Mormonism /or/ Mitt to Wit ! - by TPO

Mormonism  /or/  Mitt to Wit !
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TPO

Question: How many Mormons are there in France?

Answer: There are about 36 thousand baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" church) in France. *

* Source: http://wiki.answers.com
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Les Mormons de France

By Rod Dreher (April 16, 2012) **

Did you know that France has 36,000 Mormons? I did not. On the train from Paris to Chartres, I met two young Mormon missionaries, and fell into conversation with one who had been in the country only three weeks. Nice guy, straight from Utah, struggling to speak French, but admirably soldiering on. I asked him about his experiences trying to spread his faith among the French. He said so far, they had been mostly positive, though inconclusive in terms of conversions. Most people, he said, simply don’t know what Mormons are, and when they find out, they aren’t really hostile, just distant.

“I make it my mission just to love people and help them,” he told me. “Last week, a group of us got together and cut up a tree that had fallen on somebody’s house. We do service projects like that. If they end up wanting to talk about faith, we’re ready for that. But mostly we just want to serve. That’s how we earn the right to share our faith with them.”

I don’t know if this impressive young man will have any success converting Frenchmen to the LDS faith, but if he does, it will be precisely because he put love and service first, not direct proselytizing.

** source: theamericanconservative.com
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Question: Do Mormons have temples in France?

Answer: by Cabal [in Answers.yahoo.com]
(Best Answer - Chosen by Voters)

Mormons do not have temples in France as they are not recognised as a religion but as a sect. They can proletize [sic], very discreetly, but they cannot have a big building with religious symbols and such. They don't have many members in France and never had, their habit to 'convert' dead people by 'baptising' them does not count.

Their numbers were around 34,000 in 2007, 30% of whom are considered practising [sic], for a population of 64 millions French. 10% were foreigners (4.2% Africans) and 22.8% were of foreign origin. [Source(s): Socio-histoire du mormonisme en France (1850-2008)]
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In the Sixties (1967, to be exact), Mitt Romney went to France to do Mormon missionary work. He thus was able to avoid being drafted into military service and fighting in the Vietnam war. How did Romney find France ...?

France is [and has for a long time been] historically and culturally Catholic, even if many of its citizens don’t actively practice that faith. For many, changing from the Catholic faith would be giving up family traditions. And Mormonism, with its prohibitions on alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, was a tough sell in a land of red wine, Galois cigarettes and espresso. According to Mulloy Hansen, a fellow missionary, there were perhaps 4,000 Mormons in the whole country at the time.

Conclusion: It has now been 45 years since Romney's missionay days in France. And the number of French Mormons has grown by only 30,000.  Has it all been worth it for Mitt?  Hardly significant, by any standard.  But don't forget ... over 47,000 Americans died in combat in Vietnam tandis que Mitt savourait ses brioches dans des cafés de Paris!