The basic beliefs and traditions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) have a cultural impact that distinguishes church members, practices and activities. The culture is geographically concentrated in the Mormon Corridor in the United States, and is present to a lesser extent in many places of the world where Latter-day Saints live.

In some aspects, Latter-day Saint culture is distinct from church doctrine. Cultural practices which are centrally based on church doctrine include adhering to the church's law of health, paying tithing, living the law of chastity, participation in lay leadership of the church, refraining from work on Sundays when possible, family home evenings, and ministering to other church members.

The majority of Latter-day Saints live outside the United States. Therefore, even though the global differences are important, there are some common traits around Latter-day Saints worldwide.

Media and arts

LDS-themed media includes cinema, fiction, websites, and graphical art such as photography and paintings. The church owns a chain of bookstores called Deseret Book, which provide a channel through which publications are sold; church leaders have authored books and sold them through the publishing arm of the bookstore. BYU TV, the church-sponsored television station, also airs on several networks. The church also produces several pageants annually depicting various events of the primitive and modern-day church. Its Easter pageant Jesus the Christ has been identified as the "largest annual outdoor Easter pageant in the world". The church encourages entertainment without violence, sexual content, or vulgar language; many church members specifically avoid rated-R movies.

The church's official choir, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, was formed in the mid-19th century and performs in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. They have travelled to more than 28 countries, and are considered one of the most famous choirs in the world. The choir has received a Grammy Award, four Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and the National Medal of Arts.

Notable members of the church in the media and arts include: Donny Osmond, an American singer, dancer, and actor; Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game; Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series; and Glenn Beck, a conservative radio host, television producer, and author. Notable productions related to the church, though produced by individuals not affiliated with it, include Murder Among the Mormons, a 2021 Netflix documentary; and The Book of Mormon, a big-budget musical about Mormon missionaries, which received nine Tony Awards.

Family structure Church culture puts notable emphasis on the family, and the distinctive concept of a united family which lives and progresses forever is at the core of Latter-day Saint doctrine. Church leaders encourage members to marry and have children, and as a result, Latter-day Saint families tend to be larger than average. All sexual activity outside of marriage is considered a serious sin. All homosexual activity is considered sinful and same-sex marriages are not performed or supported by the LDS Church. Latter-day Saint fathers who hold the priesthood typically name and bless their children shortly after birth to formally give the child a name and generate a church record for them.

LDS Church members are encouraged to set aside one evening each week, typically Monday, to spend together in "Family Home Evening." Family Home Evenings typically consist of gathering as a family to study the faith's gospel principles, and other family activities. Daily family prayer is also encouraged.

Education

Latter-day Saints believe that one of the most important aspects of life on Earth is the opportunity for individuals to learn and grow. They further believe that whatever learning they obtain in this life is retained in the next life. Accordingly, the church strongly emphasizes education and as part of the Church Educational System, subsidizes Brigham Young University (BYU) and its Jerusalem Center, BYU–Idaho, BYU–Hawaii, and Ensign College.

All participating members ages eleven years and older attend Sunday School classes, which emphasize personal scripture studies and other forms of spiritual education and self-improvement.

Seminary is an established religious education program for secondary school students, which is often scheduled before or after school hours. In some areas with large LDS populations, provisions are made by the school to allow students to attend Seminary off-campus during the school day. Attendance at seminary is voluntary, although it is considered when a person applies to a church-owned university. CES administers the seminary program and an Institute of Religion program for tertiary education-age church members.

The church sponsors a low-interest educational loan program known as the Perpetual Education Fund. This fund is designed to benefit young men and women from developing areas to receive student loans. Many of them have served a mission, returned to their home, and lack needed funds to improve their standard of living. As they finish their education and enter the work force, they pay back the funds, which are then loaned to other individuals.

Recreation and activities The LDS Church encourages and hosts social activities such as sports, dances, picnics, holiday parties, and/or musical presentations. Local Young Men and Young Women organizations sponsor weekly activities, and the Primary and other auxiliaries of the church hold occasional activities.

Beginning with the new youth initiative in 2020, during the summer, the LDS Church provides week-long experiences, known as For the Strength of Youth Conferences. Previous to For the Strength of Youth Conferences, a popular youth-centered religious program called Especially for Youth was offered through church-owned Brigham Young University. Since announcing For the Strength of Youth Conferences, the size and scope of Especially for Youth has been reduced dramatically.

