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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been subject to scholarly and religious criticism and public debate since its inception in the early 1800s. The discussion encompasses a wide range of issues from the church’s leaders, origins, and teachings, to its social and political stances. The historical claims of the church—including the authenticity of foundational books of scripture such as the ''Book of Mormon'' and ''Pearl of Great Price'', as well as the church's former practice of polygamy—have faced public scrutiny. Changes in church teachings, as well as former teachings perceived as harsh or extreme face criticism as well. In the modern day, its historical teachings and policies around skin color and those around Black and Native American people, along with its past and current views on LGBTQ people and women have received greater public attention. Other controversies include church leaders' handling of sexual abuse cases, church finances, members critical of church leadership, and allegations of hiding or distorting parts of church history.
In the late 1820s, criticism centered around founder Joseph Smith stating he had been led to a set of golden plates from which he said the Book of Mormon was translated. In the 1830s, one of several criticisms was for Smith's handling of a banking failure in Kirtland, Ohio. The bulk of members moved to Missouri where there was fear and suspicion about the LDS Church's political and military power, culminating in the 1838 Mormon War and the Mormon Extermination Order by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs. In the 1840s, criticism of the church centered on its theocratic aspirations in Nauvoo, Illinois. Criticism of the practice of religious polygamy called plural marriage and other doctrines taught by Smith were published in the ''Nauvoo Expositor''. Smith ordered the destruction of the ''Expositor'' printing press. Opposition led to a series of legal challenges culminating in the arrest then death of Smith and his brother while jailed in 1844.
After Smith was killed, and a subsequent succession crisis, the majority of Mormons followed Brigham Young and migrated west beginning in 1847. As the church began openly practicing plural marriage under Young during the second half of the 19th century, the church became the target of nationwide criticism for that practice, as well as for the church's theocratic aspirations in Utah Territory. Young introduced policies in 1852 that discriminated against black men and women of African descent which were not reversed until 1978.<ref name="bowman"/> Beginning in 1857, the church also came under significant media criticism after a militia of church members murdered around two hundred children, women, and men in the Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah.
Academic critics have questioned the legitimacy of Smith and successors prophets as well as the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. Criticism has expanded to include assertions of historical revisionism, homophobia, racism, and sexist policies. Notable 20th-century critics include Jerald and Sandra Tanner and historian Fawn Brodie, and John Dehlin in the 21st century. Evangelical Christians continue to argue that Smith was either fraudulent or delusional. A 2023 survey of over 1,000 former church members (often called Ex-Mormons) in the Mormon corridor found the top three reported criticisms of the church that led to disaffiliation were: 1. Church history related to Joseph Smith; 2. The Book of Mormon; and 3. Race issues.<ref name=SurveyFindings/>
== Critics == Notable early critics of Mormonism included Lucy Harris, Abner Cole, Eber D. Howe, and Thomas C. Sharp. Notable modern critics of the LDS Church include Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Richard Abanes, Richard and Joan Ostling, historian Fawn M. Brodie, Jeremy Runnells, and John Dehlin. Expansion of Internet use also provided a new forum for critics.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sink |first1=Mindy |title=Religion Journal {{ndash}} Spiritual Issues Lead Many to the Net |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/06/nyregion/religion-journal-spiritual-issues-lead-many-to-the-net.html |access-date=11 May 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=September 6, 2003 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120211164640/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/06/nyregion/religion-journal-spiritual-issues-lead-many-to-the-net.html |archive-date=2012-02-11 |url-access=subscription|via=archive.today}}</ref> Notable collections of criticism include the CES Letter, Year of Polygamy podcast, and Mormon Stories Podcast.
The church's 2008 support of California's Proposition 8 sparked heated debate and protests by gay-rights organizations.<ref name="Gay & Lesbian Times">{{cite news |url= http://www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=13532 |title= San Diego march for marriage equality draws 20,000 protesters |first= Peter |last= Feytser |date= November 20, 2008 |newspaper= Gay and Lesbian Times |issue= 1091 |access-date= December 6, 2011 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20090214121324/http://www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=13532 |archive-date= 2009-02-14 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref name="California and Same-Sex Marriage">{{cite press release |url= https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/california-and-same-sex-marriage |title= California and Same-Sex Marriage |publisher= LDS Church |date= 2008-06-30 |access-date= 2011-12-06 }}</ref> Affirmation is a group of current and former members of the LDS Church who have criticized the church's policies on homosexuality. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry is a Christian organization that has criticized the church's theology. The Institute for Religious Research is an organization that has criticized the church, in particular the Book of Abraham. Numerous other organizations maintain web sites that criticize the church.
== Public perception ==
The LDS Church scored lower in favorability on two large 2022 US polls in comparison to other religions.<ref name=SaintImage/><ref name=YouGov>{{cite web|publisher=YouGov|url=https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/44850-americans-views-religious-groups-yougov-poll|date=|title=Americans' views on 35 religious groups, organizations, and belief systems|last=Orth|first=Taylor}}</ref><ref name=PewPoll>{{cite web|publisher=Pew Research|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/15/americans-feel-more-positive-than-negative-about-jews-mainline-protestants-catholics/|date=15 March 2023|title=Americans Feel More Positive Than Negative About Jews, Mainline Protestants, Catholics}}</ref> It had the lowest percentage (15%) of any of the seven religious groups for those with a "favorable/somewhat favorable" view of the religion in the Pew Research Center survey,<ref name=PewPoll/> and nearly 3/4ths (71%) of American respondents held a "very or somewhat unfavorable" opinion of the LDS Church in the YouGov poll.<ref name=YouGov/> In response to the negative findings in the Pew poll, LDS podcaster Susan M. Hinckley summarized some common criticisms stating, "the organization seems slow to change, reluctant to admit mistakes, unwilling to apologize, overly legalistic, and quick to spin every story to its advantage."<ref name=SaintImage>{{Cite news |title='We have work to do' — Latter-day Saint image takes another hit in new poll |url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/03/15/we-have-work-do-latter-day-saint/ |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune|last=Fletcher Stack|first=Peggy|author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack|date=15 March 2023|url-access=limited|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250130101131/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/03/15/we-have-work-do-latter-day-saint/|archive-date=30 Jan 2025|url-status=live|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
==Historical criticisms== === Polygamy === {{main|Mormonism and polygamy|Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy}} Polygamy is perhaps the most controversial early Mormon practice, and was a key contributing factor for Smith's murder. Under heavy pressure—Utah would not be accepted as a state if polygamy was practiced—the church formally and publicly renounced the practice in 1890.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} Utah's statehood soon followed. However, plural marriage remains a divisive issue, as despite the official renunciation of 1890, it still has sympathizers, defenders, and semi-secret practitioners.
Sarah Pratt, first wife of apostle Orson Pratt, in an outspoken critique of Mormon polygamy, said that polygamy:<ref>{{Cite book|last= Eskridge| first= William N. Jr.| author-link = William Eskridge| year= 2002| orig-year= 1999| title= Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet| location= Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=291| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BZTnDgeygHkC| publisher= Harvard University Press| isbn= 978-0-674-00804-5| oclc= 49204149}}</ref>
<blockquote>"completely demoralizes good men and makes bad men correspondingly worse. As for the women—well, God help them! First wives it renders desperate, or else heart-broken, mean-spirited creatures."</blockquote> Pratt ended her marriage to husband Orson Pratt in 1868 because of his "obsession with marrying younger women" (at age 57, Orson Pratt married a sixteen-year-old girl, his tenth wife, younger than his daughter Celestia).<ref name=SarahPratt>{{Cite journal |last=Van Wagoner |first=Richard S. |author-link=Richard Van Wagoner |date=Summer 1986 |title=Sarah Pratt: The Shaping of an Apostate |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=69–99 |doi=10.2307/45225431 |jstor=45225431 |isbn=9781591562849 |s2cid=254299794 |oclc=366662945 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2025}} Sarah Pratt lashed out at Orson in an 1877 interview, stating:<ref name=SarahPratt/>{{rp|p=92}}
<blockquote>"Here was my husband, gray headed, taking to his bed young girls in mockery of marriage. Of course there could be no joy for him in such an intercourse except for the indulgence of his fanaticism and of something else, perhaps, which I hesitate to mention."</blockquote>
The Tanners argue that early church leaders established the practice of polygamy in order to justify behavior that would otherwise be regarded as immoral.<ref name=ChangingWorld>{{Cite book |last=Tanner |first=Jerald and Sandra |author-link=Jerald and Sandra Tanner |year=1980 |title=The Changing World of Mormonism |location=Chicago |publisher=Moody Press |isbn=0-8024-1234-3 |oclc=5239408 |url=http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changecontents.htm}}</ref>{{rp|pp=226–257}} The Ostlings criticize Joseph Smith for marrying at least 32 women during his lifetime, including several under the age of 16, a fact acknowledged by Mormon historian Todd Compton.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=60–63}} Compton also acknowledges that Smith entered into polyandrous marriages (that is, he married women who were already married to other men)<ref name=SacredLoneliness>{{cite book |last=Compton |first=Todd |author-link=Todd Compton |title=In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith |publisher=Signature Books |place=Salt Lake City|url=https://archive.org/details/insacredloneline0000comp|url-access=registration |year=1997 |isbn=1-56085-085-X}}</ref> and that he warned some potential spouses of eternal damnation if they did not consent to be his wife;{{refn|<ref name=SacredLoneliness/>{{rp|pp=486–534, 457–472, 342–363}}}} in at least two cases, Smith married orphan girls who had come to live at his home.<ref name=SacredLoneliness/>{{rp|pp=457–485}}
However, Bushman notes that evidence of sexual relations between Smith and any wives of his followers is sparse or unreliable.{{r|name=Stone|p=439|q=There is no certain evidence that Joseph had sexual relations with any of the wives who were married to other men. They married because Joseph's kingdom grew with the size of his family, and those bonded to that family would be exalted with him.}} Compton argues that some marriages were likely dynastic in nature, to link families.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}}
[[File:Teenage Brides of Early Mormon Leaders.png|center|thumb|700px|Bar chart showing age differences at the time of polygamous marriage between teenage brides and early Latter Day Saint church leaders.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Goodstein|first1=Laurie|title=It's Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/its-official-mormon-founder-had-up-to-40-wives.html|access-date=2 June 2017|work=The New York Times|date=10 November 2014|quote=[Joseph Smith Jr.] married Helen Mar Kimball, a daughter of two close friends, 'several months before her 15th birthday'.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Turner|first1=John G.|title=Polygamy, Brigham Young and His 55 Wives|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-g-turner/brigham-young-and-polygamy_b_1792555.html|access-date=2 June 2017|work=HuffPost|date=27 October 2012|quote=The sheer variety of Brigham Young’s marriages makes it difficult to make sense of them. He married—was sealed to, in Mormon parlance—young (Clarissa Decker, 15) and old (Hannah Tapfield King, 65).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Snodgrass|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States|date= 2009|publisher=Rootledge|isbn=978-0765681270|page=220|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mGrxBwAAQBAJ&q=sarah%20minnie%20jensen%20lorenzo%20snow&pg=PA220|access-date=2 June 2017|quote=The name of each wife is followed by her age at marriage, the place of marriage, and the year the couple married. ... Lorenzo Snow ... Sarah Minnie Jensen, 16, Salt Lake City, 1871}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ulrich |first1=Laurel Thatcher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fmxDQAAQBAJ&q=Wilford+Woodruff+%26+(Emma+Smith+born+March+1st+1838+At+Diahman+Davis+County+Missouri)+was+sealed+for+time+%26+Eternity+by+President+Brigham+Young+at&pg=PA274 |title=A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870 |date=2017 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0307594907 |page=274 |quote=Wilford Woodfruff & (Emma Smith born March 1st 1838 at Diahman Davis County Missouri) was Sealed for time & Eternity by President Brigham Young at 7 o'clock P.M. March 13, 1853. |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref> The average age of first marriage for white US women from 1850 to 1880 was 23, with those marrying at ages from 15 to 19 ranging from 6.5 to 27.5 percent of the population depending on region and year.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hacker|first1=J. David|last2=Hilde|first2=Libra|last3=Jones|first3=James Holland|title=Nuptiality Measures for the White Population of the United States, 1850–1880|journal=The Journal of Southern History|volume=76|issue=1|pages=39–70|publisher=National Institute of Health|pmc=3002115|year=2010|pmid=21170276}}</ref>]]
==== 1890 Discontinuance ==== {{Main|1890 Manifesto}}
The Tanners argue that the church's 1890 reversal of its policy on polygamy was done for political reasons, citing the fact that the change was made during the church's lengthy conflict with the federal government over property seizures and statehood.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=258–285}} The Ostlings say that, soon after the church received the revelation that polygamy was prohibited, Utah again applied for statehood. This time the federal government did not object to starting the statehood process. Six years later, the process was completed and Utah was admitted as a state in 1896.<ref name=MormonAmerica>{{cite book |title= Mormon America |last= Ostling |first= Richard and Joan |isbn= 0-06-066371-5 |url= https://archive.org/details/mormonamericapow00ostl/|date= 1999 |publisher= HarperCollins }}</ref>{{rp|pp=78–79}} The Ostlings note that soon after the church suspended the practice of polygamy, the federal government reduced its legal efforts to seize church property.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=78–79}} Despite this, Mormon leaders after 1890 continued to sanction and participate in plural marriages in secret, in smaller numbers, both in the U.S. and in Mexico, for the next several decades.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hardy|first=Carmon |date=1992|title=Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=0-252-01833-8}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2024}} This was done to place obedience to God above conformity with society or "mammon."{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Breakaway polygamist groups took this a step further, parting with Salt Lake's leaders and practicing polygamy openly.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}
