Latter-day Saints in Brazil: The Reaction of Religious Leaders in the South, 1923–1935

I took a course entitled “Humanity and Transcendence” at a Brazilian Catholic university in 2018. During class, the professor began to tell a story about two young men from the United States walking down the street wearing suits with black cards in their pockets. At that moment, he stopped the story and asked if any Mormons were in the room. When I raised my hand, I noticed his embarrassment. He quickly summarized the story without making much connection to his broader point.I soon realized that informing my professors and student colleagues about my religious affiliation caused surprise and curiosity. A comment I heard several times was that I did not seem like a Mormon. When I asked why, some told me it was because of how I dressed (casually, in jeans and a T-shirt), the fact that I spent part of the day away from home instead of solely caring for my household and children, as well as how I interacted with people of different denominations and sexualities, among other things. All this made people wonder about my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Few, over my three and a half years of undergraduate and two years of master's studies, dared to ask me about controversial subjects. However, more than a century after Latter-day Saints ceased practicing plural marriage, two colleagues asked me about polygamy. Furthermore, they seemed to think that only North Americans were missionaries. There is also a different gaze directed at church members—especially women, whom non–Latter-day Saints perceive as homemakers with several children.Latter-day Saints, in other words, are a spectacle. This is especially the case on the global stage, and it is a dynamic that I have experienced in Brazil and observed in television shows and movies from the United States. These experiences, among others, reveal how Mormonism, with its gendered, sexual, and North American norms, is seen as aberrant within Brazilian culture.It is common for Brazilians who watch social media and documentaries to lump together multiple branches of the tradition founded by Joseph Smith and portray them as one thing. In Brazil, there is only one institution whose members are called Mormons: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Possibly because of that, the practices of all branches are reflected in the image that non-Mormon Brazilians have about Latter-day Saints. (This is changing: in 2019, a group called the Mormons of the Sealed Book emerged in southern Brazil. They are not very well-known, but they are gaining more social media visibility.) Within this perspective, we see the emergence of a collective imaginary regarding the members of this institution, who in today's Brazilian society are often seen as conservative, sexist, homophobic individuals who want to have as many children as possible and remain separated from the world. This is perhaps what led people to assume that I did not “seem like a Mormon.”Most of the time, my fellow Brazilians forget that I am a religious person because they do not perceive Christians as critical thinkers willing to listen and respect other points of view but rather as individuals who accept everything imposed by their institution, closed off to what does not fit into what is deemed “correct.” This kind of stereotype did not arise in a vacuum. Many Latter-day Saints in Brazil live and promote such a lifestyle. Some of them are quite conservative and sometimes spread hate speech against those who do not live like them. This group of people, unfortunately, often appear more prominently than the rest.Using one family and the first missionaries in Brazil as a case study, in what follows I explore the stereotypes surrounding Latter-day Saints in Brazil and trace the roots of this generalized imaginary back to the arrival of the LDS Church and its members in Brazil.The official establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil occurred in 1928 in the city of Joinville, within the southern state of Santa Catarina. However, even before the church's official arrival in the country, some members from other countries had come to Brazil seeking to maintain their religious practices despite a lack of institutional support. This was the case for part of the Kuhlmann Lippelt family, Germans who moved to Brazil in 1923. While still living in Germany in 1918, the family became acquainted with the LDS Church. All family members of baptismal age (eight) received the ordinance, except for the patriarch.1Robert Heinrich Lippelt did not believe in God and, after talking to some friends, heard some things about the denomination with which his family had associated that did not please him. Upon hearing from friends that men in the church had multiple wives, among other things, Lippelt prohibited his family from attending meetings. Even though Latter-day Saints had given up polygamy decades before, the spectacle of its past still shaped the church's present reputation.2 His desire to move to Brazil was in part due to the fact that the church had not yet been established there.The family arrived in Brazil in 1923. Robert Lippelt chose the interior of Santa Catarina to become a landowner and to move his wife away from a larger city, where she was beginning to talk about her religion to neighbors and acquaintances. Rio Preto, now known as Ipoméia, was a largely uninhabited locality. The Lippelts were the first to arrive in the region, where they settled eight months after they initially set foot in Brazil.The small village quickly grew, and with the arrival of these new people, some religious leaders also arrived. “During this period, a Catholic priest and a Protestant pastor arrived, although only the pastor stayed since the region was of the Protestant religion,” Georgine Lippelt, Robert's daughter, wrote. “When he learned that there was a Mormon family here, he began a discriminatory campaign against our family, including an attack on us by some boys instructed by the pastor.”3 The pastor's name and specific denomination do not appear in Georgine's records.4Parallel to these events, the first LDS Church leaders and missionaries arrived in South America. The church dedicated the continent for missionary work in 1925, establishing headquarters in Buenos Aires. They soon considered Brazil for proselytizing. Mission