Posted on 08/11/2012 8:00:00 AM PDT by Colofornian
The apostle Paul -- and other Biblical men of God who constructed the New Testament -- at times used athletic words and analogies of the day. James used the word "swift" (James 1:19); John talked about overcoming (1 John 5:4); and the apostle Paul wrote about exercise (1 Tim. 4:7); wrestling (Eph. 6:12); striving (within preparation boundaries) (2 Tim. 2:5), and running a race (1 Cor. 9:24).
The author of Hebrews also discussed the need to "lay aside every weight" (Heb. 12:1). The Greek word for "weight" -- ogkos -- was a burden or something heavy or cumberson enough that it could impede a runner from running his race as he might.
Certainly, legalistic "religion" -- "religion" that goes beyond simple devotion to Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:2-4) -- can lead to somebody embracing "another Jesus" (2 Cor. 11:3-4) -- a "Jesus" is who isn't the Real One.
Perhaps the legalism as such a burdensome "weight" can explain how..."census data from some foreign countries...show that the retention rate" for Mormon converts to be "as low as 25 percent. (Source: Special report -Mormonism besieged by the modern age [Lds church is hemorrhaging in member losses])
Mormon Sociologist Armand Mauss concluded: "75 percent of foreign [LDS] converts are not attending church within a year of conversion. In the United States, 50 percent of the converts fail to attend after a year." And, per Cumorah.com, "This postbaptismal attrition is heavily front-loaded. Elder Dallin H. Oaks noted that 'among those converts who fall away, attrition is sharpest in the two months after baptism,' and missionaries report being told in the MTC" [Missionary Training Center] "that up to 80 percent of inactivity occurs within two months of baptism. In some parts of Latin America, 30 to 40 percent of new converts do not even return to church after baptism to be confirmed."
With athleticism being a key "filter" of late with the London Olympics, a series of questions worth delving into at this Olympic season: Who are the Mormons? Who are the American Mormons? And who are the international Mormons? Are some American and international Mormons "exiting" their "spiritual Olympics" trials prematurely? Is this primarily due to discovering Lds history and carefully examining Mormon theological claims? What are some of the reasons for the extremely low Mormon retention rates in other countries?
Well, this S.O.S. -- Spiritual Olympics Series -- seeks to address some of these questions.
Last month, the Salt Lake Tribune ran a piece, Brazil mystery: Case of the missing Mormons (913,045 of them, to be exact), by Peggy Fletcher Stack (July 16, 2012).
The following day, a poster at the New Order Mormon.org forum commented on the Trib piece: "I'm sorry, but I just had to call out the ridiculousness of the church's response to the 913,045 member discrepancy between the number of Brazilian members the church claims (1,138,740) and the number of self-identified Mormons on the" [2010] "Brazilian census (225,695)..."A spokesman for the [LDS] "church said, 'A good indicator for membership growth and activity in any area can be found in the construction of meetinghouses and temples'. Um, no. How about 'a good indicator for membership growth and activity' is ACTUAL membership growth and activity rates? Don't distract by saying, 'we're still building stuff, so therefore we must be growing!' Please. Chaps my hide." [Source: New Order Mormon.org, Brazil Mystery: Case of the Missing Mormons]
That forum post at New Order Mormon then led to at least four past Lds missionaries to Brazil chiming in as to why Mormon converts are not readily being retained in that country:
Sources for quotes below are the New Order Mormon Web forum: Brazil Mystery: Case of the Missing Mormons
New Order Mormon ex-missionary to Brazil #1 |
New Order Mormon ex-missionary to Brazil #2 |
New Order Mormon ex-missionary to Brazil #3 |
New Order Mormon ex-missionary to Brazil #4 |
