European Missionaries and Hmong Migration

European Missionaries and Hmong Migration

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

  • Jan 30, 2016
  • 1:43:38 mins

Missionaries in Europe (1:03) Guests: Eric Dursteler, PhD, Professor of History at BYU; Cindy Brewer, PhD, Professor of German Language and Literature at BYU; Craig Harline, PhD, Professor of European and Religious History at BYU Mormons are well-known today for their proselyting efforts. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it has 84,000 missionaries currently serving in more than 400 missions around the world. They proselyte two-by-two in every country where the government and political climate will allow. But the Mormons didn’t invent missionary work. From the day of Jesus Christ’s death, people calling themselves Christian have been out to convert unbelievers to their gospel. Over centuries, the focused shifted. First it was toward Europe, then to converting the people of Africa, Asia and the Americas. And then back to Europe. Tracing the paths of missionaries offers an interesting look at how religion has spread and evolved across the globe. That’s our quest this hour with three scholars of religious and European history. Lessons from the Hmong Migration (51:10) Guests: Jacob Hickman, Ph.D, Professor of Anthropology at BYU; Bruce Thao, Founder and CEO of LIT Consulting; Pa Der Vang, Assistant Professor of Social Work at St. Catherine University Millions of people from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are fleeing war and poverty to seek refuge in Europe and the West. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says this is the most significant migrant crisis since World War II. Some 20 million people have been forcibly displaced from their countries. Another 30 million people have been displaced from their homes, but haven’t left the country. How can countries like Germany, Canada or the US help these people? There’s intense debate about whether or not to even let refugees in. But even when we do, is that enough? There are lessons to be learned from a period of mass migration America experienced 40 years ago when some 300,000 Hmong people fled the Communists in Laos. A close look at the successes and failures of that mass migration could help nations better help this latest wave of refugees.