Prince Ata of Tonga Baptised into LDS

[FeministShrew]

My oldest friend, who is a devout Mormon, just shared this. Her son helped teach Prince Ata while on his mission to Tonga. She's very proud because converting this guy is apparently a big deal.

Not breaking link because it's a news site.

http://www.nzkanivapacific.co.nz/2015/0 ... PXsKPnF9q0

[nausicaa]

Wow, that's really interesting. I know that the LDS church has had a lot of success with conversion in the Pacific islands. I wonder how much actual political power the monarchy has in Tonga, or if it's just ceremonial? It will be interesting to see if anything changes because of his religion if he ascends the throne (it seems he's the second son though). It would be the first LDS head of state, right?

[jaelh]

Tongan monarchy has enormous power. E N O R M O U S power. taken a bit of a PR battering in recent years (see: selling passports; trying to sell the genetic material of the population; massive real estate wealth etc)

The the Pacific islands are total hotbeds of Christian Denominational conflict (is that the word? contestation?). You can open a paper in Honoraria to see an editorial debate on wether the Sabbath should be held on Sat or Sunday. While Polynesia is 'less' Christian than Melanesia, it's a matter of degree, not form. I think the Mormons are already about 20% of the Tongan population. This must be a total feather in their cap. Take that, you Methodist heathens!

The mormons are also doing surprisingly (to me) well in the Philippines.

[Bethella]

Wow, that's really interesting. I know that the LDS church has had a lot of success with conversion in the Pacific islands. I wonder how much actual political power the monarchy has in Tonga, or if it's just ceremonial? It will be interesting to see if anything changes because of his religion if he ascends the throne (it seems he's the second son though). It would be the first LDS head of state, right?

I think that's pretty unlikely. He's currently fourth in line for the throne- his older brother already has two kids.

[terranova]

New Zealand has a pretty large PI community and I know a large portion of that is LDS, so it's not really surprising.

[DarkAnts]

There is a large Tongan population in Utah. Many Tongans play on BYU sports teams. My friend who went to BYU would hang out with the Tongans because she needed diversity.

[ADoyle90815]

In a way, I'm not surprised since one of the places the LDS church has been successful is in the Pacific Islands, and many of those people do play on sports teams for BYU. Even outside the college sports area, one of the larger minority groups you might find at a LDS ward is Pacific Islanders.

[nausicaa]

Tongan monarchy has enormous power. E N O R M O U S power. taken a bit of a PR battering in recent years (see: selling passports; trying to sell the genetic material of the population; massive real estate wealth etc)

The the Pacific islands are total hotbeds of Christian Denominational conflict (is that the word? contestation?). You can open a paper in Honoraria to see an editorial debate on wether the Sabbath should be held on Sat or Sunday. While Polynesia is 'less' Christian than Melanesia, it's a matter of degree, not form. I think the Mormons are already about 20% of the Tongan population. This must be a total feather in their cap. Take that, you Methodist heathens!

The mormons are also doing surprisingly (to me) well in the Philippines.

It makes me wonder, why do some missionary religions flourish in certain areas more than others? I wonder if anyone's ever done a study on the cultural aspects of the Pacific islands that make it more open to such conversions, especially LDS.

[eh02]

It makes me wonder, why do some missionary religions flourish in certain areas more than others? I wonder if anyone's ever done a study on the cultural aspects of the Pacific islands that make it more open to such conversions, especially LDS.

I think a lot of LDS success is because they tend to all be so well-educated, financially well off, and charming. And a lot of them are beautiful, too - I swear they must select for that...but overall, they have a very different type of attitude about their missions than, say, a Duggar. Most of them attend universities, many get graduate degrees, even the women usually attend higher education...they offer a much more appealing and, on the surface level at least, rational type of radical religion.

I think some people might convert quite literally just for the connections it provides, too. It's like joining a very powerful club. Mormons look out for each other in the business world, that's for sure. And they are pretty serious about making money and working hard.

[Cheetah]

There's a big Tongan community in our town, too... lots of Tongan kids at my kids' schools. They're mostly Methodists, though, as far as I can tell. Big families (for our area, 4 kids is a big family :-)). This year there are a couple of Tongan girls in my daughter's h.s. choir and since the football team captain is also Tongan, now half the football team shows up for the choir concerts :-).

[nomoxian]

The mormons are also doing surprisingly (to me) well in the Philippines.

In parts of Canada the LDS church has had success with people of Philippine heritage for a long time. At least when I was a kid, they even had a special ward catering to them... While LDS separate people based on where they live, and sometimes age (Young Single Adult wards, if there's enough young people to warrant it), they do not do it based on race. This ward was just for people who wanted to go to a church in their language.

[Hane]

Somewhat OT: Some years back, before the Mormon church changed its stand and allowed black men the priesthood in 1978, there was a story about a group of Africans who learned about LDS, were attracted to it, and reached out in hopes of joining the church. The situation was extremely awkward for the church, as they'd have had to tell these poor folks that black people were essentially second-class citizens in the church at that time.