Religion or

scam?

Resentments aside, the Mormons are here to stay

Story and pictures by CHRIS PETERU

Despite having one of

their members almost burnt at the stake recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints whose members are more widely known as Mormons - has acquired influence and numbers in God-fear ing Samoa at a rate of knots.

In March, that rapid progress almost came to a fiery end for church member Lupe Lio, a 33-year-old father of four from Samalaeulu village in Savaii. On orders from the village council, Lio was accosted by men from the village then tied to a stake to be burnt alive. His offence was failing to adhere to the coun cil’s decision concerning building a Mormon chapel in the village. The coun cil was holding onto a tradition that only Congregational and Catholic churches could have parishes in Samalaeulu, said the Reverend Palemia Reupena, the Congregational priest who pleaded for hours to eventually save Lio’s life.

“They were very, very angry. I preached to them about Jesus teaching of forgiveness. There was still mercy in their hearts and they accepted our plea.”

Controversy is nothing new to the Mormons, since they were founded in 1830 by New York farm labourer Joseph Smith, known as the prophet; its founding doctrine an assumption that Christianity needed to be restored from its wayward ness care of new revelations. According to Smith, those revelations first came to him from the angel Moroni in 1820. He was 14. Although illiterate, divine inspi ration allowed Smith to translate “by the gift and the power of God” golden plates buried in a hillside that were published into the Book of Mormon, one of four

scriptures used by the church. In 1844 Smith and his brother, Hyrum, acquired martyrdom when they were assassinated while in an Illinois jail on charges of trea son and conspiracy.

Today rich, savvy and global, Mormonism shows no signs of slowing the conveyor belt of Samoan converts coming into the fold. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, in northern United States, Mormons

are, according to their own figures, the fastest-growing religion in Samoa, the Pacific and the planet.

The 1995-96 Deseret News Church Almanac surveys (1993) show one out of every four Samoan from an estimated 202,000 citizens is an LDS member.

Outside of the US, that marks the second

highest per-ratio membership from a glob

al flock of almost 9,924,436 adherents.

The highest ratio belongs to the staunchly Methodist Kingdom of Tonga where one out of every three people is purported to be an LDS member.

President of the Samoan Methodist church the Rev Faletoese Auvaa is not sur prised. “It appears to me that the LDS is growing faster than the Methodists.” The census indicated an annual growth rate of nine per cent for the LDS versus six per cent for the Methodists. Whatever the numbers game, the end result for Mormons is going to be the same, says Viliamu Mafue director of the Youth fOor Christ ministry.

“Everybody who joins the Mormon church, they’ll go to hell, they will never go to heaven,” says the one-time gang member. “The only thing I have for them is love and caring because they are under a great deception.”

Since Joseph H Dean, the first official Mormon missionary, rowed onto the shores of Tutuila (now American Samoa) with his wife, Florence, in June, 1888, the distinctive LDS churches have now become part of the landscape in even the most remote villages.

Much of that success can be attributed to vigorous missionary work that has proven the cornerstone of skyrocketing membership, with a pool of close to 45,000 missionaries constantly on the road globally. Currently in both Samoas, 134 missionaries are serving a full-time two year stint. Locally, it may creat some bad vibes from mainstream churches who are seeing more empty pews each Sunday.

In terms of assets, the religion once chided by Samoans as the “poor Mormons” could now be said to be rolling in it. Church assets in Samoa are now worth in excess of SUSSO million, raised in part by a single 10 per cent salary con tribution from members, called a tithe.

Backing that up is virtually unlimited cash flow brought in by the church in Utah, where some astute business operations (including shares in soda giant Coca-Cola) helped pave the way for funding new

The Prophet Moroni above the Temple Pesega

churches and facilities in developing coun tries.

Official spokesperson for the church is National Director of Public Affairs Sam Atoa, 70, and a lifetime church member.

He says the tithe system has proven bene ficial in attracting new membership.

“It’s quite straight forward. The only thing they are required to pay is 10 per cent of their earnings, which is your tithing, as it says in Revelations, and your fast offer ing every first Sunday of the month to help the poor and the needy.

“There is no money going out from here to Salt Lake. In fact, there is money com ing in from Salt Lake to fund buildings and so forth. You don’t go every Sunday and ask people to donate like in other churches where you have the alofa [the clergy’s

stipend] besides that faamati [a fundraising collection].”

In comparison, Congregationalists, who make up the majority of worshippers, are asked to give on a larger, more frequent scale. Small wonder the economic sense of the tithe appeals to many Samoans forced to stretch their dollar through the high cost of living. Youth for Christ has also adopted the tithe system as the best way for mem bers to contribute financially.

The Rev Auvaa says Methodists have been almost completely self-funded since 1963. “I have to admit we cannot match the [Mormon] economics provided from over seas. We receive some [financial] support from here and there but not on the same scale as the Mormons. Ninety-five per cent of our finances are provided from Samoa.”

The two other main churches, Catholic and Congregational, have similar arrange ments.

On the other hand, if Samoa had a Fortune 500-type rich list, Mormons would feature prominently. The multi-million dollar Riverside complex at Tauese (nick named the Taj Mahal by locals), arguably the finest home in the country, is owned by a Mormon family. So is the MacDonalds franchise, the national lottery, the country’s top nightclub and dozens of businesses.

The resplendent home of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and later the head of state at Vailima was refurbished by for mer Mormon missionaries turned business men at a cost of millions of dollars, and is now a huge tourist attraction.

“The church teaches people to be self

Atoa: “The Congregational church or the Methodist or the Catholic-those are the three that always band together and try and push us out”

sustaining; it stresses to young people to get an education, so you can take care of yourself and your family. That’s why the church does not want to see its members... [relying] on someone else, or relying on

the government.”

“With the emphasis on education and clean living, top sports facilities which the public use at no charge plus a progressive system of spiritual, social, and community programmes which caters for every age

group underlines the benefits LDS mem bers enjoy,” says Atoa.

“I think it’s because of the programmes.

In other churches, I don’t think they have programmes like that. They all go together on Sunday, everybody has the same pro gramme, the preacher will preach and then they all go home. The only time you see little children participate is on White Sunday, and that’s once a year.”

Yet all this has failed to impress visiting

Belgian theologian Dr Karl Heinz Kuhlmann and others who remain adamant Mormons represent an unwelcome reli gious element in the Pacific.

“The Mormons are not a Christian church. In spite of a shining facade and a strict discipline, they are a sect with a doc trine that has nothing to do with the Bible.

Although their members may sometimes live a dedicated life, it is their aggressive proseltyising among Christians which

should be despised. With lots of foreign money, they harvest where they have not sowed.”

More recently, Mormon missionaries were banned from prose lytising in several large villages by the councils, for reasons that were not fully explained. The action left the Mormons crying foul.

“Here our motto is ‘Samoa is founded on God’ and, in the con stitution, you have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, free dom of worship. You know some of our matai and village councils still do not understand that... The Congregational church or the Methodist or the Catholic - those are the three that always band together and try and push us out. That’s not right, that’s not in the constitution,” says Atoa.

“I blame too some of the clergy... They will start something, maybe say to the council of chiefs, ‘Hey, our church is going down because the Mormons are preaching, and so forth.’ We don’t force anyone [to join]. We just preach what we have and if they decide, well that’s it.”

Responds YFCs Mafue: “This is a Christian nation already declared by the constitution. We shouldn’t have allowed them to come in but, unfortunately, they are in.” The Mormons are no dif ferent from Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Baha’i in their inconsistent beliefs. The job of the Christian churches is to preach the differ ences and to let the people know.

“I don’t hate the [Mormon] people. I love the Mormon people.

They are our aunts, uncles and cousins. Unfortunately, some of them join without any knowledge.”

“We believe in God, the holy ghost, why are we not considered Christians?” asks Atoa.

“They don’t want to see our missionaries going around knock ing on doors, preaching the gospel and so forth. What’s to stop them from setting up their own missionaries - they can go and knock on Mormon doors if they want to.”

On studying some Mormon doctrine, it becomes clear that some of their beliefs vary greatly from orthodox Christianity.

These include that; • God emerged in a physical form and had sexual relations with the Virgin Mary who then conceived Jesus Christ; • God the father and Jesus Christ are both physical beings; • Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer; • Jesus had three wives in his lifetime on earth; and • all humans can evolve to have the same powers as God.

Mafue says the doctrine equates to heresy.

“There are some doctrines in the church that they never teach Samoan people about because if they do so they will leave the Mormon church.”

The growth of the LDS, says Mafue, is more social than spiri tual.

“There is a lack of knowledge there. They don’t really under stand. They just join because of all the sport, because they are lov ing and they are caring. They never understand. You know, some go by influence not by knowledge. Our people are all in the ears.

They love to hear the pastor preaching, but they never read the Bible.

“The reason they have to be stopped is their Jesus is not the same as our Jesus. Their gospel is not the same as our gospel. I believe the mainline churches should stop them coming because they are not bringing the same gospel, they are not bringing the same faith. They have the wrong faith, they have the wrong gospel, they have the wrong Jesus. They have done good on the social side, but where we have to draw the line is the gospel they

are preaching.”

For all the Mormon get-ahead, neither the Youth for Christ nor the Methodists see the growth of the LDS as a threat to main stream churches.

“Never. I believe Christianity and the Christian church will still rule. There is no threat. There is a deceiving spirit behind that church. And we cannot accept that on our front door. We need to find the truth about it,” says Mafue.

“Is it affecting the growth of the Methodists?” questions the Rev Auvaa. “Maybe so, but this should not be regarded as a threat to an established church. It’s exciting because it raises questions.

Are our programmes working? Are they helping to meet the needs of our members?

“We must acknowledge the growth of these other new religious groups, and be thankful the gospel has become part of that wit nessing. Why is this particular denomination growing faster than our own? I think it all depends on how people look at it. But the important thing is to stay positive about it.”

Tonga’s King Taufaahau Tupou IV has for the past few years refused to renew any LDS land leases. But like the stake-burning incident at Samalaeulu village. Mormons have long held that per secution and misunderstanding is part of the restoration of Christian truth and authority by “the only true and living church upon the earth.” Their own.

God-fearing religion or elaborate religious scam, the only sure factor for the moment is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is here for the long haul. ■