The answer to the question of who these Mormons sounded differently at different times. Representatives of this religion themselves consider themselves representatives of the only true doctrine. However, this is not surprising.
There is no religion that does not declare itself the owner of the most proper 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, Mormons were initially considered one of the many Protestant sects, and later they were justly 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. He did not undergo a medical examination, so the genesis of his “visions” remained unclear. It is reliably known that Joseph Smith, who grew up in a faithful Christian family from the age of fourteen, received certain “revelations” that convinced him that he was “the chosen one”.
At all times there were many fanatics like Joseph Smith . But the vast majority of them have sunk into obscurity, and only for some 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, the Book of Mormon is a sacred text for them - a certain message given to Joseph Smith from above in 1830. He began to preach in the twenties of the nineteenth century. Gradually, the teachings of Mormons gained more and more supporters. Since their lifestyle and way of life were very different from the Puritan Protestants who lived around (for example, they practiced polygamy and had an extremely rigid “power vertical”), the Mormons were persecuted. Their leaders after the death of Joseph Smith (and he died at the age of thirty-eight years) led the "chosen people" to the Wild West, hoping to establish their own state there. Raised the rank of religion, hard work allowed the Mormons to establish a city (Salt Lake City) on the shores of
Salt Lake , which began to grow rapidly.
Who the Mormons really are, it became clear after they destroyed the caravan of immigrants who did not have the honor of belonging to their religion. The customs prevailing among the Mormons are described by the Englishman Arthur Conan Doyle (Study in Scarlet) and the American Jack London (Straitjacket).
The Mormon Church is not a monolith today. Some partisans abandoned the custom 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 adherents is estimated at approximately thirteen million people, most of whom live in the US state of Utah.
Their number tends to slowly increase. Mormons have an active proselytizing policy, recruiting adherents around the world. Smiling missionaries roam the streets of cities on all continents, stopping passers-by with the question: “Does everything suit you in life?” The main thing is to start a conversation, and there it is - how Mormon and Joseph Smith will help.
The Orthodox Church was puzzled by the answer to the question of who Mormons are. Mormons are included in the list of totalitarian sects compiled by church ideologists - they enter quite rightly, in my opinion. Mormons are a phenomenon completely foreign to Russian spiritual practice. And management practices within the Mormon community are not very different from those adopted a century and a half ago.