The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1994 The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church Samuel Otterstrom Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Geography Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, and the Sociology Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Otterstrom, Samuel, "The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church" (1994). Theses and Dissertations. 5004. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5004 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. the international diffusion of the mormon church A thesis presented to the department of geography brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of science by samuel M otterstrom august 1994 this thesis by samuel M otterstrom is accepted in its present form by the department of geography ofbrighamofbrigham young university as satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of master of science v T j jg richardrijharshRijharSHHccjackson comm4thaircommroejelchair jyn43 fc to jamesjamasjamvs A davis committee member y- e ay cylcel rateyateaea e 7yay alan H grey graduate coordincourdincoordinate 11 acknowledgements it would not have been possible for me to complete this thesis in a timely manner without the consistent support given to me by my family and the faculty in the geography department professors jackson davis shumway and emmett have all given very valuable editing and content revision suggestions it is amazing to me that they even took the time to read the whole thing I1 especially appreciate dr davis help in regards to formatting and printing of the final project he has encouraged me all the way jeff bird also deserves thanks for assisting me a cartographic amateur in learning how to use the aldus computer program to make the maps used in the study I1 would like to especially thank my wife lori who has motivated me and taken care of our rambunctious boys nils and ethan very unselfishly so I1 could have time to write and write and finally thanks are extended to my motherinlawmother in law jean thomas who has been very generous to us by letting us live in her home during most of my graduate experience at BYU without her help we would be impoverished instead ofjust plain poor iiililliiiiilii111 TABLE OF CONTENTS page LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi I1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING I11 II11 THE literature REVIEW AND conceptual FRAMEWORK 5 iliillIII111 DATA AND methodology 21 IV OVERVIEW OF international LDS GROWTH 29 V SOUTH AMERICA 35 VI MIDDLE AMERICA 68 vilVII EUROPE AND CANADA 85 villVIII ASIA 92 IX SOUTH PACIFIC 100 X AFRICA 104 XI SUMMARY conclusions AND recommendations 108 APPENDIX 115 bibliography 116 IV LIST OF TABLES table page I11 countries with more than 10000 LDS in 1991 27 2 1989911989 91 LDS growth rates for nations in table I11 34 3 south america early mormon diffusion 37 4 south america 1994 mormon geography 39 5 brazil number of stakes by city and year 40 6 brazil number of stakes by state and capital 47 7 chile number of stakes by city and year 49 8 chile number of stakes by region 53 9 argentina number of stakes by city and year 57 10 peru number of stakes by city and year 60 11 middle america early mormon diffusion 69 12 middle america 1994 mormon geography 71 13 mexico number of stakes by city and year 73 14 europe early mormon diffusionmormons 1993 87 15 asia early mormon diffusionmormons 1993 94 16 south pacific early mormon diffusionmormons 1993 101 17 africa early mormon diffusion mormons 1993 106 v LIST OF FIGURES figure page I11 preliminary conceptual model of international LDS diffusion 15 2 brazil stakes and missions 19691974 41 3 brazil stakes and missions 19791984 42 4 brazil stakes and missions 19891994 43 5 chileargentinauruguay stakes and missions 19691974 50 6 chileargentinauruguay stakes and missions 19791984 51 7 chileargentinauruguay stakes and missions 19891994 52 8 PeruperuecuadorEcuador stakes and missions 1979198419891994 61 9 mexico stakes and missions 19691974 74 10 mexico stakes and missions 19791984 75 11 mexico stakes and missions 19891994 76 12 philippines stakes and missions 19791984 97 13 philippines stakes and missions 19891994 98 14 conceptual model of international LDS diffusion 110 viVI I1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING introduction the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints also known as the mormon church has grown from its simple beginning in 1830 of six members in new york state to over 878.7 million followers around the globe in 1994 this amazing growth has not been evenly spread over time and place but today there are mormon congregations in at least 149 nations and territories the mormon church feels it has been given the divine mandate to spread its beliefs throughout every nation kindred tongue and people book ofmormonof normonmormon mosiah 320 additionally its doctrine states that the diffusion mormonismofofmormonism to all countries must occur before the end of the world and again this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come or the destruction of the wicked pearl of great price joseph smithmatthewsmith matthew 131311 the mormon church has made missionary work a high priority ever since the churchs founding in 1830 throughout the rest of the 1800s the church had success in gaining converts in some foreign countries particularly upper canada great britain denmark switzerland and the society islands french polynesia most of these new members except those in the society islands gathered to utah after their conversion leaving few mormons in their native countries it was not until the twentieth century when church leaders began to encourage converts to stay and support mormon congregations in their own countries that the mormons began to have an international presence the most substantial worldwide diffusion of the church has been a recent phenomenon in 1930 approximately 90 percent of all church members lived in the united states this figure has dropped dramatically so that by 1980 only 70 percent of mormons lived in the USA by 1991 only eleven years later this proportion was less then 5555 percent otterstrom 19909 deseretdeseretnewsnews church almanac 1992 this research will analyze the patterns of international growth of the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints to show the principal models of spatial diffusion which have operated to create the present worldwide church membership distribution it will also illustrate the magnitude and extent of this increase ofmormonismofmormonism the study will not attempt to show how religious diffusion operates on a microlevelmicro level neither is it intended to be a complete history of mormon international expansion furthermore it will not describe the effect of internal relocation of church members in a country on diffusion patterns not because migration is not a factor but because of the lack of obtainable data it is assumed that the locations of stakes missions wards and branches see appendix for the definitions of these terms within countries or regions can be considered to be reliable indicators of the actual diffusion of LDS church populations this assumption will be explored further in the chapter concerning the data sources 2 the iml2ortanceimportance of the study the purpose of this thesis is to show the nature and magnitude of the geographic spread of the church worldwide it explores the international expansion of the mormon church from a geographic perspective which has not been done in this way before it also seeks to bring further understanding to a type of religious diffusion which deserves more investigation as a spatial phenomenon by so doing it will be able to show where mormonisms spatial diffusion within international countries fits into current diffusion theory the organization of the remainder of the studstudy chapter two will review related studies on general and religious diffusion as well as specific works on the growth of the mormon church the conclusion of the chapter will outline the geographic conceptual framework which will govern the approach to the problem chapter three describes the data their sources and the methodologies which will be employed to test the stated hypotheses chapter four is an overview outlining the history of the growth of the mormon church since its inception chapters five through ten correspond to six different regions of the world south america middle america europe and canada asia the south pacific and africa the emergence of mormonism in these regions is illustrated by outlining the original diffusion of the church into the countries within these regions and showing the ongoing growth patterns which account for the current mormon 3 distributions this will be to determine the part which hierarchical and contagious diffusion processes play in the international spread of the mormon religion the final chapter includes the summary of the findings of the thesis and the recommendations for further study in the realm of mormon international diffusion and growth now follows a look at previous studies related to this thesis 4 II11 TBETHE literature REVIEW AND conceptual FRAMEWORK overview of diffusion studies