United order

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In the early years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , the united order was a way of realizing the Christian economic principle of "having everything in common" (see Acts 2:44 and Book of Mormon 4 Nephi 1: 3). Mormonism sees itself as the restoration of original Christianity and, from 1831, based its economic system on the community of property of the early Jerusalem community .

According to the Church, it was resentment, greed and strife among the participating members that only allowed this principle to be maintained for a short time, until 1838. In fact, it was the total ignorance of economic principles and the lack of capitalization that collapsed the United Order.

Basis in modern revelation

The basic history of the United Order can be traced from beginning to end in the Doctrine and Covenants :

  • The Foundation D&C 42: 30-36 (February 1831)
  • Practicing D&C 51: 1-14 (May 1831)
  • Command to accept an additional member D&C 92: 1-2; 96: 6-9 (March and June 1833)
  • A Warning to Those Disregarding the Principles of Order and General Instructions for Using D&C 104 (April 1834)
  • The end of the law is proclaimed and establishes D&C 105: 1-6 (June 1834)
  • D&C Tithing Act 119 replaces the United Order (July 1838)

The United Order is a way of realizing the "Law of Consecration". It says that members of the Church should devote their possessions and abilities to building the kingdom of God. In practice this means building up the Church, but also providing the family with everything that is necessary for a decent life. This also includes leading the needy to a better life materially and with the help of self-help. A Church publication says:

The law of consecration consists of principles and behaviors that should spiritually strengthen members, create relative economic equality among them, and help them overcome greed and poverty. When the Church of Palmyra , New York state, moved to Kirtland , Ohio in 1831, the Mormons began implementing the United Order as a method of practicing the law of consecration.

The practical implementation

Those who were willing to participate in the United Order went to the bishop and transferred their property or movable property to a joint treasury. The bishop formed "inheritance shares" from these collected goods. That is, each participant in the order was assigned goods to manage and to meet his own needs and those of his family. Usually in this way the families got back the property (farm building, dwelling house, shop, cattle, farmland, etc.) that had previously been put into the united order in order to cover their needs according to their occupation. The poor received more than they had brought in in order to be able to make a fair living from it; the rich brought in more than they then received for economic purposes. The surpluses that were not needed and that were generated were to be handed over to the bishop, who distributed them to those in need or made new administrations possible. Each administrator had to give an account of how he had used and used the entrusted property.

The problems

According to the Church, envy, discord, and strife were the problems that led to the dissolution. Some said they could run into debt at the expense of the community treasury, others said they didn't have to work because the community would take care of them, and still others complained that they were being drawn too much to care for others. In Ohio, a member made large areas of his extensive farm available to settlers from New York. However, he withdrew this permission when he fell out with the church leadership.

In fact, the United Order was never adequately capitalized. Not least because of the United Order, the church attracted large numbers of destitute people as new members; the (material) capital brought in by wealthy new members was not enough to provide everyone with enough goods for self-sufficiency.

In January 1837, Joseph Smith established the Kirtland Safety Society as the Church's bank, issuing shares to function like paper money. The Kirtland Safety Society collapsed as early as November 1837 after the amounts spent were not matched by any corresponding values, in particular no payment against gold was possible. In January 1938, an arrest warrant was issued against Smith for bank fraud and he fled to Missouri , and his followers split as a result. Some stayed in Kirtland, the majority followed Smith to Missouri. The United Order ran out of assets to speak of and went out of business.

Another attempt in Utah

In 1865, when the transcontinental railroad, which would also go through Utah, was already under construction, Brigham Young called for economic independence for the Mormons.

“Let all Latter-day Saints, men and women, resolve in their hearts that they will not buy from anyone other than their faithful brethren, who will do good with the money they make. I know that it is God's will that we should preserve ourselves, because if we do not do that we must perish because we cannot get help from anyone but God and ourselves. [...] We have to preserve ourselves, because our enemies are determined to destroy us. "

This endeavor resulted in the extensive establishment of cooperatives in which the spirit of the United Order was revived. These cooperatives enabled Mormons to meet their needs more fully and efficiently. The cooperative system worked quite well. Few opposed the principle of complete independence from outsiders and wanted to use the wealth of Utah's natural resources to bring the Mormons into cross-regional trade. In 1874 church leadership continued and reintroduced the "Enoch order" (the unified order), which had been abandoned decades earlier. By the end of the year around 200 regulations had been introduced, in larger towns more than one. Church members at the time were very receptive to this idea, since the Depression of 1873 had shown them that their continued reliance on the economy outside their community could create considerable trouble.

The example of Orderville

Some smaller towns with fewer than 750 inhabitants organized themselves completely like one big family in order to realize the unified order. Best known was Orderville, which was founded by 24 families to practice the united order together and whose name said it all. There all residents undertook their economic ventures together and organized their entire life as a community. They functioned as a self-contained economic community in that they lived in self-built houses, wore self-made clothing and in that everyone contributed to the economic welfare of the community through their diligence and skills. Something similar can be found among the Hutterites and in Israeli kibbutzim . This cooperative lasted from 1875 to 1885. It broke up because of the state persecution in the course of the coercive measures because of plural marriage.

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Our Story, An Overview of the History of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 26, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1996
  2. Jump up ↑ Our Story, An Overview of the History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 26, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1996
  3. ^ Church history, extracts from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, p. 529 f, LDS Books Bad Reichenhall 1997 (German translation)
  4. ↑ Brigham Young's October 1865 general conference address, recorded in Journal of Discourses 11: 139, quoted in Church History in the Abundance of Times , Institute Guide Religion 341-343, p. 385, Intellectual Reserve 2002, also [1 ]
  5. ↑ The History of the Church in the Abundance of Times , Institute Guide Religion 341-343, p. 393, Intellectual Reserve 2002, also [2]

Further literature