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Polynesians and Mormonism
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in the “Islands of the Sea”
Paul Morris
ABSTRACT‫ ؛‬Polynesia has a particular place in the history of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The region that
heralded the Church’s first overseas missions includes seven of the
world’s top ten nations in terms of the proportion of Mormons in the
population, and it is home to six Mormon temples. The Polynesian
Latter-day Saint population is increasing in both percentage and absolute numbers, and peoples in the Pacific “islands of the sea” continue to
play a central role in the Mormon missionary imaginary. This article
explores Polynesians in the LDS Church and critically evaluates different
theories seeking to explain this growing religious affiliation. Scholars of
Mormonism and commentators explain this growth in terms of parallels
between Mormonism and indigenous Polynesian traditions, particularly
family lineage and ancestity, and theological and ritual affinities. After
evaluating these claims in light of scholarly literature and intertdews with
Latter-day Saints, however, I conclude that other reasons-especially
education and other new opportunities-may equally if not more si^ificantly account for the appeal of Mormonism to Polynesians.
KEYWORDS‫ ؛‬Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism,
Polymesia, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand
Nova Religio: TheJournal ojAlternative and Emergent Religions,MoVuwve \&١k\e 4,١‫ا؟ﺣﺠﺎةل‬
83101‫־‬. ISSN 1092.90 (print), 1541-8480. (electronic). © 2015 by The Regents of
the University of California. All rights reseived. Please direct all requests for permission
to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s
Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjoumals.com/reprintinfo.asp.
DOI: 10.1525/nr.2015.18.4.83.
83
Noi Religio
οι^ΕΐΓίΗ^τ ;!f :: :¡E ::purch{::‫؛‬
Mormons haveCldentifiedTPolynesian ‫ ةﻟﻠﻤﺎًةذ‬with^the “island‫؛‬
Ρ
of the sea”٤ marked in their scriptures for missionaiy activity. The region
continues to be the focus of considerable Mormon missionaty ener^
and investment. Conversion to the LDS Church is associated with physical
improvements in health (in the absence of alcohol and tobacco), fertility
(families are larger), and cross-generational education and employment
opportunities. Spiritual benefits are said to include enhanced fellowship,
strengthened familial bonds and more positive views of the future.
Polynesia currently is in the throes of extensive economic, political
and religious change resulting from globalization.2 European missionaty
churches, both Protestant and Catholic, long have been the guardians of
traditional island cultures, integrating ecclesiastical structures with village
and small-town cultures. The last three decades, however, have seen
major challenges to this order by evangelical and Pentecostal churches
and the LDS Church.s
In this article I draw on academic studies and fieldwork, which ineludes meetings with LDS Church officials and former Mormon missionaries in the Polynesian islands including New Zealand, and in Utah at
Brigham Young University and Salt Lake City. I conducted interviews
with Latter-day Saints in the three largest LDS communities in Polynesia:
Samoa (2009 and 2012), Tonga (2009), and New Zealand (2010-2013).*
I asked Church officials, members and recent converts what attracted
them to the LDS Church, how it differed from their previous churches,
what Changed in their lives after joining the LDS ChuCh, and what their
hopes and aspirations were for the ffiture.
Analysis of the literature and intenlew data leads to the conclusion
that while lineage and family rituals may well be important, there are
significant parallels and differences between Polynesian and Mormon
teachings and traditions. The attraction of Mormonism to- Polynesians
more likely is located in the LDS Church approach to both transcendental and practical needs generated by rapid social and cultural transformation. Mormons tackle these pressing concerns by offering a communal
and family way of life that offers social and educational opportunities
presented as affirming valued ancestral Polynesian traditions.
THE LDS CHURCH
Founded in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
holds distinctive beliefs and practices, and adheres to its own sacred
texts as well as a system of temporal and spiritual governance. The
LDS Church maintains that the original teachings of Jesus Christ were
lost and the true gospel was restored by their prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr.
84
Morm: Polynesians and Momouhm
(1805-1844). While Mormons historically have stressed their differences
from mainstream American Protestantism, over the last three decades
they have emphasized their linkages with, and participated in, interfaith
groups and events.‫؟‬
There appear to be three discrete categories of Latter-day Saints: 1)
those who are baptized but not active2 ‫ )؛‬those who regularly worship
locally but do not currently hold a “temple recommend‫ ^"؛‬and 3) those
who worship locally and at a temple. Like other religions, the LDS Church
has both exoteric and esoteric dimensions, with particular teachings and
ceremonies aailable only to initiates. The ateence of a temple recommend corresponds to the exoteric level, where Mormons emphasize Jesus,
scripture, hymns and Sunday services. The esoteric level includes
“Temple Mormons” who participate in certain rituals in a Mormon
temple and learn about hidden theologies. While temple worship is an
aim for many, the proportion of Temple Mormonsand the rate at which
LDS adherents may become Temple Mormons—varies greatly in different places, effectively creating segmented communities.? In Tonga, for
example. Temple Mormons are a significandy higher proportion of all
Mormons than in Samoa, where the rate of transition to Temple Mormon
is slower, reflecting diversely structured communities with different
characteristics.«
Hierarchical membership levels notwithstanding, official LDS
Church figures include all baptized and confirmed members without
regard to current religious activity or self-identification, unless they have
been excommunicated or-have asked to be removed. It is clear that the
number of those in good standing and who tithe at the stipulated level
necessary to obtain a temple recommend is considerably lower than
official Church figures.^ Another issue is global LDS Church membership growth. In 1984 Rodney Stark developed two figures for potential
future growth: the lower based on growth at 30 percent per decade, the
higher at 50 percent. At the lower figure, by 2080 there would be more
than 60 million Mormons worldwide, while at 50 percent there would be
250 million.‫ زا‬Stark later wrote more cautiously that Mormons were
“destined to become a large religious group, with a significant membership around the world.‫ ل‬I Indeed, the LDS Church has experienced
global growth, especially in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia.
