c. 2005 Religion News Service

KIRTLAND, Ohio _ Anyone with a birthday close to Christmas will recognize the dilemma faced by leaders of two churches linked to the man they call the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr.

Smith, who is said to have discovered the Book of Mormon and while in northeast Ohio received revelations that remain effective for millions today, was born Dec. 23, 1805.

Yet as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ, the former Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, celebrate the bicentennial of Smith’s birth, they do so with some wariness that their reverence for Smith not be seen as taking away from their devotion to Jesus, whose birthday is celebrated two days later.

So here at the Historic Kirtland complex run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smith’s portrait was taken down in the multipurpose room and replaced with an exhibit of Nativity scenes.

Up the hill, at the Kirtland Temple built by Smith and his followers while they were in Northeast Ohio, the Community of Christ plans no celebration on Friday. The major event will be a Christmas Eve service at the temple the next evening.

But that does not mean Smith no longer plays a meaningful role in the history of either church or in the lives of millions of Mormons worldwide.

In this bicentennial year of his birth, attendance rose from 96,000 in 2004 to an estimated 120,000 this year at the Historic Kirtland complex of buildings where Smith lived and is said to have received many of his revelations. The number of people visiting the temple rose 5,000 to more than 40,000, the largest number ever.

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And on Christmas Eve, a new film about Smith produced by the Latter-day Saints will have its Ohio premiere at the Historic Kirtland Visitors Center. The 68-minute film, “Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration,” will be shown for free at 90-minute intervals beginning at 9 a.m.

“The more I read and study the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the more reverence I have for him,” said Walter Selden, president of the Kirtland Stake, or regional body, of the Latter-day Saints. “Joseph Smith had his faults, as we all do, but the honor and character and integrity of the man is undeniable.”

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It was in the 1820s that a farmer’s son named Joseph Smith Jr. claimed to have been visited in a vision by the angel Moroni and led to a cache of golden plates that he later translated into the Book of Mormon. A church was formed in upstate New York in 1830 after the book’s publication.

Not long after, following the success of missionaries in Northeast Ohio, Smith reported a revelation to move the church to Kirtland. Over the next seven years, the community grew from 1,120 to 3,230.

In Kirtland, leaders of the new church are said to have received 65 revelations from God and established the form of church government. In a remarkable show of faith for a small, relatively impoverished community, church members built a three-story “House of the Lord” that was one of the largest buildings in Northeast Ohio at the time. The Kirtland Temple is where Smith is said to have been personally handed down authority for his new church from the ancient prophets Moses, Elias and Elijah.

However, persecution of the new religious movement led Smith to take the church to Missouri and eventually to Nauvoo, Ill. Smith was killed by a mob in a Carthage, Ill., jail in June 1844.

After his death, Brigham Young led the main body of Latter-day Saints on a migration West, ending up in what is now Salt Lake City.

Several groups of Mormons stayed behind in the Midwest, and in the leadership void that existed, some appealed to Joseph Smith III, Smith’s son, to become the new prophet. In 1860, Smith accepted that role, becoming the leader of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Both churches believe in modern-day revelations and accept the Book of Mormon as scripture, but they have substantial differences in theology and practice. In general, the Latter-day Saints are more conservative and literal in their interpretation of sacred texts and prophetic revelations.

In 2001, partly in an effort to more clearly establish its own identity, the Reorganized Church changed its name to the Community of Christ. The more missionary-oriented Latter-day Saints have grown to 12 million members, while the Community of Christ reports about 250,000 members.

The name change accelerated a trend among the two churches in recent years, replacing the hostility of the early days _ when each church was defining itself against the other _ with a spirit of cooperation.

“We’re now different enough, with different enough missions, that we’re comfortable with one another,” said Lachlan Mackay, historic-sites coordinator at the Kirtland Temple.

“There’s nothing but the warmest relationships.” said Latter-day Saints Elder T. Bowring Woodbury, director of the Historic Kirtland Visitors’ Center.

While both churches emphasize the central role of Jesus Christ in their theology, and are careful not to contribute to what they consider anti-Mormon stereotypes by putting Joseph Smith on a par with Jesus, Smith still holds great meaning for members of both groups.

Among Latter-day Saints, Woodbury said, “You cannot join the church without having a testimony, a deep belief, that No. 1, Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Gospel was restored on this Earth.”

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And that respect for Joseph Smith is especially true for those people who live and work in the area where Smith struggled to build a church.

Mackay said it is easy for middle-class church members today to be desensitized to the needs of the poor and the oppressed.

He finds it helpful to remember that Smith and his followers _ facing persecution and living in hovels, shanties and small houses _ were able to accomplish great acts of faith and sacrifice even though they were part of the poor and oppressed of their time.

“We were the homeless,” Mackay said. “That’s the power of this story for me.”

MO/JL END BRIGGS

(David Briggs writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

Editors: To obtain photos of the snow-covered Historic Kirtland complex and of Joseph Smith, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

A version of this story is also moving today on the Newhouse News Service wire.