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i think this is worth of a thread (same as "which day is the sabbath?")

in another thread (viewtopic.php?p=1039235#p1039235) Fence Sitter wrote:This thread has taken an interesting turn into the nature of religious evidence that reminded me of these passages from a letter I read the other night written in 1948 from Dale Morgan to S.A. Burgess who was a research assistant and staff member of the Historian's office of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ (RLDS) in Independence Missouri.

Morgan is trying to explain to Burgess how difficult it is for Morgan to interact with the different Mormon sects.

Dale Morgan to S.A.Burgess in 1948 wrote:I received on Monday your letter of August 5, and since then I have been pondering how best to answer you. For it is not easy to answer you, just as it is not easy to answer any of the representatives of the several Mormon or L.D.S. churches
snip

...

different Mormon sects ?
several Mormon or L.D.S. churches ?

only true?

Here's a list of different Mormon denominations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_denominations_in_the_Latter_Day_Saint_movement#List_of_Latter_Day_Saint_movement_churches

While there are many Mormon type sects. All the others are very small relative to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and most could fit into a large living room in most American homes. The next biggest one is the Community of Christ and it has abandoned all pretense of being LDS.

The CCC wrote:While there are many Mormon type sects. All the others are very small relative to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and most could fit into a large living room in most American homes. The next biggest one is the Community of Christ and it has abandoned all pretense of being LDS.

The RLDS (Community of Christ) has basically become a mainline liberal protestant sect, although I'm not sure I'd say that means they've abandoned the pretense of being LDS. That didn't exactly help their numbers though. From what I can tell though they tend to see most LDS scripture as with most of the Bible as fiction with inspired lessons behind it. They are still reasonably sized despite a lot of people leaving during the controversies in the 80's and early 90's. I think the current numbers are still around a quarter of a million. There's then maybe 10,000 - 30,000 who are loosely RLDS but don't accept the main body's move to liberal protestantism.

The next two big ones are fundamentalist polygamist sects. The FLDS down near Arizona (and more recently Texas) have obviously had their legal troubles but never were that large. The numbers aren't clear although likely under 10,000 and possibly just a few thousand. The next largest is the Allred group although they've been shrinking. (There's apparently been a big move by many to try and return to the main LDS body - especially in the Montana parts) Again the numbers aren't clear but it's most likely less than 10,000. There's then a few that have around 1,000 members and maybe all the rest of the polygamist groups total 10,000 or less.

There's then maybe 20,000 - 30,000 associated with pre-Nauvoo groups such as the Temple Lot group and the Bickertonites.

Still if you add them all up there's probably at least 300,000 to possibly as many as 350,000 non-LDS Mormons.

Although many of the official sects of Mormonism might be quite small. There is another line of thinking to follow here. How many currently practicing Mormons that identify as being members of the CoJCoLDS actually hold or practice different (sometimes drastically) ideas or principles than what the main body of the church preaches. I know that personally, just before I left, my personal brand of Mormonism didn't look very much like what I thought the Church wanted it to look like(Pro LGBT, no Book of Mormon antiquity, etc.). We see plenty of people on this board who have some VERY different ideas about doctrine than what is typically discussed at GC or in Sunday School. Are they actually members of the CoJCoLDS or are they some other separate offshoot? How different do your personal beliefs have to be before we label you as something distinct? Or do we take you at your word and as long as you identify as a member and remain on the roles you count?

Choyo Chagas wrote:i think this is worth of a thread (same as "which day is the sabbath?")



different Mormon sects ?
several Mormon or L.D.S. churches ?

only true?

Actually there have been over 400 different branches of Mormonism that can or could trace their roots back to Joseph Smith. Morgan was interested in all things Mormon and there was and is a lot of primary source material in the hands of people associated with Mormonism who are not part of the Brighamite branch. His dilemma as a writer was trying to get access to all this material while having to be very careful not to offend any version of Mormonism. One needs to remember that this letter was written after Brodie's work was published and Morgan was an ardent public defender of Brodie. Brodie's book was ground breaking in many ways. So in the letter above Morgan is trying to explain to a RLDS archivist why he should continue to grant access to Morgan when Morgan is defending Brodie's view of Joseph Smith and polygamy, a view very much in contradiction to what the RLDS believed.

There are quite a few letters in which Morgan directly takes on someone from the different branches of Mormonism regarding a controversial topic and very clearly lays out why the recipient of the letter is in error.

Great reading.

Quasimodo wrote:Here's a list of different Mormon denominations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_denominations_in_the_Latter_Day_Saint_movement#List_of_Latter_Day_Saint_movement_churches

thank you for the list; it is a very usable information

so, their name is legion --- but which is the only true one? or is there such thing?
i'd like to know your own opinion, as your comment is as neutral as it can be...