master chronology · index of the whole site
The Full Chronology
One tradition, two surviving institutional branches, and a set of recurring questions asked at every generation: who narrates the record, who may enter the temple, what is God, and who bears responsibility when a child is harmed. This page runs the entire timeline in one place, from a text published in 1830 to a case still active in an Arizona courtroom, and links every date to the fuller entry that treats it in depth.
Nothing here resolves any of the underlying disputes. It exists so a reader can see the whole shape at once, and choose where to go deeper.
Every era below asks some version of the same question: who gets to speak, who gets to enter, and who gets believed. The answer changes. The question does not.
Jump to era
1820–1844
Founding
The root text, the root narrator, and the first documented shift in the doctrine of God, all inside Joseph Smith's own lifetime, all before any institutional split existed.
1820 / 1832–1842
The First Vision, four accounts
Smith produces at least four non-identical written accounts of his foundational vision over more than a decade. The earliest describes one divine figure; three later accounts describe two. See The Shape of God: Corporeal vs. Triune.
1830
The Book of Mormon published; the church organized
Mormon, the text's narrator-compiler, becomes the philological root of every term this index tracks. His editorial control over the record he compiled is the site's founding case study in narrative power. See Mormon.
1830 → 1837
The Book of Mormon's own text revised
Language identifying Christ directly with the Father ("the Eternal Father") is revised to "the Son of the Eternal Father," an early, textual instance of doctrine moving away from a single undivided God. See The Shape of God: Corporeal vs. Triune and Two Canons.
1831
The Temple Lot dedicated
Joseph Smith personally dedicates a two-acre parcel in Independence, Missouri as the future site of a temple, ground that would become the subject of a five-year federal lawsuit six decades later. See The Church of Christ (Temple Lot).
1836–1843
Kirtland Safety Society; plural marriage introduced
An unchartered bank fails within a year of its founding, publicly justified as revelation. Privately, Smith begins the practice of plural marriage he would later publicly deny. See Smith's Fruits: Conduct as Primary Evidence and Polygamy and the Temple.
1835
Book of Abraham translation begins
Smith begins producing an English text from Egyptian papyri he identifies as the writings of Abraham. Independent Egyptological examination of the recovered fragments a century later finds no relationship between the source text and the published translation. See Smith's Fruits: Conduct as Primary Evidence and Two Canons.
April 7, 1844
The King Follett discourse
Smith's fullest statement on the nature of God: the Father was "once as one of us," a mortal being who progressed to godhood. Formalized the following year as D&C 130:22, later itself revised under Brigham Young. See The Shape of God: Corporeal vs. Triune.
1838
Missouri Executive Order 44. Governor Lilburn Boggs orders Mormons "exterminated or driven from the state" following the Missouri Mormon War, the church's first experience of organized state violence, and the direct cause of the move to Nauvoo, Illinois the following year.
June 1844
The Nauvoo Expositor destroyed; Smith killed
As mayor, Smith orders the destruction of a newspaper press that had just published his practice of plural marriage. Seventeen days later, a mob kills him and his brother Hyrum in the Carthage jail. See Smith's Fruits: Conduct as Primary Evidence.
1844–1860
The Schism
No unambiguous successor. Within sixteen years, one movement becomes at least seven, each claiming the same founding prophet, most naming themselves after whichever leader they followed.
1844–1847
Brighamite, Josephite, Rigdonite, Strangite, Cutlerite, Hedrickite, Whitmerite
The full taxonomy of 1844-era successor movements, each entry naming its founder and its eventual fate. See The -Ites.
1891–1896
The Temple Lot Case
Three churches, Hedrickite, RLDS, and LDS, litigate ownership of Smith's original 1831 temple site in federal court. The appeals court suggests the Hedrickites' title claim was the stronger one, then dismisses the case entirely rather than ruling for either side; the Hedrickites retain the land by default and hold it still. See The Church of Christ (Temple Lot).
1845–1904
Exodus, Reorganization, and the End of Public Polygamy
The two branches that survive into the present take shape against a backdrop of direct federal pressure. The same Congress debating slavery's expansion into Utah Territory would spend the next half-century legislating against Mormon polygamy, treating the two as linked "relics of barbarism" long before either was resolved. One branch moves west and practices plural marriage publicly, then twice renounces it under that pressure; the other rejects polygamy at its founding and moves faster on race than its counterpart would for over a century.
