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Abstract
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as “Mormons”, is a faith tradition that
has significant similarities to Christianity. Both hold the Bible in high regard, see Jesus as the Savior, and
typically have a similar sexual and social ethic. Yet, the LDS Church has significant differences in that it
has additional scriptures, a modern prophet that speaks for the church, and an isolated community that
is heavily regional, creating a significantly unique cultural flavor. As counselors, it is imperative to have a
general working understanding of our client’s beliefs, of which religion is a core one. The first half of this
paper details history and important characteristics of Latter-day Saint belief, while the second half details
two separate events that the author attended related to Latter-day Saint practice.
Keywords: Latter-day Saint, Mormonism, counseling, multicultural counseling
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) is a
religion that stems from Christianity. “Established in 1830, the LDS Church combines Judeo–Christian
traditions with modern prophetic leadership” (Limb Et al., 2018). There is intense debate about whether
this faith falls under the banner of Christianity, but regardless, they are deserving of love and care from
counselors. The history of Mormonism (the greater banner of the restoration movement begun by
Joseph Smith) is a dramatic one, as it has a unique background compared to other faith traditions, and is
uniquely American.
Research Portion
Common Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stems from what is commonly referred to as “The
First Vision”. The First Vision is the “birthday” of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a
core belief of all Latter-day Saints, where they believe that Joseph Smith was visited by God the Father
and Jesus Christ (Curtis Jr., 2020). This is the crux of the faith, as without it, the very idea of a “restored
church” does not make sense. From this, members of the Church believe that the church is the holder of
the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Members also believe that the church is led by a modern day
prophet, who is able to give new revelation (Limb Et al., 2018).
Church members are generally conservative politically, voting against things like gambling,
alcohol, and same-sex marriage (Miles & Adkins, 2019). The members of the church seem to be
responsive to promptings by church leadership. In 2008, church leaders urged California church
members to support Proposition 8, which was a piece of state legislation that added a stipulation in the
state constitution that marriage was between a man and woman.
Members of the church are typically very family-oriented. The Family: A Proclamation to The
World (1995) was a statement issued by President Gordon B. Hinckley, outlining the church’s beliefs
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about family. Namely, that the family is “central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His
children”, and that “disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the
calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”
Key Historical Events and Figures
Besides Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith is the key figure of the LDS Church. As previously mentioned,
Joseph Smith is responsible for the founding of the church in April of 1830 (History of the Church, n.d.).
While the church was founded in 1830, Joseph Smith claimed to have received a vision in the Spring of
1820. Joseph Smith was killed in 1844, leading to a number of schisms. Another significant event took
place in 1890, when, after four decades of Utah seeking statehood, the LDS Church renounced polygamy,
the main obstacle in the way of statehood. This is seen by some as a significant transition where
Mormonism became more accepted (PBS, n.d.). Speaking on this event, Sarah Barringer Gordon, a
historian on Mormonism, stated "Utah begins to look like it has importance to the nation. After all, it has
two senators. We have electoral votes to deliver, right, so you begin to take part in the life of the
country” (PBS, n.d.).
A somewhat moving target of a historical figure is the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. The President is the leader of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the leader of
the church in general. The president has always been an elderly white male. The office is limited to male
priesthood holders, and due to the selection process, has often consisted of individuals in their eighties
or even nineties (“prophets”, n.d.). They are seen as the “prophet, seer, revelator”, and the only one
capable of giving revelation for the entire church. This is important to a counselor because I have
observed Latter-day Saints are pretty lockstep with the church in regards to their convictions.
Understanding what the president of their church is saying could go a long way in building rapport and
anticipating where a client may (but not always) stand on a particular conviction.
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Immigration Patterns
Mormonism is known as the quintessential American religion, and its adherents and their
ancestors do not appear to come from any particular foreign country. That being said, it is well known
that Utah is an LDS dense region. Less known is the fact that Idaho, Arizona, and parts of Colorado make
up the “Mormon Corridor”, a densely populated range of longitude in the Western United States (Pew
Research, 2014). Due to conflict east of the Mississippi, early Latter-day Saint settlers moved to Utah to
escape persecution, and found the unsettled Utah a suitable place to land (Bushman, 1960). From there,
Latter-day Saints built up the then-territory, now-state, and begun to spread out. There is a multitude of
articles regarding the pioneer era and identity of Mormonism, seemingly a core historical event and
value in the life of the typical Latter-day Saint.
Prominent Customs, Beliefs, and Behaviors
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consists of a highly committed bunch. 84% of
Latter-day Saints say that religion is “very important” (Pew Research, 2014). 91% of Latter-day Saints
state that scripture is the word of God, and 77% of them read scripture at least once a week. 85% pray at
least daily, as well. Latter-day Saints generally oppose same sex marriage (68%) and generally oppose
abortion in most or all cases (70%).
