Chapter 4

The Mormon Answer

The Mormon Church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was founded by a farmboy named Joseph Smith in New York in the 1820s. According to Smith, he had been praying for guidance regarding the Christian denomination he should join when God appeared to him, informing him that all of the existing denominations has strayed from God’s path, and that he would be the one to establish the one true church. According to Mormon tradition, an angel led Smith to find golden plates buried in a hill. Smith translated the text on these plates from a “reformed Egyptian language” to English, producing the Book of Mormon. The plates were then returned to the angel, and Smith began to preach the Book of Mormon’s message.

Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon chronicles the history of an Israelite family that left Jerusalem and sailed to the New World around 600 BCE. Their descendants were Native Americans who worshiped Jesus long before his birth due to prophesies of his life and ministry. According to Mormon tradition, Jesus even appeared to these pre-Christian Christians when he visited the New World after his resurrection. The Mormon Church also teaches that the Garden of Eden was in the Americas, and that when Jesus returns, he will visit the American state of Missouri, where New Jerusalem is destined to be built.

The Mormon Church is famous for its semi-abandoned practice of plural marriage, or polygamy. Smith, who was considered a prophet by his followers, had up to 40 wives, some of whom were already married when Smith married them. His followers were also introduced to the practice of polygamy, which quickly became the young religion’s best-known, and most scandalous, characteristic. This resulted in the United States Congress’ fear that Utah, where most Mormons lived, had become a polygamist theocracy. Consequently, Congress refused Utah’s application for statehood for decades until the Mormon Church abolished plural marriage in 1890. This prompted several groups of Mormons who viewed plural marriage as a requirement for salvation to leave the Mormon Church and found new churches. These “Mormon fundamentalists” practice polygamy to this day.

Mormons believe that while God has foreordained people for certain callings, it is up to us to choose whether to fulfil these callings. This is why “saving ordinances”, or religious rituals required for salvation, are reserved for willing participants. Baptism, for example, is performed when a child is old enough to make a conscious choice to be baptized into the Mormon Church. And while Mormons have been known to perform saving ordinances by proxy on behalf of the deceased, they believe that the spirits of the deceased are free to reject these ordinances. The Mormon emphasis on free will is derived from the belief that all humans were once spirits in the presence of God. God gave these spirits the option of receiving bodies on Earth and sinning so that they could then be saved, and two thirds of the spirits agreed. The remaining spirits, led by Satan, rejected God’s plan.

Mormons believe that our Earth is but one of many inhabited planets in what may be interpreted as a multiverse. But why are there so many planets similar to ours? The answer is that Mormons who choose to fulfill their divine calling are saved, and as a reward, they are allowed to create and rule planets. In other words, not only do we control our fate, but if we play our cards right, we can end up gods with our very own worlds to rule over.