Mormons, Catholics and immigration

In the 19th-century both Catholics and Mormons had an image as immigrants.

However Mormons also in many ways resonated with a concept as converts from a New England Yankee background. This New England Yankee core group formed most of the leadership of the Church. Of the first 5 presidents of the Church, only John Taylor did not come from such a background.

Joseph F. Smith represents a shift, with a mother who was born in Britain even though his dad was from the New England origin. President Smith also shifted things with a Denmark born and England born counselors. Although his fellow member of the first presidency before had been a native of England.

Even in the early days not all immigrants joined the Church before immigrating. Both Elder Eyring and Elder Faust had their first ancestor with that last name to join the Church be a German born man who joined the LDS Church after immigrating to the US.

While especially in Maryland there were Catholics from its founding, and the Catholic Church numbers many Native American and Hispanic members  who came to the US by annexation more than immigration, the Catholic core was immigrants. However the relevant percentages of immigrants and native born among current Catholics is a complex issue.

From about 1900 on the LDS Church continued to have immigrants but their numbers are lower especially as a percentage of the Church.

After World War II the LDS Church entered into an intense growth period in the US, that lasted at least through 1980. This growth was largely among American-born whites, although there are exceptions. Miami and New York City areas saw widespread conversions of Hispanics beganing in about 1963. However how non-white these Hispancs are is often hard to say, since many were uppper class Cuban immigrants. There was ucces among the clearly not culturally in any way white populations in the south-west US.

By the 1980s the Church began to make broader inroads into immigrants communities from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. There was also a growing number of Tongan and Samoan Church members, although in general these joined the Church in their home lands.

This focuses on Catholic and LDS differences. While the Deseret News overstats the extent to which Catholics come from majority Catholic countries, there are at lot from Latin America and the Philippines who come from Catholic majority areas.

On the other hand there is a growing number of Catholics from India, Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam and other countries where Catholics are a minority. In all those countries exceed Ghana Christians are most likely a minority, although the exact religious balance in Nigeria is tricky.

Here in Metro Detroit there are several Catholics from Lebanon, Syria and especially Iraq, all countries where Catholics are a small minority.

On the Ghana issue a Catholic from Ghana was just baptized in my ward.

Still in general Catholic immigrants in the US were mostly Catholic before immigrating. While there are notable and noticeable exceptions, most are also life long Catholics.

For Mormon immigrants the numbers are more complex. Among immigrant Mormons the picture is hard to know. This is especially true because sometime you have couples like the one I knew from India where the husband joined in India but the wife did not join until after immigrating.

Some groups, like Mormons of Cuban and Iranina descent, have virtually all joined the Church in the US. However I have also known couples in the US where the wife was from Korea, the Philippines and Uruguay and was a life long Mormon and the American husband was a convert.

My general sense is among immigrant Ghanaians most immigrated after they joined the Church, but as I mentioned I know a counter example. We had a native of Zambia serving as a misionary in my ward who had joined the Church in the US, but in my sister's ward there is a native of Zimbabwe who joined the Church there, so no general trend is easily findable.

However with the exception of immigrants from Samoa and Tonga virtually all move to a US with the Church more established.

This fact makes the relationship between immigration and Church members different for the Catholic and the Mormon Church. In some ways the Catholic Church wants to encorage immigration to give more vitality to the Church, while the LDS Church fears immigration will sap vitality from the sending countries.

One reason that there is a different feeling is that in the Catholic context recruited priests are religious leaders who come permanently. In the Mormon context, the Church can send a Fijian man to be mission president in Arkansas, and not see it as a permanent move. Most leadership is drawn locally, so the fact we have a Haitian born member on my stake high council says nothing of recruiting members in Haiti, and in fact he joined the Church in Detroit.

The LDS Church has in my experience sent more missionaries from other countries to the US of late, although my mission 15 years ago had 10 or so Mongolians, and I also had French and Canadian companions, plus knew missionaries from Argentina, Yap, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Bolovia, Chile, Australia and Samoa.

A short assesment of the issues is that the LDS Church has for the last 50 or more years sought to move beyond an image of being an American Church. The Catholic Church on the other hand had a strong image in the 19th and well into the 20th century of being a foreign institution. Its struggle has been to present its members as truly American.

Another issue is that until World War II, and in some areas later, the primary divide was between Catholics and Protestants. The culture wars starting in the 1960s have pitted liberal Protestants, a certain element in Catholicism, reform and conservative Jews, and non-believers against Mormons, Orthodox Jews, Evangelical Protestants and Catholics who believe in the doctrines of the Church, although not all issues divide exactly on these lines.