Non-Europeans are now in the majority, and currently more than two
of evety three Mormons are C0nverts.12
THE LDS CHURCH IN POLYNESIA
LDS Church involvement in the Pacific Islands began in the 1840s as
the first mission beyond the English-speaking world. Following other
missionaries, from 1851 the LDS Church taught that Polynesians were
85
Νουα Religo
descended from the ancient Israelites( LDS missionaries converted
those who had earlier converted to other forms of Christianity or had
some biblical knowledge, sought out community leaders, used native
langages as vehicles for missionaty endeavors and lived among their
new co-religionists.
Samoa
Samoa usually refers to the sovereign, independent nation-state of
Samoa, formerly Western Samoa, which has the largest native Polynesian
population at nearly 188,000.14 One-third of Samoans are members of
the Congregational Christian Church Samoa (Ekalesia Faapotopotoga
Kerisiano Samoa), and although this is still the largest denomination it
has declined from nearly half the population. Methodist and Roman
Catholic numbers have likewise shrunk. In 1981 tliese three Christian
denominations made up more than 85 percent of the population.
During the same period the LDS Church, whose members have a higher
birth rate than members of other churches( has grown from eight to
15 percent according to census figures, although official LDS Church
figures are three times higher. The Church reports 16 stakes (geographical ecclesiastical divisions), 134 congregations, a mission, and a temple.
The Apia Samoa Temple is imposing against the skyline of the capital.
This temple also serves the Latter-day Saints of nearby American Samoa(
LDS missionaty work in Samoa dates from 1863, when a Hawaiian
group estranged from other Mormons established a re-baptized community and reconnected to the LDS Church in Utah. LDS Church membership grew as Samoans became ordained elderc (adult priests in the
Melchizedek priesthood) and left their villages to develop more remote
communities. In the early 1900s, the Book of Mormon was translated
into Samoan and the LDS Church established Sauniatu, outside Apia, as
a refuge for Mormon converts expelled from their villages. Latter-day
Saint numbers grew in the 1920s and 1930s with church schools playing
an important role. Local Latter-day Saints were largely self-supporting
during World War II, and direct missionary work restarted in 1946.
Although many Latter-day Saints migrated to New Zealand and
Hawaii in the 1950s, numbers grew steadily, as did the number of new
churches. Samoa became an independent state in 1962, and in 1983 the
Apia Samoa Temple was dedicated, creating a sense of stature and permanence for the LDS Church in Samoa(
In the late 1980s, missionaty activity intensified and numbers grew
considerably, causing tension in a number of rillages where local leadership councils excluded the LDS Church.18 Among recent LDS converts
interriewed was a 37-year-old villager who had studied at a Methodist
seminaty but had not been ordained. As a Seventhly Adventist who also
86
Má: Polynesians and Momonà
had attended a Catholic church, he joined the LDS Church after praying
about where he could best serve God, who told him to ‫“־‬go to the
Mormons.” He based his faith on Jesus and the scriptures and did not
focus on any notable differences in beliefs between Mormonism and the
earlier Christian denominations he had experienced, although he was
“opposed to tattoos and alcohol.” He appeared to be more concerned
about his children’s education than with his ancestors, and loyalty to the
traditional "ways of Samoa” was less important to him than LDS “freedom
of worship” and manageable tithing.
Another interviewee, a 29-year-old female, had grown up in the
Congregational Christian Church Samoa to which her mother belonged
(her father was Catholic) before joining the Mormons. She had married
in an LDS Church and more recently had been baptized. She reported
that the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami had prompted her attraction to the Mormon teaching about "families forever," which intensified
after her maternity leave amid groWng financial pressures. She felt that
the Latter-day Saints were distinctive for their “friendly and happy-tosee-you atmosphere,” and she liked the Sunday School classes for different age groups, including specific activities for women and children. She
had good feelings about the LDS Church, and she appreciated the lower
financial burden compared to her previous church. Developing “closer
relationships with femily" and spending "more time together under one
roof’ was important for her, so family relationships would continue after
death.
One 41‫־‬year‫־‬old male from a small village was a subsistence farmer
with five children. His religious journey had taken him to the LDS
Church via the Catholic Church, Assemblies of God, Seventh-day
Adventist Church, and the Congregational Christian Church Samoa.
He reported "feeling happiness all the time,” saying he “felt in my heart
the teachings of the church.” His earlier life had been very stressful, with
“money things all the time,” but a particular event set him on the path to
the LDS Church. He had been shamed publicly in his previous church
when names were announced from the pulpit of those who had given
sufficiently and those who had not.19 The whole congregation, he
recalled, looked at “me and my shame.” He found LDS tithing to be
more manageable. Whereas before he had been required to pay for
ministers and their families, and for funerals and other sebees, he
appreciated the LDS Church’s encouragement of “free service” and was
conrinced that his prerious churches were not the way “the l^rd wanted
His church to be.” He understood the essential LDS Church difference
to be in its liberation and freedom. His heart was now “lightened,” and
he knew he was no longer “enslaved by the curse of stress and church
leaders.” His family, particularly his children, were happier. The LDS
Church difference, he said, was “in the faces, happiness.” He wanted his
children to be educated,20 but he also felt personally empowered by the
87
Νοι Religo
missionaries’ promise that he would preach in the LDS Church. To that
end, he was learning to read with a focus on the Bible and the Book of
Mormon.
While approximately one-third of Latter-day Saints in Samoa are
Temple Mormons,2! those quoted above were not. All emphasized the
burdens of other churches’ tithing, the benefits of LDS Church education, positive family teachings, respect and dignity, and personal exampies—themes echoed by many new Latter-day Saints. Very few
interàewees reported converting for theological reasons or the truth
of LDS doctrine‫ ؛‬in fact, few were capable of articulating any theological
or doctrinal differences at all. They spoke mostly about Jesus and his
teachings, with very little or no mention of specific Mormon scriptures.
A major part of the appeal came from educational opportunities for
themselves and their children and limited church financial demands.
