The answer to the question of who the Mormons are has been different at different times. The representatives of this religion themselves consider themselves representatives of the only true teaching. However, this is not surprising.
There is not a single religion that has not declared itself the owner of the most correct way of worshiping God. As for the environment in which the Mormons lived, American Protestants perceived them as pagans, Europeans, regardless of religion, as one of the American sects, akin to Christians. In Russia, the Mormons were first considered one of the numerous Protestant sects, and later they were quite rightly classified as a pagan religion based on the teachings of the Abrahamic religions and on the “revelations” received by the Mormons through the founder of the religion, Joseph Smith.
Apparently, the latter from childhood was subject to hallucinations of unknown origin. Medicalhe did not undergo examination, so the genesis of his “visions” remained unclear. Raised in a devout Christian family, Joseph Smith is known to have received some “revelation” from the age of fourteen that convinced him that he was “the chosen one.”
There have been many fanatics like Joseph Smith throughout history. But the vast majority of them have sunk into obscurity, and only for a few circumstances have developed successfully, making them "teachers" and "saints" for more or less significant groups of people.
So, who are Mormons and what is the peculiarity of their faith? Along with the Bible, their sacred text is the Book of Mormon, a message given to Joseph Smith from above in 1830. He began preaching in the twenties of the nineteenth century. Gradually, the teachings of the Mormons gained more and more supporters. Since they differed sharply in their way of life from the Puritan Protestants who lived around (for example, they practiced polygamy and had an extremely rigid “vertical of power”), the Mormons were persecuted. Their leaders, after the death of Joseph Smith (and he died at the age of thirty-eight), led the "chosen people" to the Wild West, hoping to establish their own state there. Elevated to the rank of religion, industriousness allowed the Mormons to establish a city (S alt Lake City) on the shores of the S alt Lake, which began to grow rapidly.
Who the Mormons really are, it became clear after they destroyed the caravan of settlers who did not have the honor of belonging to their religion. The morals that reigned among the Mormons are describedEnglishman Arthur Conan Doyle (Study in Scarlet) and American Jack London (Straitjacket).
The Mormon Church is not a monolith today. Some adherents abandoned the practice of polygamy - so as not to conflict with the laws of the United States, and some never practiced it. To date, the number of Mormons by the adherents themselves is estimated at about thirteen million people, most of whom live in the US state of Utah.
Their numbers tend to slowly increase. Mormons pursue an active proselytizing policy, recruiting adherents in different countries of the world. Smiling missionaries roam the streets of cities on all continents, stopping passers-by with the question: “Are you satisfied with everything in life?”. The main thing is to strike up a conversation, and then - how Mormon and Joseph Smith will help.
The answer to the question of who the Mormons are, puzzled and the Orthodox Church. Mormons are included in the list of totalitarian sects compiled by church ideologues - they are included quite rightly, in my opinion. Mormons are a phenomenon absolutely alien to Russian spiritual practice. And the methods of government within the Mormon community are not very different from those adopted a century and a half ago.