Item Detail
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29452
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0
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0
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English
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The Church-State Relationship in the GDR
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Mormons as Citizens of a Communist State : A Documentary History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in East Germany, 1945-1990
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Salt Lake City
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University of Utah Press
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39-54
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[The] GDR's policy toward churches changed significantly during its forty-year history, and the relationship of the LDS Church to the government underwent similar changes, as described in the following chapters. An understanding of the relationship between the state and the LDS Church requires a short introduction to the generic church-state relationship within the GDR. For example, the government's suggestion in May of 1978, that the Church build a temple in that country, took place shortly after the Politburo's dicision to permit the Evangelical churches to construct new meeting houses and was consistent with the GDR's stated principle regarding the equality of all churches. The 1988 meeting between Chairman Erich Honecker and President Thomas S. Monson, which opened the GDR's borders to missionaries, also was closely linked to broader state-church events of that time. [From the text]