkness is for a small handful of people who cannot be saved. Until 1978, the Mormons taught that "Black people are black because of their misdeeds in the pre-existence." Also, "The Negro is an unfortunate man. He has been given a black skin. But that is nothing compared with that greater handicap. He is not permitted to receive the priesthood and the ordinances of the temple, necessary to prepare men and women to enter into and enjoy a fullness of glory in the Celestial Kingdom." It's not surprising that there aren't that many African-Americans in the LDS Church, since they couldn't enter the priesthood until 1978.

It may be easy to dismiss Mormonism as something as crazy as Scientology (which also deals with other planets, but hey, at least its founder was a science-fiction writer), but when your annual revenue is about $20 billion, you're eccentric, not crazy (it helps that church members are required to tithe 10% of their annual income). Unfortunately, the LDS Church uses a significant portion of this revenue to push its political agendas, such as sponsoring legislators and interest groups in order to defeat gay rights legislation. In its push for traditional "family values," which includes perpetuating the "traditional" role of women as homemakers and mothers and attempting to mold young Mormon women to be traditional women, the church is being left behind as the rest of American culture changes. Of course, this could easily be said of other Christian denominations, but few other denominations are as socially restrictive as the LDS Church; Mormons aren't even allowed to date until they're 16.

So, yes, Mormonism is weird, and it's probably weirder than you think, at least in terms of other kinds of Christianity. But it's not to be marginalized: the LDS Church is very powerful, especially in Utah, where 70% of the population is Mormon, and its members are, by and large, wealthy. They have the money to push their own agendas, and they use it. Their penchant for "family values" is appealing, but if you read the horror stories, the social indoctrination can become stifling, especially for people whose opinions or sexuality aren't "traditional."

And that "baptize the dead" thing is pretty weird, too.

Sources

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/mormon.htm#Return%20to%20%233%20Text
http://www.gotquestions.org/Mormons.html
http://www.i4m.com/think/
http://www.bartleby.com/65/sm/Smith-Js.html