PART 4 THE MORMONS

Their Assets The Mormon Church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has 6,720,000 members of which approximately 3 million are found in the United States. What once began with only six people, the Mormon Church is today by far the fastest growing of all the cults within the United States.

By 1977, it had 140,000 followers, by the 20th century 250,000, by 1950 it had reached one million, and by 1964 it doubled. Today, nearly 36,000 Mormon missionaries in eighty-three countries (more than any other Church in the United States), will spend 16 hours a day, 6 days a week (approximately 150 million man hours a year) spreading the gospel according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Through these gargantuan efforts the LDS Church gained 211,000 new converts in 1980, and baptized almost twice the number (average of 80,000 a year) that the Southern Baptist Convention did, which is the nation's largest "protestant" denomination.

However, there was a significant decline in their number of converts in years since. For instance, in 1982 it dropped to 207,600 and then in 1984 to 189,419. This represents a 15.4 percent drop. Their baptisms for 1988 were up from 227,284 (1987) to 256,515. This means that every missionary brings in 7.09 converts, which is up from 6.54 in 1987.

Typical of all cults, Mormonism grows and thrives at the expense of others. Its growth is largely due to the pressure placed on Mormon families to have more children. This, often times, places undue stress on mothers who are left at home to watch over their brood. As a result the Utah Bureau of Health says that 80 percent of all psychiatric patients in Utah are Mormon women, and that the suicide rate for Utah women has doubled since 1960.