Samoan Latter-day Saints do not directly fund church buildings or
pay for cler^—all men age 18 and older (and boys ages 12 to 18) are
priests—and they are not expected to offer their ministers liuaana
(gifts). Samoan Mormons effectively opt out of the traditional village
system of reciprocal gift-giving. The movement of people from villages to
Apia for paid work and other opportunities, including school for their
children, has created a class of people beyond the safety of village protection.22 Young people particularly feel the lure of the capital city, and
there is a groWng population of “mixed race”23 urban poor who are
targeted by new churches, including the LDS Church. Their conversations give insight not only into their perceptions of the limitations of
their former churches but also into their aspirations for themselves and
their families. Becoming Latter-day Saints entails lifestyle changes, such
as giving up alcohol, which have both health and financial benefits, and
the LDS churches offer practical support for those in need. Mormon
missionaty activity has continued to grow in recent decades, and LDS
membership numbers in Samoa have doubled. In American Samoa, the
LDS figure is approximately 20 percent and growing.2^
Tonga
The Kingdom of Tonga is a constitutional monarchy that was part of
the British Empire from 1901 to 1952. The population of just over
100,000 is almost entirely Polynesian, and enshrined in their constitution is mandatoty Sabbath Sunday observance “forever.”2‫ ؟‬Tongans are
98 percent Christian—37 percent Methodist, 17 percent Mormon and
16 percent Catholic. The LDS Church, however, is the only one of the
three that enjoys continued and steady growth.2^
The LDS Church in Tonga began in 1891 with a Samoan mission,
which was abandoned six years later after only fifteen converts. After
88
Μοέ: Polynesians and Mormonism
several rocky decades, during which he government once banned LDS
missionaries, in 1946 the Book of Mormon was translated into Tongan.
During and after World War II, restrictions on non-Tongan missionaries
led to local husband-and-wife missionary teams continuing the work.27
This local leadership lasted until the 1960s and resulted in a largely local
church with high levels of retention and the highest percentage of
members serving full-time missions worldwide. The LDS Church has
a presence in evety settlement of more than a thousand inhabitants,
and Tonga has the largest number of Mormons per capita of any nation.
I was told by a Tongan Mormon elder that they were aiming for Tonga to
be the first majority Mormon country.28
Schools feature largely in this success story. Tonga has near universal
literacy and comparatively high rates of (largely overseas-trained) university graduates. Ninety percent of seconda^ education in Tonga is
provided by religious schools. The first LDS school opened in 1907 and
another in 1924, and the LDS Church currendy runs six middle schools,
but it was the 1952 opening of Liahona High School that made a most
significant impact, and it now is widely acknowledged as one of the
biggest and best schools in Tonga, with 90 percent of students being
Latter-day Saints.29 So important is education that so-called “School
Mormons” join the LDS Church when their children are approaching
high school age and remain until they graduate from Brigham Young
University-Hawaii.3‫ ״‬The Nuku’alofa Tonga Temple, the county’s largest building, opened in the 1980s across from the Liahona High School
and now is the focal point for Tongan Latter-day Saints. The site also
contains a cultural resource center conserving traditional practices,
music and dance, reflecting the LDS Church’s acknowledgment of the
importance of culture to Tongan Latter-day Saints.
The first member of the royal family. Princess ‘Elisiva Fusipala Vaha’i
(1949-2014), joined the LDS Church in 1989 and the first Latter-day
Saint government minister was appointed in 2006. The LDS Church
plays a major role in the public and economic life of the kingdom as
the largest private employer with responsibility for the county’s most
extensive building projects. The LDS Church has invested considerable
amounts of money in Tonga and there are sizeable Tongan Latter-day
Saint communities in the United States, New Zealand, Australia and
American Samoa.
As across the Pacific in the United States, however, there are tensions
between LDS Church norms and Tongan culture, such as the debate
over whether kavcpx ceremonies and recreational consumption were
forbidden under the “Word of Wisdom,” the scriptural guidelines for
healthy physical and spiritual living. 32 There also are concerns about
where the line between Mormon practice and Tongan culture is drawn.
Nevertheless, Tongans are particularly receptive to the LDS claim that
the Book of Mormon and genealo^ connect contempora^ Tongans,
89
Νοι Migio
and more generally Polynesians, to the ancient Nephites, heirs of God’s
promises to the people of Israel.33
New Zealand
Mormon missionaries first landed in New Zealand in 1854. Early
attention was on the European settlers but with limited results. There
were fewer than a hundred baptized members by 1880 and these small
numbers were depleted further by converts heading for Utah.34
Mormons were viewed as alien Americans by the dominant British cul.
ture in New Zealand and were not welcomed by the churches already
there. Such hostility led to censure in Parliament^ and even antiMormon riots as late as 1901. In the 1870s LDS Church attention turned
to the Maori, with missionaries living in Maori villages and learning their
language. These efforts bore fruit in the 1880s, due partly to the mis^
sionaries’ proximity to the Maori and partly to a number of Maori leaders foretelling the coming of a new dispensation,.^ a belief still held by
many. Amore significantfactor, perhaps, was Maori disillusionment with
the way the churches, particularly the Anglican Church, had sided with
the government, militia and settlers during the New Zealand wars
(18451872‫ )־‬over the appropriation of land the Maori deemed theire.
Anglican minister Samuel Marsden (1764-1838), of the Church
Missionary Society, introduced Christianity to the Maori of New
Zealand in 1814. He subscribed to the then-standard missionaty view
that all peoples were necessarily descended from Noah. Maori, for exampie, could be traced back to Noah’s son Shem. Marsden, however, went
further. He believed Maori to have "sprung from some dispersed Jews, at
some,period or other,” and he saw in them numerous biblical beliefs
and practices now lamentably much C0rrupted.37 This probably novel
view that Maori were descendants of Abraham led later missionaries to
identify Maori increasingly with the biblical Lost Tribes of Israel, ^ile
Lost Tribes discourse is evident earlier, for example when the Lost
Tribes were “found” in Britain by proponents of British Israelism,
Tudor Parfitt argues conrincingly that what we might call neo-Israelite
identities and identifications found across South Asia, Sub-Saharan
Africa and Oceania are an “innate feature of colonial discourse.’’38
Anglican missionaries thus presented biblical narratives in ways that
highlighted Maori as descendants of the ten lost tribes of the Northern
Kingdom of ancient Israel. Maori identified themselves with a range of
biblical actors and events, such as the Israelites oppressed not in E^pt
but in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and not by Pharaoh but by British colonists, and they longed for their own exodus, in their own holy land.
