In a letter to the Gridley, California Herald, 27 July 1912 –
I [Ray McIntyre King] am a Gentile myself, but I have associated intimately with the Mormon people some fifteen years, and I have this to say of the Church of Latter-day Saints: It is one of the most virile, aggressive and growing of modern churches. It does not practice race suicide, therefore inevitably it will outgrow (from within itself) any Gentile church having a constantly decreasing Sunday school membership. The Mormon mother of five, ten, twelve children, may well smile with satisfaction over the futile, puttering “church work” of the childless woman in other churches. Raising five, ten, twelve children for the church beats any way I know of for building up rapidly a powerful, homogeneous church membership.
Also, be it noted, the men (not a handful of women and one lone preacher) run the Mormon Church. It appears to be a man’s church, conducted by men on business principles. You may call it sacredizing business, or commercializing religion, as your prejudices dictate, but the fact remains that it produces a powerful and virile church. In these days of empty, feminized churches it is worth going a long way to see a pulpit rostrum crowded with men, young and old, farmers, mechanics, businessmen, conducting, Sunday after Sunday, religious services while their women tend the little ones down in the audience. Well, you can see that any Sunday out at Social Hall in the Mormon colonies [at Gridley].
— From Liahona, the Elders’ Journal, 3 September 1912
it’s sad that I could see this report being made on more than a few LDS blogs, referring to modern times, with great approval. 🙁
I do not agree with Frank’s assessment. Though written in a different age with different norms and expressions, the author identified aspects of the church that are still true today and are, by in large, virtues.
100 years ago Christianity was in crisis because men were not involved. The movie “Chariots of Fire” makes that clear when discussing the possibility of a “muscular Christian” like Eric Liddel serving as a role model for Presbyterian men. The well was drying up. This phemenon I observed in the late sixties among many Protestant churches-church work was for women. Some have argued that that is a good measure of why mainline churches have witnessed such a decline in recent years. Yet I see it being fought today in men’s groups in my friends’ non-denom congregations with only mixed success.
Our structure and leadership ensure that men remain involved. We may decry aspects of what our church is and does, but on the whole we have both men and women actively involved in the work.
Honoring Motherhood and having larger than average families are also a continuing feature of the church. It does give us a demographic advantage when combined with conversions that expand our numbers and influence in the world.
On the whole, these are good things.