mormonsphere
Mormonsphere /ˈmɔːr.mən.sfɪər/
noun · proper, singular
1. The full range of ideologies, movements, and identities that fall under or descend from the Latter Day Saint tradition: mainstream, cultural, fundamentalist, post-Mormon, and reform, considered together as a single field of study.
2. This site: an index of that field's vocabulary and institutional history, and a record of what its organizations say measured against what they do.
Etymology On the pattern of blogosphere: a domain name plus -sphere, denoting a bounded field of discussion and identity, distinct from any single institution's own name for itself.

Seek the truth. Do what is right; let the consequence follow.

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The Full Chronology

One tradition, two surviving institutional branches, and a set of questions asked at every generation since 1830: who narrates the record, who may enter the temple, what is God, and who bears responsibility when a child is harmed. A single dual-track timeline, indexing every entry on this site by date and by theme.

Open the chronology →

Why this exists

Mormonism is not one thing. The word covers a 200-year-old institutional church, a set of splinter and fundamentalist traditions, a cultural identity that persists after belief has left, and a vocabulary that carries precise meaning inside the tradition and almost none outside it: endowment, calling, ward, testimony, apostasy.

Mormonsphere indexes that history and vocabulary for readers who are not Mormon and have no reason to already know it: journalists, researchers, neighbors, family members, the simply curious. Entries describe what changed and on what authority.

What's indexed

Canon & Theology

The editorial history of scripture across both surviving branches, and how the doctrine of God itself has moved since 1830.

Schism, Succession & Conflict

The 1844 fracture and its descendants, including splits within splits, traced by name and by the disputes that produced them.

Access: Race, Gender, Temple

Who has been permitted to enter, to be ordained, to be sealed, and to marry within the tradition, including same-sex marriage and gender identity. When and why each position changed, on both sides of the tradition.

Narrative & Institutional Power

The recurring structure of who narrates a record and who receives it, from the Book of Mormon's own compiler to present-day disputes over a word.

Child protection & institutional duty

The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty

A 1992 doctrine, a 1995 institutional mechanism, and four documented cases across four states and four decades, ending with the Arizona Supreme Court's July 2026 ruling. Documented policy, doctrine, and case law governing how abuse disclosures are handled, sourced to court filings and investigative reporting and updated as cases resolve.

Open the case record →
Where the pattern leads

Digital Mormons

The naming pattern documented above did not end in 1844. It continues today without a church to run on: no revelation, no succession claim, no temple, no canon. A podcast, a magazine, a YouTube channel, a docuseries, named informally after the figure or organization at the center, in exactly the structure the six categories above trace back to 1830.

Open Digital Mormons: The Modern -Ites →

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