For those who find it a mouthful, people often refer to Latter Day Saints as Mormons. They are referring to the Book of Mormon, but it has simply become an easier reference for many modern people outside of this faith. With its roots deep in Christianity, this is a religion that has its own outlook on the world. It was founded by John Smith who claimed he had been given further revelations, gathering a following, and then the group founded their headquarters in the Nevada wilderness.
Few people understand what separates this group from most Christians, and the answer is that they believe each generation is given a living prophet to guide them. The means to identify this person are often purposely obscured, but their further teachings are incorporated into the religious tenets of each new generation. Many people have actually heard of some of these revelations, but they might not have understood they were proclamations of a prophet living at the time.
There are those who have espoused the belief the world would end sooner rather than later, and these beliefs have often been a part of the predictions by living prophets of this faith. It has occasionally been a point of contention amount clergy and lay people who are not of this particular sect, and it has driven a deep divide between Mormons and other practicing Christians.
While their religious beliefs are not well known by all, the idea they are all polygamists has been widely spread. When they first founded their religion in the desert, it was expected that a woman with children whose husband passed away should be taken care of by his relatives. A man would be expected to take his brother’s wife as his own to care for her. This is not a practice accepted by modern Mormons, and it should be noted that only those belonging to radical sects of this religion still hold that belief.
