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Summarized by Kent Larsen
South China Morning Post Skeptical About Mormons
South China Morning Post Skeptical About Mormons
HONG KONG, CHINA -- An article in today's South China Morning Post
recognizes the efforts of LDS missionaries in Hong Kong and the growth of
the LDS Church there, but takes a very skeptical view of the Church. The
article looks at LDS doctrine and practice in missionary work and genealogy
and looks at the reaction of critics to the Church, who claim that Mormons
aren't Christian and that missionary efforts are overly zealous.
According to the article LDS missionaries have been banned from mainland
China, which call's the Church a "cult" because of the "doomsday" reference
in the Church's name (i.e., Latter-day). But this hasn't stopped the Church
in Hong Kong, where the Church has grown to 20,000 members since its
intoduction there in 1949. Hong Kong has become, according to the article, a
regional headquarters for the Church, and in June the Church made what is
believed to be its largest foreign investment when it purchased property at
116 Gloucester Road in Wan Chai for a 25-story building, "the finest
building the church has ever constructed outside of Utah," according to Cree
L. Kofford, President of the Church's Asia Area.
But according to Hong Kong Temple President Brent Hardy, who served a
mission to Hong Kong in 1956, the island isn't as spiritually hungry as it
used to be, "Hong Kong was not a happy place. Refugees were looking for
something - there was a spiritual vacuum. There isn't that spiritual longing
here anymore." says Hardy.
Current missionaries include Elders Brandon John and Ben Torgensen, who
teach in Mandarin, trying to get converts among those from mainland China.
When the South China Morning Post visits with them, they are street
contacting in Exchange Square in Central, where some non-Chinese criticize
them, calling Mormonism an "aberrant" form of Christianity that undermines
the rest of Christianity, "You undermine the fundamentals on which
Christianity stands or falls," says Jason Porteous, a 32-year-old artist,
Scot and Christian.
Another non-Chinese critic is Louis Pabiout, who asks the missionaries, "Is
it legal in Hong Kong to be a zealot and push religion?" An anthropologist,
Pabiout claims to know when someone is a zealot, "I find your work
repulsive. You are bringing people into your way of thinking - if they come
to you, fine. You have to be respectful of other points of view and culture."
But Elders John and Torgensen shrug off the detractors, "That happens every
day," says Torgensen. They move on to an appointment with a woman for a
second discussion, but find that she hasn't yet felt the spirit of what they
are teaching, apparently listening to those who say that Mormonism is a "bad
religion."
One place where LDS beliefs mesh with those of the dominant beliefs in Hong
Kong is in a common respect for forebearers. Chinese members participate
like members in the US, collecting records and performing temple ordinances
for the dead. One member, Valencia Yu-Yan Hung, 46, has even traced her
lineage back to the fifth century BC chinese philosopher Confucius, who is
worshiped across Asia, and had temple work done for him. Another has given
175 volumes of his family's history, containing 200,000 names, to the Church
for temple work.
Source:
Preaching to the diverted
Hong Kong China South China Morning Post 4Aug00 N1
By Kenneth Howe
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