More and more people aren't answering surveys, either by phone or online. Reaching a small minority population like Latter-day Saints is notoriously difficult.

So they resurrected an old-school methodology — sending 80,000 physical postcards to randomly selected households in the Mormon Corridor — and supplemented with targeted Facebook ads to a Utah audience.

Both methods led respondents to take an online survey that was then weighted to be representative of the LDS population.

After they removed late and invalid responses, they had a sample of 2,625 current and 1,183 former Latter-day Saints.

Our Zoom interview about their findings has been edited for length and clarity.

1. Former LDS Church members are more likely to be LGBTQ.

In the survey, only four percent of current members identified as LGBTQ, compared with 18 percent of former members.

"There's a million questions to be asked there about why there's a four times difference between current and former," said Coates.

"One theory is that if you're LGBT and you're in the church, it's not 100 percent compatible, and you're going to leave. And so obviously that means there's going to be a lot more former Latter-day Saints.

Undoubtedly there is a component to that. Or it's possible that people that leave the church and then begin to identify as LGBTQ for whatever reason.

We don't know, because the survey did not explore any of that level of detail. That's the next level."

2. Few have a traditional belief in God, without any doubts.

The 2023 Current and Former Latter-day Saint Survey repeated a long-standing question from the General Social Survey about belief in God.

Comparing the current and former members, the differences in belief are stark: Among current members, more than 7 in 10 say they "know God really exists and … have no doubts about it."

That's more than six times the rate of certainty about God among former members.

Cranney pointed out in an article in Times and Seasons that most former members do "still have some kind of belief in something higher," but they're less likely to know without a doubt that God exists.

"Their belief in God is characterized more by ambiguity than a firm belief one way or another," he wrote.

In this, they're similar to the nones in the general population of the U.S., while current members resemble the General Social Survey's "religionists," the most devout Americans.

3. Their moral priorities look very different.

One of the most groundbreaking aspects of the survey Coates and Cranney devised was that they utilized Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory (MFT),

Their aim was to try to understand whether current and former Mormons emphasised different aspects of morality.

MFT measures values such as fairness, loyalty, authority, care and purity. In Haidt's research, liberals tend to stress fairness and care but put less emphasis on obedience to authority or being loyal to a particular tribe.

Former Mormons, it turns out, have much in common with liberals in the general population, with high ratings for care and fairness.

Meanwhile, current members look more like conservatives, but with a particularly high emphasis on purity/sanctity — something former Mormons do not stress much at all.

"That was surprising, how defined that difference was," Coates said.

"Current Latter-day Saints are off the charts on purity and sanctity. And for former members what's interesting is that in in-group loyalty, they're significantly lower even than the liberals."

Cranney said that makes sense. "This is a relatively high-tension faith that, oftentimes to survive, has had to have fairly strict binding norms.

People who have decided that it's not for them are going to score lower because they have rejected those very intense binding norms."

4. They are more likely to have been divorced.

For survey respondents who were still members of the LDS church, the divorce rate for first marriages was 18 percent, while for former members it was 39 percent. The former members' rate is closer to the national average for divorces in the United States.

Coates said the rate of temple divorces is especially low, between 14 percent and 20 percent, while "marriages between members that are not sealed in the temple are closer to the national rate of about half of marriages ending in divorce."

5. They have smaller families.

Coates cautions that the data on this is still provisional because accounting for age will make a major difference in the findings.

But in terms of the raw numbers, he says current Latter-day Saints appear to have almost one child more per family (3.4 children) than those who've left the church (2.5 children).

6. Many say they left the church because of historical issues.

The top three reasons for leaving were:

1) history related to Joseph Smith;

2) Book of Mormon; and

3) race issues.

However, Coates says he is somewhat skeptical, comparing these questions to asking divorced couples why their marriages failed. He says it's difficult to know what potential conscious or unconscious biases are at play.

"We think this portion of the survey is only useful in answering the question ‘What do former members prefer to respond when asked on a survey why they left?'" he said.

7. The vast majority have no interest in returning to church activity.

More than four out of five former members say that returning is "very unlikely," with an additional 10 percent saying it's unlikely.

A majority has very negative feelings about the church. "Three out of 4 said they dislike or strongly dislike the church as an institution," Coates reported.

In brighter news, "they had a neutral to positive disposition toward the people."

