By STEVE JENSE
It's official: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now has more than half of its 9.4 million members outside of the United States.
The announcement of the 'crossover' from a U.S. to a non-U.S. majority of members in the ever-expanding worldwide religion came Monday in a press release issued by LDS Church leaders.
'The church is growing in a marvelous and wonderful way,' said President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of the faith, in the press release.
Last Sunday was the estimated date of the actual crossover, according to a quote from W. Larry Elkington, manager of the church's management information center, in the March edition of the Ensign.
Elkington said the estimate came from the annual church growth reports. Based on the records, on Saturday there was a church population of 4,719,000 members outside the U.S. and the same number inside the U.S. for a total estimated church population of 9,438,000, he said.
'By the next day (Sunday, Feb. 25) of course the faster growing membership outside the U.S. crossed the equilibrium level of the previous day,' Elkington said.
Although the crossover is a milestone in LDS Church history, it is not the first time it has happened, according to a press release. In the early 1850s, nearly twice as many Latter-day Saints were found in England and Wales (c. 35,000) as in the United States (c. 18,000). But most of those early converts soon emigrated to the American West, the press release said. Today, the LDS Church is one of the fastest growing Christian churches in the world.
'We have a demanding religion,' Hinckley said in the press release. 'We have great expectations concerning our people. We have standards that we expect them to live by, and that is one of the things that attracts people to this church: It stands as an anchor in a world of shifting values.'
The most dramatic growth has been in Latin America, home to more than three million Latter-day Saints, the press release said. After the U.S., the countries with the most LDS members are Mexico and Brazil.
Dixon Anderson, BYU emeritus professor of Spanish, who served an LDS mission in Mexico in 1949, said the LDS Church in Mexico has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
'When I arrived in the Mexican Mission in March of 1949 there were two branches of the church in Mexico City,' Anderson said. According to the press release, Mexico now has 735,000 members.
'You can see how much it has grown in just that short time,' Anderson said.
No less rapid has been the LDS Church's growth in Brazil. LDS Missionary Training Center District President Merrill Frost, who served as president of the Brazil Recife Mission from 1985-86, said LDS leadership in the giant South American country has been forced into the hands of younger Latter-day Saints.
'We're getting stake presidents in Brazil that are in their 30s,' Frost said. 'These are all young men holding very responsible positions, and you just don't see that happening in the states.'
Frost said the caliber of Brazilian leadership has been steadily growing along with the number of members.
'Their leadership grows with their maturity in the church,' he said.
Frost said in 1952 when he served his LDS mission, there were 34 missionaries in Brazil. Now there are 26 missions and 300 new members a month, he said. There is even a former stake president from Fortaleza, Brazil, who is the current governor of one of the Brazilian states, Frost said. His name is Moroni.