Mormons Religious Beliefs

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Jon Belisle Anthropology 330-01 Chapter 5: Religious Beliefs and Practice: The Mormons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sounds like an innocent name to a religious Christian group. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is also known by many as The Mormons and has been in the making from around the early 1800’s, originated from a man named Joseph Smith. The Mormons have been fighting exclusion from the American Society from the start of their history because of different beliefs and practices than those of the “normal” Christians in America. Their journey started when Joseph Smith gathered a group of believers and headed west to Missouri and then eventually moved to the banks of the Mississippi.…show more content…
The Government then had to find a way to get some control of Utah and this began in 1874 with the Poland Act gaining control over the courts of the territory. The Mormons challenged this in the case Reynolds v. United States which stated that these acts violated their first amendments religious rights. It was the Mormons religious beliefs that polygamy was acceptable but in this instance I had to side with the court because although they might find it acceptable it was not in the good of the whole nation. Polygamy has no good in it maybe the ones who could afford it found it as a status sign to say I’m of a higher level than the rest of them. Most of the ones who practiced polygamy were the leaders such as John Smith that is why some of the followers got angry when they found out this was part of the practice. Can you imagine coming home to your wife and then saying the Bishop said “we” are going to have another wife after you have been living happy all the time. Most of women just accepted this because they wanted to be good Mormons. Congress then went as far as calling practicing of polygamy a crime but I don’t believe it was right for the government to jail them, Cheating could be considered polygamy but it was just that the Mormons did…show more content…
94. Romney v. United States fought against this ruling and eventually realized that they could not win this battle which lead to the renouncing of polygamy. While I agree that all beliefs are not right as in the book which states “Thugs of India imagined that their belief in the right of assassination was a religious belief; but their thinking so did not make it so.Yes it does not make it right because they believe in polygamy but it’s very hard to take away something someone belief started from, is based on and ask them to still believe in the same way as the founders who beliefs they are carrying out. In today’s time Mormons still exist and each year missionaries go out to countries to convince people to transform to their beliefs. In the end I believe we can’t take away the Mormons main beliefs from them and we shouldn’t punish them for doing it as long as they it in their own society. We have Gays getting married legally which is even worse than allowing a man to practice polygamy; at least the Mormons are following religious beliefs and should be allowed to live their lives this way as long as all parties involved
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