Crypto-Mormons or Pseudo-Mormons?

However, the inherent limitations of this project should qualify any of its conclusions. There are 135 million people, eleven time zones, and thousands of isolated villages in Russia. Very likely there are meanings and uses of the term Mormon in Russia still unknown to those in neighboring villages let alone westerners.31 Future research may yet reveal actual hand- transcribed copies of the Book of Mormon and people, in addition to the Lindelofs, who display clear historical and doctrinal connections to Latter-day Saints. However, until that happens, the borrowing of a term inspired by popular stereotypes of marginal religious groups rather than the clandestine expansion and rediscovery of a lost branch of Latter-day Saint religion best explains the ongoing use of the term Mormon to refer to Russians who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Brigham Young University

Provo, Utah

NOTES

1 Since the early 1800s, believers in Joseph Smith's message have commonly been called "Mormons." This nickname comes from Latter-day Saints' belief in The Book of Mormon-a work of ancient scripture like the Bible that followers believe Joseph Smith translated from golden plates delivered to him by an angel named Moroni. Latter-day Saints believe that in his mortal life, Moroni was a prophet of God in Ancient America. Moroni's father, a prophet named Mormon, was also a prophet and the principal compiler of the book that bears his name. While many LDS people have a fondness for the nickname Mormon and honor the scriptural figure, many, including the official Church, feel the nickname detracts from the centrality of Jesus Christ in Latter-day Saint belief and slights the revealed official name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 Such stories circulate in many areas where Latter-day Saint missionaries are active. For some examples from Japan, see "The Lost Tribes of Israel" web page by folklorist D. Glenn Ostlund, .

3 On Latter-day Saint missionary folklore, see Wilson 1981; and LDS-World-Gems, LDS Internet Hoaxes and Mormon Urban Legends n. d. For a more appreciative look at Latter-day Saint missionary folklore, see Ostlund 1997-2000a.

4 Bulgakov [1913] 1993:1671. Butkevich 1910:597-600, also concludes the Samara "Mormons" had nothing to do with Joseph Smith.

5 Male missionaries engaged in active mission service are designated with the honorific "Elder." It corresponds to an office to which they are ordained in the priesthood and does not imply that they are elderly.

6 Special thanks is due Van Gessel for guiding us to scholarship on the Kakure Kirishitan of Japan. A useful book on this topic was Turnbull 1998. Japan's Shusaku Endo, regarded by many to be one of the world's greatest fiction writers, wrote several stories specifically about Japanese hidden Christians-for example see Gessel 1985 and Gessel 1993.

7 However, having a particular "motivation to discover" does not mean that if one finds what one is looking for that the find is necessarily suspect. British scholar Tudor Parfitt tells the story of how the Lcmba, alleged crypto-Jews in South Africa, have had their claims of Jewish ancestry backed up by recent genetic testing (Parfitt 2000).