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Who is converting to the LDS church?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:53 pm
by _Phillip
We get the aggregate numbers on conversion in General Conference. What I'm interested in are the perceptions of people here on the type of adult converts that the church is currently attracting (in the United States say).
Complete families?
Educated professionals?
Immigrants?
Religious seekers?
People looking for community?
People without Internet service?
Re: Who is converting to the LDS church?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 1:38 pm
by _Chap
A post I made on a previous occasion should provide quite a lot of the answers you want:
How about some actual data, from the Pew Forum's Religious Landscape Survey of 2007?
The section on Mormon converts runs as follows:
Demographic Characteristics of Converts to Mormonism
The 26% of Mormons who are converts to the faith differ markedly from lifelong Mormons in several ways. First, converts tend to be older than lifelong Mormons. Nearly half of converts (48%) are over age 50, compared with about three-in-ten lifelong members (29%). Converts also tend to be less educated than nonconverts (16% did not graduate from high school, compared with just 6% of lifelong members) and they earn decidedly lower incomes (40% make less than $30,000 a year, compared with 21% among nonconverts).
Converts are more likely than lifelong members to come from minority racial and ethnic groups. One-in-ten converts to Mormonism are black, and nearly all black Mormons are converts. An additional one-in-ten Mormon converts are Hispanic, and just 72% are white; by contrast, 91% of lifelong Mormons are white. Converts are also more than three times as likely as lifelong members to be immigrants to the U.S. (14% vs. 4%).
And of course, for those who like to argue "The church is growing, so it must be right" - the CoJCoLDS has for most of the last decade seen its share of the US population stuck at 1.7%, despite its tradition of large families and its extremely active missionary program. It's going nowhere fast. This figure is of course based on simple self-identification - it counts the number of people willing to respond to questions about religious allegiance by choosing the option "LDS/Mormon". Clearly the number who ever go near a meeting house is likely to be considerably smaller.
Re: Who is converting to the LDS church?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:23 pm
by _Phillip
Thanks Chap, that's what I was looking for. That kind of fits my own perception that there is a significant difference between what was happening in the 60's-80's and in more recent years (hmmm ... something must have changed the game starting in the 1990's, what could it be?)
And I really should do a search before posting a new topic,
Re: Who is converting to the LDS church?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:09 pm
by _Chap
Phillip wrote:Thanks Chap, that's what I was looking for. That kind of fits my own perception that there is a significant difference between what was happening in the 60's-80's and in more recent years (hmmm ... something must have changed the game starting in the 1990's, what could it be?)
Are you giving me the cue to say "The Internet"?
Phillip wrote:And I really should do a search before posting a new topic,
Not at all. Pretty well every issue we could ever discuss has been raised already in some form on this board - but there is often something new to discover, and in addition I just got the benefit of the 'research once, post forever' phenomenon, so why should I complain?
But I would be very interested to hear what the members are currently being told about conversion.
You might find this online book "
The Law of the Harvest" interesting. Its unoptimistic view of church growth apparently dates from some years back, and I suspect the author would need to strengthen his cautions in the face of the Pew data.
Re: Who is converting to the LDS church?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:27 pm
by _Spurven Ten Sing
Is this THE Phil? With a C?
Re: Who is converting to the LDS church?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:44 pm
by _Phillip
Spurven Ten Sing wrote:Is this THE Phil? With a C?
Who do you say that I am?