List of Mormon folk beliefs

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "List of Mormon folk beliefs" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In the largest group of the Latter Day Saint movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), folklore is usually distinguished from church doctrine, but there is no universally accepted method of determining where doctrine ends and folklore begins. Any other part of the expressive cultural aspects of Mormonism may be classified as Mormon folklore.^[1]

Mormon folk beliefs on scriptural topics include:

• that Cain, the killer of Abel, is still alive and wanders the earth as punishment for killing Abel, wearing no clothing but being covered by hair, and that apostle David W. Patten encountered him once,^[2][3][4] and that reported sightings of Bigfoot can be explained by this story^[5]
• that Jesus was born on 6 April^[6][7][8]
• modern encounters and assistance from one or more of "The Three Nephites", three Nephite disciples chosen by Jesus in the Book of Mormon, who were blessed by Jesus to "never taste of death; but ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men".^{[9][10]: 209}

Folk beliefs regarding LDS church history include the following:

• that the writings of the early Church Fathers conform better with Mormonism than with modern Christianity^[11]
• that in 1739 a Roman Catholic monk predicted that within 100 years an angel would be sent by God to restore the lost gospel to the earth and that the true church would be established in "a valley that lies towards a great lake", for Mormons the angel was Angel Moroni, the "lost gospel" was the Book of Mormon which Joseph Smith (who lived in the 1800s) translated from the Golden plates that Moroni gave him, the "true church" was the LDS Church founded by Smith with its location matching up with the LDS Church's modern headquarters in Utah where the "valley" is the Salt Lake Valley and the "lake" is the Great Salt Lake^[12][13]
• the miracle of the gulls, in which the crops of early Mormon settlers in Utah Territory were saved from destruction by a vast flock of seagulls that ate swarms of Mormon crickets that were devouring the crops^[14][15][16]
• that when speaking to the Latter Day Saints after the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young took on the appearance, voice, and mannerisms of Smith and that this was a sign from God that Young was to be Smith's successor^[17][18]
• that Māori prophets or chieftains, including Paora Te Potangaroa and Tāwhiao, predicted the coming of Mormon missionaries to New Zealand^[19][20][21]
• that various theories explain reasons for the priesthood ban on black people holding the priesthood before the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood,^{[22]: 66 [23]} even when these reasons are repudiated by LDS Church leaders and scholars^{[22]: 132–135 [24][25][26][27]}
  • that the curse of Cain^[28] or the curse of Ham^[29]: 125 justified the racial restriction policy
  • that they were neutral in the War in Heaven^[30]
  • that it was done in order to protect them from the lowest rung of hell, since one of few damnable sins is to abuse the exercise of the priesthood^[31]

Folk beliefs regarding LDS temples include the following:

• that in designing the Salt Lake Temple, Brigham Young had the foresight to make space accommodation for future technological advancements such as elevators, air conditioning, and electrical wiring^[32]
• that on December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft pilots attempted to bomb or strafe the church's Hawaiian Temple just prior to or just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but were prevented from doing so by mechanical failures or an unseen protective force,^[33] and that the Japanese pilot who attempted to bomb or strafe the Hawaiian Temple was converted to the LDS Church after he saw a picture of the temple in the possession of Mormon missionaries in Japan^[33]
• that Tāwhiao accurately predicted the site of the 1958 Hamilton New Zealand Temple before his death in 1894;^[34][35]
• that the Freiberg Germany Temple, which was the first Mormon temple in a Communist state when it was dedicated in East Germany in 1985 (at that time, the temple was called the "Freiberg GDR Temple", from "German Democratic Republic", East Germany's official name) by its very presence in the country had hastened the fall of the communist regime in 1989 which in turn led to its reunification with West Germany to form modern-day Germany, the Freiberg area's prosperity in the relatively poor eastern Germany is also attributed to the temple's location in the city^[36]
• that wearing temple garments affords physical protection, and that some wearers have survived car wrecks, floods, and other calamities unscathed thanks to the protective power of the garments^[37]

The following are examples of predictions or prophecies that are part of Mormon folklore:

• that the day will come that the United States Constitution will "hang by a thread" and that members of the church will be central in rescuing it and the United States from destruction.^[38][39][40] (See also: White Horse Prophecy)
• that God will restore the Adamic language.^[41]
• that the Dream Mine will provide financial relief for believers in Utah after the disasters leading up to the Second Coming.^[42]

• Culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Symbolism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints