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The LDS "Mormon" Visitors Center, Independence, Missouri (dedicated on May 31, 1971)〔Joseph Fielding Smith, ("...address by President Joseph Fielding Smith ... at the dedication of a new Visitors Center at Independence, Missouri, on May 31, 1971" ) ''Ensign'', August 1971, p. 5.〕 is a visitors center owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Independence, Missouri. The center is situated on the Greater Temple Lot dedicated and purchased by Joseph Smith and his associates in 1831, only a few yards from the Church of Christ (Temple Lot)'s headquarters and the Community of Christ Temple. ==History== The property upon which the Visitors Center stands was first purchased on December 19, 1831 by Edward Partridge, acting on behalf of Joseph Smith. It was repurchased by the LDS Church, which had become the largest of several different Latter Day Saint denominations, on April 14, 1904.〔(p. 19, ''Church chronology: a record of important events pertaining to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints'' ) Deseret () Publishing, 1914〕 The purchase was completed by James G. Duffin, President of the Central U.S. States Mission, acting on behalf of the First Presidency. A few months later, the ''Kansas City Times'' published a rumor (but corrected itself the next day)〔(''"Denied by Mr. Duffin: No Truth in Report of a Large Purchase of Land by Mormons"'' ''Kansas City Times'' quoted in the ''Salt Lake City Herald'' newspaper, page 17 (C-3), January 15, 1905. ''"...The report published in the ''Times'' yesterday morning that several thousand acres of land had been purchased in Independence, Mo., for the use of the Mormon colonists was denied yesterday afternoon by James G. Duffin..."'' )〕 that the so-called "Utah Mormons" had secretly purchased the entire Greater Temple Lot, including that portion owned by the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), which had been the subject of a lawsuit in the 1890s between the Temple Lot and (then) RLDS churches. The portion owned by the Temple Lot church was the highest-altitude portion of the originally purchased by Partridge in December, 1831, and had been repurchased by Granville Hedrick, founder of the Temple Lot church, between 1867 and 1877. Both pieces of real estate are often confused, because since 1867 ''both'' the area and the larger area have been described in newspaper and other media reports as the "Mormon Temple Lot."〔A 1975 edition of the Los Angeles Times mentions the Visitors Center in a report headlined ''Independence to be ‘City of God’: Three Churches Await Christ in Missouri'' (Independence to be ‘City of God’: Three Churches Await Christ in Missouri ) By Charles Hillinger, Los Angeles Times, p. 18, Saturday, March 29, 1975, at Google Docs〕〔An article published in the LDS periodical the ''Ensign'' in 1979 and reproduced online today includes a photograph of the LDS visitors center in Independence, Center, and the cutline reads: ''"Independence Visitors’ Center, dedicated in 1971 on part of the temple lot"'': ("The Way It Looks Today: A Camera Tour of Church History Sites in Missouri" ), ''Ensign'', April 1979.〕 A January 2009 online article by Community of Christ researcher John Hamer entitled ''"The Temple Lot: Visions and Realities"'' helps clear up the confusion.〔(The Temple Lot: Visions and Realities January 19, 2009 — John Hamer at bycommonconsent.com )〕 The Visitors Center opened in 1971, the same year as another particularly notable LDS Visitors Center, the (LDS Visitors Center in Nauvoo, Illinois ). Its style of presenting Mormon claims and doctrines in a modern audio-visual and interactive format was specifically the brainchild of LDS general authority Bernard P. Brockbank, who had overseen implementation of this same style at the 1964 New York World's Fair.〔( "Church readies pavilion for N.Y. Fair Inaugural" ) Deseret News, February 29, 1964〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LDS Visitors Center, Independence, Missouri」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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