Sept. 1850
Compromise of 1850. Congress organizes Utah Territory under "popular sovereignty," leaving the legality of slavery to the territorial legislature. Utah's actual slaveholding population was reportedly concealed from Congress during these debates by church lobbyist John M. Bernhisel.
1852
Priesthood restriction announced; slavery legalized
Brigham Young publicly bars men of Black African descent from priesthood ordination, the same year the Utah territorial legislature formally legalizes slavery under "An Act in Relation to Service," and the same year plural marriage is publicly acknowledged. See Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called".
1852–60s
The Reorganization forms
Explicitly rejects plural marriage at founding, the only major branch never to adopt it. See Polygamy and the Temple.
1856
Brigham Young's spirits and the handcart disaster
Young's counsel to send handcart companies late in the season contributes to the deaths of more than 200 emigrants in early winter storms, even as his own personal trade in distilled spirits continued during the same period he publicly counseled temperance. See Brigham Young's Spirits and the Handcart Disaster.
1856 / 1862
The "twin relics of barbarism." The 1856 Republican platform names slavery and polygamy together as the two practices the party pledges to abolish in the territories. The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, signed by Lincoln in the middle of the Civil War on July 1, 1862, criminalizes polygamy but goes deliberately unenforced. Lincoln reportedly permits Brigham Young to ignore it in exchange for Utah's non-interference with the war.
1865
Priesthood opened to Black members
113 years before the LDS Church's equivalent declaration, and three years after the Morrill Act paired polygamy and slavery as the era's twin targets of federal reform. See Polygamy and the Temple and Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called".
1867
Hedrickites return to Independence
Purchase the original Temple Lot, decades before either surviving branch stakes a comparable claim. See The Church of Christ (Temple Lot).
1876
Section 132 canonized
Original monogamy-affirming Section 101 removed; replaced by the plural marriage revelation, the single most-edited section in either canon. See Two Canons and The Speaker and the Room.
1882 / 1887 / 1890
Federal pressure escalates. The Edmunds Act (1882) makes polygamy a felony and bars practicing polygamists from voting, holding office, or serving on juries. The Edmunds-Tucker Act (1887) moves to dissolve the church's corporate structure. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds it in Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States (1890), disincorporating the church and seizing its property.
1890 · 1904
Two manifestos
Plural marriage publicly renounced in 1890, four months after the Supreme Court's disincorporation ruling, then renounced again more emphatically in 1904 following the Reed Smoot hearings. Section 132 itself is never removed from canon. See Two Canons.
Jan. 1896
Utah statehood. Utah is admitted to the Union six years after the 1890 Manifesto, statehood having been withheld specifically over the polygamy question.
1903–1907
The Reed Smoot hearings. The U.S. Senate holds four years of hearings on whether to seat Utah's newly elected senator, an LDS apostle, over evidence that plural marriages continued after 1890, the direct trigger for the church's second, more emphatic manifesto in 1904.
1897
Lectures on Faith removed
Twenty-four years before the LDS Church makes the same decision independently. See Two Canons.
1921
Lectures on Faith removed
Reclassified as never having been revelation, 86 years after canonization, necessitated by the King Follett Godhead doctrine superseding the Lectures' two-personage theology. See Two Canons and The Shape of God: Corporeal vs. Triune.
c. 1922
The Talmage abridgment
A condensed Doctrine and Covenants edition omits roughly 95 sections, including the full text of Section 132 itself, while leaving its canonical status intact. See Two Canons.
1908–1970
Consolidation
Each branch settles into its modern institutional shape, one pursuing mainline ecumenical recognition across decades, the other building the legal and doctrinal architecture it still operates under today.
1908
First ecumenical application, denied
RLDS applies to the Federal Council of Churches; rejected. The pursuit of mainline recognition begins over a century before it succeeds. See The Shape of God, Part Two: Community of Christ.
1921
The Word of Wisdom made binding
Under Heber J. Grant, temple recommend worthiness interviews begin requiring compliance with the Word of Wisdom, converting a nineteenth-century counsel into an enforced requirement for full participation. See Requirement and Exception.
