Research Article Global Media Journal 2018 Vol.16 No. ISSN 1550-7521 31:147 Mormon Church in Kazakhstan Altayeva NA1* and Zatov KA2 1Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan 2Department of Philosophy Sciences, Egyptian University of Islamic Culture, Almaty, Kazakhstan *Corresponding author: Altayeva NA, Doctoral Student, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Tel: 87011611984; E-mail: [email protected] Received date: Aug 03, 2018; Accepted date: Oct 24, 2018; Published date: Nov 1, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Altayeva NA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation: Altayeva NA. Mormon Church in Kazakhstan. Global Media Journal 2018, 16:31. development of culture and spiritual life of the people, respects cultural and historical value of religions that are Abstract compatible with the spiritual heritage of the people of Kazakhstan, recognizes the importance of interreligious The paper is aimed to analyze the service, religious harmony, religious tolerance and respect for religious beliefs of doctrine, worship practices and church life of the citizens" [1]. The act led to an increase in the number of Mormons’ Association in Kazakhstan. The findings are religious communities throughout Kazakhstan. As such, it is based on authors’ internal and external observations. known that before the adoption of the law, in the period Authors’ conclusions were received from the analysis of between 1991-2011, 4551 religious associations were the research results of cult and non-cult style of life of the registered in the state. According to the Law on Religious adepts of the Mormon Church in Kazakhstan. Mormons Activities and Religious Associations [2], adopted in 2011, are the common representatives of new religious religious organizations were obliged to re-register before organizations in Kazakhstan. Their church is not public but October 2012 at the central or local authorities. In October they have a significant influence on their followers. This influence is reflected in the creation of comfortable 2012 the number of registered religious confessions dropped psychological condition within the association, in the from 46 to 17, the number of registered religious organizations feeling of safety of members of the church, in mutual has fallen from 4551 to 3088. Since 2014 the number of respect and understanding, in the satisfactory status of confessions has reached 18. Table 1 demonstrates the number the association’s members in this social environment, in of registered confessions and religious organizations in doctrines and religious practices, which provide Kazakhstan in the period between 2011-2016. conditions for self-realization. Table 1: Dynamics of the number of confessions and religious Furthermore, the paper reviews the first emergence, organizations in the Republic of Kazakhstan. official registration, and dissemination of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the territory of As of As of As of As of Sl 01/01/20 25/10/20 1/1/20 10/8/20 Kazakhstan. No. Confessions 11 12 14 16 1 Islam 2811 2229 2367 2517 Keywords: New religious movements; Mormons; 2 Orthodoxy 304 280 293 329 Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints; Mormons in Kazakhstan; Kazakh parish of Almaty 3 Pentecostal 400 189 230 217 Evangelical Introduction 4 Christians-Baptists 364 100 185 181 5 Catholics 118 79 84 84 The Republic of Kazakhstan is a sovereign secular state. This Jehovah’s basic principle is reflected in the Constitution, legislation, and 6 witnesses 70 59 60 60 other legal acts. In 2011 the Republic of Kazakhstan passed a law called “On Religious Activities and Religious Associations”. 7 Presbyterians 229 55 92 108 Its first chapter states, "this Law is based on the fact that the Seventh Day Republic of Kazakhstan represents itself as a democratic, 8 Adventists 67 42 42 42 secular state, affirms the right of everyone for freedom of 9 Lutherans 32 13 13 14 conscience, guarantees equal rights of everyone regardless of his or her religious beliefs, recognizes the historical role in the 10 Methodists 18 11 12 13 This article is available from: globalmediajournal.com 1 Global Media Journal 2018 ISSN 1550-7521 Vol.16 No. 31:147 New Apostolic phenomenon in Kazakhstan. There is no academic research 11 Church 47 8 25 26 work concerning this subject in Kazakhstan’s religious studies, 12 Krishnaits 14 8 9 8 except encyclopedias and reference brochures about the organization’s history, doctrines, and services. 