[af_vet_1981]

You're even more wrong.

The subject was Joseph Smith, not the Mormons who became a new American religion. Joseph Smith was either a Protestant or an Evangelical for a short time and tried to reform, recreate, or reconstruct Christianity in opposition to the tradition of the one holy catholic apostolic church after being unsatisified with his Protestant/Evangelical church options during the Second Great Awakening. He had a personal experience after reading the Bible, wanted to be saved, and join the right church, similar to many Evangelical converts today. He seems to have rejected all tradition in forming a new movement.

[ealgeone]

JS started Mormonism. Hard to separate the two.