Cranney performed a regression analysis to see if he could isolate predictive factors that might shed light on which former Mormons were most likely to return to church.

"The one thing that is associated with being more likely to say that you'll return to the church is if you are married to a member," he said.

That situation describes about a fifth of the former LDS sample: 20% were married to believing members, and 30% were married to fellow former members.

8. Most don't join another religion after leaving.

Seventy percent of the former members selected "none" when asked to describe their religion now.

However, Coates observed that the actual percentage could be even higher, because an additional 19 percent chose "other" and then hand-wrote responses that were sometimes compatible with "none."

"They're not joining another religion," Coates said.

"It's possible that means they're Christians without a congregation, but the question only asks ‘Hey, are you affiliated? Do you identify with a religion?'

And no, they don't. I think that was our intuition about former Latter-day Saints, so that finding didn't surprise us."

• First published in Religion News Service
• Jana Riess is an author of many books. She has a PhD in American religious history from Columbia University.

The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) forbids the broadcasting of a funeral service on the internet or "in any other way."

The LDS announced details today for Tuesday's funeral services for Jonah Lomu.

The services will take place from 10am on Tuesday 1 December at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' meetinghouse at 15 Robertson Road, Mangere, Auckland.

Family members and friends have been invited to attend at the Robertson Road meetinghouse.

Others who wish to pay their respects are welcome to attend gatherings in four other locations around Auckland where a video feed will be broadcast.

Video recordings and "computer or other electronic presentations" should not be used as part of a funeral service.

Taking photographs, videos or sound recordings are not permitted in any of the five locations during the service.

"Funeral services are some of the most solemn and sacred meetings of the Church," said former president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Boyd K. Packer (1924—2015).

"It is a time of caring and support when families gather in a spirit of tender regard for one another. It is a time to soberly contemplate doctrines of the gospel and the purposes for the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ."

According to the LDS Church handbook members are counselled to avoid practices or traditions that are so expensive or prolonged that they impose a hardship on the living or impair them from proceeding with their lives.

Church leaders and members must seek to make services associated with a person's death "a dignified, solemn and spiritual experience for all who participate".

Services are generally held under the direction of a bishop and may vary between countries but the underlying principles remain universal. According to the handbook "teaching and testifying about the plan of salvation is essential".

The church handbook also gives direction on burials. "Where possible, deceased members who were endowed should be buried in temple clothing.

Where cultural traditions or burial practices make this inappropriate or difficult, the clothing may be folded and placed next to the body in the casket," it said.

"The church does not normally encourage cremation."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• mormonnewsroom.org.nz
• Image: mormonsinsports.blogs.deseretnews.com

Theatres in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, Tokoroa, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch screened the movie which was produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and directed by Blair Treu.

The Latter-day Saints' Pacific Area Director of Public Affairs, Richard Hunter, says the movie's release is "a great way for members and guests of the Church to celebrate this year's 175th anniversary of the first Latter-day Saint to arrive in the region."

But, "Meet the Mormons" is not a documentary but an informercial, "meant less to inform than to introduce a sales pitch." says Sean Deans writing in the Salt Lake Tribune.

He says it does not tackle any of the issues faced by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, (LDS) or answer any of the questions about the church raised by those who are not true believers.

" The movie is simply a string of vignettes, all nicely told by director Blair Treu, telling the stories of six members of the LDS Church whose lives and work are influenced by their Mormon faith."

"The movie, like the church's 'I'm a Mormon' ad campaign that it resembles, is great at presenting its six subjects as just regular folks who credit their faith for giving their lives foundation."

"Nothing wrong with that, except there's little that differentiates Mormonism from other denominations."

"There are fleeting mentions of doctrine in Jones' narration — like the Book of Mormon or the fact that Mormons don't drink."

"But there's nothing in the movie about Mormon history, and no discussion of the unique aspects of LDS doctrine about which non-Mormons tend to be the most curious."

Traditional Mormon missionaries are familiar to most New Zealanders. They dress in distinctive way and go from house house in pairs knocking on doors, explaining why their Lord was the one true Lord.

Now the LDS successfully embraced the new media.

The Mormon church's unprecedented experiment in Internet-based proselytizing, has become a wildly successful undertaking and is the subject of a feature story in The Huffington Post.

