The term “Gentile” to refer for non-Mormons was mostly a thing in the 1800s, and is basically not a thing today. The last time this usage occurred in General Conference was in 1981, and that was quoting something written in the 1800s. The last time this usage occurred in General Conference not quoting something else was in 1936. (The LDS General Conference corpus is great.) The terminology that is used is “the world”, which puts much less focus on the uncleanness of individuals.
Mormonism, outside of Utah, is not disassociated from society at large. The attitude is instead “in the world, but not of the world”. There are some people for whom most of their friends are in the Church, and marriage within the Church is strongly encouraged. But there aren’t Mormon-specific workplaces or grade schools.[1] We do not think that entertainment or education can only be obtained within the community.
Relating insularity to ethnic purity also seems very wrong here. Missionary work is a major thing ! About 1⁄3 of all current members of the Church in the US were not raised in the Church. The world may be perceived as a hostile thing, but it’s full of people who we might potentially convert.
Our Church does have some private grade schools in the Pacific Islands, but none in the US. The ward I grew up in had <20 teenagers, and we went to at least 5 different high schools. In my 22 years of full time education, I have had exactly 1 class that had another member of the Church in it.
At the university level, things are more complicated. The Church does own BYU, BYU-Idaho, and BYU-Hawaii. There’s also SVU, although it’s not run by the Church itself.
The term “Gentile” to refer for non-Mormons was mostly a thing in the 1800s, and is basically not a thing today. The last time this usage occurred in General Conference was in 1981, and that was quoting something written in the 1800s. The last time this usage occurred in General Conference not quoting something else was in 1936. (The LDS General Conference corpus is great.) The terminology that is used is “the world”, which puts much less focus on the uncleanness of individuals.
Mormonism, outside of Utah, is not disassociated from society at large. The attitude is instead “in the world, but not of the world”. There are some people for whom most of their friends are in the Church, and marriage within the Church is strongly encouraged. But there aren’t Mormon-specific workplaces or grade schools.[1] We do not think that entertainment or education can only be obtained within the community.
Relating insularity to ethnic purity also seems very wrong here. Missionary work is a major thing ! About 1⁄3 of all current members of the Church in the US were not raised in the Church. The world may be perceived as a hostile thing, but it’s full of people who we might potentially convert.
Our Church does have some private grade schools in the Pacific Islands, but none in the US. The ward I grew up in had <20 teenagers, and we went to at least 5 different high schools. In my 22 years of full time education, I have had exactly 1 class that had another member of the Church in it.
At the university level, things are more complicated. The Church does own BYU, BYU-Idaho, and BYU-Hawaii. There’s also SVU, although it’s not run by the Church itself.