Within just a few years, the new church’s leaders had already abandoned the consecration ideal. Yet financial difficulties, personal clashes and other challenges doomed the experiment from the start. Smith’s earliest revelations denounced individualism and urged believers to share their property and resources with one another. It was one of many communal experiments Americans attempted during the antebellum period as religious innovators offered alternatives to what they believed was a dangerous and uncaring economic system. Early converts to what was originally called the Church of Christ, organized in 1830, were encouraged to consecrate all their goods to their new religious community so it could redistribute resources to those in need. It is no surprise, then, that when Smith formed his own church, its teachings included a sharp critique of the capitalist system. Smith’s father had lost savings in an ill-fated ginseng deal, plunging the family into two decades of poverty. His parents were religious seekers who struggled to find a fulfilling church and tussled with the young country’s financial turbulence. Mormonism was born through the spiritual quest of Joseph Smith, who was raised amid America’s Second Great Awakening during the early 1800s, a period of Christian revivals. (Image courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Church founder Joseph Smith A church statement expressed “regret” that its leaders had followed faulty legal counsel and insisted that the fine would be paid through “investment returns” rather than members’ donations. According to its news release, the SEC concluded that the church went to “great lengths” to “obscure” its investment portfolio. This yearly ritual may seem striking in the face of the church’s February 2023 agreement to pay a $5 million fine in a settlement with the U.S. But another speaker will likely be a member of the church’s auditing department, who, if he follows tradition, will state that the institution’s financial activities from the past year were “administered in accordance with church-approved budgets, accounting practices and policies.” No further specifics are typically provided. Over two days, Latter-day Saints - often called “Mormons” - will hear an array of talks from religious leadership. ![]() Tens of thousands of members will attend in person, with millions watching from home. During the first weekend of April 2023, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will hold its semiannual General Conference in Salt Lake City.
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