Moroni, the golden figure atop the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, could become one of the most recognized images of the 2002 Olympics. As medal ceremonies take place near Temple Plaza, cameras will capture a dramatic skyline featuring the angel that Mormons believe brought their religion to the world.
That view is no accident. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provided the space for the ceremony arena, carefully chosen so the flagship temple and angelic icon would be part of every celebration. While standing as a symbol of the church's growth and success, Moroni also will be a reminder of a belief system that has kept the church from its much-desired goal: recognition as a Christian denomination.
It was Moroni, Mormons say, who 175 years ago handed Joseph Smith a set of golden plates with ancient inscriptions that Smith would later translate and publish as the "Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ." This and other writings became the foundation for one of the most reviled religions of the time, its founder slain by a mob in Illinois and its adherents driven from New York to Utah.
Today, Mormonism is touted as one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States and the world, with many recognized leaders among its ranks. Business notables include J. Willard Marriott Jr., chief executive of the hotel and restaurant empire founded by his father, and Black & Decker CEO Noland D. Archibald, both of Potomac.
Sixteen members of Congress are Mormons, including Senate Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.) and Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). Mormons in the Bush administration include Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee; deputy White House counsel Tim Flanagan; Kathleen Burton Clarke, director of the Bureau of Land Management; and Jeffrey Holmstead, an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Despite such achievements, Latter-day Saints get little respect where they want and perhaps need it most -- in the religious community. LaMar Sleight, spokesman for the church's Northeast region, which includes the Washington area, said Mormons continue to be surprised and dismayed when people challenge their Christianity.
"We are followers of Jesus Christ. We do accept him as the Son of God and Savior of the world. We do worship him," Sleight said. "We study his life. We try to emulate the way he lived and be Christlike in our behavior.
"Our doctrines may differ a little bit" from those of Roman Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox, but "the central theme is the same," he said.
Mormons practice their faith with admirable intensity. They attend church more regularly than Catholics and Protestants, including members of the burgeoning nondenominational evangelical movement, according to a survey of religious beliefs and practices conducted last year by the Barna Research Group.
Mormons pray more often than Presbyterians and Catholics. They share their faith more often than Lutherans and Methodists. They attend Sunday school twice as often as Baptists and three times as often as Seventh-day Adventists. And they read the Bible at the same rate as the highest-reading groups -- Assemblies of God, Pentecostals and nondenominational Protestants.
Such comparisons do not impress Tal Davis, associate for interfaith evangelism at the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, Ga.
"I respect Mormons. But I don't believe it is a Christian system," said Davis, who has studied the religion for years and debated Mormon theologians. "They are a lost people. They don't believe in the right God, and they don't believe in the right Jesus Christ."
The basic Mormon belief is that Christianity made a sharp downturn after the death of the Apostles in the first century, moving away from the teachings of Jesus, losing the authority of Scripture and existing in darkness.
The church of the early saints -- all early Christians were called saints -- was restored after God and Jesus appeared to Smith in 1820 in a grove near the family farm in Palmyra, N.Y. Smith, a teenager trying to decide which faith to follow during a period of heated revivalism, said he was told to join none of the sects because "all their creeds were an abomination in [God's] sight."
Moroni, described as an ancient resurrected person who had come to the Americas with other Israelites, later appeared to Smith and gave him a set of 6-by-8-inch gold plates six inches thick, according to Mormon belief. Smith translated and published the "reformed Egyptian" text as the Book of Mormon, which tells of Jesus's appearance to believers in North America after his resurrection as well as his promise, on his second coming, to build the New Jerusalem here.
This effort to amend the accepted canon of the Old Testament and New Testament -- and the belief that scriptural revelation is ongoing -- has never sat well with Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians, who are part of the 2,000-year-old tradition the Mormons reject.
Mormons require converts from other religions and denominations to be baptized the Mormon way -- by immersion "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Those same words are used by Catholic priests and Protestant pastors but refer to different things. Historical Christianity, beginning with the First Council of Nicaea in 325, teaches that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are the same spiritual entity, the Trinity.
But Mormonism teaches that God and Jesus are separate, physical gods and that the Holy Ghost resides in each believer as his or her conscience. The church also teaches that every faithful Mormon has the potential of becoming a god and creator of his own world.
The rejection of Mormonism extends well beyond Southern Baptists and other evangelicals to include the most liberal Christian denominations. In a key sign of that rejection, a theological line in the sand, most traditional churches require baptism of all Mormon converts to their faith -- the same way Mormons require converts from other churches to be rebaptized.
Last year, the Vatican issued an unprecedented ruling stating that Mormon baptisms are invalid. Previous baptisms, whether by sprinkling or immersion, generally are accepted by Catholics as a legitimate expression of Christian faith.
The Presbyterian Church (USA), one of the country's more liberal groups, subscribes to a decade-old document that declared Mormonism "a new and emerging religious tradition distinct from the historical apostolic tradition" and requiring that Mormons be rebaptized if they want to become Presbyterians.
United Methodists approved a similar resolution at its general conference in 2000. Called "Sacramental Faithfulness," the document says that Mormons who want to join the church must undergo a period of intense study and be baptized according to Methodist tradition.
Practice in the Episcopal Church varies by diocese, said the Rev. Lee Shaw, a former Mormon who is now a priest at St. James Episcopal Church in suburban Salt Lake City. Since 1984, Shaw has held monthly support meetings for Mormons who have left the church or want to do so.
The Episcopal Diocese of Utah, whose bishop is a former Mormon, allows converts to decide whether their Mormon baptism "was in any way defective," said Shaw, 53, who asked to be rebaptized when he joined the Episcopal Church 20 years ago. Some potential converts believe their Mormon baptism remains valid despite the theological differences, he said.
Shaw said he encourages Mormons who want to become Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians or members of other sects to be baptized in the new faith as part of a "healing sacrament. Many come out of church wounded, with unpleasant memories and unpleasant stories," he said.
The most common story he hears is from a person who begins to express doubts about Mormon theology and is pressured by family, friends, co-workers and others in the church. Mormons are told that if they leave the church, they will no longer be allowed to be with their families for eternity, one of the fundamental teachings of Mormonism, Shaw said.
"The conversation then becomes whether they believe the church has the authority to do that," Shaw said. "If they believe that, maybe they need to be in the church. If not, it doesn't make any difference."
Despite some defections, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to grow, adding about 300,000 members a year through the work of more than 60,000 missionaries, Sleight said. Growth is particularly strong in other countries: Membership overseas is 5.9 million, compared with 5.2 million in the United States. There are about 50,000 Mormons in the Washington area.
More than 105 million copies of the Book of Mormon, in 100 languages, have been published since 1830. It is usually distributed free of charge. But proselytizing will be all but absent in Salt Lake City for the next two weeks -- if adherents heed the direction of Gordon B. Hinckley, the church's 91-year-old president and "living prophet." Hinckley "has said repeatedly . . . that the church and its members will be good hosts, working as part of the community to support the 2002 Winter Olympics," a church spokesman said.
But every day, Moroni will be there, his trumpet raised toward the east.