WI: Mormon Māori?

TIL about Paora Te Potangaroa, Tāwhiao, & Pai Marire.

So WI IOTL the Māori converted to Mormonism en masse? Perhaps the British are occupied elsewhere and the Second Māori War is even more of a clear victory for the Māori, thus either butterflying away entirely or severely reducing the impact of the Third Māori War. At the same time the repression against Mormons in the US is more severe, allowing for a steady stream of Mormon immigrants to settle on the North Island to become absorbed into Māori society. The two together would keep the non-British population numbers up, and drive a viable Māori-Pākehā syncretic religion, and society, based largely on Mormonism.
 
So WI IOTL the Māori converted to Mormonism en masse? Perhaps the British are occupied elsewhere and the Second Māori War is even more of a clear victory for the Māori, thus either butterflying away entirely or severely reducing the impact of the Third Māori War. At the same time the repression against Mormons in the US is more severe, allowing for a steady stream of Mormon immigrants to settle on the North Island to become absorbed into Māori society. The two together would keep the non-British population numbers up, and drive a viable Māori-Pākehā syncretic religion, and society, based largely on Mormonism.

This could happen. The LDS church has made heavy inroads in other Polynesian societies - figures for Tonga, for instance, range from 20 percent to more than 40 percent of the population. If the high-end figure is believed, then Tonga has more Mormons, as a share of the population, than any other country. Samoa and Hawaii also have large Mormon communities (and for that matter, there are quite a few Samoans and Tongans living in Salt Lake City). And the Mormons did conduct missionary activities in New Zealand starting in the late 19th century - there are about 40,000 Mormons in NZ today, half of whom are Māori and many others of whom are Samoan and Tongan immigrants.

The thing is that the Polynesian Mormons aren't syncretic - they're pretty orthodox. The LDS church, unlike the other churches that evangelized in Polynesia, is highly centralized, and the wards and stakes in the Pacific are subject to pretty tight oversight from Utah. So, in order to get a truly syncretic religion (as opposed to plain-vanilla Mormonism with a few Māori surface trappings), the Māori would have to convert en masse to Mormonism and then reject the Utah church leadership in favor of an independent, locally based hierarchy. This, in turn, would probably forestall large-scale Mormon immigration from the United States. On the other hand, maybe the Mormon immigration can be the triggering event for the split - American Mormons move to the eastern part of the North Island, come into conflict with the Māori worshipers over issues both doctrinal and racial/cultural, and the Māori respond by taking what they like of Mormonism and setting up their own church. I'm imagining a Mormon marae now, and kind of liking the thought.
 

I think the big thing to recognize here is that much of the spread of Mormonism throughout Oceania has been something that's happened during the 20th century, long after the Church fully established and Centralized itself in Utah.

If, rather than the Mormons primarily settling in Utah and the surrounding areas, they split, with groups going elsewhere, including immigrating to places outside the U.S. than their's a much higher likelyhood that Mormonism would'nt be so Centralized and you could have a syncretic mix, especially if it starts in the 19th century when their was more room for changes than in the 20th.
 
I think the big thing to recognize here is that much of the spread of Mormonism throughout Oceania has been something that's happened during the 20th century, long after the Church fully established and Centralized itself in Utah.

If, rather than the Mormons primarily settling in Utah and the surrounding areas, they split, with groups going elsewhere, including immigrating to places outside the U.S. than their's a much higher likelyhood that Mormonism would'nt be so Centralized and you could have a syncretic mix, especially if it starts in the 19th century when their was more room for changes than in the 20th.

Hmmm. Maybe the best POD here would be the aftermath of Joseph Smith's death. In OTL, not everyone accepted Brigham Young as leader, and a couple of the rivals set up their own church organizations. In the ATL, the split would be sharper and, rather than a majority of the church coalescing around Young, several claimants would lead congregations of roughly equal size. During the 1850s, one of these would end up in New Zealand after being driven out of several American havens, and will evangelize the Maori. The result will be a church that's primarily Maori in population, and given how early this is in the history of the LDS movement, the traditions and doctrines will be less established and easier to syncretize (in fact, it may be the Maori element that dominates).

Alternatively, the majority of Mormons could go to Utah as in OTL but then get driven out of there in the 1850s or 60s, with most going elsewhere in North America but a sizable number ending up in New Zealand. This way there would still be a "mother church" in the United States, but the branches might be more independent and the doctrine less centralized.
 
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