Mormons Ron Wood and Linda Thatcher do not dispute that the change was a result of federal intervention and say that the church had no choice in the matter. The 1887 Edmunds–Tucker Act was crippling the church and "something dramatic had to be done to reverse [the] trend."<ref>Rood, Ron and Thatcher, Linda. "Statehood". ''Brief History of Utah''. historytogo.utah.gov. [http://historytogo.utah.gov/facts/brief_history/statehood.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110144916/http://historytogo.utah.gov/facts/brief_history/statehood.html|date=2017-11-10}}.</ref> After the church appealed its case to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost, church president Wilford Woodruff issued the 1890 Manifesto. Woodruff noted in his journal that he was "acting for the temporal salvation of the Church".<ref>''Wilford Woodruff Diary,'' 1890-09-25.</ref>
==== After 1890 ==== {{main|Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century}} Richard Abanes, Richard and Joan Ostling, and D. Michael Quinn note that after the 1890 Manifesto, church leaders authorized more than 200 polygamous marriages and lied about the continuing practice.<ref name=UnderGods>{{Cite book |last=Abanes |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Abanes |year=2003 |title=One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church |location=New York City |publisher=Four Walls Eight Windows |url=https://archive.org/details/onenationundergo0000aban_a5v1 |isbn=978-1-56858-283-2 |oclc=52863716 }}</ref>{{rp|pp=336–342}}<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=73–74}}<ref name=Extensions>{{cite book |first=D. Michael|last=Quinn|author-link=D. Michael Quinn |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=VnbZAAAAMAAJ}}|title=The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power |publisher=Signature Books |year=1997 |isbn=9781560850601|via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|pp=182–183}}
Joseph F. Smith acknowledged reports that church leaders did not fully adhere to the 1890 prohibition. After the Second Manifesto in 1904, anyone entering into a new plural marriage was excommunicated.<ref name=CR>Joseph F. Smith, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070811123911/http://search.ldslibrary.com/article/view/274597 "A profitable and enjoyable Conference{{snd}}Privilege of the people{{snd}}The Gospel includes temporal as well as spiritual salvation{{snd}}Official statement sustained"], ''Conference Report'', April 1904, p. 97.</ref>
=== Historical authenticity of LDS scripture ===
====The Book of Mormon ==== {{Main|Historicity of the Book of Mormon}}
Discussion regarding the historicity of the Book of Mormon often focuses on archaeological issues, some of which relate to the large size and the long time span of the civilizations mentioned in the book. After Joseph Smith founded the movement in upstate New York in the 1820s, the faith drew its first converts while Smith was dictating the text of the Book of Mormon from golden plates with reformed Egyptian writing on them, which he said he found buried after being directed to their location by the Angel Moroni. The book described itself as a chronicle of early indigenous peoples of the Americas, known as the Nephites, portraying them as believing Israelites who had a belief in Christ many hundreds of years before Jesus's birth. According to the book, the Nephites are one of four groups (the others being the Lamanites, Jaredites, and Mulekites) who settled in the ancient Americas. The Nephites are described as a group of people that descended from or were associated with Nephi, the son of the prophet Lehi, who left Jerusalem at the urging of God c. 600 BC and traveled with his family to the Western Hemisphere, arriving in the Americas c. 589 BC. After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the golden plates to the Angel Moroni.
A contemporary Mormon view is that these Israelite civilizations rose and fell in Mesoamerica.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{citation |title= Sacred Sites: Searching for Book of Mormon Lands |first= Joseph L. |last= Allen |year= 2003 |place= American Fork, Utah |publisher= Covenant Communications |isbn= 1591562724 |oclc= 54031905 }}{{page needed|date=August 2014}}</ref> Civilizations of their magnitude and duration would be expected to leave extensive archaeological records.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Crusading against straw men: an alternative view of alternative archaeologies: response to Holtorf (2005)|first1=Garrett G.|last1=Fagan|first2=Kenneth L.|last2=Feder|date=1 December 2006|journal=World Archaeology|volume=38|issue=4|pages=718–729|doi=10.1080/00438240600963528|s2cid=162321776}}</ref> Several Mesoamerican civilizations did exist in the time period covered by the Book of Mormon, including the Olmec, Zapotec and Maya.
The Book of Mormon mentions several animals, plants, and technologies for which there is no evidence in Book of Mormon time frames in pre-Columbian America. These include asses, cattle, horses, oxen, sheep, swine, goats, elephants, wheat, barley,<ref>Mosiah 7:22.</ref> silk,<ref>1 Nephi 14:7</ref> steel,<ref>1 Nephi 4:9</ref> brass, breast plates, chains, plows, swords, scimitars, and chariots.<ref>Alma 18:9</ref> The Smithsonian Institution stated in 1997 that "none of the principal food plants and domestic animals of the Old World (except the dog) were present in the New World before Columbus."<ref name="missingauthor">{{citation|title=Smithsonian Institution statement on the Book of Mormon |author=Anon |date=September 28, 1997 |url=http://www.irr.org/mit/smithsonian.html |publisher=Institute for Religious Research |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520134005/http://www.irr.org/mit/smithsonian.html |archive-date=May 20, 2012 }}</ref>
Adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement give varied responses to these criticisms. Some invoke the limited geography model, regarding the events of the Book of Mormon as taking place in such a geographically limited area that no evidence should be expected. Some counter that the words used in the Book of Mormon refer not to the animals, plants and technologies that they do presently but to other similar items that did exist at the time.<ref>{{citation |url= http://www.allaboutmormons.com/Questions/book_mormon_mentions_horses_elephants_ENG_79.php |title= Questions: The Book of Mormon mentions... |work= AllAboutMormons.com |author= AllAboutMormons.Com Webmaster |date= January 19, 2008 |publisher= El Santo Gringo }}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=August 2014}} A 2023 survey of over 1,000 former church members in the Mormon corridor found the Book of Mormon to be the second most commonly cited criticisms that led to disaffiliation.<ref name=SurveyFindings>{{cite news |last1=Riess |first1=Jana |author-link=Jana Riess|date=8 March 2024 |title=Who is leaving the LDS Church? Eight key survey findings |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune|location=Salt Lake City |url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03/08/jana-riess-who-is-leaving-lds/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240309020640/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03/08/jana-riess-who-is-leaving-lds/ |archive-date=9 March 2024|agency=Religion News Service|via=Internet Archive|url-access=limited}}</ref>
==== The Book of Abraham ==== {{main|Criticism of the Book of Abraham}}
The Book of Abraham is a work produced between 1835 and 1842 by Smith that he said was "a translation of some ancient records ... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus".<ref name=smithownhand>{{cite magazine | last=Smith | first=Joseph | author-link=Joseph Smith | date=March 1, 1842 | title=Truth Will Prevail | magazine=Times and Seasons | volume=3 | issue=9 | page=704 | url=http://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n09.htm | place=Nauvoo, IL | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530030104/http://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n09.htm | archive-date=May 30, 2012 | access-date=August 20, 2016 | url-status=live}}</ref> The work was first published in 1842 and today is a canonical part of the Pearl of Great Price. The Book of Abraham is not accepted as a historical document by non-LDS scholars and by some LDS scholars. Even the existence of the patriarch Abraham in the Biblical narrative is questioned by some researchers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Megan Bishop |last2=Kelle |first2=Brad E. |title=Biblical History and Israel's Past |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tP-AEAAAQBAJ|year=2011 |publisher=Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids, MI|pages=18–19|isbn= 978-0-8028-6260-0 }}</ref> Various anachronism and 19th century themes lead scholars to conclude that the Book of Abraham is a 19th century creation.<ref name=ritnerresponse /> Since its printing, the Book of Abraham has been a source of controversy. Numerous non-LDS Egyptologists, beginning in the mid-19th century, have heavily criticized Joseph Smith's translation and explanations of the facsimiles, unanimously concluding that his interpretations are inaccurate. They have also asserted that missing portions of the facsimiles were reconstructed incorrectly by Smith.
The controversy intensified in the late 1960s when portions of the Joseph Smith Papyri were located. Translations of the papyri revealed the rediscovered portions bore no relation to the Book of Abraham text. University of Chicago Egyptologist Robert K. Ritner concluded in 2014 that the source of the Book of Abraham "is the 'Breathing Permit of Hôr,' misunderstood and mistranslated by Joseph Smith."<ref name=ritnerresponse/> He later said the Book of Abraham is now "confirmed as a perhaps well-meaning, but erroneous invention by Joseph Smith," and "despite its inauthenticity as a genuine historical narrative, the Book of Abraham remains a valuable witness to early American religious history and to the recourse to ancient texts as sources of modern religious faith and speculation."<ref name=ritnerresponse>{{Citation|url=http://signaturebooks.com/a-response-to-translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham-by-dr-robert-ritner/|title=A Response to 'Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham'|first=Robert K.|last=Ritner|author-link=Robert K. Ritner|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170404222749/http://signaturebooks.com/a-response-to-translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham-by-dr-robert-ritner/|archive-date=April 4, 2017|publisher=Signature Books}}</ref>
=== Criticisms of Joseph Smith === {{see also|Joseph Smith and the criminal justice system}}
In the 1830s, the church was heavily criticized for Smith's handling of a banking failure in Kirtland, Ohio.<ref name=NoManKnows>{{Cite book|last=Brodie|first=Fawn M.|author-link=Fawn M. Brodie|title=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith|publisher=Knopf|location=New York City|edition=2nd|year=1971|isbn=978-0-394-46967-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nbBMEAAAQBAJ}}</ref>{{rp|pp=195–196}}<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|pp=328, 330, 334}} After the Mormons migrated west, there was fear and suspicion about the LDS Church's political and military power in Missouri,{{efn|Bushman noted that in Daviess County, Missouri, non-Mormons "watched local government fall into the hands of people they saw as deluded fanatics".<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|p=357}}}} culminating in the 1838 Mormon War and the Mormon Extermination Order (Missouri Executive Order 44) by Governor Lilburn Boggs. In the 1840s, criticism of the church included its theocratic aspirations in Nauvoo, Illinois. Criticism of the practice of plural marriage and other doctrines taught by Smith were published in the ''Nauvoo Expositor''.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|p=539}}{{efn|Historian Fawn Brodie argued that given its authors' intentions to reform the church, the paper was "extraordinarily restrained" given the explosive allegations it could have raised.<ref name=NoManKnows/>{{rp|p=374}} A prospectus for the newspaper was published on May 10, and referred to Smith as a "self-constituted monarch".<ref name=Origins>{{Cite book|last=Quinn|first=D. Michael|author-link=D. Michael Quinn|title=The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power|publisher=Signature Books|location=Salt Lake City|year=1994|isbn=978-1-56085-056-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnfZAAAAMAAJ |page=138}}</ref>}} Opposition led to a series of events culminating in the killing of Smith and his brother while jailed in 1844.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Oaks| first1=Dallin H.| author-link=Dallin H. Oaks| title=Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith| last2=Hill| first2=Marvin S.| publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1979| isbn=025200762X| location=Champaign| page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18HuCwAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}</ref> A 2023 survey of over 1,000 former church members in the Mormon corridor found church history around Joseph Smith to be the number one most commonly cited criticisms that led to disaffiliation.<ref name=SurveyFindings/>
=== Adam–God doctrine === {{Main|Adam–God doctrine}}
The Ostlings criticize Brigham Young's teachings that God and Adam are the same being.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|p=331}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Young|first=Brigham|author-link=Brigham Young |date=April 9, 1852|chapter=Self-Government{{snd}}Mysteries{{snd}}Recreation and Amusements, not in Themselves Sinful{{snd}}Tithing{{snd}}Adam, Our Father and Our God"|editor-last=Watt|editor-first=G.D. |title=Journal of Discourses|volume=1|location=Liverpool|publisher=F.D. & S.W. Richards|pages=46–53|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/JoDV01/JoD_v01#page/n53/mode/2up|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> One apostle, Franklin D. Richards, also accepted the doctrine as taught by Young, stating in a conference held in June 1854 that "the Prophet and Apostle Brigham has declared it, and that it is the word of the Lord".<ref>Millennial Star 16:534, 28 August 1854.</ref> But, when the concept was first introduced, several LDS leaders disagreed with the doctrine, including apostle Orson Pratt, who expressed that disagreement publicly.<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Thomas Evans Jeremy Sr.|date=September 30, 1852}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bergera |first=Gary James |title=The Orson Pratt-Brigham Young Controversies: Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853 to 1868 |volume=13 |issue=2 |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |year=1980 |pages=7–49 |doi=10.2307/45224861 |jstor=45224861 |s2cid=254314595 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2025}} The church never formally adopted the doctrine, and has since officially repudiated it.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Charles W. |last=Penrose|title=Our Father Adam|magazine=Improvement Era|date=September 1902|page=873}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|first=Charles W. |last=Penrose|title=Our Father Adam|magazine=Millennial Star |date=11 December 1902|pages=789|url=https://archive.org/details/millennialstar6450eng/page/789/mode/1up|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=LDS Church|page=115|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1976/10/our-own-liahona?lang=eng |date=October 1976|title=Our Own Liahona|first=Spencer W.|last=Kimball|author-link=Spencer W. Kimball}}</ref>
==Violent actions and teachings== {{see also|Mormonism and violence|Danite|Native American people and Mormonism}}
LDS leaders have ordered numerous instances of violence, and used violent rhetoric in their teachings and temple ceremonies. Some historic examples of Mormon-perpetrated mass murders include the following massacres: Mountain Meadows, Battle Creek, Provo River, Skull Valley, Nephi, Grass Valley, Circleville, Fountain Green, Salt Creek, and the Aiken massacre.
