History and analysis of Mormonism in America Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially organized by Joseph Smith in Western New York on April 6, 1830, and by 1978, spread to more than seventy nations. Oneuniqueness of the Mormon religion is that it was the first church to have begun in the UnitedStates. Following the revivals of the 1800's, religion entered a temporary decline in Western New York,reawakened in 1807-1808, then declined again because of the military excitement The Chnts of1812. After this time, a new wave of revivalism began, in liberal churches such as the Unitarians and toconservative churches such as the Congregationalists. Not surprisingly, as all of these churchesparticipated in revivals, there was plenty of squabbling to go around. Joseph Smith Jr. was born in Sharon, Vermont, on December 23, 1805, and as a boy moved withhis family to New York. His family by no means had it easy, in their first two years in New Yorkthey ran a small shop in town and hired themselves out as laborers to more prosperous citizens.Joseph Smith Jr. was taught at home, and he was literate. Joseph Smith had his first "vision" when he was between fourteen and sixteen years of age. Hereported this to his parents and of course the claim that God and Jesus Christ actually appeared toa modern man was somewhat doubted. "Faced with Joseph Smith's account of a subjectivereligious experience in a literal historical setting, writers of the past have either accepted it as fact,or more commonly, rejected it as falsehood or delusion." (Arrington p.5) There seemed to be nomiddle ground on the issue. The account of the first "vision" describes Joseph Smith's confusion as a boy over the manydifferent religious expressions going on. Inspired by the words of James he was asking God forwisdom. He went into the woods to pray and in the words of Joseph Smith, "I saw a pillar of lightover my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descende...