Historical and Current Oppression
As previously mentioned, there were significant conflicts in the early LDS church. While there is
debate about how much was self-inflicted, Latter-day Saints were faced with significant disdain. There
were a number of manifestos essentially waging war on Latter-day Saints in Missouri (Bushman, 1960).
Perhaps the Latter-day Saint doctrine of Zionism (in which they thought Missouri would become the new
Zion) had something to do with it. To make matters worse, as Latter-day Saints left Missouri for a
Western settlement (that would become Utah) in a number of violent scraps, their notoriety as a
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peculiar people grew enough to be known, but not enough to be known. The subsequent isolation of
being distant from the majority of the United States would certainly add to the mystery, and humans
fear the unknown.
While it is not necessarily oppression to draw lines in the sand on who can be called a Christian
and who can not (ecumenical councils in the early church helped establish criteria), just 51% of
Americans consider Mormonism a Christian religion, compared to 97% of Latter-day Saints (Pew
Research, 2012). Clearly, there is a significant gap in acceptance.
Anecdotally, I have heard a story from a Latter-day Saint I know personally. Their father served a
mission in a Southern state in the 1990s, near a Southern Baptist seminary. More than once, he received
an invitation to meet with someone from the seminary, and was then ridiculed and yelled at, even once
attempting to give someone a Book of Mormon that was then thrown back at him.
Counseling Latter-day Saints
In a paper about counseling divorced Latter-day Saint women, Becky Morris presents several
important points. She comments on the cultural difference between Latter-day Saints and the general
population, saying this when speaking of the Apostle Paul’s combining of man and woman: “Such a belief
so firmly entrenched in the minds of LDS women, almost negates the probability of severing the
marriage relationship, so that when it does happen, the shock to her must be acute, and she will be in
need of immediate help if she is to escape the pitfalls that generally accompany such an experience”
(Morris, 1980). In this, there is an imploring of the counselor to recognize the cultural differences that
are so strongly tied to Latter-day Saint identity. Morris presents several theorists who may be compatible
with LDS theology. An example is Frankl’s logotherapy, which lines up with the Latter-day Saint view that
our time on earth is a “proving ground” where we grow and become more like God. Morris did not give
any data about the efficacy of these methods.
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Another study on unwanted same-sex attraction among Latter-day Saints, again brings up the
niche characteristics present in Latter-day Saints, saying “For an LDS client, any meaningful
communication with a therapist can only occur within the understanding of their cultural environment
and the language of their spiritual lives and believed eternal identities” (Cox and Pruden, 2020). Cox and
Pruden state that the counselor must use Biblical principles like forgiveness and acceptance of God’s love
to counsel the client effectively. Cox and Pruden also stated the efficacy of this in their own practices, as
they combined psychotherapy with Latter-day Saint theology.
Events Portion
I attended two events related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first event
was a Sunday service on November 19th, 2023. The service lasted two hours and took place at the
meetinghouse (church building) in Ellensburg, Washington, where there is a small but significant number
of members of the church. The second event was called Family Home Evening. Typically, I was told,
Latter-day Saints will spend one night a week devoted to family fellowship, consisting of prayer, scripture
studying, and fun family bonding at home. But as I live in a college town, there is a significant number of
LDS college students who are not with their family, and so they come together to do similar activities. My
best comparison for this is a Protestant youth group, consisting of fellowship among a particular band of
ages. This was advertised as about two hours, but we ended up staying a bit more than two and a half
hours. This took place on November 17th, 2023, at the Institute Building, which is a building specifically
for college-age Latter-day Saint events. This particular Institute building, I was told, was donated by a
church member a number of years ago.
The Family Home Evening evoked a familiar feeling to my youth groups growing up, and the
youth group I now pastor. I felt like this was a humanizing experience for me. Growing up, I heard about
how the LDS Church is a cult. Much of Evangelicalism has been influenced by Walter Martin, an
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outspoken opponent of Mormonism and other “cults”. Martin was quite militant in his commentary
about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in texts such as Kingdom of the Cults (Martin,
2019). That book, first published in 1965, is something I have seen on many Christian bookshelves. But
what I experienced at Family Home Evening, or FHE as it is colloquially called, was normal college
students having a normal, clean evening of fellowship. I felt a sense of shame that I pigeon-holed this
people group. I have a dear friend who is a Latter-day Saint, but I always told myself that she is the
exception to the rule, that most were delusional and irrational. But here I was, around 10-15 very normal
people, who simply don’t drink alcohol and cuss, something I as a Baptist was very familiar with. If you
told me it was a Baptist college ministry, I would likely believe you. We had a wonderful evening simply
hanging out, playing minute to win it games and eating pizza. What I observed was that these were
regular people, doing regular things.
