The New Face of Global Mormonism

Among the places the church says it is particularly vibrant are Brazil and Mexico, which have about 1 million Mormons each, and the Philippines, with nearly 600,000. In Africa, there are Mormon congregations in 27 countries.

Ebiloma said that five years ago, curious about this new church, he jumped off a city bus and walked into the buildings of tile and marble. He immediately liked what he heard inside, especially that no one preached that people of other faiths were going to hell. He had soured on the many Christian pastors he saw growing rich on collection-plate cash and admired the fact that Mormon church leaders are largely unpaid and support themselves with other jobs.

Abstinence from alcohol, another church practice, was a tougher sell. But gradually, with the help of his favorite part of the church -- regular home visits from missionaries and other members -- he abandoned Guinness, his favorite drink and one heavily advertised in Nigeria.

Now, the affable father of two said, he even tries to obey the church's no-caffeine rule. Tugging proudly at his belt, he said he had dropped 50 pounds and now weighs a trim 165. "I am so happy," he said. "I am at peace."

"If you are bereaved or you have a new baby or you don't have money to pay your hospital bills, church members rally around you," he said, smiling. "You tell me: Is this a church I should leave?"

Ebiloma is a now a Mormon priest, a lay position in the church which, three decades ago, he could not have held because of the color of his skin. Influenced by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, many Mormons in the United States grew increasingly uncomfortable with that policy -- including George Romney, the former Michigan governor who dropped out early in the 1968 presidential race and whose son, Mitt Romney, is now a Republican presidential candidate.

According to Newell Bringhurst, an American scholar who has written two books about the place of black people in the Mormon Church, the issue surfaced again in 1976, hurting Morris K. Udall, a Mormon, in his run against Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination.

It wasn't until 1978 that the Mormon president at the time said he had received a divine revelation and lifted the ban against ordaining black men to the priesthood, which has since been open to all "worthy" male candidates over the age of 12.

Like many members interviewed in Nigeria, Ebiloma said he knew nothing of that history. "But I know this church is not racist," he said. "Here it's strange if there is a white person in church."

Bringhurst said the church has been "more successful among blacks outside the United States than inside," partly because abroad there is less "awareness of this past historic discrimination."

The main pressure for the 1978 policy change, he said, "came from the Mormon Church wanting to expand outside the United States. There was a certain element of pragmatism. Potential growth was being impeded in places like Brazil and Africa."

Reaching Out Online

A few miles away, in another Mormon church, Muyiwa Omowaiye closed his eyes and fell back in the arms of a Mormon elder until he was completely under water.