In the years since the mission in Hong Kong was opened, the Church has expanded to include over 850,000 members meeting in 1,500 congregations in 18 countries in this region.
That would equate to an average of 566 people per congregation attending Sacrament Meeting every week.
On the Mormon Newsroom site it lists Hong Kong as having 24,000 members in 34 congregations, and the whole of Asia (19 countries) just over 1,000,000 for 1,900 congregations. Deseret News is portraying 100% activity. That's simply misleading, and we all know what the Church thinks about misleading people....
Lying is intentionally deceiving others. Bearing false witness is one form of lying. The Lord gave this commandment to the children of Israel: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). Jesus also taught this when He was on earth (see Matthew 19:18). There are many other forms of lying. When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth. Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest.
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
If you're going to accuse someone of lying do it based on their representations, not your inferences.They didn't say "every week," those are your words. The 100% activity is your inference.
suniluni2 wrote:If you're going to accuse someone of lying do it based on their representations, not your inferences.They didn't say "every week," those are your words. The 100% activity is your inference.
I'm not accusing them of lying, I'm accusing them of being misleading. It's the Church that says writing something of a misleading nature is tantamount to lying. To state 850,000 Mormons are meeting in Asia across 1,500 congregations is like saying 15,000,000 Mormon's are meeting across the globe. It's utterly untrue. Of course, I am prepared to eat humble pie once the Deseret News clarifies just what sources or statistics those numerical claims about Asia are based on....
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
Though it's interesting because I initially thought you were saying the Church was exaggerating the importance of Hong Kong to LDS Asia stats and it seemed to me this was the case.
Not sure you would have been a part of this, but back in the day when I was a Chapel Mormon and the desert of Utah was the lush green straight from Woodruff's diary, Hong Kong held a mystical status for TBMs. The second coming was just around the corner, and one of the signs of the times was the mysterious Hong Kong temple slated would become part of China when Hong Kong was handed back over to China. It was as if the Brethren had plotted the Mormon version of the Trojan horse and Mormons everywhere whispered about how missionaries would pour from their prop at just the right time and convert millions upon millions of Chinese. I hadn't given this a thought until you posted this thread, but it doesn't appear the master plan worked. So the article feels like a post-hoc rationalization of Hong Kong's contribution to the growth of the kingdom in Asia.
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.
LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
I appreciate your posts, but sometimes I think you're just reaching. I think you're misleading yourself more than anything. Your own numbers, assuming the Mormon newsroom numbers are correct, show that they're in the right ballpark.
i wonder who approves what the numbers should be for articles that are put out concerning church members - seems like they just cookie-cutter everytime: they use the number baptized, without regard to number active inactive, dead, dying or gone out the door.
suniluni2 wrote:I appreciate your posts, but sometimes I think you're just reaching. I think you're misleading yourself more than anything. Your own numbers, assuming the Mormon newsroom numbers are correct, show that they're in the right ballpark.
Do you think the average attendance at Sacrament meetings across Asia is in the ball park of 566?
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
As I wrote somewhere on another thread, the membership of the ward I know is 450-500. In the chapel there are ~chairs, and it is always enough.
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei