How Many Mormons Have Actually Read the Book of Mormon?
NOT SOME OF IT, BUT ALL OF IT?
Starting on a humorous note, an old friend in Idaho cheekily said, "If you were to take all the Mormons who have fallen asleep reading the Book of Mormon and lay them down, head to toe — they'd be more comfortable." Another saying I grew up with suggested that many a true word was said in jest. Mark Twain wrote, "All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the "elect" have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so "slow," so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print (my emphasis). If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle — keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate."
Mr. Twain further described the Book of Mormon after reading it, "The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James's translation of the Scriptures (sic); and the result is a mongrel — half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern — which was about every sentence or two — he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc., and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass" was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet."
Nevertheless, for many believers, the existence of the Book of Mormon matters much more than what is inside it. Just as with the Jewish Torah, the physical presence is as essential as the contents. After all, the Book of Mormon was an American divine discovery! A very American idea, we are unique and chosen, and we have a book to prove it! Well, so they say.
Interestingly though, since the 1980s, the Mormon prophets have continuously and heavily urged their members to read and study the Book of Mormon. International, regional, and local pressure or "encouragement" was, and is, necessary as not every member willingly reads the "sacred" scripture and certainly doesn't read it conscientiously or in whole. But if that's the case, then the Pew Research Center team seems to contradict me. Why is that?
As you can see in the chart below, Mormons came out top of all faiths for the frequency of reading scripture at 77%. How can that be? Let me explain using my 35-year LDS church membership and personal experiences in church leadership positions in England and the USA (Utah and Arizona).
Using Approximation Theory: Steve's Version!
Approximation methods in Math "mean using analytical procedures for developing solutions in the form of functions that are close, in some sense, to the exact, but usually unknown, solution of the nonlinear problem." (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0076539208625667)
So, here we go. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormons, has 16.8 million members as of 2022, at least on paper. However, many people have never attended or stopped attending church many years ago. However, if we take the 16.8 million number and divide it by 30%, which is the average church attendance or active membership, we see 5 million. From that 5 million number, we further divide it by 20% to identify the number of average current Temple Recommend holders, the goal of dedicated Mormons; we then see 1 million. The attendance average of those still attending the Mormon temple regularly is about 50%, giving us the figure of 500,000. Of that number, experience tells me that 50% read and study the Book of Mormon religiously and seriously from beginning to end, and not selectively. For those not familiar with Mormon practices, it should be noted that scripture reading, if done at all, is mainly selected portions as chosen by self or church manuals, which do likewise. And so, we are left with 250,000 members, or 1.5%, who may be deemed extremely serious about reading the Book of Mormon.
If this approximate figure is even close to my experience over many years, the actual figure is more like 1.5%. Although the Pew Research Center may have a figure of 77% of Mormons leading all faiths in the "frequency" of reading scripture, the reality is far different. Frequent, maybe, but studying the whole book, not so. Of course, this exercise has many holes, but the point is to illustrate how generalized terms and surveys can suggest outrageously incorrect and misleading numbers. As with most data and information from the Mormon church, white-washed public relations are vastly different from reality. Mormons may cite that 192 million copies of The Book of Mormon have been published, and somebody must be reading them. Very true, but just like Temple Square in Salt Lake City, both are for church members' use.
As the Mormon population of the world is 0.2%, as of 2022, and at least half of them are not active members, only 0.1% of the world's population can be designated as active church members. 1.5% of earnest Mormon readers from a 0.1% active membership of the world population suggests that after almost 200 years, the Book of Mormon has not, in reality, flooded the earth as expressed by many a Mormon prophet.
And then, understanding what you are reading is a whole different question, but that's for another article.
© Stephen G. Arrowsmith 2022
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