Inside the $200 Billion Mormon Empire. (full documentary)

Joseph Smith He's [music] someone I know well . He's the author of a worldview that I held for most of my life . I taught it to [music] hundreds of people when I was a missionary . It's a religion and a gospel that I deeply believed in . One [music] full of hope and meaning and community . And unique stories. [music] Stories about where we came from and where we're going . Let me show you what Joseph Smith built and how he did it . How a non-religious, uneducated kid in Upstate New York created a global movement that would gather huge numbers of followers in a very short time . And who were pushed out from town to town often with violence . I want to show you how these people held on to the vision and mission that Joseph Smith taught . The building of a new utopian society. One founded on celestial [music] laws . One that was preparing for the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus Christ . So, let me tell you the story of Joseph Smith, [music] the church he built, and how that church and its mission still exist today . That's okay. He's a missionary and everyone's happy . Joseph Smith was born in the perfect place at the perfect time . It was the early 1800s and the US had just thrown off England to become a new country . It was going through some massive growing pains . Most of these new Americans who had just left the old world rejected a lot of old world things, namely religion . Only 10% of white Americans regularly attended church at this time . So, to help revive God, you have all these super charismatic preachers [music] who left the cities and went out to the countryside to preach . And this led [music] to an explosion of religious thought, especially in Upstate New York . So now you have all these like hyper reformist religions that were replacing . All these new wild religious flavors [music] that were more emotional , expressive, and personal . I mean, none of us were alive at this time , but you can kind of imagine like this brand new country founded on these new ideals. It . It [music] was unprecedented times . America felt special and different, but also kind of scary