Fascinating article about Mormonism in Chile

[_Runtu]

The Biggest Little Mormon Country in the World

[_karl61]

Wow! thanks for sharing; she writes well! (wish I could);)

[_moksha]

This is indeed a fascinating article.

[_Gazelam]

It looks really interesting, I started it, and then printed out the whole thing, I'll read it tommorow, nice find Runtu.

[_gramps]

I have read long ago something about Chile ...
That is it: (copypasted)
"Building faith: The LDS Church in Chile
A Combination of mysticism and pragmatism is bringing exuberant Chileans into the LDS Church. Now, efforts are being made to keep them in the fold.
Salt Lake City Tribune/June 23, 2006
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
...
535,000 Members on the LDS Church rolls
200,000 Names in the "Lost Addresses" file
120,000 People who identified themselves as Mormons on the 2002 Chilean census
57,000 Average attendance at sacrament meeting, nationwide
Source: Ted Lyon, Brigham Young University specialist on Latin America"
http://www.rickross.com/reference/Mormon/mormon319.html

In the hungarian ward I know there are >400 on the list. I have never seen more than 80 on sundays.
So much about 12 million.
____ Ludwig from Hungary

Eighty people! That's good for 400 on the list. I bet they are quite happy with that. Or they should be. :)

[_Blixa]

Just a quick note to say Welcome Ludwig! I enjoy your posts and look forward to more!

[_Blixa]

Finished reading it.

This, of course, stood out to me:

"So thrilled, in fact, that prophet Spencer Kimball met with Pinochet in 1977, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon as a gift, and then promptly declared Pinochet to be “one of the great leaders of Latin America.” '

If anyone needed another reminder of how wrong, false, bad, horrible and utterly opportunistic Mormonism is, here you go.

That stupid slogan's got it backwards: the members are perfect, the church isn't. By this I mean that the problem is not on the level of silly human mistakes made my individual members ("offending" someone), but is to be found amid the highler eschelons of power, greed and vanitas.

[_Runtu]

Finished reading it.

This, of course, stood out to me:

"So thrilled, in fact, that prophet Spencer Kimball met with Pinochet in 1977, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon as a gift, and then promptly declared Pinochet to be “one of the great leaders of Latin America.” '

If anyone needed another reminder of how wrong, false, bad, horrible and utterly opportunistic Mormonism is, here you go.

That stupid slogan's got it backwards: the members are perfect, the church isn't. By this I mean that the problem is not on the level of silly human mistakes made my individual members ("offending" someone), but is to be found amid the highler eschelons of power, greed and vanitas.

The church has a long pattern of cozying up to whoever is in power in order to further church goals. Remember Tommy Monson's buddy Erich Honecker?

That sentence stood out to me as well. Pinochet counts as "great" in no sense of the word. Evil, murderous, totalitarian? Yep. Great? Not in a million years.

[_moksha]

Some nonLDS Churches use the weekly average attendance as their membership count. To me, it seems that is always the most useful number in letting members know how the congregation is doing. I have for some time tried to grasp why our Church numbers are allowed to seem inflated. The best I can come up with is that it must be for a marketing strategy.

My guess is that with the due diligence of the Ward Clerks throughout the Church, that more accurate numbers are available for statistical projections, planning processes and logistical support. I suppose as long as someone has the accurate figures, that is what is important. Usually, a well informed populace always makes the best decisions and a lack of accurate information leads to mistaken judgments.