I volunteered to give the presentation on Mormons, it sounded like a good idea at the time, for my New Religious Movements class. My presentation pulls form the work of Rodney Stark. At the time of his work, he asserted that the LDS Church is the fastest growing religion in the world. While I had heard Starks work quoted occasionally online, I had not read his book, The Rise of Modern Mormonism. I found the book to be a fascinating and frustrating read.

In his book, and in other journal articles, Stark provides a theory for why new religious movements succeed, and why so many disappear into oblivion. Stark posits that the following conditions must exist for new religious movements to survive, and used Mormonism as his main case study.

  • Conversion as Cultural Capital –
  • Positive and Negatives of Prophesy (not having too many fail, or not being able to explain the failures)
  • Medium Tension (inside/outside markers) right balance (if there is to much or too little tension people leave)
  • Legitimate Authority (boundary maintenance)  (who belongs who does not)
  • Labor Force/Missionaries (additional growth and commitment)
  • Adequate Fertility (having enough kids to provide a growing church structure that is not 100% dependent on converts)
  • Ecological – LDS Church stronger where other churches are weak (filling in the gap)
  • Network Ties -interpersonal attachment, subculture
  • Staying Strict “Enough”
  • Effective Socialization for youth (not making people too weird)
  • Lay Leadership

I found some of these conditions to be rather interesting. I found the issues of socialization something I have been pondering over the last few days. I often wonder how well we are doing at socializing our youth to move into a modern world. I often feel that the gender socialization reflects more a 1950s worldview rather than a modern one. What do you think about this list of conditions necessary to new religious movements to survive? While Stark does contrast other NRM that have NOT survived with Mormonism, he does not adequately compare and contrast other NRM such as the Seventh Day Adventists, and the Jehovah Witnesses, which I think would be essential to strengthening his arguments and theory.

One thing that I found most surprising when reading Starks work was that his growth predictions were actually a rather large range of numbers. For 2015 Stark predicted LDS Church membership would be between, 11,618,000 to 19,172,000. In 2014 there were just over 15,000,000 members (officially on church roles). By 2080 Stark predicted LDS Church growth would be  between 63,939,000 to 267,000,000. What do you think of Starks estimates for church growth? Do you think the trends will continue into the future?

If you were to give a presentation on the rise of Modern Mormonism and the possibility of the LDS Church in the future, what would you add? What do you think the Church’s strengths and weakness will be going forward?

Jessica is a Master's Student at King's College London, where she studies religion in the contemporary world. She recently completed an advanced Diploma in Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge. She earned a Bachelors from BYU in Marriage, Family, and Human Development. She is married to her best friend, and they have 4 daughters.

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