1938–1958
Exaltation theology rejected
Under Elbert A. Smith, the RLDS Church already regards LDS exaltation doctrine as false, decades before the church's later Trinitarian formalization. See The Shape of God, Part Two: Community of Christ.
1970
Temple-rite sections redesignated
The RLDS World Conference concludes sections on baptism for the dead had been added without proper approval; redesignated as historical appendices. See Two Canons.
1970–2000
Divergence
The two branches move in opposite directions on nearly every access question at once: race, gender, and institutional posture toward women's legal equality outside the church entirely.
1971–1982
The LDS Church and the Equal Rights Amendment
A decade-long institutional campaign against the ERA, including the 1977 Utah IWY conference where the church directed roughly 10,000–14,000 women to a meeting planned for 3,000, and the 1979 excommunication of ERA advocate Sonia Johnson. See Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called".
1954–1968
The Civil Rights Movement. Brown v. Board (1954), the Civil Rights Act (1964), and the Voting Rights Act (1965) reshape American law on race over the same decades the LDS Church maintains its temple and priesthood restriction, placing the restriction increasingly at odds with federal civil rights law and public opinion in the years leading to 1978.
1974
CAPTA. Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act begins pushing states toward mandatory reporting laws, arriving squarely between the civil rights era and the 1978 declaration. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty.
1978
Official Declaration 2
Priesthood ordination and full temple ordinances extended to Black members, for both men and women, since temple access, not ordination alone, had been the actual restriction. See Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called".
1990
Nelson's first talk; Hinckley's reply
Nelson calls "Mormon" inappropriate as a self-designation in April; Hinckley, his institutional senior, replies in October advocating redemption of the nickname instead. See Chronology: Who Owns "Mormon" and The Speaker and the Room.
1990–1992
Utah ritual abuse task force; Scott's address
State task force documents generational abuse patterns; funding is cut soon after. The same year, Richard G. Scott directs abuse victims to their bishop before civil authorities. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty.
1984
D&C 156, women's ordination
Wallace B. Smith's revelation, explicitly grounded in the "all are called" precedent, produces the RLDS Church's largest schism. See Polygamy and the Temple, Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called", and Restoration Branches and the Remnant Church.
1995
The abuse help line established; the Family Proclamation
The abuse help line, housed in the Office of Risk Management, routes serious disclosures to Kirton McConkie attorneys rather than child welfare professionals. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty. The same year, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" is issued by the full First Presidency and Twelve, its drafting tied to the church's engagement with Hawaii's marriage litigation beginning in 1991. See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender and Non-Creedal: Two Different Claims.
1993–1998
Baehr v. Lewin and Hawaii Amendment 2. Following the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that the state's marriage restriction was potentially unconstitutional, the LDS Church takes an active institutional role, reported spending of $400,000, in placing and passing a 1998 constitutional amendment restricting marriage, the first such amendment in the United States targeting same-sex partnerships. Public backlash over the church's visible direct spending is later credited with prompting a shift toward member-mobilized rather than institutional giving in subsequent campaigns. See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender.
March 2000
California Proposition 22. Gordon B. Hinckley directs a letter read in California congregations supporting the Knight Initiative, a statutory marriage restriction passed 61–39 percent. The California Supreme Court's 2008 invalidation of this measure becomes the direct trigger for Proposition 8 later that year. See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender.
1999–2000
The Remnant Church splits from Restoration Branches
A second-order schism, over how far back the line of legitimate authority should be drawn, rejecting all revelation after Israel A. Smith's presidency. See Restoration Branches and the Remnant Church.
2001
Renamed Community of Christ
2000–2026
The Modern Record
The most recent quarter-century, where nearly every earlier thread, naming, theology, temple access, and institutional response to child abuse, is either actively litigated or formally resolved in real time.
2004–2018
Michael Jensen, Utah and West Virginia
Reported to church leaders repeatedly across nearly a decade; case settles for nearly $60 million, concealed until 2025. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty.
2005
Mormon Stories founded
John Dehlin launches the podcast that becomes the anchor of a wider ecosystem of independent commentary, critique, and apologetics, continuing the naming pattern documented in The -Ites into digital media. See Digital Mormons: The Modern -Ites.
