Mormons in America

For this weeks blog task I have chosen to look at are the Mormons. The original European settlers would have been most likely to be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish etc. These religions were brought over to America and not created there. The Mormon religion or The Latter Day Saint Movement was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in the beginning of the 1820's in western New York as a form of Christianity. Mormons believe first and formost that Jesus Christ is the saviour of the world and the son of God.

This religion has around 14 million followers worldwide. This may be due to the fact that the religion was created in America, a place where there is the opportunity to practice their religion freely.

In my opinion some of the concepts of this religion seem strange yet they fit an American ethos to some certain certain extents. For example there is a section on the Mormon website that is all about their "values". Strengthening Families, Service to Others, Missionary Work, Lifelong Learning, Freedom to Choose, Humanitarian Aid, Good Citizenship and Family History. The main ideas family is that you are part of God's family and key to happiness on earth is a happy family. Service to others seems to fairly obvious, helping others is in the job description. In my opinion this is an American ideal as people like to help others in their community. The freedom to choose section pops out at me especially as the idea of even settling in America in the first place was to have the freedom to start fresh and make a new life. In many ways I can see why this religion is appealing as they have a choice to what their morals are.