Mormon elders developed this by by stressing kinship ties between
ancient Israelites and Maori, and encouraged Maori to locate themselves
90
Moms: Polynesians and Mormonà
and their contempera^ situation in the Mormon extended corpus of
sacred stories. Maori responded most positively to tales of their coming
redemption in the "lands of their inheritance" and in rites and cerem^
nies that included customaty and ritual practices and language.^
This conversion pattern was akin to that found throughout the
Pacific where indigenous people, having already become Christians,
converted to the LDS Church. The Mormon missionaity strate^ was to
establish relationships with chiefs and nobles, and through their support
baptize members of rillages and sub-tribes. In some areas there was mass
transition from the Anglican, and to a lesser extent Methodist, churches
to the LDS Church. By 1890 there were more than 3,000 Mormons
consisting of eight percent of all Maori, and this number increased to
4,000 a decade later.40
In the ^entieth century the LDS Church in New Zealand continued
to be predominantly Maori. The traditions of the Maori high god (Io)
were assimilated into Mormon theolo^, reinforcing the links beUveen the
god of their ancestors and the God of the Bible. There were ongoing
tensions between LDS norms and Maori traditions, including tattooing,
funerary rites, traditional prayers, ceremonial ground practices, alongside
concerns about the level of commitment of some Maori to Mormon
lifestyle restrictions. Traditional healing powers of the tohunga (traditional
priests) proved to be the limiting case for LDS leadere when they officially
denied the authority of these healing specialists. The Maori Agricultural
College and later the Church College of New Zealand were established by
the LDS Church at least in part to promote international Mormon cultural and spiritual norms among Maori. The opening of the Temple in
Hamilton in 1958 also sewed to play an important role in this process.
One of the strengths of the Mormon missionaity strate^ in New
Zealand was that while their Church did not condemn the colonial land
grab, unlike leaders of most other Christian denominations, they displayed little interest in acquiring land for themselves‫ ؛‬in fact, this was
simply seconda^ to their broader purposes. But this virtue cut both
ways, as the focus on community, family and learning to be Mormon
left out the political aspirations of Maori redemption, that is, the quest
for justice in relation to Maori land. When such a movement did arise in
the 1929s, combining spiritual and spatial salvation, led by the prophet
TahupOtiki Wiremu Ratana (1873?-1939), the LDS Church quickly lost
Maori adherents. There was the potential for Mormons to work closely
with Ratana based on their shared pan-tribalism, opposition to the tohunga and some traditional forms of ritual, but this did not find favor
with LDS Church authorities. More than 2,999 Maori Mormons became
followers of Ratana.41 All the Christian churches, including the LDS
Church, lost out to Ratana and other Maori movements. Debates at the
time highlighted the significance of autonomous, indigenous Maori
spiritual leadership rather than that of overseas missionaries.
91
No! Migio
By the late 1920s, with some Maori having returned to Mormonism,
the LDS Church opened positions in district presidencies«‘¿ to Maori
men amid ongoing debates about the extent of acceptable levels of
Maori cultural practices. The traditional Maori hui (gathering) was
appropriated for local and national LDS Church conferences characterized by ceremony and Maori music with both the English and Te Reo
languages used in testimonies and addresses. These hui linked different
tribes and su^tribes in forging a discrete Maori Mormon identity. After
World War II, biculturalism seemed to retreat with Mormon missions to
European New Zealanders. The LDS Church, however, having pioneered a bicultural religious institution in New Zealand, offered important support for Maori urbanization in the 1950s and 1960s. The "Maori
Renaissance" in the late 1970s and 1980s revived biculturalism in the
LDS Church in New Zealand, which continues to reflect both the wider
New Zealand culture and a renewed LDS Church commitment to Maori
M0rm0ns.43
Although the LDS Church claims more than 190,000 members in
New Zealand,«« the 2013 census records only 40,000, a decline of some
6.5 percent since 2006. However, while Mormon numbers are now down
to less than one percent of the country’s population,«‫ ؟‬Maori and
Polynesians make up more than two-thirds of Mormons in New
Zealand. While the membership numbers are relatively stable, there is
an internal debate within the LDS Church about the as many as onethird of these who may be inactive, and there are growing concerns
about youth retention. The number of new converts is small, with many
coming from lower socioeconomic groups, including new migrants.
Currently, Maori make up half of all Latter-day Saints in New Zealand
with Pacific Islanders another quarter, so LDS Church membership is
overwhelmingly Polynesian.«‫ ؟‬There is still opposition among some
Maori to converts’ accommodation to Mormonism and rejection of
Maori practices.
ANALYSIS
A number of discrete phases in LDS Church history in Polynesia can
be discerned. Phase one, “early missions” (184^1880s), was characterized by few riable Mormon communities being established, and efforts
were curtailed by Catholics and Protestants. Latter-day Saints learned
valuable lessons about living with indigenes and using their languages,
the benefits of more remote locations, and building on earlier missionaty work by other churches. Phase two, “other empires” (1880s-1945),
was a period of raising converts, schools and communities.«? The third
phase, “American ascendancy” (1945-1980), witnessed a resurgence of
missionaty effort and activity, with steady growth and consolidated gains.
92
MÉ: Polynesians and Monmism
The current fourth phase, “global church” (1980-present), has seen
rapid expansion and significant investment. Important as the earlier
phases have been for LDS Church activity in Polynesia, it is this current
phase that requires the most analysis to delineate the appeal of
Mormonism to Polynesians.
The LDS Church usually explains these successes in terms of parallels
between Mormonism and Polynesian spiritual and cultural traditions.
