Episode 131: The Scandinavian Mission

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Yes, folks, it's a big, wide, wonderful world. And I was really surprised to find out how many nationalities are represented in our musical family. The team for this show came from our happy Norwegian, Myron Florn. So we're going to keep Myron busy this evening.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:42)
Bryan and I decided that while we're doing this whole Mormon history podcast thing, why not get a little selfish? When we're doing this research, why not research our own families for once in a while?

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:55)
Now hold on, don't put this on me. I've been bragging about wanting to talk San Pete County since we started this podcast. I don't want to cook your goose here, but you've been long cunning us all along, haven't you?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:07)
It's true, is it that obvious? Anyone that knows me knows my love for San Pete County and knows that it knows no bounds. I'm kind of a silly goose about it.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:17)
Certainly not a great goose.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:18)
How's that?

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:19)
Nothing. Proceed.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:22)
No, but today I'm also a serious goose. My grandpa and grandma Hansen were born and raised in Fountain Green, Utah, which we're going to talk about soon. My great-grandmother was the daughter of wealthy sheep barons, and my grandfather came from poor Danish dirt farmers. Grandpa had a Danish lilt and kodiodel, and every year we visited Fountain Green, and now I visit their graves. They're buried in the cemetery over there.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:45)
Oh yeah, you go down there for the festivals. What is it? Fjord days?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:49)
Nice try. Lamb days. It's the thing that helped me develop a great disdain for eating lamb, and I'm a traitor to my people.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:56)
Boo boo. No Rogan Josh for you. Whatever. That's fine. Plan to talk about bringing home presents from your mission, like a brand new wife.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:06)
That's really rude and disrespectful and probably historically accurate. Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:17)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:19)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:47)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day. Saddle up.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:52)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:00)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast. Lindsay, quick, what's your favorite kind of Danish?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:25)
Uh, cheese?

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:26)
Wrong.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:26)
Wrong? How is there a wrong answer to this?

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:29)
Now, normally there are no wrong answers, but this time there definitely is, because the correct answer is history Danish.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:37)
Okay, well, I'm with you now. It sounds like it's time to check in with our friends at the University of Utah Press.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:42)
All right, now you're talking. The Danish-Mormon migration to Utah in the 19th century was, relative to population size, one of the largest European religious outmigrations in history. Hundreds of thousands of Americans can trace their ancestry to Danish-Mormons, but few know about the social and cultural ramifications of their ancestors' conversion to Mormonism. Danish, but not Lutheran, tells that exciting and complex story for the first time. In 1849, after nearly a thousand years of state-controlled religion, Denmark's first democratic constitution granted religious freedom. One year later, the arrival of three Mormon missionaries in Denmark and the rapid success at winning converts to the faith caused a crisis in Danish society over the existential question, how could someone be Danish but not Lutheran? Over the next half century, nearly 30,000 Danes joined the LDS Church, more than 18,000 of whom emigrated to join their fellow Mormons in Utah. This volume explores the range of Danish public reactions to Mormonism over a 70-year period, from theological concerns articulated by Soren and Peter Christian Kierkegaard in the 1850s, to fear-mongering about polygamy and white slavery in silent films of the 1910s and 1920s, and looks at the personal histories of converts. Danish but not Lutheran, The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity, 1850-1920 by Julie K. Allen from the University of Utah Press. Check them out at uofupress.com.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:25)
All right, I know I'm a little psychotic about San Pete County. Whenever I'm stressed, my mind drifts to the hot springs where my grandparents would take me to as a little girl, or the stories of Indian attacks they grew up hearing as children. And I plan to be buried there too. I'm just pretty romantic about it. And the history is really complex and complicated, especially since the entire area was Ute summer grounds, and the Utes were actively displaced by my ancestors. But the history really is an important part of Mormon history writ large, and that's why we're going to talk about it. And then we're going to get into my family history next episode.