president Reinhold Stoof eventually selected Joinville in Santa Catarina due to its sizeable German-speaking population, the possibility of using the German translation of the Book of Mormon (there was no Portuguese translation at that time), the lack of Black people in the community (helpful due to the faith's racial restriction), and the proximity to Buenos Aires, among other factors.The missionaries arrived in Joinville in September 1928, along with the mission president, and began their work in Brazil. Elders William Fred Schindler and Emil Anton Heins were the first missionaries in Brazilian territory. Rio Preto and Joinville saw the emergence of stereotypes about Mormons; I will highlight two episodes from those cities that illustrate these stereotypes.During one of the meetings that took place during President Stoof's stay in Joinville, he gave a lecture seeking to debunk rumors about the church that were circulating among the people. In his speech, he “spoke a few words about the bad reputation the Mormons have, that they believe in Polygamy, and that the Mormon missionaries take the girls and young women to the western part of the United States to sell them in bad places and public houses.” Some of the rumors were more humorous. Stoof also shared “a true story of two old ladies who thought the Mormon had horns. At this, the people laughed exceedingly. After this he showed the slides and gave the explanation for them.”5 This excerpt from the mission's record about the mission president's speech shows the reception and perception of this new denomination in the city. The myths about Mormonism in the United States accompanied the religion to the southern continent of America.On the same day the president left Joinville, Seventh-Day Adventist pastor Karl Kaltenhäuser criticized the church during one of his lectures.6 Additionally, on October 1 of the same year, the city's Lutheran pastor, Hans Mueller, published an article against the church in a local evangelical newspaper. The opposition to the newly established religious institution is well-documented in the mission records. These two religious leaders, in particular, sought to dissuade the local population from listening to the newly arrived missionaries through media such as newspapers, pamphlets, and public lectures. Despite these attacks, attendance at Latter-day Saint Sunday meetings increased each week, perhaps because the stories people heard aroused their curiosity more than their fear.The Adventist pastor, Kaltenhäuser, advertised a meeting in the local newspaper for September 26, 1928, promising to explain everything about the Mormons. Mission records show that the Latter-day Saint missionaries also attended, which Kaltenhäuser probably did not anticipate. In his lecture, the pastor attempted to discredit the LDS Church by claiming that false prophets would die from unnatural causes, such as murder, the fate that befell Joseph Smith and his brother. He also addressed polygamy, a recurring argument for those against the denomination, saying that it probably continued to be practiced in secret despite the missionaries affirming that this practice no longer existed. However, one of the rumors that Kaltenhäuser spread that seemed to scare the local population the most, from what can be found in the records, was that Latter-day Saints abducted people, especially young women.Pastor Kaltenhäuser said that thousands of people went to Utah and had their lives spiritually and morally ruined. He emphasized young women and used the testimony of another pastor, who allegedly claimed that about six hundred Swiss girls and women “were robbed of their virtue in a very vulgar way.”7 While I was unable to find any corroboration of this story, I did come across some forums discussing human trafficking practices that pointed out certain actions by Mormon pioneers that could be interpreted as abductions. In his 1908 book Letters of an Apostate Mormon to his Son, Hans P. Freece includes an account of a woman, whom he does not name, who, in conversation with Freece, mentions her husband, who served a mission in England. Upon returning from the mission, he brought a young woman home with him who would become his second wife. Stories of this nature are familiar throughout the history of the church. It is not uncommon for missionaries to go to other countries and later marry someone they met there, which can contribute to the perception of young women being “taken away.”8All this imagery surrounding the Mormon religion, disseminated by leaders of other institutions, caused young women in the city to fear and distance themselves from the faith. In October 1928, an article was published in the local newspaper in which the Lutheran pastor, Mueller, spoke more about the Mormons, and this information seemed to influence the local population. During this period, Elders Heinz and Schindler recorded in the mission diary that “when we passed the young ladies on the street, they would nudge each other with their elbows and turn red in the face. I suppose they thought we were here to catch them and take them away.”9Such discourse, asserting the abduction of women, was not new. In 1842, a London magazine, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, devoted almost an entire page to discussing Mormonism and how Mormons deceived people, asserting that part of these deceptions was linked to the aim of taking people to North America.10 Furthermore, some of these missionaries who went to Europe would return with converts, including women, and some of them would end up getting married in the United States, sometimes as second wives. Georgine Lippelt's assertion in her manuscript that her father disliked the missionaries because they wanted to separate families may be rooted in what Robert Lippelt heard in Europe.11 The trope that Mormons abducted young women was so prevalent that it even appeared in the first Sherlock Holmes novel.12It is essential to understand that this reaction toward the Mormons was not rooted in Brazilian culture but was brought by immigrant leaders living in the country's southern region. Since then, there has been a dispute between the Latter-day Saints and other Christian denominations in Joinville, especially Seventh-day Adventists and Lutherans. As I began my research, I recognized the need to provide historical context for the LDS Church vis-à-vis