Editing Mormonism (section)

===America===

[[File:Constitution of the United States, page 1.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Mormons believe that the U.S. Constitution is the result of divine inspiration. Fundamentalists believe in the related [[White Horse Prophecy]].]]

Mormon theology teaches that the [[United States]] is a unique place and that Mormons are God's [[chosen people]], selected for a singular destiny.<ref name="Bracht 2012">{{cite book |author-last=Bracht |author-first=John |year=2012 |orig-date=1990 |chapter=The Americanization of Adam |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CCYaHRKG-oC&pg=PA97 |editor-last=Trompf |editor-first=G. W. |title=Cargo Cults and Millenarian Movements: Transoceanic Comparisons of New Religious Movements |location=[[Berlin]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |series=Religion and Society |volume=29 |pages=97–142 |doi=10.1515/9783110874419.97 |isbn=978-3-11-087441-9}}</ref> The [[Book of Mormon]] alludes to the United States as being the Biblical [[promised land]], with the [[Constitution of the United States]] being [[Divine inspiration|divinely inspired]], and argues that [[American exceptionalism|America is an exceptional nation]].<ref name="Bracht 2012"/><ref name="Barlow">{{cite journal |last=Barlow |first=Philip L. |date=June 2012 |title=Chosen Land, Chosen People: Religious and American Exceptionalism Among the Mormons |journal=The Review of Faith & International Affairs |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=51–58 |doi=10.1080/15570274.2012.682511 |doi-access=free |issn=1557-0274 |s2cid=145547250}}</ref><ref name="Yorgason 2006">{{cite book |author-last=Yorgason |author-first=Ethan |year=2006 |chapter=The Shifting Role of the Latter-day Saints as the Quintessential American Religion |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwim_0xE1c4C&pg=PA141 |editor-last=Lippy |editor-first=Charles H. |title=Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, New Directions. Volume 1: Organized Religion Today |location=London and [[Westport, Connecticut]] |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers]] |series=Praeger Perspectives |pages=141–163 |isbn=978-0-313-04961-3 |lccn=2006022880}}</ref>

In [[Upstate New York]] in 1823, Joseph Smith claimed to have had a vision in which the [[Angel Moroni]] told him about engraved [[golden plates]] buried in a [[Cumorah|nearby hill]].<ref name="Givens 2003">{{cite book |last=Givens |first=Terryl L. |year=2003 |orig-date=2002 |chapter="A Seer Shall the Lord My God Raise Up": The Prophet and the Plates |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nd8-DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |title=By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/019513818X.003.0002 |pages=8–42 |isbn=978-0-19-513818-4 |oclc=1028168787 |s2cid=159734267}}</ref><ref name="Stark 2005">{{cite book |author-last=Stark |author-first=Rodney |author-link=Rodney Stark |editor-last=Neilson |editor-first=Reid L. |year=2005 |title=The Rise of Mormonism |chapter=The Basis of Mormon Success |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wO6Ui_48mRcC&pg=PA114 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |doi=10.7312/star13634-006 |pages=114–116 |isbn=978-0-231-13634-1 |lccn=2005045464 |oclc=800910267 |s2cid=99224315}}</ref> According to Smith, he received subsequent instruction from Moroni and, four years later, excavated the plates and translated them from "[[reformed Egyptian]]" into English; the resultant [[Book of Mormon]]—so called after an [[Mormon (Book of Mormon prophet)|ancient American prophet]] who, according to Smith, had compiled the text recorded on the golden plates—recounts the history of a tribe of [[Israelites]], led by the prophet [[Lehi (Book of Mormon prophet)|Lehi]], who migrated from [[Jerusalem]] to the [[Americas]] in the 7th century BCE.<ref name="Givens 2003"/><ref name="Stark 2005"/> In Mormonism, these Israelite tribes who migrated to the Americas centuries before the birth of [[Jesus Christ]] are considered to be among the ancestors of [[pre-Columbian]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]].<ref name="Bracht 2012"/><ref name="Givens 2003"/><ref name="Stark 2005"/>

Joseph Smith argued that the [[Millennialism|millennial]] [[New Jerusalem]] was to be built in America (10th [[Articles of Faith (Latter Day Saints)|Article of Faith]]).<ref name="Barlow"/> In the [[Doctrine and Covenants]], Smith records God as saying "it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood" (D&C 101:79–80). To Mormons, this places America as the originator of [[religious liberty]] and freedom, while noting a need to expand these American values worldwide.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Jason A. |last2=Weiss |first2=David |title=The Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism: Critical Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9HOOPK96jwC&pg=PA105 |access-date=January 5, 2021 |publisher=McFarland |date=2014 |page=107 |isbn=978-0-7864-8681-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Although officially shunned by the LDS Church, [[Mormon fundamentalism|fundamentalist Mormons]] believe in the [[White Horse Prophecy]], which argues that Mormons will be called upon to preserve the Constitution as it hangs "by a thread".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Quammen |first1=Betsy Gaines |title=COVID-19 and the White Horse Prophecy: The Theology of Ammon Bundy |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/175390 |access-date=January 4, 2021 |work=History News Network |agency=Columbian College of Arts and Sciences: The [[George Washington University]] |date=May 10, 2020 |archive-date=October 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011005008/http://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/175390 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Duncan |first1=Charles |title=Did Mitt Romney fulfill a Mormon prophecy with vote to convict Trump? |url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article240035018.html |access-date=January 4, 2021 |work=Miami Herald |date=February 6, 2020 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414011930/https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article240035018.html |url-status=live }}</ref>