Today’s Mormons shy away from theological debate, so much so that, Mr. Bowman observes, it’s “difficult to pin down what precisely orthodox Mormon belief is.” Mormons do believe that Joseph Smith was visited by an angel named Moroni who gave him, on plates of gold, a new work of Scripture called the Book of Mormon. Mormon fathers still, Mr. Bowman writes, “lay their hands on the heads of their children and invoke the power of God to seal blessings upon their heads.”
Writing last year in The New York Times Sunday Review, the literary scholar Harold Bloom was stern about this faith. “The accurate critique of Mormonism is that Smith’s religion is not even monotheistic, let alone democratic,” Bloom contended. “Indeed, they themselves expect to become gods, following the path of Joseph Smith.”
And so, he added, “The Mormon patriarch, secure in his marriage and large family, is promised by his faith a final ascension to godhead, with a planet all his own separate from the earth and nation where he now dwells.” Bloom worries about a man becoming president who actually believes he’ll get his own planet.
via ‘The Mormon People,’ Matthew Bowman’s Timely Church History – NYTimes.com.
The “Morman Religion” is fluid and ever-changing. From polygamy in the 19th century, to monogamy today, they change and do whatever it takes in order to survive and grow. It is truly a “Made in America!” religion.
Back in the 1970s, here is a good description of what they believed in:
Back then, us Evangelicals told it like it was: these people were clearly false prophets. Fast-forward to today, and a Morman is actually a serious, viable contender for the presidency.