The LDS Republic - Researchers Say Mormonism Could be America’s 1st or 2nd Largest Religion by 2100

Source Links: https://www.denverpost.com/2012/12/22/lds-scholars-mormon-moment-could-expand-into-cultural-shift/ & http://web.archive.org/web/20200810120535/https://www.unz.com/akarlin/lds-republic/ "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is on track to grow in a way that will change the religious complexion of the United States, social scientist and LDS convert Mark Koltko-Rivera says. This so-called “Mormon moment” in U.S. culture — when everything from the presidential race to Broadway’s award-winning musical features Mormons — is about “to morph into the Saints’ century,” Koltko-Rivera predicts. He says Mormonism will be America’s first- or second-largest religion by 2106. So far it’s grown from six members in 1830 to 14 million members worldwide — allowing contemporary social scientists to witness the birth of a world religion, albeit one with only 0.2 percent of the global religious. Using a “low growth” model of 2 percent per year for the next century, Koltko-Rivera calculates that Mormons will number more than 21 million worldwide by 2030 and more than 125 million by 2120. Rodney Stark, co-director for Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, used the LDS growth rate from 1940 to 1980, to estimate Mormons could number 265 million members by 2080. Koltko-Rivera’s book “The Rise of the Mormons: Latter-day Saint Growth in the 21st Century,” released in October, suggests “a more Mormon” country would be healthier, better educated, have more stable families and more concern for the poor and needy. Projecting forwards another century after 2100, and Mormonism may well have come to dominate the entire Western US, as opposed to just its Mountain heartlands. LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said the church continues to grow at a steady rate, as indicated by the need to build more chapels and temples to accommodate membership. “We do not compare our growth to other faiths or make claims to be the fastest-growing Christian faith,” Hawkins said. “Our interest is not in numbers, but in individuals.”" Created with https://text-to-speech-demo.ng.bluemix.net/ & https://www.oneimagevideo.com/