Originally posted by: TheSiege
Living in Utah For the past 8 years I can tell you about the Church in an unbiased opinion
The foundation of the Church is the base of its Religion, it was founded by Joseph Smith in palmyra New York, where he received what the Church calls His First Vision. He was basically told that all churchs on earth were incorrect and that he would be a modern day prophet for the rebuilding of the true church of God, Mormonism. As transcribed from golden plates received to him by the angel Moroni. The book of Mormon is a collection of writtings that happen in the Americas during Jesus' time in the east, It was composed by a dude named Mormon, and he chose what to put in and what to omit.
"I saw God. Believe me, I swear" 
The Church is centralized around Family first and foremost, it the most important thing. And every true beleiving mormons goal in life is to have an "Eternal Family" this means to find a worthy mate and get married in an LDS temple where you will be sealed to that person for all time and eternity as well as to the children you have in that marriage.
So salvation is earned via works and not faith? Why is marriage required for special salvation? Jesus never said a word about this.
The church is a very social one, that maybe reason why is does so well in converts.
Every able young man at the age of 19 is expected to go on a mission, this is taught to them since the day they were born, at any given time there is about 55,000 missionaries out in the field, including sisters missionaries which are less common, there is also missionaries that are retired but as a married couple only (currently ex-football coach Lavell Edwards and his wife are doing this) , but they mainly do service and do not prostilate, which means go door to door.
Men recieve what they call the Priesthood, which is Deacon, Aaronic, and Melkazdik (SP?). going from young to old.
This church empasized marriage at a young age and starting a family as soon as possible, this church is very involved in each members life, every member is pretty much given a job in the church, a job they call a "calling" which varies from being a bishop of a ward (name for section of area where members attend church) to being in charge of accounting for tithing.
Sunday includes three hours of churh, Sacrament meeting, where you take the sacrament to remind you of the convenents you made with the lord, sunday school, and preisthood for men, and releif society for women. Monday are called Family Home Evening where you are encouraged to spend at least an hour as a family relating to church. Basically teaching a principle from the church like (abstaining from alcohol) and then a fun activity, for students such as myself you get together as a ward, and do the same thing. On wed or thur usually is what they called young men or young womens, this is where they get together with the children of their age group at the church and have activities basically scouts.
So the church has lots of playtime.
On second thought, though, yes, this is a valid thing to include, since the OP wanted to know about Mormonism as a whole.
to be a worthy member of this church you need to pay a 10 percent tithe to church on your gross income to receive all the benifits from God and to be a temple worthy person.
"Pay us money, or you will not enter Heaven". Sounds like the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages to me, pal.
once you are found worthy, which includes more then thithing, such as, abstaining from sex, drugs, alcohol and such, you can enter the temple which is what all mormons strive to do. now you can get two kinds of temple recommends from your local bishop, the first one lets you do service in the temple, such as baptisms for the dead, basically you get baptized in the name of someone you know, so that they have a chance to accept the church in the after life.
Baptizing in the name of someone dead? You mean like Catholic indulgences?
or you can get what they called your endowments out. You make higher comments to the lord, i dont know much about this, because i havent had it done. Men have to have it done to go ona mission at age 19, if they dont go on a mission they will have it done when they get married if at all.
same for women, but they are encouraged to do it by age 24 married or not
after this ceremony takes place, they were garments, which is underclothing, the bottoms are typically all the same, for men and women, they are like boxer briefs, you were this in place of underware. the tops vary from looking like a standard white t-shirt to meshlike shirt with a U-shape collar, both pieces of clothing are to ramain close to your body, this means women put their bras on over it, each piece has certime religious symbols on them also, and when throwing away garments you need to cut these symbols off and burn them.
Symbols are but symbols - the Bible states this explicitly.
to an outsider this religion looks very weird and cultish, many people have a hard time with it
to a mormon this is life and this is what life is all about
they are Christians
by loose definition
they use the King James Bible
the Book Of Mormon
which conflicts with the Bible on many points...
The Pearl Of Great Price
a self-help book, if you will
And Doctirines and Convenants
which, as stated already, has some.. inconsistencies... in it
this is pretty much the downlow on the chuch, there is alot more to it, such as the setup of it, the high counselers, the witnesses of Christ, and the modern living day prophet Gordon B. Hinckley if you have any other questions let me know
sorry for the spelling and grammer
Siege
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