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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded during the Second Great Awakening, the church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, as of 2024, it had more than 17.5 million members, of which more than 6.8 million live in the United States.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (abbreviated to FLDS Church or FLDS) is a Mormon fundamentalist group whose members practice polygamy. It is variously defined as a cult, a sect or a new religious movement. Warren Jeffs has been the church's president since 2002.
Homosexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teaches that homosexual sexual activity is sinful under its law of chastity and that God does not approve of same-sex marriage. Adherents who participate in same-sex sexual behavior may face church discipline. Members of the church who experience homosexual attractions, including those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual remain in good standing in the church if they abstain from same-sex marriage and any homosexual sexual activity or sexual relationships outside an opposite-sex marriage.
Criticism of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been subject to scholarly and religious criticism and public debate since its inception in the early 19th century. The discussion encompasses a wide range of issues from the church’s leaders, origins, and teachings, to its social and political stances. The historical claims of the church—including the authenticity of foundational books of scripture such as the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price, as well as the church's former practice of polygamy—have faced public scrutiny.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with 2.3 million youth members and approximately 889,000 adult volunteers in 2017. In 1979 there were over 5 million youths in BSA.
The high risk of sex abuse in volunteer youth organizations has been recognized, and, in 1988, the BSA created a sex abuse education and prevention program called the Youth Protection program to help address the problem. There were around 2,000 reported cases of abuse within the Boy Scouts of America prior to 1994.
Mormon abuse cases are cases of confirmed and alleged abuse, including child sexual abuse, by churches in the Latter Day Saint movement and its agents, referring to people in the church, regardless of whether the church was actually involved or not.
Jodi Nan Hildebrandt (born 1969) is an American former counselor and YouTuber who was convicted of child abuse in 2023. On August 30, 2023, Hildebrandt and her business partner Ruby Franke were arrested in Washington County, Utah, and charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse of two of Franke's children. Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts, and was sentenced to between four and 30 years in prison on February 20, 2024.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, also called Mormonism, a temple is a building dedicated to being a house of God and is reserved for special forms and rites of worship. Practices surrounding the temple and worship inside have long attracted criticism and controversy. In particular, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), by far the largest extant denomination of the movement, has experienced a considerable portion of this controversy regarding its temples.