Editing Latter Day Saint movement (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the Latter Day Saint movement}}

{{Further information|Succession crisis (Latter Day Saints)|History of the LDS Church}}

The founder of the Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith, and to a lesser extent, during the movement's first two years, [[Oliver Cowdery]].{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} Throughout his life, Smith told of an experience he had as a boy having [[First Vision|seen God the Father and Jesus Christ]] as two separate beings, who told him that the true church of Jesus Christ had been lost and would be restored through him, and that he would be given the authority to organize and lead the true Church of Christ.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/content/history/saints-v1/02-hear-him|title=Saints, THE STORY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE LATTER DAYS, Volume 1|year=2018|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org|publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake City, Utah|page=14|access-date=2018-10-17}}</ref>

The Latter Day Saint church was formed on April 6, 1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western [[New York (state)|New York]] towns of [[Fayette, New York|Fayette]], [[Manchester (town), New York|Manchester]], and [[Colesville, New York|Colesville]]. The church was formally organized under the name of the "Church of Christ". By 1834, the church was referred to as the "Church of the Latter Day Saints" in early church publications,<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Joseph|editor-last=Smith| title=Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints|location=Kirtland, Ohio|publisher=F. G. Williams & Co.|date=1835}}</ref> and in 1838 Smith announced that he had received a revelation from God that officially changed the name to the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints".<ref name=ManuscriptsA1/><ref name=Autobiographical/><ref name=Inventing/>

In 1844, [[William Law (Mormonism)|William Law]] and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly denounced Smith's secret practice of polygamy in the ''[[Nauvoo Expositor]]'', and formed [[True Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints|their own church]]. The city council of [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], led by Smith, subsequently had the printing press of the ''Expositor'' destroyed. In spite of Smith's later offer to pay damages for destroyed property, critics of Smith and the church considered the destruction heavy-handed. Some called for the Latter Day Saints to be either expelled or destroyed.<ref>{{cite web |title=History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] |url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-f-1-1-may-1844-8-august-1844/101#source-note |website=The Joseph Smith Papers |access-date=16 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Oaks |first1=Dallin H |last2=Hill |first2=Marvin S |title=Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith |date=May 1979 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |page=15}}</ref>

Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, the [[Assistant President of the Church]], were both [[Death of Joseph Smith|killed]] by a mob while in a [[Carthage, Illinois]] [[Carthage Jail|jail]], and several individuals within the church claimed to be the senior surviving authority and appointed successors. These various claims resulted in a succession crisis. Many supported Brigham Young, the [[President of the Quorum of the Twelve|president]] of the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]]; others [[Sidney Rigdon]], the senior surviving member of the [[First Presidency]]. [[Emma Hale Smith]] failed to persuade [[William Marks (Latter Day Saints)|William Marks]], the president of the [[Presiding High Council]] and a Rigdon supporter, to assume leadership and the surviving members of Smith's immediate family remained unaffiliated with any larger body until 1860, when they formed the [[Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]] with Joseph's eldest son [[Joseph Smith III]] as prophet. These various groups are sometimes referred to under two geographical headings: "Prairie Saints" (those that remained in the [[Midwest United States]]); and "Rocky Mountain Saints" (those who followed Young to what would later become the state of Utah).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=May |first1=Dean L. |title=Dissent and Authority in Two Latter-day Saint Traditions |journal=Sunstone |date=June 1994 |issue=95 |pages=16–19 |url=https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/095-16-20.pdf |access-date=14 January 2023}}</ref>

Today, the vast majority (over 98 percent) of Latter Day Saints belong to the LDS Church, which reports over 16&nbsp;million members worldwide.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics|title=LDS Statistics and Church Facts {{!}} Total Church Membership|work=mormonnewsroom.org|access-date=2018-10-17|language=en}}</ref> The second-largest denomination is the Missouri-based Community of Christ, which reports 252,000 members.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Saturday/Sunday Bulletin World Conference 2019|publisher=Community of Christ|year=2019|pages=15–16}}</ref> Small denominations that trace their origins to Rigdon, [[James Strang]], or other associates of Smith's still exist, and several [[fundamentalist]] sects which separated from the LDS Church after it [[1890 Manifesto|rejected plural marriage]] in 1890 claim tens of thousands of members.{{efn|The term ''Mormon fundamentalist'' appears to have been coined in the 1940s by [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|apostle]] [[Mark E. Petersen]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Ken |last=Driggs|title='This Will Someday Be the Head and Not the Tail of the Church': A History of the Mormon Fundamentalists at Short Creek|journal=Journal of Church and State|volume=43'|issue=49|date=2001|page=51}}</ref>}}