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by crimson208 on April 25th, 2004

crimson208

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Why does the percentage of ethnic minorities, particularly African-Americans, in the Church remain low?

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Answers. 2 helpful answers below.

  • by Kim Siever on April 26th, 2004

    Kim Siever

    This question is rather vague. Are you referring to membership totals internationally, or just in the United States? What do you consider a low percentage? What do you consider a high percentage? What do you consider ethnic minorities? People of Chinese heritage may be considered an ethnic minority in Caucasian-heavy USA; however, white Europeans would be considered in the ethnic minority in China.

    As well, how are you able to determine that such percentages are low? When individuals are baptised into the Church, the records that are filled out give no indication of race. As such, the Church keeps no records with regards to racial backgrounds. I'm not aware of any independent organisation that does either. The closest we can come to understanding the composition of ethnicities in the church is to compare statistics on languages spoken and membership numbers in certain countries.

    This is still not a reliable method, however, since someone could be Black and be numbered in the American population and someone could speak German and be numbered among the Chilean population. Nevertheless, here are some very general statistics to use as a method to answer your question.

    Top Ten Languages (31 December 2001)

    * Keep in mind that in September 2000, Church membership with English as the predominant language spoken in the family fell below the 50% mark and has decreased steadily since then.

    English speakers - 5,620,000
    Spanish (mostly Mexico, Central and South America) speakers -3,465,000
    Portuguese (mostly Brazil) speakers - 847,000
    Tagalog (Philippines) speakers - 161,000
    Cebuano (Philippines) speakers - 116,000
    Japanese speakers - 115,000
    Ilokano (Philippines) speakers - 99,000
    Samoan speakers - 95,000
    Korean speakers - 74,000
    Tongan speakers - 72,000

    Membership Distribution (31 December 2003)

    U.S. membership (approximate): 5,503,192
    Non-U.S. membership (approximate): 6,482,062

    Canada - 166,442
    United States - 5,503,192
    Mexico - 980,053
    Caribbean - 133,969
    Central America - 513,067
    South America - 2,818,103
    Europe - 433,667
    Asia - 844,091
    Africa - 203,597
    South Pacific - 389,073

    It should also be noted that besides the United States, the Church is in over 150 countries and over 20 territories around the world.

    Based on the above statistics, we can see that the majority of the Church’s membership is located outside of the United States and speaks a language other than English. Interestingly enough, statisticians estimate that within 15 years, Spanish will become the most widely-spoken language within the Church.

    Despite the fact that current growth trends paint the Church’s future to becoming ever more international, I can only guess to what the reason is behind a lack of ethnic minorities (if such a lack exists). I theorise that it would be partly due to the fact that blacks were not able to hold the priesthood for roughly 135 years. I also theorise that it would be partly due to reluctance on such ethnic minorities to join the Church.

    [In response to Sarah S]

    The answer is in the last paragraph.

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  • by Anonymous on December 23rd, 2005

    Anonymous

    How can you answer a question when the "why does?" factor is itself false?

    The first temple built outside of North America was in Hawaii, primarily for the use of the kanaka and Asian members of the Church living there. Today, over 1 in 20 of the population of the state is LDS, and most of those are what some people would call "minorities," with haoles being a distinct minority in Church population on the state.

    Likewise, throughout the world, "whites" are a minority in the Church.

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never segregated members by race, though this continues to be a Protestant doctrine, and such white-supremacist groups as the Aryan Brotherhood, American Bund, Ku Klux Klan and many others are associated or even sponsored by various Protestant cults.

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