True Church of Mormon Organization
From: The Evolution of Mormon Religious Faith Practices in the Trans-Coal Sack Sector, A.S.A.C.H. Quinn
On Maxroy’s Purchase and New Utah, the relationships among arms of the so-called True Church of Mormon and its military wing, the True Church Militant, can be confusing. The definitions below will be especially helpful to those who have had little or no direct experience of Mormonism as practiced in the Trans-Coal Sack sector.
Mormonism. Religious communities that trace their origins to the teachings of Joseph Smith in the United States of America in the 1830s, and include the Book of Mormon as a part of their religious canon. Adherents refer to themselves as “restorationist” Christians and do not adhere to Roman, Eastern, or Protestant orthodoxies. All believe that God was not always originally a corporeal human being, but become a deity by following Mormon teachings on another world, and that human men may also become deities. Whether women can do so as well is ambiguous and controversial in some groups. Most also believe that because human souls are the literal offspring of God, human increase is necessary to provide corporeal bodies to populate the many planets.
Church of Him. Founded 2882, on New Scotland, by Howard Grote Littlemead. Not strictly speaking a Mormon religion, but early adherents were drawn from many faiths, including LDS Sixers, LDS members from the Pacific Diaspora, and Fijian Christians.
The Church of Him teaches that the Coal Sack nebula visible from the New Caledonia system is literally the face of God, and that the red giant star “Murcheson’s Eye” visible therein is literally the eye of God, staring out from beneath a hood. Near the time of founding, a smaller star, known as the “Mote in Murcheson’s Eye” appeared to flare—an event interpreted by Littlemead as God awakening. This flare—now known to be a laser cannon launching a probe powered by solar sail from the Mote system—winked out in 2902, an event now referred to by Himmists on New Utah as “the Great Weep.”
Following persecution in the New Caledonia system, in 2908 the Church of Him dispatched a mission to Maxroy’s Purchase, where many adherents were recruited among those persecuted, expelled, and excommunicated by the True Church of Mormon during several purges there. In 2964, a “sister” Himmist mission was dispatched to New Utah, where Himmists made little attempt to settle in the True-Church-dominated capital city of Saint George. Instead, they migrated eastward to and beyond Bonneville, eventually coming to dominate the desert and steppe lands known as The Barrens. Located beyond view of the Coal Sack, New Utah Himmists have developed interesting local variants of literalist liturgical practice, and proved remarkably pragmatic in their ongoing relations with other religious adherents.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (“LDS Church”). From the movement’s founding in 1830 until the late twenty-third century, the largest denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement, headquartered on Earth in Salt Lake City, Utah, with established wards and temples Empire-Wide. Founded on a pioneering tradition in the hostile terrain of the Old American west, the LDS organization was extremely effective in organizing and managing early First Empire colonial efforts. However, with the destruction of the “home” Temple in Salt Lake, LDS membership waned and eventually was eclipsed by that of the Reformed, or “Sixer,” movement.
Reformed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(“LDS Sixers”). Founded in Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Earth, 2066, by the descendants and followers of six LDS Church scholars excommunicated for apostasy when their works contradicted traditional LDS Church history.
The Reformed LDS Church strongly upholds scholarship and scientific inquiry, arguing that resolution of best-known fact with mythical and metaphorical belief is a necessary component of deepening adulthood faith. It also teaches absolute equality of all sexes, and openness regarding gender identity. The “Sixer” movement initially gained traction among the many excommunicants effectively exiled to urban areas, but its pragmatic approach to changing lifestyle circumstances led to its popular reception among multicultural urban communities, offworld transportees, and members of the spacefaring trades. In this millennium, ties between the LDS and Reformed LDS churches are strong and mutually cooperative.
True Church of Mormon (“True Church” or “TC”). Founded 2456, Maxroy’s Purchase, by a self-organized, fundamentalist, ruralist, masculinist splinter faction of dissident Mormons who established the initial colony. In 2553, their numbers were swamped by over 100,000 transportees settled on Maxroy’s Purchase, among them many LDS and Reformed LDS members unsympathetic to TC claims.
Citing “withdrawal from urban decadence,” in 2567 the Temple of the True Church was removed to a remote outpost in Glacier Valley, and dispatched a colony to New Utah with which it maintained close ties for several hundred years. Following a massive pogrom in 2864 that claimed to “purify” urban LDS and LDS Sixer churches—generally by burning them down and executing or exiling their members—the TC declared its Temple the governing church of Maxroy’s Purchase.
When the Alderson tramlines from the Maxroy’s Purchase system to New Utah collapsed shortly thereafter, the TC continued expensive shipments of selenium supplements, fertilizer, and medical supplies and equipment, receiving partial payment-in-kind in opal meerschaum. This trade was possible once every 21 years, when an orbiting neutron star temporarily reopened tramlines—although, following MP’s accession to the Empire of Man in 3007, it was technically illegal, since New Utah remained an outworld.
The True Church of Maxroy’s Purchase considered itself to be the governing body of its New Utah counterpart throughout this period—but the combination of remoteness, sporadic contact, and normal social evolution on New Utah put considerable strain on this relationship. This became clear in 3035, when the New Utah True Church averted open civil war by refusing an accession offer that would have codified that subordinate relationship.
True Church Militant (“TCM”). The military arm of the True Church of Mormon. Formally organized in 2567 as a Temple Guard in Glacier Valley, the TCM became enforcers of TC canon, and conducted the purges of 2864. One TCM wing is formally organized as the so-called TCMormon “Saints” Battalion, which “supports” the TC “mission” on New Utah by rotating young men there for three-year tours in the True Church Temple Security Zone. TCM service is considered equivalent to an proselytizing mission.
The New Utah TCM, under pressure to exact sufficient payments to meet its obligations to the TC Maxroy’s Purchase, evolved away from church law enforcement. Instead, its primary mission became canonical tax (“tithe”) collection. Rather than suffering judgment under TC law, non-conformants and non-adherents are subject to heavy (even extortionate) tithe levies, and the TCM New Utah is tasked with universal collection.
The TCM New Utah is also responsible for protection of and order within the True Church Temple Security Zone —a sprawling administrative complex that includes the Temple itself, its archives, tithe and trade goods warehouses, various ministries, and key transportation hubs. Law and order outside the Zone is the responsibility of civil police. The Maxroy’s Purchase TCM Mormon Saints Battalion is housed within the Zone and nominally attached to the Commander, Zone Security.
Unique to New Utah is a TCM auxiliary arm, called TCM Contract Security (short name: TCM Security), which allows the True Church New Utah to minimize expenses for standing paramilitaries—and generate a revenue stream from visiting dignitaries. Originally cultivated from past members of various home-and-farm defense militias, TCM Security is organized as a private-sector company offering skilled drivers, pilots, escorts, bodyguards, security guards, and allied personnel who are pre-cleared by the TCM, but can be called up and hired on service contracts as-needed. Members are recruited on a city zone and rural regional basis, so are intimately familiar with their home territories. Members may also hold reserve appointments in one of the TCM branches. Many are members of landholder families from estates outside Saint George.