2007
Veazey rules Book of Mormon historicity out of order
Community of Christ formally declines to require belief in the Book of Mormon's historicity as a test of membership. See Chronology: Who Owns "Mormon".
2008
Proposition 8 and Proposition 102
The LDS Church's ballot-measure campaign against same-sex marriage, running continuously since Hawaii in 1998, culminates in coordinated campaigns for California's Proposition 8 and Arizona's Proposition 102 in the same election cycle, an estimated $17.67 million and $6.9 million respectively in Mormon-connected donations. See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender.
2010–2012
Susan Brock, Arizona
Multi-generational abuse case in Chandler becomes a national training basis for law enforcement. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty.
2010–2025
Paul Adams, Cochise County
A confession routed through the help line in 2010; case dismissed on clergy-penitent privilege grounds in 2023; partially revived on appeal July 31, 2025. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty.
2010
D&C 164; NCC membership approved
The "all are called" precedent applied a third time, creating a National Conference mechanism for extending ordination regardless of sexual orientation; the same year, Community of Christ becomes the National Council of Churches' 37th member, completing a century-long ecumenical arc. See The Shape of God, Part Two: Community of Christ and Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called".
2013
Two unrelated 2013 events
Community of Christ's USA National Conference votes to extend marriage and ordination to same-sex couples, the first major Latter Day Saint church to do so. See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender. Separately, thirty-five years after Official Declaration 2, the LDS Church's Gospel Topics essay disavows the racial theories that had justified the priesthood and temple restriction. See Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called".
2015–2019
The LDS exclusion policy and reversal
The church classifies members in same-sex marriages as apostates in November 2015, describing the policy as revealed to President Monson and confirmed by the apostles; reverses the policy in full in April 2019, described by Nelson as "revelation upon revelation." See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender and The Speaker and the Room.
2018
Nelson's directive, as president
Returns to the identical 1990 scriptural citation, now with the full authority of the church presidency: using "Mormon" is called "a major victory for Satan." Does not reference his own 1990 talk or Hinckley's reply. See Chronology: Who Owns "Mormon" and The Speaker and the Room.
2019
The corporate and religious names merge
The Corporation of the Presiding Bishop and the Corporation of the President, separate legal entities since 1916 and 1923, are merged into a single corporation formally named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aligning the church's legal identity with its religious one for the first time in over a century, roughly twelve months after Nelson's 2018 style directive. See Two Names at Once.
2020–2026
LDS transgender policy, repeatedly revised
First dedicated handbook guidance in February 2020, followed by incremental revisions in 2024 and a further tightening of temple recommend eligibility in March 2026, a policy thread still actively moving as of this entry. See Marriage, Ordination, and Gender.
April 2026
LDS Church v. Dehlin
A federal trademark and copyright suit against the "Mormon Stories" podcast, filed against a critic the church had already excommunicated, a legal mechanism for deciding who may narrate the shared word "Mormon." Unresolved as of this entry. See Chronology: Who Owns "Mormon" and Digital Mormons: The Modern -Ites.
July 30, 2026
Paul Adams, the Arizona Supreme Court's second and final ruling
Reversing the Court of Appeals's July 2025 revival of the case, the Arizona Supreme Court holds unanimously that clergy-penitent privilege is a testimonial privilege only and therefore irrelevant to whether a duty to report existed. It rules instead on First Amendment grounds: no court may examine how a church classifies its own confidential religious communications, foreclosing the underlying claim regardless of how many people, a spouse, a disciplinary council, were present when Adams repeated his confession. Summary judgment for the church is reinstated, joined by amicus filings from three Catholic dioceses. Distinct from the July 2025 appellate revival, this ruling closes the case and is the most recent dated event in this chronology. See The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty.
cross-cutting
Thematic Index
Some entries describe a structure that recurs across many dates at once rather than a single event. These sit outside the chronology above and are indexed here by theme.
Narrative & Institutional Power
- The Speaker and the Room
The recurring structure of one figure narrating and many receiving, from Mormon-the-compiler to Nelson's directive. - Mormon
Sole editorial control as the tradition's founding instance of the pattern. - Smith's Fruits: Conduct as Primary Evidence
Documented conduct, weighed apart from Smith's own testimony about himself. - Brigham Young's Spirits and the Handcart Disaster
Young's personal alcohol trade weighed against the 1856 handcart tragedy his own counsel helped produce.