Mormonism developed a distinctive pattern of enculturation, promoting
indigenous language and particular traditional practices (understood to
be cultural rather than religious), coupled with a sustained rejection of
religious rites and customs that breached the “Word ofWisdom” orwere
deemed incompatible with LDS beliefs and practices. Although tension
remains, this controlled embrace of indigenous cultures has been fostered in the sendee of wider LDS Church development.
In terms of affinities between Polynesian traditions and the LDS
Church, both are hierarchical and have continuing prophetic traditions.
Both share concern with family, lineage and ancestty, including the uniformlyheld claim thatPolynesians can trace their ancestty back to ancient
Israel via the Americas, and Polynesian Mormons incorporate this into
their identity formation. Almost all Polynesians believe in a similar
descent, the legacy of colonial European Christianity and its various accounts of the world’s peoples based on interpretations of biblical histoty.
iile this is not exclusive to the LDS Church, it is more pronounced than
in other churches and entails Mormon teachings being seen as cultural
re-remembering or the retrieval of long-lost truths. These hermeneutical
strategies include Polynesians within Mormon sacred narratives and
entail that they share a common past with other Latter-day Saints.
Mormons teach that ancient Israelites travelled to and settled in the
Americas. They included the descendants of Nephi (Nephites) and
Laman (Lamanites), the sons of Lehi, the Jerusalem prophet from the
Book of Mormon. I was told in Salt Lake City in 2006 at a meeting of
former LDS Church missionaries to the Pacific that the Lamanites were
ancestors of natives of the Americas and the “islands of the sea”—the
Pacific Islands. When I asked Samoan, Tongan and New Zealand
Mormons whether they considered themselves Lamanites, they asserted
their Nephite heritage. Polynesian patriarchal blessings often claim direct
ties to the trite of Manasseh, son of the Patriarch Joseph (Genesis 41) via
Lehi.48
Both Polynesians and Mormons believe that the self is not restricted
to the individual but rather is found in terms of ancestty. For example,
Maori lineage begins with generations of forebears, continues through
traditional figures, then travels back to the atua (gods). This lineage is
periodically recited as a ritual act that re-creates a family across time and
links it authoritatively to a specific place. Mormon lineage relates to
actual generational lines, and location is often a secondaty factor.
93
la Migio
Genealog plays a major role in the attraction of Mormonism all over
Polynesia, where lineage is so often connected to land title. In practice,
this turns out to be a complex issue. There are diverse Polynesian understandings of lineage and its import, as well as different ways in which
Temple and pre-Temple Mormons understand lineage. It has not been
easy to get Temple Latter-day Saints to compare mythologies. Most
Polynesians expect to be reunited with dead family membere, and they
believe that the dead can positively and negatively affect people in the
present. This is an area for further research into the different present
and past understandings of ancestors across Polynesia, in terms of LDS
Church orthodoxy, and by Polynesian Latter-day Saints. Maori Latterday Saints report that these different quests for the familial past are
compatible and overlapping. Samoan and Tongan Mormons report
something similar. Throughout Polynesia, persons are linked across
space and time. Both Polynesians and the LDS Church understand there
to be continuing relationships between living and dead and possibility of
future re^atherin^.
A number of Latter-day Saint authors have seen parallels between the
LDS Church and ongoing Polynesian prophetic traditions. Prophetic
insight is highly prized across Polynesia and attributed to the ubiquitous
demi-god Maui. Local prophets were recorded as foreseeing the coming
of the LDS Church, and these prophecies were recognized as true when
the Mormons did arrive.. The prophecies lead LDS scholars such as
Ma^orie Newton and Louis Midgley to talk of the “providential joining
of two prophetic traditions.’^ Contemporary Polynesian Mormons
across the Pacific tell of these risions received by their ancestors leading
to their baptism as Mormons, thus creating sacred family histories linking their ancestors to the LDS Church.5٤
A further affinity is drawn between Mormon teachings and Maori
esoteric knowledge, a parallel that was important to early LDS Church
success among Maori in New Zealand. In the 1990s Latter-day Saint and
Maori teacher Herewini Jones began exploring these parallels in partieular prophecy and theolo^. Jones’ “esoteric workshops” for Maori attracted existing Mormons and new converts, and were endorsed by the
president of the New Zealand Auckland Mission of the LDS Church.
These popular sessions are still running.
Globalism and Personal Spirituality
The breakdown of traditional cultures across Polynesia due to glob
alization, urbanization and growing emphasis on the individual is refleeted in religious change. Alongside the global financial flows are
the theological flows of globalized religi0ns.52 Transition from the dominance of the mainline Christian churches, embedded in traditional
94
Marris: Polynesians and Momonism
culture, to the LDS Church (among others) is challenging the synthesis
of nineteenth-centuty missiona^ Christianity and Polynesian societies.
The new churches openly challenge existing social forms, such as the
extended family and the village as principal identity markers, and under‫־‬
mine established rillage ecclesiastical authorities. Their stress is on incorporating individual experience and personal development into
communal practices that reinforce indiridual empowerment and responsibility. New converts learn to articulate their new faith and individuality
simultaneously in terms of a modernist discourse of personal spirituality,
resulting in new practices, consumption patterns and behaviors-marked
by adult baptism—underetood in novel language and C0ncepts.53
These global forces often are positively identified with American
prestige and power. The loss of traditional village protections, the
authoritarian nature of many of the forms of Polynesian Christianity,
the financial burdens of required reciprocities, and the desire for a new
life and opportunities for one’s family lead directly into the embrace of
the LDS Church. Sociological literature on conversion emphasizes both
demand (the appeal) and supply (what the missionaty churches offer),
and it is important to acknowledge the LDS Church’s huge investments
in Polynesia,^ manifest not only in transcendental teachings but also in
programs of education, welfare and support. In many ways, the LDS
Church has responded directly and effectively to the realities of poverty,
marginality and spiritual and material dislocation. Sceptics might accuse
the LDS Church of simply bribing its flock, but the Mormon Church
demands high-level commitment of time and energy in a patterned
transformation to being a Latter-day Saint.
