The Mormonizing Of America

[Vance]

A good read.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-mansfield/the-mormonizing-of-americ_b_2083125.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

[Calm]

So who is the author?

[Vance]

Stephen Mansfield

[Calm]

No, I know that…I mean who is he in terms of his background, why is he writing on the topic and credentials as a writer, etc.

[Vance]

According to the blurb provided,

Stephen Mansfield is a New York Times bestselling author known for his groundbreaking books on the influence of religion upon history, leadership and politics. His bestsellers have included The Faith of Barack Obama, The Faith of George W. Bush, The Search for God and Guinness and Lincoln's Battle with God. His latest book Killing Jesus, has been descried as "masterful" by Publishers Weekly. He is a popular speaker and appears regularly on network news programs as a commentator on faith and culture. He lives in Nashville and Washington DC with his wife, Beverly, an award-winning songwriter and producer.

[Avatar4321]

an older article but a good read. I tend to agree.

[Calm]

He is apparently evangelical:

 

http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2012/07/18/evangelical-author-sees-a-mormonizing-of-america/20285

 

I was more impressed with his article than his interview.  He simplified our faith way too much (which the comments pointed out).

[Wants2know]

But this faith is simple in its basics. I tend to feel like over intellectualizing the Gospel leads to problems.

[Calm]

If you are a Mormon, you understand that you are in this world to pass obstacles to “show yourself worthy” and you’re doing that before the Heavenly Father but it comes down to not smoking, not drinking, not ingesting caffeine, having a large family or a number of children.

 

Suggesting that this is what we see as essential to living a righteous life is a bit too much simplifying though (completely leaving Christ out is a hint for me that he is going a bit too far ).

 

Also "show yourself worthy" doesn't come up in a search on lds.org so I don't think that is appropriate either.  As far as I can tell, it is a phrase used by Evangelicals in describing what they think LDS do.

[johnNewingtonn]

Another element to this: http://www.cnet.com/news/roku-hits-10-million-sales-milestone/  10 Million Rokus. The Mormon Channel and BYU TV allows Mormon dialogue into homes that would not dream of entertaining a missionary. People will slam the front door but open up their living room. This will have greater impact in time. The greater the decadence and depravity of society, or the more challenging life becomes,  the more significant the Mormon message becomes.

[Bill “Papa” Lee]

According to the blurb provided,

I have three of his books co-Authored. I liked them all, well written and great details.

[theplains]

Even with all the Mormons in government offices, the United States is still probably more

familiar with Jehovah's Witnesses. In regards to membership, I think both them and the

Seventh-day Adventists surpass the LDS.

 

Regards,

Jim 

[Nofear]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States

 

Seventh-day Adventists report some 17million world wide but only some 2.2 million in the U.S.

Jehovah Witnesses are only some 7.6 million world wide (not sure about U.S. fraction).

[Okrahomer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States

 

Seventh-day Adventists report some 17million world wide but only some 2.2 million in the U.S.

Jehovah Witnesses are only some 7.6 million world wide (not sure about U.S. fraction).

 

According to this report, published by the Watchtower Society, the number of Publishers declined in the U.S. last year to about 1.1 million, with about 2.5 million attending the "Memorial."  The ARIS survey cited in your wiki link indicates that just over 1.9 million US adults self-identify as Witnesses.  I'm afraid I don't know enough to account for the differences; although, I suspect it may be roughly equivalent to what we LDS refer to "activity rates."  There is an interesting discussion on the Watchtower website about the apparent negative impact the internet is having on their growth.  As a former LDS missionary to Germany, I can attest to the fact that the Witnesses had a much larger footprint in Germany than the LDS Church did.  This report seems to suggest that the Witnesses are experiencing some losses in Germany and other developed countries--i.e., countries with widely-available internet service.