Politics

In general, the LDS Church distances itself from politics, although it encourages its members to be politically active. Each summer in U.S. election years the church sends a letter to each bishop to be read from the pulpit stating that the church does not endorse any political parties or candidates, does not allow its buildings to be used for political events, and that no titles or positions that a person may have in the church may be used to imply church endorsement of any party or candidate.

However, the church has endorsed or opposed specific political positions which it regards as moral issues: Opposition to repeal of right-to-work section of the Taft–Hartley Act Opposition to MX (Peacekeeper) missile bases in Utah and Nevada"First Presidency Statement on Basing of MX Missile", Ensign, June 1981, p. 76. Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s Support for anti-same-sex marriage legislation: the Defense of Marriage Act, California Proposition 22, 2004 Utah constitutional amendment, and California Proposition 8 Opposition to the storage of nuclear waste in UtahJudy Fahys, "LDS joins N-storage foes", The Salt Lake Tribune, 5 May 2006. Opposition to white supremacism Support of compassionate and pro-family immigration policy, while affirming that "every nation has the right to enforce its laws and secure its borders" Support for the Respect for Marriage Act to preserve LGBT rights along with including appropriate religious freedom protections.

A 2012 Pew Center survey on Religion and Public Life indicates that 74 percent of U.S. Latter-day Saints church members lean towards the Republican Party. Some liberal members have stated that they feel that they have to defend their worthiness due to political differences. In recent decades, the Republican Party has consistently won a majority of the LDS vote in most national and state-level elections. As a result, Utah, a state with a majority LDS population, is also one of the most heavily Republican states in the country. However, there are Democratic supporters inside the church.

Genealogy Genealogical family history research is an important aspect of Latter-day Saint tradition, stemming from a doctrinal mandate for church members to research their family tree and perform vicarious ordinances for their ancestors. Church members believe the ordinances "seal" or link families together, with the ultimate goal being an unbroken chain back to Adam and Eve. Church members are able to do genealogical work in various family history centers throughout the world, usually located in LDS meetinghouses. The advent of personal computers prompted the church to create a specialized file format known as GEDCOM for storing and exchanging these records. Since then, GEDCOM has become a de facto standard that almost all genealogy programs support.

The church maintains a website called FamilySearch to access genealogical records, which typically contain birth, death, marriage and family group information. Church records also contain information on personal ordinances of members as well as vicarious temple ordinances such as baptism, endowment, and sealing to spouse, parent, and child. Genealogical and church related information is maintained in permanent storage in the Granite Mountain vault in the Wasatch Range of the Utah mountains. The church is currently working to digitize all of these records and make them more readily available.

Death

In the 1800s, members of the LDS Church participated in unique burial and death rituals whenever a fellow Latter-day Saint died. Relief Society women were responsible for washing and dressing corpses, especially in the years before mortuary science came to Utah. They sewed special burial clothes for the person;Savage, Julie Paige Hemming, ""Yet I Must Submit": Mormon Women's Perspectives on Death and Dying 1847–1900" (1995). All Theses and Dissertations. 5092. endowed members of the church were buried in their sacred temple clothes. Those who were not endowed were simply dressed in white. If a mother and child died during delivery, both were buried in the same coffin, with the baby laid in the mother's arms. The Latter-day Saints also buried their dead facing east so that they would be situated correctly to witness the second coming of Jesus Christ. In addition to caring for the bodies of the deceased, LDS women were also responsible for planning funeral services. These involved singing songs, saying prayers, and listening to funeral sermons, which were often given by at least one man possessing the Melchizedek priesthood. Sermons and eulogies included a reference to the continuation of the person's spirit and the many admirable spiritual qualities they demonstrated during their life. Especially towards the end of the 19th century, funeral planners opted to decorate with white instead of black. To remember the deceased, the Latter-day Saints made death masks and canes from the wood of coffins. They also kept locks of the person's hair. LDS women wrote death poetry to express their thoughts and feelings, and many such poems were published in periodicals such as the Woman's Exponent.

Before the actual event of death, the early Latter-day Saints attempted to revive the dying through healing rituals. These involved placing a drop of consecrated oil on the person's head and saying a prayer to bless them with health. Less unique to the early Mormons was their involvement in the 19th-century American Protestant phenomenon known as the "beautiful death". This involved gathering together to witness a person's death. The dying were to give parting advice to their children and remain calm in their last hours. It was very important to have as many loved ones as possible be present at the deathbed scene; a private death was undesirable.

Missionaries