other Christian groups. When I spoke with other religious studies scholars in Brazil, I was told that “Mormons” are not considered a Reformed Christian religion or even a Restorationist sect that had branched off from the Reformed traditions.In reading some books that attempt to classify religions, I saw different positions, where some constructed a tree and placed the LDS Church as one of the branches of Reformed Christian religions, while others excluded the Latter-day Saints. Furthermore, in conversations with research colleagues from other Christian faiths, there is always doubt as to whether Mormons are Christians—or whether Mormonism is even a religion. Some of the issues that lead to this perception include noncreedal views that define God as a glorified, embodied being having flesh and bones; that consider Christ to be the literal son of God; that the Bible is capable of containing errors due to its various sources and translations; and that there are degrees of glory rather than a simple opposition between heaven and hell.All these divergences place the Latter-day Saints in a peculiar relationship to other various Christian traditions, and they are often seen as desecrators of the Holy Trinity. And so, many religious leaders sought to discredit the principles preached by the missionaries, simultaneously creating both fear and curiosity. This kind of theological divergence may influence the view and the resistance to other practices of Latter-day Saints.Similar fear-mongering concerning the spectacle of Mormon degradation was found elsewhere in Brazil. As the Lippelt family established themselves on their new property, more people began to arrive to occupy the community. Among these people was a pastor, whose identity Georgine does not specify, who filled the religious power vacuum in Rio Preto.We can once again perceive an imagery that hovers over the members of the LDS Church, especially regarding their relationships. The awareness of the practice of polygamy accompanied the LDS Church wherever it went, and along with this history, other rumors populated this imagery, as evidenced by an accusation levied by this Protestant pastor who had established himself as a religious leader in Rio Preto and was responsible for the town's spiritual guidance. As Georgine tells the story, upon learning of the existence of a Mormon family, he initiated a discriminatory campaign against them.In her autobiography, Georgine recounts a specific incident that occurred between the first visit of the president of the South American mission, Reinhold Stoof, and the arrival of the missionaries who were sent to Rio Preto. She explains that her brother, Georg, “had a very fragile physique,” and because of this, she “needed to defend him and [they] had always been together.”13 In this episode, she and her brother were near their home when police detained them under false accusations that they were having a relationship. Local authorities had received a report of incest and went to investigate the alleged crime. The police tied them to a tree and interrogated them. Subsequently, the police realized the children were innocent and released them upon finding no basis for the accusation. Later, the next day, Georgine's mother, Auguste, received a visit from the police chief at their home, who revealed that the accusation had come from the local pastor and advised her to leave the episode behind.Other episodes of persecution occurred in other regions, especially where missionaries arrived in the 1920s and 1930s. Religious freedom was officially added to the Brazilian constitution in 1934, after centuries of religious influence, especially by the Roman Catholic Church, shaped the way of life of the country's inhabitants. Furthermore, religious leaders’ influence and power, especially during this period, are a noticeable characteristic of Brazilian culture. Within the group of more religious individuals, the discourse of superiority and exclusion toward forms of religious expression that diverge from what the majority preaches is dominant and recurrent.In both Joinville and Rio Preto, we can see that the LDS Church was not perceived as just another religious institution entering the region. Instead, hearing the name of the church, strongly associated with the name of the Mormon prophet, triggered a reaction that mixed curiosity, anger, and fear among ordinary people, along with a commitment to combat its perceived dangers among local religious leaders. Brazil had officially been a Catholic country for centuries, and its opening to other religious denominations occurred primarily for English Anglicans, who were trade partners of the Portuguese. The region where the Latter-day Saints began their proselytizing work was predominantly German, and these people were more receptive to religions known as Protestant. The fact that this region was mostly populated by immigrants, including the religious leaders who settled there, contributed to the propagation of the existing imagery from Europe and North America in Brazil. Analyzing these two scenarios leads us to reiterate the idea that the arrival of Mormons is viewed in a spectacular and mysterious manner by those who hear about the institution.As recorded in the South American mission register, despite the publications and lectures persecuting the church, the number of investigators in the cities where the church began its missionary work increased. The meeting held on September 21, 1928, where the mission president addressed rumors about the church, had as many as four hundred people in attendance. As it is said in the advertising world, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and at that moment, it is possible that the missionaries were using this mechanism to reach new members.Even to this day, Latter-day Saint practices arouse curiosity and doubts in those who hear about the institution, and there is continued curiosity, especially about its teachings on family organization and the relationship inside that structure. Most Brazilians have, by and large, embraced the reputation of Mormons as different or as “not Brazilian” through the combined influences of imported myths and stereotypes, active opposition from local religious leaders, theological and the curiosity and fear within the local population. These an where the LDS Church and is seen as an and both and to the Brazilian