Across the Pacific, however, there is resistance to the LDS Church on
the part of the now-established churches, which often seek to preserve
select versions of Polynesian cultures. Objections include their
American (i.e., non-Polynesian) origins, their rejection of the extended
village family in favor of the nuclear or “white” family model, their
attitudes toward tattooing and ceremonial use of kava, and their nonTrinitarian, hence heretical, theolo^, leading all too often to physical
and legal disputes across Polynesia.^
CONCLUSION
The LDS Church combines material support with temporal and transcendental hope for the future. Support of members’ long-term life
plans include preferential educational opportunities, health care, business loans, upgrading of skills and employment assistance. The importance of such support cannot be overestimated‫ ؛‬neither can the sense
of dignity and empowerment offered by an alternative status system
and social order. In addition, the effort put into correct practice and
95
Νουα Migio
behavior, as well as the stress on purity, ensures a degree of conformity
among converts that provides certainty and comfort, reinforcing their
new Latter-day Saint identity. Lasdy, the LDS Church fosters a sense of
being victims of oppression by the mainline churches, creating high
levels of solidarity.
The rapid growth of LDS membership in Polynesia in the current
fourth, “global church” phase cannot be adequately explained by promotion of affinities between the LDS Church and Polynesian traditions
and rituals, including concerns with ancestty and lineage, since these
have been mainstream Mormon teachings to Pacific Islanders since the
1850s. If there are such deep parallels between Polynesian and LDS
Church beliefs and practices, why did it take until the 1980s and 1990s
for these to become apparent? So, what does explain the very recent
significant growth? The LDS Church’s commitment to Polynesia is longstanding, and it has intensified in the last 25 years. The LDS Church has
invested perhaps $1 billion in the Pacific to address the temporal and
spiritual needs of a region being radically transformed from without and
within. The support it offers makes tangible differences in people’s lives
and olfers a genuine alternative to persons with limited choices. All this
is presented under the rubric of a deep Polynesian affinity for a truth
once theirs and now recovered as Latter-day Saints.
I thank the Church ojJesus Christ ojLatter-da‫ ׳؟‬Saints Jor arranging meetings with
interviewees mho Imtiend‫ ؟‬answered m‫ ؟‬queries and. questions, and Jor providing
access to LDS Church publications and other matzah.
ENDNOTES
١ Doctrine and Covenants oj the Church ojJesus Christ oj latter-da‫ ؟‬Saints, Containing
Rotations Given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, with Some Additions b‫ ؟‬His Successors in
the Presidency of the Church (Salt Lake City: The Church ofJesus Christ of Latterday Saints,1981), 1:1; The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 29:11.
‫ ﻵ‬Wcloriu ‫>؟‬٠ Locbiood, eA., Globalisation and Culture Change in the Pacific Islands
(Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 2004).
3 ١٥ile there are other Mormon groups in the Pacific, e.g. the Community of
Christ (from 1872 to 2001 the Reorganized Church ofjesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints [RLDS], still active in French Polynesia and in New Zealand), the focus in
this article is the LDS Church.
4 Polynesia usually refers to the islands of Hawai‘‫؛‬, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook
Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia and
Easter Island (Rapa Nui). I also include in Polynesia New Zealand, which has
a large population of Polynesian first people, the Maori, and Polynesian migrants
mainly from Samoa and Tonga. In this article I do not discuss the minority
Polynesian communities in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, the
Caroline Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu, as these often raise different issues, aid I
96
Moà: Polynesians and Momonism
make only passing reference to the growing Polynesian communities of Australia
and mainland United States.
5
See Molly Worthen, “Sects Appeal: Evangelicals V. Mormons," New Republic, 20
November 2006, 21-25, available at www.newrepublic.com/article/evangelicals‫־‬
v-mormons‫־‬sects-appeal.
6 A temple recommend is an annual certificate of identification and personal
“worthiness,” which includes tithing, that is signed by the applicant’s bishop and
stake president. The temple recommend allows a Latterclay Saint to enter a ternpie and participate in rituals there. A bishop is the head of a congregation.
A “stake" is a group of LDS congregations. The term refers to a tent support
(see Isaiah 54:2).
7 Temple rituals include endowment and ordination ceremonies that require
oaths, words and tokens to ensure spiritual progress.
8
This phenomenon is largely unstudied and may reflect different cultural, and
perhaps economic, contexts in which the LDS Church is active.
٥ On tithing, see Doctrine and Covenants, 119:45‫־‬. Only 40 percent of Mormons
who attend weekly services tithe. Ryan Cragun cited in Sean Patterson, “Mormon
Church Rakes in Billions in Tithes,” WebProNews, 14 August 2012, at WWW.
webpronews.com/mormon-church-rakes-in‫־‬billions‫־‬in-tithes08‫־‬2012‫־‬.
1° Rodney Stark, "The Rise of a New World Faith,” Revieiv ofReligiousResearch 26,
no. 1 (1984): 1827‫־‬.
11 Rodney Stark, The Rise of Momonism, ed. Reid L. Neilson (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2005), 17. See Rick Phillips’ discussion of how membership statistics globally have been inflated by the LDS Church in “Rethinking
the International Expansion of Mormonism,” Nova Religio 10, no. 1 (August
2006): 52-68.
12 Tim B. Heaton, “Vital Statistics,” Encyclopedia of Momonism (New York:
Macmillan, 1992‫ ؛‬digital publisher: Brigham Young University, 2001): 1518, at
c0ntentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/c0mp0und0bject/c011ecti0n/E0M/id/4391/
show/4316.
13 R. Lanier Britsch, Unto thelslands of the Sea: A HisΙη of thelatterèy Saints in the
Pacific (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 21.
H Population and Housing !}ends Samoa Census 2011 (Apia: Samoa Bureau of
Statistics, 2012), 2.
15 See “Fertility by Religion,” Population and Homing, Analytical Report (Apia:
Samoa Bureau of Statistics, 2012): Sec. 4.9. In 2011 Latter-day Saints had the
highest figure (5.1), followed closely by Assemblies of God (5), then Methodists
and Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics (4.3), and Congregational
Christian Church Samoa (4.2). The Assemblies of God has had roughly similar
growth albeit from a lower base.