===Mountain Meadows Massacre=== {{main|Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
The Mountain Meadows Massacre (September 7–11, 1857) was a series of attacks by Mormon militiamen in Utah territory that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher wagon train including children 7 and older and women. In modern times, the murders have been called an act of domestic terrorism<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bigler |first1=David L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHUCBQAAQBAJ |title=The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858 |last2=Bagley |first2=Will|author2-link=Will Bagley |date=2014-10-22 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-8396-1 |pages=xi, 179, 299 |quote='Terrorism' is not a word to be taken lightly. But the evidence, coupled with long-forgotten Mormon doctrines, demonstrate that the purpose of the Mountain Meadows atrocity was to strike fear into the hearts of intruders ....|via=Google Books|url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="University of Arkansas Press">{{Cite book |last1=Hopper |first1=Shay E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgrMDwAAQBAJ |title=An Arkansas History for Young People |last2=Baker |first2=T. Harri |last3=Browning |first3=Jane |date=2007-09-01 |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |isbn=978-1-55728-845-5 |edition=Fourth |pages=200|quote=Prior to the Oklahoma City bombing, the Mountain Meadows massacre was the largest act of domestic terrorism to ever occur on American soil.|via=Google Books|url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennon |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH5mDwAAQBAJ |title=Battling Terrorism in the United States |date=2017-07-15 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing |isbn=978-1-5345-6141-0 |pages=6, 12|via=Google Books|url-access=limited}}</ref> in many works of literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b6clrgEACAAJ |title=Confessions of a Revisionist Historian: David L. Bigler on the Mormons and the West |date=2015 |publisher=University of Utah |isbn=978-0-692-37120-6 |location=Salt Lake City |page=133 |via=Google Books|url-access=limited|quote=September 11 will mark the anniversary of the most horrific terrorist attack in U.S. history. ... I refer to September 11, 1857. ... It was the most horrific terrorist attack in our nation’s history, not as figured by body count, but in the way its victims were slain.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Esmail |first1=Ashraf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_tEpEAAAQBAJ |title=Terrorism Inside America's Borders |last2=Eargle |first2=Lisa A. |last3=Hamann |first3=Brandon |date=2021-05-03 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7618-7074-6 |page=38 |chapter=Significant Historical Accounts of Domestic Terrorism: The Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857)|via=Google Books|url-access=limited}}</ref> and is considered the largest act of domestic terrorism in United States history prior to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.<ref name="University of Arkansas Press"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/06/flirting-with-disaster/2c7e0070-a20e-4500-9490-5fa4472ec386/|newspaper=The Washington Post|location=Washington D.C.|title=Flirting With Disaster|first=Donna|last=Rifkind|date=6 March 2002|quote=Apart from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, no single incident of civil terrorism—Americans killing Americans—has resulted in more deaths than the Mountain Meadows Massacre.|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Other descriptors include "the darkest deed of the nineteenth century" and "a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity".<ref>{{Cite book | last=Bagley | first=Will | author-link=Will Bagley | year=2002 | title=Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows | place=Norman, Oklahoma | publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | isbn=978-0-8061-3426-0 | title-link=Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows |page=xiii}}</ref> Historian of the American West Will Bagley stated it was "the most brutal act of religious terrorism in America history" before the 2001 September 11 attacks.<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=2007-08-03 |title=Wild West: Rescue of the Mountain Meadows Orphans |url=https://www.historynet.com/wild-west-rescue-of-the-mountain-meadows-orphans/|magazine=Wild West|publisher=World History Group}}</ref>
=== Blood atonement === {{Main|Blood atonement}}
Brigham Young introduced a doctrine known as "blood atonement", regarding the unpardonable sin, or sin for which Jesus Christ's atonement does not apply.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|p=332}}<ref name=BloodA>Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol 4 p. 53</ref> He taught the belief that a person could only atone for such sins by giving up his or her life.<ref>{{citation |last= Snow |first= Lowell M |contribution= Blood Atonement |title= Encyclopedia of Mormonism |chapter-url= http://ldsfaq.byu.edu/emmain.asp?number=31 |access-date= 2007-03-08 |title-link= Encyclopedia of Mormonism |archive-date= 2007-01-07 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070107081122/http://ldsfaq.byu.edu/emmain.asp?number=31 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Various church leaders in the 19th century taught likewise,<ref>{{Citation |last=Grant |first=Jedediah M. |author-link=Jedediah M. Grant |title=Discourse |date=March 12, 1854 |newspaper=Deseret News |volume=4 |issue=20 |url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/deseretnews1,175293 |publication-date=July 27, 1854 |pages=1–2 |access-date=October 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121215103706/http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/deseretnews1,175293 |archive-date=December 15, 2012 |url-status=dead }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation| last=Kimball| first=Heber C.| author-link=Heber C. Kimball| contribution=The Body of Christ{{snd}}Parable of the Vine{{snd}}A Wile Enthusiastic Spirit Not of God{{snd}}The Saints Should Not Unwisely Expose Each Others' Follies| date=January 11, 1857| title=Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles| editor-last=Watt| editor-first=G.D.| editor-link=George D. Watt| volume=4| place=Liverpool| publisher=S.W. Richards| publication-date=1857| pages=164–181| contribution-url=https://archive.org/stream/JoDV04/JoD_v04#page/n171/mode/2up| title-link=Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation| last=Grant| first=Jedediah M.| author-link=Jedediah M. Gran | contribution=Rebuking Iniquity| date=September 21, 1856 | title=Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles| editor-last=Watt| editor-first=G.D.| editor-link=George D. Watt| volume=4| place=Liverpool| publisher=S.W. Richards| publication-date=1857| pages=49–51| contribution-url=https://archive.org/stream/JoDV04/JoD_v04#page/n55/mode/2up| title-link=Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles}}.</ref> but more recently church leaders have taught that the atonement of Jesus Christ is all-encompassing and that there is no sin so severe that it cannot be forgiven (with the exception of the "unpardonable sin" of denying the Holy Ghost).<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1995/11/the-brilliant-morning-of-forgiveness?lang=eng |title=The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness|first=Boyd K.|last=Packer|work=Ensign|date=November 1995}}</ref>
===Temple penalties=== {{main|Penalty (Mormonism)}}
In Mormonism, a penalty is a specified punishment for breaking an oath of secrecy after receiving the Nauvoo endowment ceremony. Adherents promised they would submit to execution in specific ways should they reveal certain contents of the ceremony. In the ceremony participants each symbolically enacted three of the methods of their execution: throat slitting, heart removal, and disembowelment. These penalties were first instituted by Joseph Smith in 1842, and further developed by Brigham Young after Smith's death. The penalties were removed from the ceremony in 1990.<ref name=LA_Times>{{cite news|last1=Dart|first1=John|title=Mormons Modify Temple Rites Ceremony: Woman's vow to obey husband is dropped. Changes are called most significant since 1978.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-05-vw-353-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=5 May 1990}}</ref> Author and former Brigham Young University professor<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Young|first1=Adrian Van|title=The Dark Fiction of an Ex-Mormon Writer|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-dark-fiction-of-an-ex-mormon-writer|access-date=25 April 2018|magazine=The New Yorker|date=10 February 2016}}</ref> Brian Evenson wrote a depiction of the penalties in a novel, and stated "any book that spoke in any detail about the relationship of Mormon culture to violence needed to acknowledge the connection of the temple ceremony to violence." Writer J. Aaron Sanders stated that the temple penalties were a form of blood atonement,<ref name=Avenging>{{Cite book| last=Sanders| first=J. Aaron| year=2010| chapter=Avenging Angels: The Nephi Archetype and Blood Atonement in Neil LaBute, Brian Evenson, and Levi Peterson, and the Making of the Mormon American Writer |title=Peculiar Portrayals: Mormons on the Page, Stage and Screen| location=Logan, Utah| publisher=Utah State University Press| isbn=978-0-87421-773-5| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzNMoUPxVQwC| chapter-url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/187/oa_monograph/chapter/20493 |via=Project Muse}}</ref>{{rp|94,99}} and author Peter Levenda linked Smith's introduction of the Masonic blood oaths into the temple endowment as a step towards later threats of blood atonement for other perceived crimes in Utah territory.<ref>{{Cite book| last=Levenda| first=Peter| date=September 2012| title=The Angel and the Sorcerer: The Remarkable Story of the Occult Origins of Mormonism and the Rise of Mormons in American Politics | location=Newburysport, Massachusetts | publisher=Nicolas-Hays & Ibis Press| isbn=9780892545810| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hph3eWzMS5UC |url-access=limited |via=Google Books |page=139}}</ref>
== Exaltation doctrine == {{main|Exaltation (Mormonism)}} Critics such as Richard Abanes<ref name=UnderGods/>{{rp|p=385}} and the Institute for Religious Research<ref name=IRR>{{cite web|url=http://www.irr.org/MIT/finessing-god-once-a-man.html |title=IRR site "Finessing an Off-Putting Mormon Doctrine" |access-date=May 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503233350/http://www.irr.org/MIT/finessing-god-once-a-man.html |archive-date=May 3, 2011 }}</ref> criticize the church<ref name=UnderGods/>{{rp|p=385}}<ref name=IRR/> for changing the principle asserting that God was once a man. They cite changes to the LDS Church publication ''Gospel Principles'' between the 1978<ref>{{cite book |title= Gospel Principles |publisher= LDS Church |year= 1978 |title-link= Gospel Principles }}</ref> and 1997<ref>{{cite book |title= Gospel Principles |publisher= LDS Church |year= 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021232853/http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/materials/gospel/Start%20Here_01.pdf | url=http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/materials/gospel/Start%20Here_01.pdf|archive-date=2013-10-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> editions, where "We can become Gods like our Heavenly Father" was changed to "We can become like our Heavenly Father", and "our Heavenly Father became a God" was changed to "our Heavenly Father became God".<ref name=UnderGods/>{{rp|p=385}}<ref name=IRR/> But, official LDS Church publications still affirm the doctrine of eternal progression, and the official church manual, ''Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow'' (2012),<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-of-presidents-of-the-church-lorenzo-snow/chapter-5-the-grand-destiny-of-the-faithful?lang=eng |work=Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow|title= Chapter 5: The Grand Destiny of the Faithful|year=2011}}</ref> affirms that "As man is, God once was; as God now is, man may be."<ref>{{citation |last= Lund |first= Gerald N. |author-link= Gerald N. Lund |date=February 1982 |title= Is President Lorenzo Snow's oft-repeated statement—'As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be'—accepted as official doctrine by the Church? |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1982/02/i-have-a-question?lang=eng |journal= Ensign }}</ref> The 2011 edition of ''Gospel Principles'' quotes Joseph Smith as stating, "It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God. … He was once a man like us; … God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did".<ref name = GP>{{cite book|chapter-url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-47-exaltation?lang=eng|title=Gospel Principles|chapter=Exaltation|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|publisher=LDS Church|year=2011}}</ref>
== Responses to abuse allegations == {{Further|Mormon abuse cases}} Reacting to accusations of abuse by teachers,<ref>{{Cite news| last =Irvine | first =Martha |author2=Tanner, Robert | title =Sexual Misconduct Plagues US Schools | newspaper = The Washington Post | url =https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102100144.html | access-date =2008-04-12 | date=21 October 2007}}</ref> Boy Scouts leaders,<ref>''Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution'', Patrick Boyle, 1995</ref> clergy, etc., social welfare activists have campaigned for more robust of measures toward greater prevention of abuse of individuals served by counselors and other professionals, advocating greater transparency and quicker referral of allegations to criminal investigators.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and others have criticized one-on-one ("worthiness") interviews between LDS pastoral leaders and (especially) adolescent congregants, believing them "an invitation" for abuse. An editorial in the sectarian (LDS Church) ''Deseret News'' responded:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deseret.com/2017/12/15/20624272/in-our-opinion-mormon-bishop-interviews-are-not-invitations-for-abuse|title=In our opinion: Mormon bishop interviews are not 'invitations' for abuse|author=Anon. |date=December 15, 2017|newspaper=Deseret News |access-date=2022-11-07 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/12/12/statement-from-the-lds-church-on-mormon-bishops-interviews/|title=Statement from the LDS Church on Mormon bishops' interviews|newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune}}</ref><blockquote>The LDS Church has a zero tolerance policy concerning sexual misconduct. It also gives specific instruction on conducting one-on-one interviews with youths, including encouraging them to have parents or other trustworthy adults sit directly outside the room. Church leaders are to avoid any situation that could be misinterpreted.</blockquote>