Canon and Editorial History
- Two Canons
The full editorial history of the Doctrine and Covenants across both churches, with Section 132 as the central case. - The Shape of God: Corporeal vs. Triune
The LDS doctrine of God across Smith's own lifetime. - The Shape of God, Part Two: Community of Christ
Community of Christ's parallel, century-long movement toward Trinitarianism. - Requirement and Exception
The Word of Wisdom's path from counsel to binding requirement, and modern eternal sealing to a second wife.
Schism, Succession & Conflict
- The -Ites
The full naming taxonomy from the Book of Mormon's internal factions to present-day informal groupings. - Restoration Branches and the Remnant Church
The 1984 and 2000 splits from Community of Christ. - The Church of Christ (Temple Lot)
The Hedrickites and the unresolved 1891–1896 lawsuit over Smith's original temple ground. - Chronology: Who Owns "Mormon"
Institutional detachment from the word "Mormon" and the 2026 Dehlin lawsuit. - Digital Mormons: The Modern -Ites
The naming pattern continued into podcasts, magazines, and creators, 2005–2026. - Two Names at Once
Religious name versus legal and corporate name, 1830–2019.
Access: Race, Gender, and Temple
- Polygamy and the Temple
Plural marriage, race, and gender as three expressions of the same access question. - Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called"
Correcting the priesthood-only framing; the ERA campaign; "all are called" as recurring precedent. - What a Temple Is
The LDS recommend system compared against Community of Christ's fully open Independence Temple. - Marriage, Ordination, and Gender
Same-sex marriage and ordination: Hawaii 1998 through the 2015-2019 reversal, against Community of Christ's 2010-2013 process. - Non-Creedal: Two Different Claims
What each church means by non-creedal, and the Nine Enduring Principles.
Child Protection and Institutional Duty
- The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and Duty
The 1992 doctrine, the 1995 mechanism, and four cases across four states.
complete
Full Site Index
Every entry in Mormonsphere, in one list.
Root Entry
- MormonThe root entry, senses, historicity fork, word family, and the narrator's editorial position.
Schism, Succession & Conflict
- The -ItesNaming from the Book of Mormon through 1844 to the present.
- Restoration Branches and the Remnant ChurchThe 1984 and 2000 splits from Community of Christ.
- The Church of Christ (Temple Lot)The Hedrickites and the 1891–1896 Temple Lot Case.
- Chronology: Who Owns "Mormon"Institutional detachment from the word "Mormon," 1984–2026, and the Dehlin lawsuit.
- Digital Mormons: The Modern -ItesNine categories of Mormon-adjacent digital media, 2005–2026.
- Two Names at OnceReligious name versus legal/corporate name, 1830–2019.
Canon, Theology & Structure
- Two CanonsComparative Doctrine and Covenants editorial history.
- The Shape of God: Corporeal vs. TriuneLDS doctrine of God, 1830–1921.
- The Shape of God, Part Two: Community of ChristCommunity of Christ's Trinitarian movement, 1893–2013.
- Non-Creedal: Two Different ClaimsLDS non-creedalism as jurisdictional claim; Community of Christ's Nine Enduring Principles.
- Requirement and ExceptionThe Word of Wisdom's path to binding requirement; modern eternal sealing to a second wife.
Access: Race, Gender, Temple
- Polygamy and the TemplePlural marriage, race, and gender as one mechanism.
- Race, Temple Access, and "All Are Called"Correcting the priesthood-only frame; the ERA campaign.
- Marriage, Ordination, and GenderSame-sex marriage and ordination, 1998–2026, both churches compared.
- What a Temple IsSymbol, ritual, and access compared directly.
Narrative Power & Conduct
- The Speaker and the RoomThe recurring structure; keep, destroy, de-contextualize, out-wait.
- Smith's Fruits: Conduct as Primary EvidenceKirtland Safety Society, the Book of Abraham, the Nauvoo Expositor.
- Brigham Young's Spirits and the Handcart DisasterYoung's personal alcohol trade against the 1856 handcart tragedy.
Child Protection
- The Help Line: Theology, Statute, and DutyThe 1992 doctrine, the 1995 mechanism, and the Jensen, Brock, Adams, and Julie Doe cases.