Last June, thanks in large part to the wave a converts added by internet missionaries, the church announced it would put previously banned tools like Facebook and text messaging into the hands of all its missionaries.

Source

• Scoop
• Scoop
• sltrib.com
• Huffington Post
• Image: byu.edu

Who were these women, and what are their stories?

Smith was already married when he began to set his sights on other women.

His first wife, Emma, had wed the handsome, charismatic religious leader in 1827 with the firm belief that it would be a traditional relationship.

Emma suffered multiple miscarriages during her life and lost several children after they were born.

When her husband began to practice polygamy, she may have felt like something of a failure, according to Jana Riess, a Mormon blogger for Religion News Service.

"Imagine what it would have felt like to be her, and see her husband apparently abandoning her to be with others who might be able to bear him children," said Riess.

Church officials could not provide The Huffington Post with a comprehensive list of Smith's wives.

But historians have been able to learn quite a lot about the women by piecing together information from diaries and family histories.

The church's public affairs department directed HuffPost to Todd Compton, a Mormon researcher whose 1997 book In Sacred Loneliness compiles a list of 33 well-documented wives of Joseph Smith — although the total number is likely as high as 40.

Emma was allegedly disturbed by the doctrine on polygamy, which Joseph claims he received through divine revelation.

Her stance put the prophet in the position of having to choose between God's will and his wife's.

As Joseph would later tell it, it wasn't until an angel appeared to him, brandishing a sword and threatening destruction, that the prophet finally agreed to obey the commandment fully. Continue reading

Sources

• Huff Post Religion
• Image: Dear Kitty

The church's Tonga Service Centre Manager Howard Niu says they have signed with local contractor Oregon Pacific International to carry out the construction.

Mr Niu says the houses will be provided to members of the church.

He says the church will provide the core of a house.

"We're talking about a 4.8 metres by 3.6 metres to start with. The government and the World Bank donating the other half of it."

"Especially for the most vulnerable group, if you're 65 and above, and or whether handicapped or have more than eight in the family."

The money to support this project comes from the Latter-day Saints' humanitarian fund, to which Church members and others from around the world, including Tonga, donate.

The joint Church and Government humanitarian project will also focus on training locals on Ha'apai in building and other trade skills, as well as support families as they create and maintain family and community vegetable gardens.

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• mormonnewsroon.org.nz
• Image: mormonnewsroom.org.nz

Missionary Gina Colvin, in a blog on a major Mormon website, also took shots at her own Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints and the way Americans see the world.

She said New Zealand was a secular and morally liberal nation.

This didn't mean we were "going to hell in a hand-basket", she said.

"Few people will bat an eye-lid at gay marriage, many will swear like troopers, wine-drinking is an important cultural institution, and pre-marital cohabitation is the norm," she said.

Colvin, who is a Kiwi but is in Utah teaching missionaries, said they shouldn't freak out because she would rather be with a "group of cursing, wine-swilling, gay-loving, cohabiting New Zealanders than any other people in the world - because, in my decades of experience, New Zealand has a habit of producing the real deal".

She said American missionaries should get used to the fact that New Zealanders did not live in "McMansions".

"On the contrary, that modest bungalow that doesn't sport a 'rest-room' for every bedroom in the house and a basement the size of a football field probably cost more than your McMansion - even with the exchange rate," she said.

"New Zealand is an expensive place to live - period!"

Colvin said missionaries should eat the food they are served in homes and be grateful.

"Food doesn't come in bucket-sized portions for the price of small change."

"It's expensive - so eat that meal that has been prepared for you by that large humble Mormon family in their three-bedroom bungalow - because it represents more than food, it also represents sacrifice."

And after the meal help clean up.

Learn some Maori, she added. Continue reading

Sources

• Stuff
• Image: LDS Church Temples

The LDS Church has 17 middle and high schools throughout the world, and 15 of those schools are in the Pacific, in Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Kiribati, and seven of the 15 schools in the Pacific are in Tonga.

The Commissioner of the LDS Church Education System, Elder Paul V. Johnson made this point in an interview with Matangi Tonga during a one-day stop over in Tonga to attend the annual conference of Pacific Principals of LDS church schools.

He said that Tonga has more church schools, because of the large numbers of the Tongan LDS congregation of 15,000.

Source

• Matangi Tonga
• Image: Matangi Tonga