thumb|2018 protest over leaders' sexual interviews with children and teens In 2018 over 800 protesters gathered and marched to the LDS Church headquarters to deliver a petition with over 55,000 signatures asking for an end to semiannual, closed-door, one-on-one interviews between adult male local church leaders and children and teens during which many members have been asked about their sexual behaviors and thoughts in ways they felt were harmful.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tanner |first1=Courtney |title='There is no limit to the gross, sexually explicit questions' – Big crowd marches through Salt Lake City calling for an end to one-on-one Mormon bishop interviews with youths |url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2018/03/30/mormons-set-to-march-through-salt-lake-city-calling-for-an-end-to-bishops-interviews-with-children-about-sexual-matters/ |work=The Salt Lake Tribune |date=30 March 2018}}</ref>
== Finances == {{Main|Finances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints}}
The church has often been secretive about its finances, especially in the United States. The church has not disclosed its assets in the U.S. since 1959.<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack|last=Stack|first=Peggy Fletcher|date=July 13, 2007|url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=6364841&itype=NGPSID |work=Salt Lake Tribune |title=Order to release financial data has LDS Church, courts on collision course}}</ref> This has drawn criticism from the Ostlings and the Tanners, who consider its financial practices to be overly secretive.{{Relevance inline |sentence |date=April 2020}}<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=113–129}}<ref name=ShadowOrReality>{{Citation |last=Tanner |first=Jerald and Sandra |author-link=Jerald and Sandra Tanner |year=1982 |orig-year=1972 |title=Mormonism – Shadow or Reality? |edition=4th, enl. and rev |location=Salt Lake City, UT |url=https://archive.org/details/mormonismshadoworreality_digital |publisher=Utah Lighthouse Ministry |oclc=15339569 }}</ref>{{rp|pp=516–528}}
The church does disclose financials in the United Kingdom<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/AccountListing.asp?charitynumber=242451|title= Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Great Britain Financial Statements|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051225194747/http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/AccountListing.asp?charitynumber=242451 |archive-date=2005-12-25 }}</ref> and Canada,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/basicsearchresult-eng.action?k=latter-day&s=registered&=Search&p=1&b=true&|title=Charities Listings – Basic search results|website=www.cra-arc.gc.ca}}</ref> where it is required to by law. In addition, the church employs an independent audit department that provides its certification at each annual general conference that church contributions are collected and spent in accordance with church policy.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Cantwell |first= Robert W. |date=May 2007 |title= Church Auditing Department Report, 2006 |journal= Ensign |volume= 37 |issue= 5 |page= 6 |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2007/05/church-auditing-department-report-2006 |access-date= 2011-12-06 |quote= The Church Auditing Department has been granted access to all records and systems necessary to evaluate the adequacy of controls over receipts of funds, expenditures, and safeguarding of Church assets. The Church Auditing Department is independent of all other Church departments and operations, and the staff consists of certified public accountants, certified internal auditors, certified information systems auditors, and other credentialed professionals. Based upon audits performed, the Church Auditing Department is of the opinion that, in all material respects, contributions received, expenditures made, and assets of the Church for the year 2006 have been recorded and administered in accordance with appropriate accounting practices, approved budgets, and Church policies and procedures. }}</ref> Moreover, the church engages a public accounting firm (currently Deloitte & Touche in the United States; PricewaterhouseCoopers in the United Kingdom) to perform annual audits of its not-for-profit,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.deserettrust.com/why.html |title=Why Deseret Trust Company?|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150115062850/http://www.deserettrust.com/why.html |archive-date=2015-01-15 }}</ref> for-profit,<ref>Belo Corp Form 8-K. {{cite web|url=http://sec.edgar-online.com/1995/04/10/00/0000950134-95-000692/Section3.asp |title=Belo Corp – BLC Unscheduled Material Events (8-K/A) Item 7. Financial Statements and Exhibits |access-date=2008-06-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430064022/http://sec.edgar-online.com/1995/04/10/00/0000950134-95-000692/Section3.asp |archive-date=2008-04-30 }}. Accessed 16 May 2007.</ref> and educational<ref>"Financial Planning". finserve.byu.edu. {{cite web |url=http://finserve.byu.edu/files/archives/Handouts/November%202005/Finance%20Section%20Draft%207-Without%20Requirements.doc |title=Finance Section Draft 7 – Without Requirements |access-date=2008-06-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527195714/http://finserve.byu.edu/files/archives/Handouts/November%202005/Finance%20Section%20Draft%207-Without%20Requirements.doc |archive-date=2008-05-27 }}. Accessed 16 May 2007.</ref><ref>"Finance". accredit.byu.edu. See page 9 of pdf document available at {{cite web |url=http://accredit.byu.edu/resources/selfstudy/Standard_7.pdf?lms=30 |title=Finance 7 |access-date=2009-02-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612020854/http://accredit.byu.edu/resources/selfstudy/Standard_7.pdf?lms=30 |archive-date=2007-06-12 }}. Accessed 16 May 2007.</ref> entities. Lay leaders at the local level are not paid.<ref>{{citation |url= https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/mormon-lay-ministry |title= Lay Leadership: Volunteer Ministry of the Church |work= Newsroom |publisher= LDS Church }}</ref>
The Tanners and the Ostlings accuse the church of being overly greedy and materialistic, citing the large amount of wealth accumulated by the church, and citing the strong emphasis on tithing,<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=178}} and suggest that the church is more like a business than a spiritual endeavor.<ref name=ShadowOrReality/>{{rp|pp=516–528}}<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=395–400}}
In December 2019, a whistleblower alleged the church holds over $100 billion in investment funds, which are managed by an affiliate, Ensign Peak Advisors; that it failed to use the funds for charitable purposes and instead used them in for-profit ventures; and that it misled contributors and the public about the usage and extent of those funds. According to the whistleblower, applicable law requires the funds be used for religious, educational or other charitable purposes for the fund to maintain its tax-exempt status.{{efn|If confirmed, the $100 billion net worth would exceed the combined net worths of the world's largest university endowment (Harvard University) and the world's largest philanthropic foundation (Gates Foundation).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/mormon-church-has-misled-members-on-100-billion-tax-exempt-investment-fund-whistleblower-alleges/2019/12/16/e3619bd2-2004-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html|newspaper=Washington Post|title=Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges}}</ref>}} Other commentators have argued that such expenditures may not be legally required as stated.{{efn|This is due to the categorization of Ensign Peak Advisors as an "integrated auxiliary of a church", not a public foundation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2019/12/17/100b-in-mormon-till-does-not-merit-irs-attention/#18d34f375d5b|title=$100 Billion In Mormon Till Does Not Merit IRS Attention|work=Forbes}}</ref>}}In response to the allegations, the church's First Presidency stated that "the Church complies with all applicable law governing our donations, investments, taxes, and reserves," and that "a portion" of funds received by the church are "methodically safeguarded through wise financial management and the building of a prudent reserve for the future."<ref>{{cite press release |url= https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-statement-church-finances |title= First Presidency Statement on Church Finances: Statement provided in response to media stories |work= Newsroom |publisher= LDS Church |date= December 17, 2019 }}</ref>
== Responses to internal dissent == {{See also|Academic freedom at Brigham Young University|September Six|FreeBYU}} The Ostlings say that the LDS Church retaliates against members that publish information that undermines church policies,<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=351–370}} citing excommunications of scientist Simon Southerton<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.affirmation.org/news/2005_35.shtml |title= LDS Church Excommunicates DNA Author |access-date= 2011-12-06 |date= August 2005 |publisher= Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families, & Friends |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111024052706/http://www.affirmation.org/news/2005_35.shtml |archive-date= 2011-10-24 |url-status= dead }}</ref> and biographer Fawn M. Brodie.<ref>{{cite book |title= Having Visions: The Book of Mormon : Translated and Exposed in Plain English |url= https://archive.org/details/havingvisionsboo00wolv_633 |url-access= limited |last= Wolverton |first= Susan |year= 2004 |publisher= Algora |isbn= 0-87586-310-8 |page= [https://archive.org/details/havingvisionsboo00wolv_633/page/n338 321]}}</ref> They further state that the church suppresses intellectual freedom, citing the 1993 excommunication of the "September Six", including gay LDS historian D. Michael Quinn, and author Lavina Fielding Anderson.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=351–370}} The Ostlings write that Anderson was the first to reveal the LDS Church keeps files on Mormon scholars, documenting questionable activities, and the Ostlings state that "No other sizable religion in America monitors its followers in this way".<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=351–370}}
The American Association of University Professors, since 1998, has put LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University along with twenty-six other universities on its censured list of universities that do not allow tenured professors sufficient freedom in teaching and research.<ref>{{cite web |title=AAUP Academic Censure List |url=https://www.aaup.org/our-programs/academic-freedom/censure-list |publisher=American Association of University Professors |date=18 July 2006 |access-date=22 November 2020}}</ref>
Richard Abanes lists the following as church members excommunicated or censured for views unacceptable to the church hierarchy:<ref name=UnderGods/>{{rp|p=418}} * Journalist Deborah Laake, for her book ''Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond'' * BYU English teacher Cecilia Konchar-Farr, for her views on abortion laws * Writer Janice Merrill Allred * English Professor Gail Houston * Anthropologist David Knowlton
=== Church monitors members' critical publications === Richard Abanes and the Ostlings criticize the LDS Church for maintaining a group called the Strengthening Church Members Committee, led by two church apostles.<ref name=UnderGods/>{{rp|p=418}} According to the Ostlings, the purpose of this committee is to collect and file "letters to the editor, other writings, quotes in the media, and public activities" of church members that may be publishing views contrary to those of the church leadership.<ref>''Sunstone'', 16:2, no. 88 (August 1992), p. 63. As quoted in Ostling and Ostling, p. 354.</ref> The committee has also recruited students to spy on professors at Brigham Young University who are suspected of violating the church's dictates.<ref name=Krakauer2004>{{cite book | last=Krakauer | first=J. | title=Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith | publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-4000-7899-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DQaTU7Opq0C&pg=PA364 | access-date=September 24, 2018 | page=364}}</ref>{{rp|p=364}}<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|p=261}}
The Tanners state that throughout the 20th century the church denied scholars access to many key church documents, and in 1979 said that it had refused to publish Joseph Smith's diary.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|p=37}} Apologists point out that ''The Joseph Smith Papers'' project provides access to Smith's journals.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600123721,00.html |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120722114744/http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600123721,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= July 22, 2012 |title= Miller funding Joseph Smith project |first= Tad |last= Walch |date= 2005-04-04 |newspaper= Deseret News |access-date= 2011-12-06 }}</ref>
== Alleged distortion of church history == {{Main|Mormonism and history}} {{See also|History of the Latter Day Saint movement|History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints}} An analysis of B. H. Roberts's work ''History of the Church'', when compared to the original manuscripts from which it is drawn, "more than 62,000 words" can be identified that were either added or deleted.<ref>Jerald & Sandra Tanner, ''Changes in Joseph Smith's History'', Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1965. {{ISBN?}}</ref> Based on this analysis, Jerald and Sandra Tanner contend that the church distorts its history in order to portray itself in a more favorable light.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{page needed|date=May 2025}} Specifically, they allege that there was a systematic removal of events that portray Joseph Smith in a negative light.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=29–34}}
The Tanners cite the selective use of Brigham Young's statements, presented in a manner to give the illusion that he was in favor of blacks receiving the priesthood.<ref>{{cite book |title= Curse of Cain? Racism in the Mormon Church |first= Jerald and Sandra |last= Tanner |publisher= Utah Lighthouse Ministry |year= 2004 |no-pp= true |pages= Chapter 10, part 2, p. 311 }}</ref> The Tanners also state that the church attempted to discredit evidence that Joseph Smith was arrested, tried, and found guilty by a justice of the peace in Bainbridge, New York, in 1826.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=67–72}} The Tanners have also highlighted changes such as the title page of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon that described Smith as "Author and Proprietor" of the book, which was revised in subsequent editions to be "Translator",<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|p=129}} and the description of Oliver Cowdery's skill at using the divining rod found in the 1829 edition of the Book of Commandments, which does not appear in the corresponding section of the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=86–87}}
The Ostlings consider other omissions to be distortion, noting that the widely distributed church manual ''Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young'' omits any mention of Young's polygamy, and that the book's chronological summary of Young's life includes the date of his first marriage, the date of the first wife's death, and the date of the second legal marriage, but omits mention of Young's dozens of other marriages.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|p=248}}
