page_title: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
section_title: Controversy and criticism
hierarchical_section_title: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / Controversy and criticism
caption_attribution_description: English: Opponents of California's Proposition 8 protest w:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints's support of the proposition at the Church's Newport Beach California Temple.
context_page_description: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16 million members and 65,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.5 million members there as of January 2018. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the early 19th century period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
  Adherents, often referred to as "Latter-day Saints" or, less formally, "Mormons", view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion.
context_section_description: The LDS Church has been subject to criticism and sometimes discrimination since its early years in New York and Pennsylvania. In the late 1820s, criticism centered around the claim by Joseph Smith to have been led to a set of gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was reputedly translated.
  In the 1830s, the greatest criticism was for Smith's handling of a banking failure in Kirtland, Ohio. After the Mormons migrated west, there was fear and suspicion about the LDS Church's political and military power in Missouri, culminating in the 1838 Mormon War and the infamous Mormon Extermination Order (Missouri Executive Order 44) by Governor Lilburn Boggs.  In the 1840s, criticism of the church centered on 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. Opposition led to a series of events culminating in murder of Smith and his brother while jailed in 1844.
  As the church began openly practicing plural marriage under Brigham 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 the Utah Territory. Beginning in 1857, the church also came under significant media criticism after the Mountain Meadows massacre in southern Utah.
  Academic critics have questioned the legitimacy of Smith as a prophet as well as the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. Criticism has expanded to include claims of historical revisionism, homophobia, racism, and sexist policies. Notable 20th-century critics include Jerald and Sandra Tanner and historian Fawn Brodie. Evangelical Christians continue to argue that Smith was either fraudulent or delusional.
  Mormon apologetics organizations, such as the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR) and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), have been founded to counter these criticisms. Most of the apologetic work focuses on providing and discussing evidence supporting the claims of Smith and the Book of Mormon. Scholars and authors such as Hugh Nibley, Daniel C. Peterson, Jeff Lindsay, Orson Scott Card, and James E. Talmage are well-known apologists within the church.
  During the civil rights era of the 1960s and 1970s, the LDS Church was criticized for its policy of excluding black men of African descent from the priesthood, a policy that the church changed in 1978. In more recent years, the Internet has provided a new forum for proponents and critics of religions, including the LDS Church.
  The church's support in 2008 of California's Proposition 8 sparked heated debate and protest by gay-rights organizations and others. The church expressed support for a Salt Lake City ordinance protecting members of the LGBT community against discrimination in employment and housing while allowing religious institutions to consider lifestyles in actions such as hiring or providing university accommodations. Further controversy resulted in late 2015, when the church changed its guidance to lay leaders about same-sex unions and about minor children living in the home of a parent in a same-sex relationship, whether natural or adopted. The policy said that these children should only be baptized after reaching legal age, and only if they did not live with parents who were in a same-sex cohabitation or marriage. In addition, it said that these children should reject the practice of homosexual marriage or cohabitation. The church said that this baptism policy is designed to protect children. In April 2019, the church reversed course on this policy, citing efforts to be more accepting to people of all kinds of backgrounds. Church leaders described these changes not as a change in doctrine but as one on policy.
  Jewish groups, including the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, criticized the LDS Church in 1995 after discovering that vicarious baptisms for the dead for victims of the Holocaust had been performed by me
caption: Protesters in front of the Newport Beach California Temple voicing their opposition to the church's support of Prop 8
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