Mormons (Mittenfuhrer) proselytize to Latinos (1st of many warning to come)

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http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1165270051346/page/1175295297393/JRNHomePage.htm

http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-03-14/launder-missionaries/

Mormons seek to draw Latinos into the fold

By William Launder
.... Proselytizing has been a key tenant of the Mormon faith since founder Joseph Smith sent the first missionaries to win over Native American tribes living in upstate New York 175 years ago.

Today, Hispanics represent the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, and missionaries like Evans and Furness want to ensure that Hispanics continue to join the Mormon Church faster than any other group nationwide. About 3,000 elders, mostly young people in their teens and 20s, are deployed to Hispanic neighborhoods like Miami's Little Havana and Chicago's Logan Park in search of potential converts.

Hispanic membership has increased 35 percent since 1995, and Spanish speakers now account for 130,000 of the 5.5 million U.S. members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, according to church figures. There are 350 Spanish-speaking Mormon churches across the United States, and in Los Angeles alone 300 full-time missionaries serve five Spanish-speaking parishes. Evans and Furness operate from a five-story Mormon church opened last year on Malcolm X Boulevard, in the center of historically black and Hispanic Harlem.

“People often see the Mormon Church as a white-bread, blond-haired and blue-eyed organization,” said Geoffrey Biddulph, a Latter Day Saints spokesman in Miami, where a third of the church’s 180 missionaries are native or trained Spanish speakers. “But more and more we are seeing converts outside of Middle America, and the Church goes where those people are.” ....

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Personally, I think the whole idea of converting and missions is appalling on many levels; I went to a LDS "homecoming" for one of my fiance's (who is an ex-mormon) friends...good god. The way they talk about the natives is just so condescending and paternal.

We left only 1/3 thru the service simply because it was too much to take x(

But, be forwarned: I have seen a lot of irrational, border-line bigoted posts about the Mormon church that are just, well, wrong.

They are Christian, despite what many will say. And although Mitt Romney's belief are indeed fair game, it is unfair to slam the entire religion based on him alone--I mean, there are lots of good Democrats that are Catholic and as a lapsed Catholic...trust me, I know the Catholic church is beyond fucked up :) There is, however, still some redeeming value...

But yeah. Missions for the sake of converting people = uber lame.