١١٥ i G3LT\!rm, ei, The Building oj the Kingdom in Sil 1888-2005 (JTebet
City, Utah: self-published, 2006), 3-35.
١٦ !cm. Building oj the Kingdom in Samoa.
18 Seemingly authorized by the 1990 Village Fono Act, despite its apparent
contradiction to “The Constitution of the Independent State of Western
Samoa” (1960), which guarantees freedom of religion to every citizen
97
la Religio
(Sections 11 and 12), available at www.parliament.am/library/sabmanadru
tyunner/samoa.pdf.
19 Folafola, the public naming in church of donations and donors, generates
competitive giring and has been incorporated into Samoan church-village life.
Besides the weekly collection, churches call on their congregants for taukga
(annual donations) for the pastor’s house, church upkeep and additions.
Large and often empty churches have teen built all over Samoa. This is in
contrast to the LDS Church, where the tithe norm is a tenth of one’s income,
and donations are private and anonymous.
20 LDS Church members can access the “Perpetual Education Fund,’’ and for
a minimal monthly contribution they can obtain an interest-free loan for university study. In addition, an LDS Church employment center teaches computer
and other skills.
21 The number of Temple Mormons as of 2009, provided by church officials in
Apia; informants and interviewees were asked direcdy if they were Temple
Mormons.
22 Note that the LDS Church facilitates land leases in Apia for Mormons.
23 Largely the result of Samoans married to non-Samoans but also including
non-Samoan immigrants.
24 For LDS figures for American Samoa, see “United States Territoty: American
Samoa,’’ Church News, 15 October 2009, at -.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/
articles/58091/United-States-territory-American-Samoa.html. Also see McKay
Coppins, “Why Romney Will Dominate the American Samoa Caucuses,”
BuzzFeed News, 9 March 2012, at www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/whyromney-will-dominate-the-american-samoa-primar#.td3bmzpx8. For Samoa see
Samoa Bureau of Statistics atwvw.sbsgov.ws/index.php?option=com_content&
vfew=article&id=35&Itemid=102, accessed 25 September 2014.
25 See "Tonga Population 2014,” World Population Review, 14 May 2014, at
worldpopulationreview.com/countries/tonga-population/. On Tonga missionary and “government” schools, see “Education,” Tonga Department of
Statistics, at www.spc.int/prism/tonga/index.php?option=com_content&
view=article&‫؛‬d=24&Itemid=29, accessed 25 teptember 2014.
2‫“ ة‬Sabbath Day to Be KeptHoly,” IhAcl ofConstitution ofTonga, Sec. 6 (Nukualofa:
Ministty of Information and Communications, 1988), 8; for religious figures, see
Census Report 2011, vol. 1 (Nukualofa: Tonga Department of Statistics, 2013), 39.
27 Savani Latai Toluta’u Aupiu, “Mormon Missionaries in the Kingdom of
Tonga, 1891-1897,” Μ.Α. thesis. University of Utah, 2009.
28 The Tongan population is approximately 103,000 and the LDS Church 2011
census figure is 18,554, giving a proportional total of 18 percent, although the
LDS figure is 32 percent.
29 I was informed of this by an LDS leader in Tonga; on the high social status of
the school and its perceived values, see Niko Besnier, On the Edge of the Global:
Modem Anxieties in a Pacific Island Nation (Redwood City, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 2011), 261.
39 An anodyne but enjoyable account of missionary life in Tonga in the 1950s is
John H. Groberg, In the Eye of the Storm (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1993).
98
Moms: Polynesians and Mormonum
‫ اﻷ‬A local root-derived drink with an intoxicating effect.
32 See Doctrine and Covenants, 89:1-9, which forbids the use of tobacco, alc^
hoi, tea and coffee.
33 See Mette Ramstad, Conversion in the Pacific: Eastern Polynesian Latterèy Saints9
Conversion Accosts and Their Development oj a IDS Hit0\‫( ؟‬0‫*؟‬. ^ong،\‫؟‬Ltt
Academic Press, 2003); and Tamar G. Gordon, “Inventing Mormon Identity
in Tonga,” PhD. diss.. University of California, 1988.
34 See Maijorie Newton, llki and Temple: The Momon Mission in New Zealand,
1854-1958 (Draper, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2012)î and Maijorie Newton,
“Mormonism in New Zealand: A Historical Appraisal,” Ph.D. diss.. University of
Sydney, 1998.
35 New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates, vol. 11 (Wellington: G. Didsbury, 1871),
390-91. The censure took place during the proceedings of the House of
Representatives on 18 October 1871.
36
In 1881 Wairarapa prophet Paora Te Potangaroa (d. 1881) foresaw the arrival
of a new church that Mormons have understood to be the LDS Church. See
\‫>؟‬τοηνίγ‫؛‬Λ Inore, Mai Jn Heaven: A Centur‫ ؟‬of Maori Prophets in Neu) Zealand
(Tauranga: Moana Press, 1989), 278-88.
37 Samuel Marsden, Journal of Proceedings at New Zealand, II, 29 July 1819-19
October 1819%; cited in Judith Binney, “.Papahurihia: Some Thoughts on
Interpretation,”
of the Polynesian Society 75, no. 3 (1966): 325. It is interesting to note that while Maori were often considered “sons of Shem,”
Australian aboriginals and Melanesians were understood to be “sons of Ham.”