13 Bahaism 20 6 6 6 Toni Semerad published in Salt Lake Tribune an article 14 Judaism 26 4 7 7 covering Mormon’s church in Kazakhstan. He describes the 15 Buddhism 4 2 2 2 meeting of the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev with Paul Pieper, the president of The The Church of Jesus Christ of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at that time. An Latter-day Saints official representative of the Mormon’s church introduced 16 (Mormons) 1 2 2 2 rules of Mormon’s confession to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the 17 Mennonites 6 1 4 4 president of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Paul Pieper, who represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in The Unification Church of Muna Kazakhstan, spoke in both Kazakh and Russian as he outlined 18 (Munita) - - 1 1 support of traditional family values, education and the authority of local governments, as well as the faith's taboos Total 4551 3088 3434 3621 against alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs [4]. This meeting was organized as one of the meetings organized to meet with According to the preamble of the Law on Religious Activities representatives of all religious confessions. However, the and Religious Associations it states that it is based on the Mormon Church’s side misrepresented, advertised and recognition of the historical role of Hanafi Islam and Orthodox explained this meeting as a sign of support and interest from Christianity in the development of culture and spiritual life of the president’s side. the people, respects other religions, combined with the spiritual heritage of the people of Kazakhstan, recognizes the Authors attempted to study the service of The Church of importance of interreligious harmony, religious tolerance, and Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from secular academic respect for religious beliefs of citizens [1]. perspective. Furthermore, we tried to find out the number of Mormon parishes, the number of people who come for In the recent twenty-seven years, new religious streams worship, the methods applied to attract new followers, their have emerged in Kazakhstan along with the above-mentioned attitude to the values of Kazakhstan’s society, ethnic and age two main traditional religions. Most of those religions have a composition of church members and other questions. long history in the countries of their origin. However, due to the fact that they appeared in Kazakhstan only when the country gained independence, they are titled as "new" Materials and Methods religions in Kazakhstan’s school of Religious Studies. Aiming to increase the number of followers, new religious movements The research was conducted under the thesis work titled use diverse methods including the organization of free Mormon Association in Kazakhstan (Religious Analysis). The language courses; conduction of different seminars and pieces aim of the thesis was to analyze the function of the Church of of training directed to improve man’s psychological and Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Republic of Kazakhstan spiritual skills; the foundation of charity funds; organization of and to find out the methods they use to attract new adepts. religious practices in Kazakh; a celebration of national holidays Internal and external observation methods were widely and others. One such new confession for Kazakhstan was the applied during the research. The field research was conducted Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. in the Parish of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Almaty in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2017 from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also known September to December. Interactions with the association’s as Mormons. This name is derived from the Book of Mormon, members were realized during the Sunday services, English which they consider as their saint book [3]. The Mormons courses and in additional events. started to disseminate in Kazakhstan in 1997. As such they have been functioning in Kazakhstan for more than 20 years. During this period the organization has spread its faith in the Results and Discussion Kazakh land and increased the number of followers According to Dmitry Tsai, the president of the Mormon significantly. Thus, the question arises: how could such church in the Parish in Almaty in the Republic of Kazakhstan, religious stream, which is absolutely different from the Kazakh the first Mormon missionaries arrived in Kazakhstan in 1997. mentality, disseminate among Kazakhs and could find its Initially, they invited Kazakhstan’s citizens to their rented followers? Since its arrival to the Kazakh soil, the service and apartments and introduced them to their belief. But later, functions of this organization have not been thoroughly when the number of their followers increased, they registered studied. Notably, the number of followers of the religion is their organization officially and received official status as a growing globally and its influence in the United States is rising. religious association. In this regard, this topic is of high academic significance. Being a part of this global interest, the study of the Mormons in If to trust the data given on their official webpage, the total Kazakhstan would raise the level of research of this number of Mormons in the world has reached 16,118169 2 This article is available from: globalmediajournal.com Global Media Journal 2018 ISSN 1550-7521 Vol.16 No.