scholarly journals Mauritians and Latter-Day Saints: Multicultural Oral Histories of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints within “The Rainbow Nation”

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 651
Author(s):  
Marie Vinnarasi Chintaram
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
The Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged within the Mauritian landscape in the early 1980s after the arrival of foreign missionary work. With a population of Indian, African, Chinese, French heritage, and other mixed ethnicities, Mauritius celebrates multiculturalism, with many calling it the “rainbow nation”. Religiously, Hinduism dominates the scene on the island, followed by Christianity (with Catholicism as the majority); the small remainder of the population observes Islam or Buddhism. Although Mauritian society equally embraces people from these ethnic groups, it also has historically marginalized communities who represent a “hybrid” of the mentioned demographic groups. This article, based on ethnographic research, explores the experiences of Mauritian Latter-day Saints as they navigate the challenges and implications of membership in Mormonism. Specifically, it focuses on how US-based Mormonism has come to embrace the cultural heritage of people from the various diaspora and how Mauritian Latter-day Saints perceive their own belonging and space-making within an American born religion. This case study presents how the local and intersecting adaptations of language, race, and local leadership within a cosmopolitan society such as Mauritius have led to the partial hybridization of the Church into the hegemony of ethnic communities within Mauritian Latter-day Saint practices. These merging of cultures and world views prompts both positive and challenging religious experiences for Mauritian Church members. This article illustrates the implications and pressures of the Church trying to globalize its faith base while adapting its traditionally Anglocentric approaches to religious practices to multiracial, multicultural cosmopolitan communities such as Mauritius.

A Digital Voice from the Dust: The Joseph Smith Papers at the Intersection of Public and Digital History1

Collections ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-418
Author(s):  
Brent M. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Public History ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Digital History ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
Authentic Voice ◽  
The Church ◽  
Documentary Editing

Like other documentary editing projects, the Joseph Smith Papers—an effort to produce a comprehensive edition of the papers of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons—seeks to provide reliable access to “the authentic voice” of its eponymous historical figure in innovative ways. As a digital voice from the dust, the project makes Smith's words, character, and context accessible in the online representation of his papers in ways that forcefully illustrate the convergence of public and digital history. This article uses the Joseph Smith Papers Project (JSPP) as a case study to look at documentary collections at the intersection of digital and public history while exploring issues of scholarship, access, and transparency. The trends described here promise to have implications for the larger fields of digitally presented public history and documentary collections.

Epilogue

2018 ◽  
pp. 142-150
Author(s):  
Scott C. Esplin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
The Future ◽  
Community Of Christ ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
The Church

This chapter explores the future for faith and community relations in Nauvoo as a result of the city’s twentieth-century restoration boom. It examines the directions taken by the various constituents, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Community of Christ), and local residents unaffiliated with either faith. Additionally, it explores how Nauvoo acts as a case study for the bargains made by a community when it selects, or has selected for it, a tourism-based economy. Finally, it opines regarding ways the parties involved can work together for the good of Nauvoo.

Proselytizing, Building, and Serving: Latter-day Saint Missionaries in Manitoba and Eastern Canada, 1897-1942

2020 ◽  
pp. 000842982096847
Author(s):  
Brooke Kathleen Brassard
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Canadian Society ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
New Members ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Fraternal Organizations ◽  
Minority Religion ◽  
The Church

This article will consider missionary work performed in Manitoba and Eastern Canada, and how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints progressed toward integration into Canadian society as another established minority religion searching for potential new members. By navigating through their Canadian settings, Latter-day Saint missionaries adjusted themselves and their Church to local expectations and environments, and constructed a new home for Mormonism in Canada. Three ways that Latter-day Saint missionaries negotiated their place in Canada include evolving relationships with the Canadian public through missionary encounters, renting meeting spaces from fraternal organizations and then constructing their own meetinghouses, and organizing local, auxiliary organizations that aided non-members. The Canadian context, the Latter-day Saint missionary experience, and the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada, reveals a process of negotiation. There exists a tension between integration and otherness. Latter-day Saints balanced this tension by on some levels maintaining their distinctiveness, while at the same time blending into Canadian expectations. How the Latter-day Saint missionaries responded to these barriers, the challenges related to communicating with the Canadian public, finding spaces to congregate, local leadership roles, and participating in different aspects of Canadian society, tells a story of a new religion integrating into a new environment.

“Come After Us”

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Scott C. Esplin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
Restoration Project ◽  
Colonial Williamsburg ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

This chapter introduces the religious tensions created in Nauvoo, Illinois, by the return of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) to the region in the twentieth century and their historical restoration of the city that was once their headquarters. It places the restoration project, patterned after the historical recreation of Colonial Williamsburg, within the larger trend of memorials that swept across America in the twentieth century. Overviewing other studies, it positions historic Nauvoo as a case study in historical tourism and pilgrimage. Finally, it examines how Mormonism used restored Nauvoo as a staging ground for celebrating American westward expansion to position the faith within a larger national narrative.

Utilizing Brief Spiritual Assessments with Clients who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-44
Author(s):  
Gordon Limb ◽  
David Hodge ◽  
Richard Alboroto
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
The United States ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Church Culture ◽  
Spiritual Assessment ◽  
Mental Health Settings ◽  
Consistency Strengths ◽  
Growing Churches ◽  
The Church

 In recent years social work has increasingly focused on spirituality and religion as key elements of cultural competency.  The Joint Commission—the nation's largest health care accrediting organization—as well as many other accrediting bodies require spiritual assessments in hospitals and many other mental health settings. Consequently, specific intervention strategies have been fostered in order to provide the most appropriate interventions for religious clients. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest and one of the faster growing churches in the United States.  In an effort to facilitate cultural competence with clients who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, a brief spiritual assessment instrument was developed.  This mixed-method study asked experts in Church culture (N = 100) to identify the degree of cultural consistency, strengths, and limitations of the brief spiritual assessment instrument. Results indicate that the framework is consistent with Church culture and a number of practice-oriented implications are offered.

Pkejudice and Racial Identity among White Latter-Day Saint College Students: An Exploratory Study

1996 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 1025-1026
Author(s):  
Timothy B. Smith ◽  
Richard N. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Culture ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Racial Tolerance ◽  
The Church

Previous research has documented increases in racial tolerance of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons or LDS). In the present study, 211 LDS college students held predominantly tolerant attitudes on racial identity which were similar to those of 78 non-LDS peers; however, the LDS subjects expressed more naivete, curiosity, and confusion regarding black people and black culture.

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