Likewise, the Sunday service a couple days later evoked similar thoughts. It began with an hour
of what is called “sacrament meeting”, where they take the sacrament (or as most protestants would call
it, communion) and listen to a handful of talks about a faith topic given by members of the church. There
was also some church business incorporated. Quite frankly, it aligned more with my personal theological
beliefs about what a Sunday morning should look like. This brought on a sense of unease. As a pastor,
I’ve talked about how I think the modern Sunday morning of two worship songs, a thirty minute sermon,
two more worship songs, and then communion once a quarter is not the Sunday service of the early
church. To see “a cult” get closer to what I believe is biblical than the churches I grew up around is a
bizarre feeling.
The second half of the Sunday service was divvied up by age. It is my understanding that every
other week, it is by age, and then the other weeks, it is by gender. This week, the adults talked about the
book of James. They came prepared, many coming with things that were revealed to them during
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personal scripture study. Again, I was told that members of the LDS Church only read the Book of
Mormon, and they don’t value the Bible (I knew from my friend this was not true, though). What I heard
was a high value of the Bible, even if I disagreed with many interpretations they have. I walked away
feeling like these people, however misguided they may be, were trying their best to follow the teachings
of Jesus. That was deserving of respect.
That was the first thing I learned—that these people are trying their best. As a counselor, we
start from the mentality that everyone is trying their best. As a pastor, I have to make determinations—is
this person following Jesus? That informs how I relate to them. I would not expect a non-believer to
behave the same way that I would expect a believer to. Observing these people who very obviously want
to be imaging Jesus in their church, families, and communities, it is undeniable that the effort is there.
Another thing I learned was how important families are. I knew from the research portion that it
was vital, but words in a journal do not do this point justice. Besides from their stereotypical large
families, several babies cried during sacrament meeting, one of them the entire time. Not a single person
looked at the families with disdain, and there was no apparent expectation that the parent would
remove the crying baby. It seemed to communicate that this time was for the entire family to be
together, regardless of what distractions may come. It was clearly important to do this as a family.
The last thing I learned was the intelligence that many had. In a number of conversations, it was
clear that these were intelligent, high-achieving individuals. While every group is going to have some
more average (or below average) individuals, there seemed to be a multitude of highly capable people,
both socially (perhaps from their two years of missionary service) and intellectually. The way they would
talk about the book of James (“they” being the five or six who repeatedly talked in the group out of the
fifteen to twenty present). This is significant because as Christians, it is easy to view Latter-day Saints as
cultists who do not hold the Bible in high regard. The way I have observed Christians describe Latter-day
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Saints is borderline dehumanizing. In reality, these are smart, capable people, who have rational reasons
for belonging to this demographic.
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Bushman, R. L. (Autumn, 1960.). Mormon Persecutions in Missouri, 1833. BYU Studies. Retrieved from
https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/mormon-persecutions-in-missouri-1833/
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (1995). The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (n.d.). Church History. Retrieved December 12, 2023 from
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/topic/church-history
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (n.d.). Prophets. Retrieved December 11, 2023, from
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/prophets
Cox, S. E., & Pruden, D. C. (2020). Working with Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints Who Struggle with Unwanted Same-Sex Attractions and Behaviors. Journal of Human
Sexuality, 12(3), [p.4-14]
Curtis, L. R. Jr. (2020). The First Vision and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU Studies
Quarterly, 59(2), Article 3.
Miles, M., & Adkins, J. (2019). Mormon Mobilization in Contemporary U.S. Politics. Oxford Research
Encyclopedias, 1–27.
Morris, B. (1980). Counseling the Divorced LDS Woman. Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy, 6(3),
Article 5. Retrieved from https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/irp/vol6/iss3/5
Limb, G., Hodge, D., Ward, K., Ferrell, A., & Alboroto, R. (2018). Developing cultural competence with LDS
clients: Utilizing spiritual genograms in social work practice. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in
Social Work: Social Thought, 37(2), 166-181. DOI: 10.1080/15426432.2018.1448033
PBS. (n.d.). Mormons in Utah. Retrieved from
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mormons-utah/#:~:text=Utah%20was
%20admitted%20to%20the,members%20of%20the%20Republican%20Party
Pew Research Center. (2014). U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. Retrieved from
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/mormon/
#social-and-political-views
Pew Research Center. (2012, January 12). Mormons in America: Executive Summary. Retrieved from
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/01/12/mormons-in-america-executive-summary/
CHURCH TOPIC
