Contested Religious Heritage: Differing Views of Mormon Heritage

Abstract

Based on concepts of contested heritage, this paper examines the divergent perspectives of history between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and how these are manifest in the two churches' views and interpretations of their common past. This paper describes the common beginnings of the two churches and their subsequent division in the 1840s, which created two distinct perspectives on ‘Mormon’ heritage to which member of both faiths lay claim. The paper also examines how, in tourism terms, these conflicting views of a shared religious past are manifested in inter-church relations, interpretive practices, restoration approaches, and proselytizing methods.