Culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The culture is geographically concentrated in the Mormon Corridor in the United States, and is present to a lesser extent in many places of the world where Latter-day Saints live.

Church leaders encourage members to marry and have children, and as a result, Latter-day Saint families tend to be larger than average.

Latter-day Saint fathers who hold the priesthood typically name and bless their children shortly after birth to formally give the child a name and generate a church record for them.

[16] All participating members ages twelve years and older attend Sunday School classes, which emphasize personal scripture studies and other forms of spiritual education and self-improvement.

The LDS Church encourages and hosts social activities such as sports, dances, picnics, holiday parties, and/or musical presentations.

Church members believe the ordinances "seal" or link families together, with the ultimate goal being an unbroken chain back to Adam and Eve.

Church members are able to do genealogical work in various family history centers throughout the world, usually located in LDS meetinghouses.

The advent of personal computers prompted the church to create a specialized file format known as GEDCOM for storing and exchanging these records.

[citation needed] The church maintains a website called FamilySearch to access genealogical records, which typically contain birth, death, marriage and family group information.

[citation needed] In the 1800s, members of the LDS Church participated in unique burial and death rituals whenever a fellow Latter-day Saint passed away.

Relief Society women were responsible for washing and dressing corpses, especially in the years before mortuary science came to Utah.

The Latter-day Saints also buried their dead facing east so that they would be situated correctly to witness the second coming of Jesus Christ.

[33] Sermons and eulogies included a reference to the continuation of the person's spirit and the many admirable spiritual qualities they demonstrated during their life.

[35] LDS women wrote death poetry to express their thoughts and feelings, and many such poems were published in periodicals such as the Woman's Exponent.

During the church's general conference in October 2014, Thomas S. Monson noted that there were in excess of 88,000 full-time LDS missionaries serving without pay around the world.

The church is equipped with necessities which are available for rapid distribution, but members are expected to see to their own immediate needs, as well as assisting their neighbors and communities.

On each of the other Sundays during the month, members of the congregation ages 12 and older are selected in advance to give a "talk" (a "sermon" or "homily") on a particular gospel principle or topic.

In recent years, the LDS Church and BYU have also made audio and video versions of selected talks freely available on their websites.

Other common symbols associated with the church are the letters CTR, meaning "Choose the Right", often depicted in a shield logo; the Christus statue; and images of the Salt Lake Temple.

[43] The early LDS Church was more accepting of the symbol of the cross, but after the turn of the 20th century, an aversion to it developed in Mormon culture.

[45] By current policy, no pictures or icons are depicted in the chapel within modern LDS meetinghouses, in order to avoid an image becoming the focus of worship rather than the reality of God.

However, images such as paintings of Christ and photographs of LDS leaders and temples are common in other parts of church buildings.

[50] Historically, the church discouraged surgical sterilization, like vasectomies and tubal ligation, and encouraged members to only use these options for serious medical conditions after discussing it with a bishop.

[51] In the past the use of birth control methods including artificial contraception was explicitly condemned by LDS Church leaders.

[56] The church's current preference for clean-shaven men has no theological basis, but stems from social changes associating facial hair with the hippie and drug culture aspects of the counterculture of the 1960s.

[62] In January 2015, BYU clarified that non-Mormon students who wish to have a beard for religious reasons, such as Muslims or Sikhs, may be granted permission after applying for an exception.

In addition, having served as a Church leader for almost 30 years, I can also certify that I have never received official verbal instructions condemning marriages between black and white members.

[83][84] On many occasions spanning over a century, church leaders have taught that adherents should not masturbate as part of obedience to the code of conduct known as the law of chastity.

[85]: 80–127 [86][87] Although rhetoric has softened and become less direct, the prohibition on masturbation remains in place, but its enforcement and the opinions of local leadership vary.

[89][90][91] The LDS Church has stated that, "Latter-day prophets strongly discourage the piercing of the body except for medical purposes.