In 1842, Willard Richards compiled a number of records in order to produce a history of the church. Among the records examined were the various accounts related to Zelph. In the process of combining the accounts, Richards crossed out Woodruff's references to "hill Cumorah," and Heber C. Kimball's reference to the "''last'' great struggle with the Lamanites"<ref name=ZelphStory>{{Cite journal|journal=BYU Studies|date=1989|last=Godfrey|page=44|first=Kenneth|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2607&context=byusq|title=The Zelph Story}}</ref>{{efn|"Zelph was a white Lamanite, a man of God who was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus who was known from the [hill Cumorah is crossed out in the manuscript] eastern Sea, to the Rocky Mountains. He was killed in battle, by the arrow found among his ribs, during a [last crossed out] great struggle with the Lamanites" [and Nephites crossed out]."<ref name=ZelphStory/>}}
Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn has accused LDS Church leaders of urging historians to hide "controversies and difficulties of the Mormon past".<ref>D. Michael Quinn ''On Being A Mormon Historian'' p. 21: Lecture to BYU Student History Association, Fall 1981</ref> Mormon scholar Allen Robers says church leaders "attempt to control depictions of the Mormon past".<ref>Allen Roberts, ''Private Eye Weekly'', October 20, 1993, p. 12. Quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "[http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no88.htm Legacy: A Distorted View of Mormon History]," ''Salt Lake City Messenger'' (#88), May 1995, p. 4.</ref> Non-Mormon professor John Hallwas of Western Illinois University says of LDS historians: "[they] do not mention Mormon intimidation, deception, repression, theft, and violence, or any other matters that might call into question the sacred nature of the Mormon experience."<ref>{{cite book |title= Cultures in Conflict: A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois |last= Hallwas |first= John |year= 1995 |publisher= Utah State University Press |isbn= 0-87421-272-3 |pages= 2–3 }}</ref>
Columbia University professor Richard Bushman, a member of ''The Joseph Smith Papers'' advisory board, responds to critics that those on the project "work on the assumption that the closer you get to Joseph Smith in the sources, the stronger he will appear, rather than the reverse, as is so often assumed by critics."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/content/0,15757,4610-1-2336%20,00.html |publisher=LDS Church|title=The Joseph Smith Papers: Quotes About the Project |work=lds.org |access-date=2011-12-06 |quote=We work on the assumption that the closer you get to Joseph Smith in the sources, the stronger he will appear, rather than the reverse, as is so often assumed by critics. His warmth, his sincerity, and his absolute devotion to the cause come through page after page. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024102558/http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/content/0%2C15757%2C4610-1-2336%20%2C00.html |archive-date=October 24, 2012 }}</ref>
In 1969, the Western History Association published Jewish historian Moses Rischin's observation of a new trend among Mormon historians to report objectively.<ref>Rischin, Moses. "The New Mormon History." ''The American West'' (Mar. 1969): 49.</ref> Quinn cites this as the origin of the term "New Mormon history", while citing previous efforts towards objectivity such as Juanita Brooks's 1950 publication of ''The Mountain Meadows Massacre'' by Stanford University Press.<ref>''The New Mormon History''. Ed. D. Michael Quinn. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992. (vii).</ref>
== Sexuality == {{Main|Sexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints}} Deborah Laake and Colleen McDannell say that the church takes a repressive stance towards sexuality and that this may be psychologically unhealthy.<ref>{{cite book |isbn= 0-688-09304-3 |last= Laake |first= Deborah |title= Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond |publisher= Dell Publishing |year= 1994 |url= https://archive.org/details/secretceremonies00laak }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |isbn= 0-300-07499-9 |last= McDannell |first= Colleen |author-link=Colleen McDannell |title= Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America |url= https://archive.org/details/materialchristia00mcda/page/214 |url-access= registration |pages=214–218 |publisher= Yale University Press |year= 1995 }}</ref>
Affirmation, a Mormon LGBT organization, and Ed Decker, a critic of the LDS Church, both state that the repressive attitude of the church may—in extreme cases—lead to suicide, as in the case of 16-year-old Kip Eliason, who committed suicide because of the stresses that resulted when his church bishop told him that masturbation was sinful.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.affirmation.org/suicide_info/sin_and_death_in_mormon_country.shtml |title= Affirmation article in Kip Eliason suicide |access-date= 2007-12-08 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071212184205/http://www.affirmation.org/suicide_info/sin_and_death_in_mormon_country.shtml |archive-date= 2007-12-12 |url-status= dead |publisher=Affirmation}}</ref><ref>{{cite video |people= Ed Decker |title= The God Makers |medium= VHS |publisher= Jeremiah Films |date=1982 }}</ref>
In January 1982, the church's First Presidency issued a letter to local leaders stating that they had "interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure, or unholy practice." The letter was not distributed to the general membership.<ref>Letter of January 5, 1982, to all Stake Presidents and Bishops. BYU Library Special Collections.</ref> This letter also instructed local leaders not to inquire into the specifics of married members' sex lives. However, this portion of the letter was often ignored, and in response to letters of protest from members, another letter was issued to local leaders in October reiterating the prohibition on inquiring into specific sexual practices.<ref>Letter of October 15, 1982, to all Stake Presidents and Bishops. BYU Library Special Collections.</ref>
===Sexual minorities=== {{see also|Homosexuality and the LDS church|Sexual orientation change efforts and the LDS Church|LGBT rights and the LDS church|LGBT Mormon suicides}}
[[File:Prop8templeProtest.jpg|thumb|right|Protesters in front of the Newport Beach California Temple voicing their opposition to the church's support of Prop 8]]
The church's policies and treatment of sexual minorities have long been the subject of external criticism,<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Browning |first=Bill |date=21 December 2021 |title=Utah billionaire leaves Mormon church with blistering accusation it is actively harming the world |url=https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/12/utah-billionaire-leaves-mormon-church-blistering-accusation-actively-harming-world/ |url-status=live |magazine=LGBTQ Nation |location=San Francisco |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221140543/https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/12/utah-billionaire-leaves-mormon-church-blistering-accusation-actively-harming-world/ |archive-date=21 December 2021 |access-date=25 December 2021}}</ref><ref name="archive.sltrib.com">{{cite news|last1=Winters|first1=Rosemary|title=Mormon apostle's words about gays spark protest|url=http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/home/50434583-76/gay-church-packer-protest.html.csp|access-date=16 November 2016|newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune|date=19 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Bailey|first1=Sarah Pulliam|title=Mormon Church to exclude children of same-sex couples from getting blessed and baptized until they are 18|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/11/05/mormon-church-to-exclude-children-of-same-sex-couples-from-getting-blessed-and-baptized-until-they-are-18/|access-date=12 November 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=11 Nov 2016}}</ref> as well as internal controversy and disaffection by members.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Murphy|first1=Caryle|title=Most U.S. Christian groups grow more accepting of homosexuality|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/18/most-u-s-christian-groups-grow-more-accepting-of-homosexuality/|website=pewresearch.org|date=December 18, 2015 |publisher=Pew Research Center|access-date=12 March 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Levin|first1=Sam|title='I'm not a Mormon': fresh 'mass resignation' over anti-LGBT beliefs|journal=The Guardian |date=15 August 2016|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/15/mormon-church-lgbt-mass-resignation-protest-utah|access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Hatch|first1=Heidi|title=Millennial Mormons leaving faith at higher rate than previous generations|url=http://kutv.com/news/local/millennial-mormons-leaving-faith-more-than-previous-generations-are-more-republican|work=KUTV|publisher=CBS Television |date=13 April 2016}}</ref> Because of its ban against same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage, the LDS church taught for decades that any adherents attracted to the same sex could and should change that through sexual orientation change efforts and righteous striving.<ref name=GayRights/>{{rp|pp=25–30, 89–101}} The church provided therapy and programs for attempting to change sexual orientation.<ref>{{cite journal|last1= Galliher|first1=Renee |last2=Bradshaw|first2=William |last3=Hyde|first3=Daniel| last4=Dehlin|first4=John| last5=Crowell|first5=Katherine|title=Sexual orientation change efforts among current or former LDS church members|journal=Journal of Counseling Psychology|date=April 2015|volume=62|issue=2|pages=95–105|doi=10.1037/cou0000011|pmid=24635593|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260873307 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref>
Current teachings and policies leave homosexual members with the options of entering a mixed-orientation opposite-sex marriage, or lifelong celibacy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fish |first1=Jessica N. |last2=Russell |first2=Stephen T. |title=Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts are Unethical and Harmful |journal=American Journal of Public Health |date=Aug 2020 |volume=110 |issue=8 |pages=1113–1114 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2020.305765 |pmid=32639919 |pmc=7349462 |quote=With substantial evidence of serious harms associated with exposure to [sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (SOGICE)] particularly for minors, 21 states (and multiple cities and counties) have passed bipartisan laws or regulations prohibiting SOGICE. ... Furthermore, compared with LGBTQ youths with no exposure, those exposed to SOGICE showed 1.76 times greater odds of seriously considering suicide, 2.23 times greater odds of having attempted suicide, and 2.54 times greater odds of multiple suicide attempts in the previous year.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Phillips|first1=Rick|title=Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons|date=2005|publisher=Peter Lang Publishing|location=Frankfurt, Germany| isbn=978-0820474809 |url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269701629 |access-date=31 May 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418092803/https://www.uvu.edu/religiousstudies/docs/msc_philips_conservative.pdf|archive-date=April 18, 2017|page=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cook|first1=Bryce|title=What Do We Know of God's Will for His LGBT Children? An Examination of the LDS Church's Current Position on Homosexuality|journal=Dialogue |date=Summer 2017|volume=50|issue=2 |doi=10.5406/dialjmormthou.50.2.0001| s2cid=190443414|doi-access=free |pages=20–21}}</ref> Some have argued that church teachings against homosexuality or non-traditional gender expressions, and the mistreatment of LGBTQ members by other adherents and leaders have contributing to their elevated rates of PTSD and depression,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Galliher|first1=Renee|last2=Bradshaw| first2=William|last3=Dehlin |first3=John|last4=Crowelle|first4=Katherine|title=Psychosocial Correlates of Religious Approaches to Same-Sex Attraction: A Mormon Perspective|journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health|pages=301, 304 |date=25 April 2014|volume=18|issue=3|doi= 10.1080/19359705.2014.912970|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273248065|s2cid=144153586|quote=The major findings from the study are that non-biologically based views regarding the etiology of SSA [same-sex attraction], remaining active in the LDS Church, remaining single, and engaging in mixed-orientation marriages were all associated with higher reported levels of internalized homophobia, sexual identity distress, and depression, and lower levels of self-esteem and quality of life. ... This study does affirm and extend the existing literature by suggesting that psychosocially based beliefs about SSA etiology active participation in non-LGBT-affirming churches, being single and celibate, and mixed-orientation marriage—all of which are common beliefs and/or practices within modern, active LDS culture—are associated with poorer psychosocial health, well-being, and quality of life for LGBT Mormons. Conversely, biological beliefs about SSA etiology, complete disaffiliation from the LDS Church, legal same-sex marriage, and sexual activity are all associated with higher levels of psychosocial health, well-being, and quality of life for LGBT Mormons.|via=ResearchGate}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Simmons |first1=Brian |title=Coming out Mormon: An examination of religious orientation, spiritual trauma, and PTSD among Mormon and ex-Mormon LGBTQQA adults |journal=University of Georgia Theses and Dissertations |date=December 2017 |page=99 |url=https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/simmons_brian_w_201712_phd.pdf| publisher=University of Georgia}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Brian |title=Coming out Mormon |url=https://athenaeum.libs.uga.edu/handle/10724/38227 |website=uga.edu |publisher=University of Georgia |date=December 2017}}</ref> as well as LDS LGBTQ suicide and teen homelessness.<ref name=GayRights/>{{rp|pp=4, 288–301}}<ref>{{cite news|last1=Fletcher Stack|first1=Peggy |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |title=Suicide fears, if not actual suicides, rise in wake of Mormon same-sex policy|url=http://www.sltrib.com/news/lds/3473487-155/suicide-fears-if-not-actual-suicides|access-date=29 November 2016|newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune|date=28 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Greene|first1=David |title=Mama Dragons Try To Prevent Suicides Among Mormon-LGBT Children|url= https://www.npr.org/2016/07/07/485058737/mama-dragons-try-to-prevent-suicides-among-mormon-lgbt-children|access-date=29 November 2016|publisher=NPR|date=7 July 2016}}</ref> The church's decades-long, political involvement opposing US same-sex marriage laws has further garnered criticism and protests.<ref name=GayRights/>{{rp|pp=2–3, 162–163}}<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bates|first1=Karen Grigsby|title=Gay-Marriage Ban Protesters Target Mormon Church|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96756702|publisher=NPR|date=7 Nov 2008}}</ref>
==Temples== {{Main|Mormon temple controversies|Temple (LDS Church)}} Many of the church's temple policies and ceremonies have been the subject of criticism; such ceremonies include an endowment, weddings, and proxy baptism for the dead.
===Temple admission restricted=== {{Main|Temple (LDS Church)#Entrance requirements|l1=LDS Church temple entrance requirements}} Richard and Joan Ostling, and Hugh F. Pyle state that the LDS Church's policy on temple admission is unreasonable, noting that even relatives cannot attend a temple marriage unless they are members of the church in good standing.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=164–165}}<ref>{{cite book |last= Pyle |first= Hugh F. |title= The Truth about Mormonism |pages= 7–8 |publisher= Sword of the Lord |year= 2000 |isbn= 0-87398-845-0 }}</ref> The Ostlings, the Institute for Religious Research, and Jerald and Sandra Tanner say that the admission rules are unreasonable because admission to the temple requires that a church member must first declare that they pay their full tithe before they can enter a temple.<ref>{{citation |url= http://mit.irr.org/human-cost-of-mormon-temple-marriage-policies |title= The Human Cost of Mormon Temple Marriage Policies |first= Orin |last= Ryssman |year= 2006 |work= IRR.org |publisher= Institute for Religious Research |access-date= 2007-12-11 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |url= http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no104.htm |title= Temple Ritual Changed...Again |date=June 2005 |work= Salt Lake City Messenger |publisher= Utah Lighthouse Ministry |access-date= 2012-01-17 }}</ref><ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|p=178}} The Mormonism Research Ministry calls this "coerced tithing" because church members that do not pay the full tithe cannot enter the temple, and thus cannot receive the ordinances required to receive the highest order of exaltation in the next life.<ref>{{citation |url= http://www.mrm.org/tithing |title= Tithing by Coercion |first= Bill |last= McKeever |work= MRM.org |date= February 6, 2007 |publisher= Mormonism Research Ministry |access-date= 2013-01-17 }}</ref>
===Baptism for the dead=== {{Main|Baptism for the dead}}
The church teaches that a living person, acting as proxy, can be baptized by immersion on behalf of a deceased person, citing 1 Corinthians 15:29;<ref>"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Corinthians 15:29)</ref> Malachi 4:5–6; John 5:25; and 1 Peter 4:6 for doctrinal support.<ref>{{citation |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/topics/baptisms-for-the-dead |contribution= Baptism for the Dead |title= Gospel Study: Study by Topic |publisher= LDS Church }}{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> These baptisms for the dead are performed in temples.
Floyd C. McElveen and the Institute for Religious Research state that verses to support baptism for the dead are not justified by contextual exegesis of the Bible.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Mormon Illusion: What the Bible Says About the Latter-Day Saints |publisher= Kregel Publications |year= 1997 |pages= 110–112 |last= McElveen |first= Floyd C. |isbn= 0-8254-3192-1 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.irr.org/mit/baptdead.html Did Jesus Establish Baptism for the Dead?] at irr.org {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314194331/http://www.irr.org/mit/baptdead.html |date=March 14, 2008 }}</ref> In 2008, the Vatican issued a statement calling the practice "erroneous" and directing its dioceses to keep parish records from the Genealogical Society of Utah which is affiliated with the LDS Church.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802443.htm |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080513195437/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802443.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-05-13 |title=Vatican letter directs bishops to keep parish records from Mormons |last=Muth |first=Chad |date=2008-05-02 |work=Catholic News Service |publisher=U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops |access-date=2011-12-06 }}</ref>
Some Jewish groups criticized the LDS Church in 1995 after discovering that vicarious baptisms for the dead for victims of the Holocaust had been performed by members of the church.<ref name=Urbina>{{cite news |title= Again, Jews Fault Mormons Over Posthumous Baptisms |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/nyregion/again-jews-fault-mormons-over-posthumous-baptisms.html |work= The New York Times |first= Ian |last= Urbina |date= December 21, 2003 |access-date= November 14, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121105025740/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/nyregion/again-jews-fault-mormons-over-posthumous-baptisms.html |archive-date= November 5, 2012 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name=Stone>{{cite book |last1=Bushman |first1=Richard |author-link=Richard Bushman|title=Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling |date=2005 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |location=New York City |isbn=9780307426482 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mz3tpz4eRBQC|url-access=limited|via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|p=86}} After that criticism, church leaders put a policy in place to stop the practice, with an exception for baptisms specifically requested or approved by victims' relatives.<ref name="The LDS Agreement">{{cite web |url= http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html |title= The LDS Agreement: the Issue of The Mormon Baptisms of Jewish Holocaust Victims |work= JewishGen |publisher= Museum of Jewish Heritage| location=New York City |access-date= November 14, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081218151532/http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html |archive-date= December 18, 2008 |url-status= live }}</ref> Jewish organizations again criticized the church in 2002, 2004, 2008, and 2012<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/us/jews-take-issue-with-posthumous-mormon-baptisms-beliefs.html?_r=0|title=A Twist on Posthumous Baptisms Leave Jews Miffed at Mormon Rite|first=Mark|last=Oppenheimer|newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 2, 2012|access-date=November 13, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110213411/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/us/jews-take-issue-with-posthumous-mormon-baptisms-beliefs.html?_r=0|archive-date=November 10, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Mormons crack down on proxy baptisms; whistleblower's access blocked |url= http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/09/mormons-crack-down-on-proxy-baptisms-whistleblowers-access-blocked/ |access-date= November 14, 2012 | publisher=CNN |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121114030402/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/09/mormons-crack-down-on-proxy-baptisms-whistleblowers-access-blocked/ |archive-date= November 14, 2012 |url-status= dead }}</ref> stating that the church failed to honor the 1995 agreement.<ref name="The LDS Agreement" /> The LDS Church says it has put institutional safeguards in place to avoid the submission of the names of Holocaust victims not related to Mormon members, but that the sheer number of names submitted makes policing the database of names impractical.<ref name=Urbina />
===Endowment ceremony=== {{Main|Mormonism and Freemasonry}} Jerald and Sandra Tanner allege that Joseph Smith copied parts of the Mormon temple endowment ceremony from Masonic rituals (such as secret handshakes, clothing, and passwords), and that this undermines the church's statement that the rituals were divinely inspired.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=534–547}} The Tanners also point to the fact that Joseph Smith was himself a Freemason<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=535}} prior to introducing the endowment rituals into Mormonism.
