The people that have the distributed BOM in turn distribute the books to Goodwill, St. Vincent DePaul and the ever available circular file. Of note is the fact that the JW's and the 7Th day adventists are faster growing religions than the LDS Church.

Hmmm.. 140M Books of Mormon distributed since 1830. 400M Harry Potter books sold since 1997. At least Harry Potter has only been translated into 67 languages or it would really be embarrassing.

Why dont you go read and worry about your own religion.
Stop commenting on things you dont know about or understand.

With over 2 billion Christians worldwide (645 million are Evangelicals or Bible believing Christians)over 72 million Bibles (the infallible word) are distributed...a year. I guess the LDS church isn't as popular as they would like to believe or have their followers believe.

Jenny,
The source of the information you are commenting on is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in a newspaper owned by the Church. So why would you conclude that "they" want followers to believe something different? Also, the Church has a lay clergy. Who exactly do you think the "they" you refer to are?
"We" know that the field is large and the laborers are few. "We" are doing our best. In round numbers, 1 Copy of the Book of Mormon per year for every 5 or 6 members of the Church. 1 copy of the Bible per year for every 27 Christians (or 9 "Bible believing"). And don't forget that members of the LDS Church are accounting for some of those Bibles! I think that shows that we are not slackers.

Editor:

Please note that there is no book written titled: "Books of Mormon." There are, of course, "copies" of the Book of Mormon distributed by the millions. Please pass the word along to your headline writers, and all others: "The Church placed 140 million copies of the Book of Mormon."

Thanks.
Bob West

FYI-- As members of The Church of JESUS CHRIST are COUNTED as Christians (= those who teach, profess and believe in the Bible hence in Jesus Christ as the only beloved Son of God in the flesh, the second member of the Godhead, born a virgin birth and allowed himself to be crucified for ALL and rose a resurrected being on the third day, and work to follow his example of living) in most circles (but a FEW denominations or authors (the first I believe being of "the Kingdom of the Cults" by Walter Martin, which book/author ALSO denies as Christians JW and 7thD. A) who maybe see themselves as elitist judges contrary to Jesus being the judge) and as I ALSO buy used BIBLES from Thrift stores, which I ALSO give away free with the copies of the Book of Mormon, I find the comparison flawed to say the least. I TOTALLY doubt the supposed statistic that JW & 7thD. A. are growing faster than LDS. Nevertheless, what REALLY counts is that each person acts on their own convictions and watches their OWN walk that the LORD will judge them as worthy servants, so may we do!

Bob, FYI, Books of Mormon is perfectly acceptable English. I'll refer you to section 5.19 of the Chicago Manual of Style, which discusses the plurals of compound nouns. According to Chicago, you form the plural "by adding the appropriate ending to the noun or, if there is more than one, to the main noun." This is why we have courts martial and attorneys general, and not "sessions of court martial" and "dudes who are attorney general," which are awkward constructions, as is "copies of the Book of Mormon."

But the real question is, why the fuss about the simple fact that the Church has given out millions of Books of Mormon? What I want to know is whether these statistics include all the BoMs that the Reorganized Church (now Community of Christ) and other Mormon groups have published.

And why does every article about the LDS Church turn into an online argument about who is and isn't a Christian? Why don't we just let Christ decide and not get all offensive or defensive about it? He'd probably say, "Christians are those who act like me."

(Sorry if this is there twice. There was an error.)
Arkay - the title of the book is "Book of Mormon". You don't pluralize the title of the book. It is not awkward to say "copies of the Book of Mormon." It is correct. Bob is right.

So why would it be Books of Mormon? Do you say Doctrines and Covenants

Oh! who cares about all the technicalities! Get a life!

Matthew

Stop telling falsehoods. The Church DOES NOT have a lay clergy. The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles do NOT work jobs separate from their "jobs" in the Church. Their expenses are completely paid for, just like any business executive. They each receive a generous "stipend" (called a "salary" in the business world) for their personal and family living expenses.

It is a complete LIE to say the Church has a lay clergy! Just because local bishops and stake presidents are not "paid" and receive no "stipend" does not mean the higher-ups a working for free!

Look into it. Educate yourself before you make more misleading statements.

General Authorities work full time for the church. It's but natural that they get compensated for their daily living expenses.

To Anonymous,

Would you mind please sharing with the world the source of your information regarding the income of General Authorities of the LDS Church? It is easy to make an argument without facts - it is quite a different thing to back that argument up with indisputable facts. I have personally been in the homes of several members of the Quorum of the Twelve and been a witness to their lifestyle and I serously challenge your assertion that they are "paid clergy".
Even if your assertion was true as applied to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve - this would hardly back up your argument that the LDS church having a paid clergy is a LIE....when you consider

2,790 Stakes x 30 adult leaders in each =
83,700 UNPAID Stake Clergy

27,827 Wards x 35 Adult Leaders in each =
973,945 UNPAID Ward Clergy

Total UNPAID Clergy in the World =
1,057,645

versus (according to your false argument)
15 Paid "higher ups".

These numbers would hardly be considered a "paid clergy" by any attorney in any court of law.

If you're going to argue against the Lord's servants - at least have your facts straight!