| "The census is just saying that the mormon self-identification rate in Brazil is ~20%. I served my mission in Brazil within the last decade. And it wouldn't surprise me if some of those self-reported mormons in the census are also inactive, and the activity rate is even lower. Admittedly, my evidence is only anecdotal, having only passed through a handful of wards and branches in the middle of nowhere, but the ward lists were enormous compared to the relatively small number who showed up on Sunday. And the vast majority of people I saw baptized quickly stopped attending." (Kneefights, July 17, 2012) | "I also served in Brazil (although more than a decade ago), and I would add that the culture there is a little different in respect to religion. The people in general are a lot more spiritual (or you could say superstitious), but most of them have very little commitment to hierarchical organizations. This means that missionaries giving emotional experiences are able to have great numbers of converts, but once someone is baptized, making them loyal to the coorperation is VERY HARD. Getting the people to say that they believe in the stories of the Book of Mormon is pretty easy, but making them attend church even when they say that they believe is hard. It's just a different culture. I very rarely ran across any athiests, skeptics, or non-christians while in Brazil. Most people were willing to believe pretty fantastic stories about religion without any doubt (or very little doubt). Most people I knew believed very strongly in black magic and other various folk magics. It wasn't much of a stretch that Joseph Smith saw an angel and transalated an ancient record. That wasn't out of the ordinary.I met people all the time that claimed to have seen something supernatural.The reason (I believe) that the LDS church isn't growing as fast as other denominations in Brazil is that it is too "North American" and too conservative. It isn't as emotional and magical as many of the other faiths. The Mormonism of the early church (Joseph Smith era) would flurish MUCH MORE in Brazil." (True Believer, July 17, 2012) | "I served in Brazil as well. I left for the MTC almost 13 years ago. I served in one ward that had over 900 members on the books, with a weekly attendance of about 60. 600 of those members were baptized by one elder, years previous." (Babajaga, July 17, 2012) | "I served in Brazil. I believe up through the 90s there were a ton of soccer baptisms - kids just rounded up after a soccer game and baptized just for numbers. There was never any attendance or conversion. We didn't do that in my time, but we were still pressured to pressure the investigators to get baptized way before they were ready. It wasn't uncommon to have 10 times as many inactives as actives in a ward. Ward sizes were typically very small (in activity), maybe 50-70 members. I'm not surprised at all." (Stimpson, July 18, 2012) |
At the same forum link above, New-orderMormon chimed in: "Chile, Peru, Argentina, Guatemala, Costa Rica, etc....It's the same story in every developing country. I'm glad it's starting to get some traction out there, but it's been a numbers sham for years."
Almost a decade ago, it was reported: "Protestant groups have been more successful than Latter-day Saints in mobilizing missionaries outside of the United States, especially in Asia. There are over 44,000 Protestant missionaries from India, with 60% serving domestically and 40% serving abroad. Within the next few years, India is expected to surpass the United States as the leading sender of Protestant and Evangelical missionaries! There are only 52 LDS missionaries serving in all of India, with only a fraction being native missionaries."
Source: The Fastest Growing Church in the World?
In Sweden, Mormonthink.com reported that "Apostasy within the LDS Church seems to be among the highest in Sweden with many LDS members questioning their beliefs, including several high-ranking LDS leaders. In order to help these struggling members in Sweden, the LDS Church issued a document called 'The Swedish Rescue'."
Source: The Swedish Rescue
Fortunately, in the UK, where the Olympics have been hosted, UK Partnerships for Christ has a blog ministry Mormon outreach: Mormonism Investigated UK
One of the recent blog entries this Web site ran was: The Great Apostasy? – By Vicky Gilpin (Aug. 6, 2012) [Scroll down from top]
It also ran a multi-part testimony of former Mormon Chris Ralph, who had been Lds in the UK for over 35 years.
You first:
You have taken another flight away from reality with your OBAMA comment; are you imagining things, or did I write something about liking barak?
No you wouldn't.
But; if a member of one of them WERE to run for the Leader of the Free World; I'm sure we'd be on board for the ride.
Dang it!
You KNOW that I like all of the attention!
They all claim be the the "Truth." Which is just as dangerous.
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