Reorganized LDS Church embraces different view of Mormon philosophy

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, July 2, 1999 | 11:17 a.m.

In Chronicles of Faith, the Sun will examine the state of religion and spiritual life in the Las Vegas Valley. Stories will appear periodically.

Mormon chapels speckle the Las Vegas map.

With more than 75,000 local members, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains a high profile in Clark County.

But nestled in a small church on west Oakey Boulevard is another group that believes in the Book of Mormon and the prophetic leadership of Joseph Smith, but does not belong to the Utah-based church.

"We ordain women. We never embraced polygamy. Our temples are open to the public," said the Rev. Patrick McClelland, pastor of the 300-member Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Our theology is very similar to mainstream Protestant Christianity except we also believe in the Book of Mormon and the continued inspired revelation of the president of the church," McClelland said.

Both churches sprang from the group that recognized Smith as the founder of a religion based on his receipt of divine revelation as he prayed in the New York woods in 1820.

Smith was killed in Carthage, Ill., in 1844. Disorganized without their leader, Mormons split into several sects. Some followed Brigham Young to Utah and formed what is today the 10.5 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Others stayed in the Midwest to make Smith's son their leader and became the Reorganized LDS church. It is now headquartered in Independence, Mo., and has 250,000 members in 40 countries. "Our view is that they have no authority to perform the ordinances of the church," said Will Stoddard, president of the Las Vegas stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"But we don't try to rub that in -- we try to get along. But they have none of the rights and authorities of the priesthood that we do," Stoddard said. Both churches believe that God continues to reveal to modern-day prophets -- but they have recognized different lines of prophets since their split.

"We have the prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, who stands at the head of our church who we believe is the only person on earth currently authorized to exercise the keys to the priesthood," Stoddard said. "There is only one prophet on earth today and that's our man." Hinckley's counterpart in the Reorganized LDS church is Grant McMurry, who was ordained in 1996 and is the first president who is not a direct descendant of Joseph Smith. The Reorganized LDS church believes that each president selects his successor; the LDS church believes that the senior member of the Twelve Apostles becomes the next president.

Accordingly, there have been different revelations from different leaders of the two churches, which accounts for some of the differences in their religious beliefs over the last hundred years.

For example, the Reorganized LDS church never approved of polygamy, but Brigham Young's LDS church asserted that Smith had received divine revelation approving of polygamy before his death.

"The Reorganized LDS may not believe Joseph Smith really did receive revelation on that score. They may be of the view that it was a purely a Brigham Young deal, but that's not the case," Stoddard said.

"Brigham Young was informed of the doctrine by Joseph Smith, but he was not fond of it.

"It was doctrine revealed to Joseph Smith to be practiced in limited instances on a limited basis," Stoddard said. "That continued until about 1890 when a revelation was given to president Wilford Woodruff ending it."

According to McClelland, the Las Vegas Reorganized LDS congregation is made up "a fairly good mix" of lifelong members and converts from both the LDS church and a host of other religions. Before becoming a member of the Las Vegas Reorganized LDS church in 1982, Dr. Andrew Rhodes had been everything from a Baptist to a Baha'i.

For years, he wandered from faith to faith, dissatisfied with his experiences.

"I had been a member of nearly every Christian sect," he said. "I was searching diligently for a church that felt right to me. Finally, I came face to face with Jesus Christ here in this church.

"I believe it is through the tenets of this church that I can best serve mankind."

Two tenets, according to Rhodes, define the Reorganized LDS church: "Service of Jesus Christ, and the concept of human agency. The church allows every individual to make his or her own decision about things, and it does not ostracize members for those decisions."

"As a Baptist, I was the Sunday school supervisor, and it was my duty to teach. But we weren't allowed to question the teachings, and each time someone had a question, you were supposed to simply say, 'If you live long enough, you'll understand why this is the way it is.' But I couldn't agree with that and I wasn't comfortable telling the youngsters that.

"I couldn't believe you weren't supposed to question things. So I went out wandering and finally found my way to the doorsteps of this church, where it is OK to question."

"We understand the differences among us. There is respect for the differences among us."

Rhodes, who is black, is an elder in the church -- a position of authority that allows him to administer the sacraments of the faith. Diane Schwartz is a priest in the church -- a position reserved only for males in the LDS church.

"Everyone, all minorities and women, may hold positions of authority in the Reorganized church," said McClelland, a former LDS member baptized into the Reorganized LDS by Rhodes.

The Reorganized church began allowing women into the priesthood in 1984 and today, McClelland said, two members of the church's authoritative Twelve Apostles are female.

The LDS' Twelve Apostles has never had a female nor a black member but in 1978, the LDS church began admitting blacks into the priesthood.

For Schwartz, a former Lutheran, the decision to join the Reorganized LDS church did not come quickly.

"It took me 18 years to come around. I just couldn't buy the idea of modern revelation. Then finally I thought, 'Well, Diane, God is either dead or He's still revealing.' "

"And this church was a loving, open place to me."

Both churches view homosexuality as sinful, but in recent years have asked members to "hate the sin, not the sinner" and allow homosexuals into the congregation.

LDS temples are reserved for members in good standing; RLDS temples are open to the public. The LDS church puts more emphasis on missionary work than the RLDS church -- RLDS members do not regularly serve two year missions as do most young men in the LDS church, although some missionary work is done by the Reorganized church.

"Another difference is that the Reorganized church believes that you get to the Celestial Kingdom (the highest echelon of Heaven) by the level of your understanding rather than the level of your works," McClelland said. In the LDS Church certain acts are prerequisites for getting to the Celestial Kingdom, such as being married or "sealed" in a temple ceremony.

"But we do share a basic belief in the Book of Mormon, and they've done a few things that I think have been good," Stoddard said.

"For example, the (Reorganized church) published a version of the Bible that includes Joseph Smith's editing of the errors in translations, the Inspired Version. And we sometimes refer to that." "We've outgrown a lot of animosity that we had originally," McClelland said. "We are very, very cordial today."