Item Detail
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33179
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0
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12
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English
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Sweeping the Nations: Mormonism, Colonialism, and Patron-Client Networks in the Indian Ocean World, 1851-1856
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Journal of Mormon History
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October 2023
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49
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4
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124-150
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"This article reevaluates the purposes and outcomes of the LDS Indian Ocean mission (1851-1856) by comparing it with the Protestant missions already operating on the subcontinent to reveal important differences in missionary strategy. The Mormon expedition was not a 'mission' in the conventional, evangelical sense of the word. That is, its primary purpose was not to establish an overseas religious community that promoted the spiritual and temporal improvement of local peoples. For the most part, LDS missionaries like Luddington ignored local people and focused on the British diaspora in Asia. Mormonism was unsuccessful within the British cantonments because both its practice of plural marriage and emigration policy undermined British imperialism.
"Once LDS missionaries turned their gaze toward Native communities, their efforts to assist local acolytes in crossing socioreligious boundaries paled in comparison to the efforts of their Protestant couterparts. Bengalis, for example, viewed the baptism ritual as a process of 'affiliation' rather than 'conversion,' and expected both spiritual and temporal rewards from their association with Christian churches. Protestants responded to this challenge by creating replacement communities and dispensing patronage through their vast network of institutions and resources. Mormons, having only recently arrived, had a much more difficult time adjusting to the cultural, social, and economic ramifications of baptism in India. Above all, the failure to account for the role of the patron-client system in religious affiliation seriously hindered LDS missionary efforts in Native communities." [Author]
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