The Tanners criticize the church's revision of the temple endowment ceremony over the years, saying that revisions were made to obscure provocative practices of the early church.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{page needed|date=May 2025}}<ref name=Mysteries>{{cite book |last1=Buerger |first1=David John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P08mAQAAIAAJ |title=The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship |date=1994 |publisher=Signature Books |isbn=9781560850427 |via=Google Books |url-access=limited}}</ref>{{rp|pp=139��140}}
==Race== {{see also|Mormon teachings on skin color|Mormonism and slavery}}
=== Black people === [[Image:Green Flake Colorized.jpg|left|thumb|upright|150px|Green Flake, an enslaved Black man reported to have driven the first wagon of LDS pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847<ref name=Flake>{{cite web |title=Century of Black Mormons: Flake, Green |url=https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/century-of-black-mormons/page/flake-green |website=J. Willard Marriott Library |publisher=University of Utah}}</ref>]] {{see also|Black people and Mormonism|Black segregation and the LDS Church|Curses of Cain and Ham and the LDS Church|Interracial marriage and the LDS Church}}
==== Restrictions on Black members of African descent ==== {{see also|Black people and temple and priesthood policies in the LDS Church}}
From 1852 to 1978 church policy excluded men of Black African descent from ordination to the priesthood. During the same period Black men and women were not allowed to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances.<ref name="bowman">{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/mormons-confront-a-history-of-church-racism-95328 |title=Mormons confront a history of Church racism |last=Bowman |first=Matthew |date=29 May 2018 |website=The Conversation |access-date=15 February 2021}}</ref> Richard and Joan Ostling point to the restrictions as evidence that past LDS Church policies were racist in nature. Before the change in policy, most other adult males in the LDS Church were given the priesthood.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=94–108}} Jerald and Sandra Tanner cite quotes from church leaders such as Brigham Young, who said, "You must not think, from what I say, that I am opposed to slavery. No! The negro is damned, and is to serve his master till God chooses to remove the curse of Ham".<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|p=304}}<ref>(New York Herald, May 4, 1855, as cited in Dialogue, Spring 1973, p. 56)</ref> The Tanners also illustrate church racism by quoting sections of the Book of Mormon which describe dark skin as a sign of a curse and a mark from God to distinguish a more righteous group of people from a less righteous group, and by citing passages describing white skin as "delightsome" while dark skin is portrayed as unenticing ({{lds|2 Nephi|2-ne|30|6}}). These references in the Book of Mormon refer to those presumed to be the ancestors of Native Americans, not people of African descent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blacklds.org/tvedtnes |title=The Charge of 'Racism' in the Book of Mormon |publisher=Blacklds.org |access-date=2011-12-13}}</ref> Joseph Fielding Smith, later president of the church, wrote in a 1963 letter that people with dark skin were less faithful in the pre-mortal life, and as such, did not warrant the blessings of the priesthood.<ref name=autogenerated10>{{cite book |title= Curse of Cain? Racism in the Mormon Church |first= Jerald and Sandra |last= Tanner |publisher= Utah Lighthouse Ministry |year= 2004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/curseofcain_part2.htm#Seed |title= Web site with detailed documentation of racist acts in LDS history |access-date= 2007-12-05 }}</ref> The Tanners also cite other church leaders, historical and modern, who have spoken in favor of segregation and restrictions on admission to the priesthood for men of African descent.<ref name=autogenerated10 /><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/curseofcain_part3.htm#Twentieth |title= Web site with detailed documentation of recent racist LDS policies |access-date= 2007-12-05 }}</ref>
==== Policy reversal ==== {{see also|1978 Revelation on Priesthood}}
On 8 June 1978, church president Spencer W. Kimball, rescinded the restriction on priesthood ordination and extended temple worship to all worthy Latter-day Saint men and women.<ref name="pri01">{{cite web |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng |title=Race and the Priesthood |date=December 2013 |website=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |access-date=15 February 2021}}</ref> Also in 1978, Apostle Bruce R. McConkie told members to "[f]orget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said [about Blacks and the priesthood] .... We spoke with a limited understanding."<ref>Bruce R. McConkie, 1978 (''All Are Alike Unto God, A Symposium on the Book of Mormon,'' The Second Annual Church Educational System Religious Educator's Symposium, August 17–19, 1978.)</ref> Both the original policy and the reversal are criticized. The Tanners state that the church's 1978 policy change of allowing all worthy male members, including people of Black African descent, to hold the priesthood was not divinely inspired as the church said, but simply a matter of convenience.<ref name=ChangingWorld/>{{rp|pp=319–328}} Richard and Joan Ostling point out that this reversal of policy occurred as the LDS Church began to expand outside the United States into countries such as Brazil that have large, ethnically mixed populations, and as the church prepared to open a new temple in São Paulo, Brazil.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|p=95}} A few Black elders were ordained to the priesthood under Joseph Smith, who never expressed any opposition to having the priesthood available to all worthy men. The priesthood restriction originated under Brigham Young.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&_r=1 |work= lds.org |publisher= LDS Church |access-date= April 14, 2015 |title= Race and the Priesthood}}</ref>
Gregory Prince and William Robert Wright state that these leaders were a product of their time and locale. They say that many leaders, including Smith, David O. McKay, and initially Brigham Young, were not opposed to Black men receiving the priesthood.<ref>{{cite book |title= David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism |last1= Prince |first1= Gregory A. |author-link= Gregory Prince |last2=Wright|first2=William Robert|author-link2=Bob Wright (Utah politician)|year= 2005 |publisher= University of Utah Press |location= Salt Lake City|isbn= 978-0-87480-822-3 | page= 60 |title-link= David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism }}</ref> They further state that the policy was a practice supported by Christian scripture and was not a doctrine of the church.<ref>{{cite book |title= David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism |last1= Prince |first1= Gregory A. |author-link= Gregory Prince |last2=Wright|first2=William Robert|author-link2=Bob Wright (Utah politician)|year= 2005 |publisher= University of Utah Press |location= Salt Lake City|isbn= 978-0-87480-822-3 |pages= 79–80 |title-link= David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism }}</ref> Despite several church leaders throughout the 1950s and 1960s supporting its reversal, the policy was kept in place through 1978 because the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles felt that a revelation to the president of the church was needed to change it.<ref>{{cite book |title= David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism |last1= Prince |first1= Gregory A. |author-link= Gregory Prince |last2=Wright|first2=William Robert|author-link2=Bob Wright (Utah politician)|year= 2005 |publisher= University of Utah Press |location= Salt Lake City|isbn= 978-0-87480-822-3 |page= 80 |title-link= David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism }}</ref>
==== Calls for an apology and calls for transparency ==== Some Black members of the church and some Black critics of it have called on it to do more to apologize for the restrictions, while other black members of the church have argued against that effort. In 2004, Darron Smith, a critical Black church member, contends in his book, ''Black and Mormon,'' that the church "refuses to acknowledge and undo its racist past, and until it does that, members continue to suffer psychological damage from it" and that "the church has not done enough to rectify its racist past".<ref>{{cite book |first= Darron |last= Smith |title= Black and Mormon |year= 2004 |page= 7 |publisher= University of Illinois Press |isbn= 0-252-02947-X }}</ref> The large majority of Black Mormons, however, say they are willing to look beyond the racist teachings and adhere to the church.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-blackmormons,1,708682.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true |title= Mormon past steeped in racism: Some black members want church to denounce racist doctrines |first= Margaret |last= Ramirez |date= 2005-07-26 |publisher= Chicago Tribune }}</ref> Church president Gordon B. Hinckley gave sermons against racism. In 2005 he taught that no one who utters denigrating remarks can consider himself a true disciple of Christ, and noted the irony of racial claims to the Melchizedek priesthood.<ref>{{cite journal |author-link= Gordon B. Hinckley |first= Gordon B. |last= Hinckley |title= The Need for Greater Kindness |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2006/05/the-need-for-greater-kindness?lang=eng |date=May 2006 |journal= Ensign }}</ref>
In 2003, Richard Abanes contended that the church tries to hide past racial practices, citing the 1981 change in the Book of Mormon, which stated that the Lamanites had become "a white and a delightsome people" to "a pure and a delightsome people" (2 Nephi 30:6).<ref name=UnderGods/>{{rp|p=420}} In 1840, the "white and delightsome" of the original Book of Mormon text was changed by Joseph Smith to "pure and delightsome" in the third edition;<ref>{{cite book |author= Smith, Joseph |author-link= Joseph Smith |title= Book of Mormon |year= 1840 |edition= 3rd revised |publisher= Robinson and Smith |location= Nauvoo, Illinois |page= [https://archive.org/details/bookmormon01smitgoog/page/n119 115] |url= https://archive.org/details/bookmormon01smitgoog |access-date= 2009-08-03 }}</ref> it reverted to "white and delightsome" after Smith's death in subsequent editions, as editions were based on one published in England. In 1981, the First Presidency approved a change that adopted the 1840 version by Smith, as saying that converts would become "pure and delightsome".{{efn|The wording "white and a delightsome" was introduced in the 1st edition of the Book of Mormon in 1830. This was changed to "pure and a delightsome" in the 3rd edition in 1840. The 1841 and 1849 European editions of the Book of Mormon were printed in England by the Twelve Apostles, and were the Kirtland 2nd edition with Anglicized spellings. Future LDS editions were based on the European editions until the church issued a major reworking in 1981.<ref>{{cite book |last= Crawley|first=Peter |title= A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Volume One 1830–1847 |page= 151 |year= 1997 |publisher= Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University |location= Provo, Utah |isbn= 1-57008-395-9 |url= https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/rsc/id/49457}}</ref>}}
==== Recent scrutiny and church response ====
Criticisms for the past policies on race discrimination were renewed during the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney and in 2018 surrounding the 40th anniversary of the lifting of race restrictions.<ref name="dobner">{{cite web |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mormons-race/mormon-church-explains-defunct-ban-on-blacks-in-priesthood-idUSBRE9BA03I20131211 |title=Mormon church explains defunct ban on blacks in priesthood |last=Dobner |first=Jennifer |date=10 December 2013 |website=Reuters |access-date=15 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="bowman"/> The church published the following statement in December 2013:<ref>{{cite web |title=Race and the Priesthood |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |publisher=Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints |access-date=24 November 2020}}</ref><blockquote>Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.</blockquote>In an October 2020 General Conference address following the George Floyd protests, church president Russell M. Nelson publicly condemned racism and called upon all church members to abandon attitudes and actions of prejudice.<ref name="stack">{{cite web |url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/10/04/blunt-language-nelson/ |title=In blunt language, Nelson denounces racism, urges Latter-day Saints to 'lead out' against prejudice |last1=Stack |first1=Peggy Fletcher |last2=Pierce |first2=Scott |last3=Noyce |first3=David |date=4 October 2020 |website=Salt Lake Tribune |access-date=15 February 2021}}</ref> A 2023 survey of over 1,000 former church members in the Mormon corridor found race issues in the church was the third most commonly cited criticisms that led to disaffiliation.<ref name=SurveyFindings/>
===Native American people=== {{see also|Native American people and Mormonism|Pacific Islanders and Mormonism|Genetics and the Book of Mormon|Archaeology and the Book of Mormon|Indian Placement Program}}
thumb|200px|Artistic depiction of Joseph Smith preaching to Native Americans in Illinois Over the past two centuries, the relationship between Native American people and the LDS Church has included friendly ties, displacement, battles, slavery, education placement programs, official and unofficial discrimination, and criticism.<ref name=Myths>{{cite web |last1=Hamilton |first1=Andrew |last2=Geisner |first2=Joe |last3=Newcomb |first3=Sarah |title=Mormons and Native Americans: Myths vs. Realities |url=https://sunstone.org/mormons-and-native-americans-myths-vs-realities/ |website=Sunstone |date=January 2020}}</ref><ref name=Struggle/> Church leadership and publications taught the belief that Native Americans are descendants of Lamanites, a dark-skinned and cursed group of people who are described in the Book of Mormon.<ref name=Gathering>{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Arnold H. |title=Gathering and Election: Israelite Descent and Universalism in Mormon Doctrine |journal=Journal of Mormon History|date=Spring 1999 |volume=5 |issue=21 |jstor=23287743 |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=mormonhistory|publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Champaign, IL |page=196}}</ref><ref name=Struggle>{{cite news |last1=Diana |first1=Kruzman |title=Indigenous Mormons struggle to balance pride in the faith with LDS history |url=https://religionnews.com/2022/01/11/indigenous-mormons-struggle-to-balance-pride-in-the-faith-with-lds-history/ |publisher= Religion News Service |date=11 Jan 2022}}</ref> More recently, LDS researchers and publications generally favor a smaller geographic footprint of Lamanite descendants.{{efn|Prior to 2006, the introduction to church-published editions of the Book of Mormon stated Lamanites form the "principal ancestors of the American Indians." Since the 2006 edition, the same passage now reads they are "among the ancestors of the American Indians." <ref>{{cite news |last1=Fletcher Stack |first1=Peggy |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |title= Single word change in Book of Mormon speaks volumes |url= https://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/lds/ci_7403990 |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |access-date=April 27, 2022 |date=November 8, 2007}}</ref><ref name=Ruckus>{{Cite news |last=Fletcher Stack |first=Peggy |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |date=9 November 2007 |title=The Book of Mormon: Minor edit stirs major ruckus |work=The Salt Lake Tribune |url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=&itype=NGPSID |access-date=2023-06-26}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Why Native Americans struggle to make their stories and traditions fit with the Book of Mormon|url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/07/02/why-native-americans/|newspaper =Salt Lake Tribune|date=July 2, 2021|access-date=October 13, 2021|archive-date=September 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927135734/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/07/02/why-native-americans/|url-status=live}}</ref> There is no direct support amongst mainstream historians and archaeologists for the historicity of the Book of Mormon or Middle Eastern origins for any Native American peoples.<ref>{{cite thesis| last=Murphy| first=Thomas W.| title=Imagining Lamanites: Native Americans and the Book of Mormon| journal=Ph.D. Dissertation| place=University of Washington| year=2003| ssrn=2177734|url=https://www.academia.edu/10367006|via=Academia.edu}}</ref><ref name=Lost>{{Cite book |last=Southerton |first=Simon G |title=Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church |publisher=Signature Books |year=2004 |url=https://www.signaturebooks.com/books/p/losing-a-lost-tribe |place=Salt Lake City |isbn=1-56085-181-3 }}</ref><ref name=OriginsBoM>{{Cite book| last= Persuitte| first= David| author-link = David Persuitte| title= Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon| edition = 2nd| year=2000| publisher = McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|chapter='The Book of Mormon' and Ancient America| isbn= 978-0-7864-0826-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hrR7DwAAQBAJ|via=Google Books |pages=259–267}}</ref>