36
Tudor Parfitt, The Lost rpribes of Israel: The History of a Myth (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2002), 17. Parfitt added “racialised religious manifestations’’ as an alternative to or extension of his colonial discourse thesis in his
later study. Black Jews in Africa and the Aàcas (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2013), 4. See also Hillel Halkin, Across the Sabbath River:
In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002)‫ ؛‬Rivka
Gotten, The Quest for the Ten Lost Tribes oj Israel: To the Lnds of the Earth
(Northvale, NJ.: Jason Aronson, 2002)‫ ؛‬and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, The Ten Lost
Iribes: A lid l،0ty (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). On BritishIsiaekn, %ee lc\\ae\ Wám, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the
Christian Identity Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1997), 3-45, 75.147‫־‬
‫ وﻷ‬See Ian Rewi Barker, “The Connexion: The Mormon Church and the Maori
People,” MA. thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 1967. See also Britsch,
Unto the Islands of the Sea, 253345‫ ;־‬Peter Lineham, “The Mormon Message in the
Context of Maori Culture,” Journal of Mormon ΗήΙοη 17, no. 1 (1991): 62-93‫؛‬
Louis Midgley, “A Singular Reading: The Maori and The Book of Mormon,” in
Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor ofJohn L Swenson, ed.
Davis Bitton (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon
Studies, Brigham Young University, 1998), 245-76‫ ؛‬Erik Gabriel Murimmer,
“Mormonism in a Maori Village: A Study in Social Change,” Μ.Α. thesis.
University of British Columbia, 1965‫ ؛‬Grant Underwood, “Mormonism, the
Maori and Cultural Authenticity,” Journal of Pacific History 35, no. 2 (2006):
133‫־‬46‫ ؛‬Lawrence Barber, “Another Look at the History of the Church of
99
Νσυα Religio
Latter-day Saints in New Zealand,” in Under the Southern Cross: Papers on rfheology,
Pastoral Care, Education, History and Scriptural Exegesis, ed. ١o\\w YWwckW‫ﺳﻸ ؟؟‬
Norman Simms (Auckland: University of Auckland Chaplain’s Office and
Olrif:, \‫ו‬١ ‫ י*ו! י‬and Turning the Hearts ojthe Children: Earl‫ ؟‬iori leaders
in the Mormon Church, ed. Selwyn Katene (Wellington: Steele Roberts, 2014).
40 See Jennie Henderson, “The Trials of the Saints: Mormons in New Zealand,
\1-\‫יי‬١١ UY Building God’s Oun County: Historical Essays on Reliions in Neu)
Zealand, ed.John Stenhouse and Jane Thomson (Dunedin: University of Otago
Press, 2004), 139-52; Underwood, “Mormonism, the Maori and Cultural
Authenticity”; and Newton, rfiki and rfemple.
41 James Belich, Paradise Reforged: A History of New 'Zealanders (Auckland:
Penguin, 2001), 198.
42 A “district” is an area in a mission LDS Church containing congregations
termed “branches.” The district president selects two men (also members of the
Melchizedek priesthood) to assist with his duties, the three of them comprising
a “district presidency.”
‫»؟‬eel،nl\\1t١ Zion in Neu) Zealand: A Hislo^ of the Church ojJesus Christ oj
Latter-day Saints in 10 Zealand, 1854-1977 (Hamilton: Church College of New
Zealand, 1977), 116ff.
44 LDS Church figures can be found at “Facts and Statistics,” Newsroom/Pacific,
www.mormonnewsroom.orgnz/factand-statistics/, accessed 4Januaty 2015.
4‫ ن‬See New Zealand Census, “Religious Affiliation,” Table 28; at -.stats.govt.
nz/Census/2013-census/data-tables/total-by-topic.aspx.
46 See Hirini Kaa, “Nga hahi-Maori and Christian Denominations,” page 5,
“Mormon Church,” Te Ara/He Encyclopedia of Neio Zealand, 16 July 14, at WWW.
TeAra.govt.nz/en/nga‫־‬hahi-maori-and‫־‬christian-denominations/page5‫־‬.
47 These are my attempts to delineate and characterize historical phases in LDS
Church development in Polynesia. For example, in phase two. Mormons Operated within the context and restraints of the French, British and German empires, while increasing American influence and linkages in the region are
evident in stage three. In the global fourth phase, there is much closer geographical coordination and a growing sense of becoming a significant denomination.
48 Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 1:4. The Hebrew word/name is also found in
Judges 15:17, as in Ramah Lehi (the hill of Lehi).
49 See Robert Joseph, “Intercultural Exchange, Matakite Maori and the
Mormon Church,” in Mana Maori and Christianity, ed. Hugh Morrison, Lachy
Paterson, Brett Knowles and Murray Rae (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2012),
4S72. Matute (mata, commtmication with a spirit; kite, to see or recognize)
refers to both seer and prophecy. Interestingly, sijnilar prophecies interpreted as
foretelling the arrival of the LDS missionaries are recorded among Pueblo tribes
in North America, especially the Hopi.
50 Louis Midgley, “Maori Latter-day Saint Faith: Some Preliminary Remarks,”
Interpreter: Ajournai of Mormon Scripture 8 (2014): 45-65, quoted on p. 48.
51 See Newton, Tiki and 'Temple, 43; Midgley, “Maori Latter-day Saint Faith,” 51;
‫ ﺳﻶ‬c\e\e k\d, Ttkhanga Whakaaro: Ke‫ ؟‬Conceals in Maori Culture ^AvvcWawd*.
Oxford University Press, 1991).
100
Morris: Polynesians and Momonism
52
See Manfred Ernst, Winds of Change: Rapidly Growing Religious Groups in the
Pacific Islands (Suva, Fiji: Pacific Conference of Churches, 1994)‫ ؛‬and Manfred
1٢\Λ1‫>؟‬١ edu, Globaliiation and the Re-Shading ojChnstiaml‫ ؟‬in the Pacific Islnnds V‫>؟‬uva.١
Fiji: Pacific Theological College, 2006).
‫ ﻷج‬The LDS Church shares this with other churches practicing adult baptism.
54
See Roger Finke and Laurence R. Iannacone, “Supply Side Explanations for
Religious Change,” Annals of the Ανέαη Academy of Political and Social Science
527, no. 1 (May 1993): 27-39.
55 For example, a number of village councils in Samoa have declared their
villages to be exclusively affiliated with a particular church, effectively disenfranchising all other churches and religious groups. In a few cases, councils have
reclaimed property on behalf of the village, but these decisions have been legally
challenged and mediated.
101
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