Soon after Mormons colonized the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Native American child slaves became a vital source of their labor, and were exchanged as gifts.<ref name=Child>{{cite web |last1=Blakemore |first1=Erin |title=Mormons Tried to Stop Native Child Slavery in Utah. They Ended Up Encouraging It |url=https://www.history.com/news/native-american-slavery-mormon-utah |website=History Channel |publisher=A&E Networks |date=14 Nov 2018}}</ref><ref name=OtherSlavery>{{cite book|title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America|author=Andrés Reséndez|date=12 April 2016 |publisher =HarperCollins |isbn=9780544602670|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ |via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|pp=273–274}} The settlers initially had some peaceful relations, but because resources were scarce in the desert, hostilities broke out with the local Native Americans.<ref name=Envision /> According to LDS Church Historian Marlin K. Jensen as more LDS immigrants arrived and took over the land of Native nations, "Resources the Indians had relied on for generations diminished, and in time they felt forced to resist and fight for their own survival ... the land and cultural birthright Indians once possessed in the Great Basin were largely taken from them."<ref name=Envision>{{cite news |last1=Fletcher Stack |first1=Peggy |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |title=LDS Native American teacher envisions a Pioneer Day that celebrates all Utahns |url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/07/24/lds-native-american/ |work=The Salt Lake Tribune |date=24 Jul 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402193836/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/07/24/lds-native-american/ |archive-date=2 April 2023 |via=Internet Archive |url-status=live| url-access=limited}}</ref> Within 50 years of Mormon settlement, the population of Utah's Native Americans was reduced by almost 90%.<ref name=OtherSlavery/>{{rp|p=273}}
The church ran an Indian Placement Program between the 1950s and the 1990s, wherein indigenous children were adopted by white church members. Criticism resulted during and after the program, including accusations of improper assimilation and even abuse.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2019/02/14/the-making-of-a-lamanite-a-brief-history-between-the-lds-church-and-indigenous-communities/|title=The Making of a Lamanite: A Brief History Between the LDS Church and Indigenous Communities|newspaper=Daily Utah Chronicle |publisher=University of Utah |date=February 14, 2019|access-date=October 13, 2021|archive-date=March 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301143625/https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2019/02/14/the-making-of-a-lamanite-a-brief-history-between-the-lds-church-and-indigenous-communities/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Aspired>{{cite magazine |last1=Green |first1=Emma |title=When Mormons Aspired to Be a 'White and Delightsome' People |date=18 Sep 2017 |magazine=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/mormons-race-max-perry-mueller/539994/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207001722/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/mormons-race-max-perry-mueller/539994/|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|archive-date=7 December 2022|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> However, many of the involved students and families praised the program.<ref name="Making lamanites">{{cite book|last1=Garrett|first1=Matthew|title=Making Lamanites: Mormons, Native Americans, and the Indian Student Placement Program, 1947–2000 |isbn= 978-1607814948|publisher=University of Utah Press|date=August 2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MImgDAEACAAJ| via=Google Books|url-access=limited |pages=194–195}}</ref> Church leaders taught for decades that Native Americans' darker skin would be made lighter due to their righteousness.<ref name=Shift>{{cite news |last1=Dart |first1=John |title=Indians Hope to Shift Mormon View of Their Skin Color |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/03/02/indians-hope-to-shift-mormon-view-of-their-skin-color/8d099524-23ae-484f-879a-c9ab5aad7eb5/ |newspaper=Washington Post |agency=Los Angeles Times |date=2 Mar 1979}}</ref><ref name=Balmer>{{cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=mQ7TCgAAQBAJ|page=168}}|title= Mormonism and American Politics|author1-first=Randall|author1-last=Balmer |author2-first=Jana |author2-last= Riess |author2-link=Jana Riess |page=168|isbn=978-0231540896|year=2015|publisher=Columbia University Press}}</ref><ref name="Mauss 2003">{{cite book |title=All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage |first=Armand L. |last=Mauss |author-link= Armand Mauss |publisher= University of Illinois Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-252-02803-1|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7lXq9JfR_EYC |via= Google Books |page=64}}</ref>
==Gender bias and sexism == {{Main|Women and Mormonism}}
Richard and Joan Ostling argue that the LDS Church treats women as inferior to men.<ref name=MormonAmerica/>{{rp|pp=159–172}} The Cult Awareness and Information Centre also point to comments such as those made by church leader Bruce R. McConkie, who wrote in 1966 that a "woman's primary place is in the home, where she is to rear children and abide by the righteous counsel of her husband".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.caic.org.au/lds/mormwomn.htm |title= The Role of Women in Mormonism |publisher= Caic.org.au |date= 1995-03-27 |access-date =2011-01-25 }}</ref> The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve espouse a complementarian view of gender roles.<ref>{{citation |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/family-proclamation |title= The Family: A Proclamation to the World |year= 1995 |publisher= LDS Church |access-date= 2011-12-06 }}</ref>
Claudia Lauper Bushman notes that, in the 1970s and 1980s, "just as American women pressed for greater influence", the LDS Church decreased the visibility and responsibilities of women in various areas including welfare, leadership, training, publishing, and policy setting. Despite this, Bushman asserts, "most LDS women tend to be good-natured and pragmatic: they work on the things that they can change and forget the rest."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bushman |first=Claudia L. |author-link=Claudia Lauper Bushman |year=2006 |title=Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Praeger Publishers |isbn=0-275-98933-X |oclc=61178156 |url=http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=9780275989330 }}</ref>{{rp|p=113}}
Jerald and Sandra Tanner point to comments by certain church leaders as evidence that women are subject to different rules regarding entry into heaven. They state that 19th-century leader Erastus Snow preached: "No woman will get into the celestial kingdom, except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband; and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/resurrectwife.htm |title= UTLM web site describing LDS treatment of women |access-date= 2007-12-04 }}</ref> In Mormon doctrine, celestial marriage is a prerequisite for exaltation for members of either gender.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-47-exaltation?lang=eng|title=Chapter 47: Exaltation|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref>
Those who adopt humanist or feminist perspectives may view certain alleged or former LDS Church doctrines (including the spiritual status of blacks, polygamy, and the role of women in society) as racist or sexist.<ref name=Feminism>{{Cite book |editor-last= Hanks |editor-first= Maxine |editor-link= Maxine Hanks |title= Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism |year= 1992 |publisher= Signature Books |location= Salt Lake City, Utah |isbn= 978-1-56085-014-4 |url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/women-and-authority-17/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330044947/http://signaturebookslibrary.org/840/ |archive-date=30 March 2020|url-status=dead|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
==Gender minorities== {{main|Gender minorities and the LDS church}} Transgender, non-binary, intersex, and other gender minorities whose gender identity and expression differ from the cisgender (i.e. non-transgender) majority currently face membership restrictions in access to priesthood and temple rites.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Allen|first1=Samantha|title=Mormon Man Risks Excommunication By Sharing His Transition|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/16/mormon-man-risks-excommunication-by-sharing-his-transition.html|accessdate=9 December 2016|agency=The Daily Beast|date=15 March 2016}}</ref><ref name=Mississippi>{{Cite news |last=Minta |first=Molly |date=2023-10-25 |title=The reality of growing up trans and Mormon in the Mississippi Bible Belt |url=https://19thnews.org/2023/10/mormon-trans-mississippi-family-faith-gender-affirming-care/ |work=The 19th |agency=Mississippi Today}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Trans Mormon Who Won't Let His Church Excommunicate Him|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-trans-mormon-who-wont-let-his-church-excommunicate-him/ |publisher=Vice Media|date=7 December 2017|quote=Broadly follows Claren as he risks complete excommunication from the Mormon Church for undergoing breast removal surgery ....}}</ref> Gender identity and roles play an important part in Mormon theology which teaches a strict binary of spiritual gender as literal offspring of heterosexual, cisgender Heavenly Parents.<ref name=Expanding>{{Cite journal |last=Scholl Shurtz |first=Charlotte |date=Spring 2022 |title=A Queer Heavenly Family: Expanding Godhood Beyond a Heterosexual, Cisgender Couple |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/a-queer-heavenly-family-expanding-godhood-beyond-a-heterosexual-cisgender-couple/ |journal=Dialogue |volume=55 |issue=1}}</ref>{{rp|69–70}}<ref name="Proclamation">{{citation |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng |title= The Family: A Proclamation to the World |year= 1995 |publisher= LDS Church }}</ref><ref name="Essential">{{cite magazine |first= David A. |last= Bednar |author-link= David A. Bednar |title= Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan |url = https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2006/06/marriage-is-essential-to-his-eternal-plan?lang=eng |magazine= Ensign |date=June 2006 |page= 83 }}</ref>
Author Charlotte Scholl Shurtz stated that the focus on God as a cisgender, heterosexual couple excludes transgender, nonbinary, and intersex members and enshrines cisnormativity.<ref name=Expanding/>{{rp|69}} She further said that current teachings ignore transgender and intersex people and deny exaltation and godhood to non-cisgender individuals.<ref name=Expanding/>{{rp|77,79}} Author Duane Jeffery criticized LDS teachings around intersex individuals as falling short on including real-world biological complexity.<ref name=Intersexes>{{Cite journal |last=Jeffery |first=Duane E. |date=1979-10-01 |title=Intersexes in Humans: An Introductory Exploration |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V12N03_111.pdf |journal=Dialogue|volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=107–113 |doi=10.2307/45224802 |jstor=45224802 |issn=0012-2157}}</ref>{{rp|108}} Kimberly Anderson, an LDS intersex person, stated that the existence of intersex people shatters the church's gender-binary hierarchy and plan of salvation.<ref name=GayRights>{{cite book |last=Prince |first=Gregory A. |author-link=Gregory Prince|title=Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences |date=2019 |publisher=University of Utah Press |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |isbn=9781607816638 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfnQuQEACAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|pp=286–287}} LDS urologist Dr. David Hatch stated that if top church leaders say gender is permanent and eternal then they can't include intersex people which creates a conflict.<ref name=GayRights/>{{rp|p=287}}
==Allegations of sexual abuse coverup== {{see also|Mormon abuse cases}} On December 28, 2020, seven lawsuits were filed against the LDS Church, based on allegations which stated that it covered up decades of sexual abuse among its Boy Scouts of America (BSA) troops in Arizona.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mormon-church-sued-for-allegedly-covering-up-boy-scouts-sex-abuse-in-arizona/|title=Mormon church sued for allegedly covering up Boy Scouts sex abuse in Arizona|publisher=CBS News|date=December 29, 2020|accessdate=April 20, 2022}}</ref> On September 15, 2021, it was agreed that the BSA, which the church ended affiliation with in 2020, would receive an estimated $250 million in settlements from the church.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2021/09/15/305972.htm|title=Boy Scouts, Mormon Church Reach $1 Billion Settlement With Sex Abuse Victims|first=Maria|last=Chutchian|publisher=Claims Journal|date=September 15, 2021|accessdate=April 20, 2022}}</ref><ref name=sponsorsettlement>{{cite news|url=https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/9/15/22675720/mormon-church-pay-250-million-dollars-settlement-boy-scouts-sexual-abuse-insurance|title=Church of Jesus Christ will pay $250M into fund for Boy Scout sexual abuse claims|first=Dennis|last=Romboy|publisher=Deseret News|date=September 15, 2021|accessdate=April 20, 2022}}</ref> The church had been the BSA's largest single sponsor.<ref name=sponsorsettlement />
==Apologetic responses== {{see also|Mormon studies#Apologetics and polemics}} Mormon apologetics organizations, such as FAIR and the Maxwell Institute, seek to counter criticisms of the church and its leaders. Most of the apologetic work focuses on providing and discussing evidence supporting the statements of Smith and the Book of Mormon. Some well known LDS apologist scholars and authors include Hugh Nibley<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/obituaries/hugh-nibley-outspoken-mormon-scholar-dies-at-94.html|title=Hugh Nibley, Outspoken Mormon Scholar, Dies at 94|work=The New York Times|date=February 25, 2005|access-date=May 16, 2021}}</ref> and Daniel Peterson.<ref>{{cite news|title=Shake-up hits BYU's Mormon studies institute|url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=54358137&itype=CMSID|publisher=Salt Lake Tribune |last=Fletcher Stack|first=Peggy |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |date=June 26, 2012|access-date=May 16, 2021|archive-date=June 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609210725/https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=54358137&itype=CMSID|url-status=live |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) was an apologetic organization before being absorbed into the Maxwell Institute in 2006.{{cn|date=August 2025}}
==See also== {{Portal|Christianity|LDS Church}} * Anti-Mormonism * Criticism of Mormon sacred texts * Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Criticism
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{Citation |last = Millet |first = Robert |author-link = Robert L. Millet |year = 2011 |title = No Weapon Shall Prosper: New Light on Sensitive Issues |publisher = Brigham Young University |isbn = 978-0-8425-2794-1 |url = https://rsc.byu.edu/recent-books/no-weapon-shall-prosper |access-date = 2013-12-28 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131228193721/https://rsc.byu.edu/recent-books/no-weapon-shall-prosper |archive-date = 2013-12-28 |url-status = dead }}
{{Latter Day Saint movement}} {{Latter-day Saints}} {{Criticism of religion}}
LDS Church LDS Church criticism