Changing a Web Address
While President Nelson, speaking at the October LDS General Conference, declared that nicknames are “a major victory for Satan,” he failed to offer a good alternative. In the religion section of the Salt Lake Tribune for September 27, 2018, David Noyce wrote about the dilemma facing the LDS Church web developers.
Click on Become.org or Worshipwithus.org and what do you get? Well, it turns out, Mormon.org. What’s with that? Not surprisingly, it has to do with the faith’s efforts to steer away from use of the “Mormon” nickname.
Will they be able to come up with a good alternative to “LDS” or “Mormon” in their various web addresses? “Become.org” and “Worshipwithus.org” are easily confused with other faith-based web sites. Adding to the problem, the LDS Church has already invested millions of dollars in their 2011 “I’m A Mormon” campaign.
Utilizing the web name Mormon.org as a gateway for outsiders to learn about their faith, the LDS Church heavily promoted the new site. In 2014 they even set up “New Mormon Kids” app on http://www.mormonchannel.org.
It remains to be seen if the LDS Church can come up with a new short way of referring to itself that will also work on public media.
No More “Mormon Tabernacle Choir”
In accordance with President Nelson’s edict to stop using the terms “Mormon” and “LDS,” their famous choir has now been renamed “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.” [Associated Press, October 5, 2018]
Since Nelson’s concern with using nicknames was that it left out the name of Christ, one wonders why they didn’t rename the choir the “Church of Jesus Christ Tabernacle Choir?” Isn’t “Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square” just as lacking as “Mormon Tabernacle Choir?
Two-hour Sunday meeting block unveiled
At the Saturday session of the October 2018 General Conference, President Nelson announced that the LDS Church was changing the Sunday services from a 3-hour block to a 2-hour block. Apostle Quentin Cook explained that the traditional three-hour block will be shortened as of January 2019, to
60-minute sacrament service, down from 70 minutes, will be followed by a 50-minute class period after a 10-minute transition period. Classes will alternate by week, with traditional Sunday school meetings on the first and third weeks of each month, and the faith’s all-male priesthood, female Relief Society and youth classes held on the second and fourth weeks. [11:20 a.m. – Sunday church schedule wasn’t just “shortened,” apostle says, it was “strengthened.”
No More High Priest Group in the Ward
Another change announced at the LDS General Conference was the disbanding of the local ward High Priests meeting.
During the general priesthood session on Saturday, March 31, President Russell M. Nelson announced a “significant” restructuring of ward and stake Melchizedek Priesthood quorums that will help Melchizedek Priesthood holders “accomplish the work of the Lord more effectively. In each ward, the high priests group and the elders quorum will now be combined into one elders quorum,” he said. There will continue to be a stake high priests quorum, but it will [be] based on “current” priesthood callings.
One is left to wonder if this was, in part at least, a necessity due to lower attendance.
Down with Home Teachers, Up with Ministering
The LDS Church newsroom reported:
During the Sunday afternoon session of April general conference, President Russell M. Nelson announced a significant change to the way members serve and care for each other.
The separate programs of home teaching and visiting teaching will be “retired,” he said, becoming a coordinated effort called “ministering,” a “new and holier approach” to Christlike caring for others and helping meet their spiritual and temporal needs.
Further on in the same article we read:
Elders quorum presidencies will assign ministering brothers to every household, and Relief Society presidencies will assign ministering sisters to each adult sister. Sister Bingham suggested elders quorum and Relief Society leaders counsel together prayerfully. Then, she said, “rather than leaders just handing out slips of paper,” they make assignments in person in a conversation about the strengths, needs, and challenges of those to whom brothers and sisters minister.
However, some have observed that it just looks like reshuffling titles. How is “ministering” different from assigning visiting teachers?
LDS Women to take 10-Day Fast from Social Media
On October 6, 2018, Fox 13 reported:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Russell M. Nelson invited women church members to participate in a 10-day fast from social media Saturday during the General Women’s Session. Nelson stated the following during his speech at the session:
First, I invite you to participate in a 10-day fast from social media and from any other media that bring negative and impure thoughts to your mind. Pray to know which influences to remove during your fast. The effect of your 10-day fast may surprise you. What do you notice after taking a break from perspectives of the world that have been wounding your spirit? Is there a change in where you now want to spend your time and energy? Have any of your priorities shifted—even just a little? I urge you to record and follow through with each impression.
[“LDS Church President invites women to make 10-day fast from social media,” Fox 13 News, October 16, 2018]
While the LDS women may have benefited from a 10-day fast from social media, one is left to wonder why the same advice wasn’t given to the men of the church?
LDS Girls Passing the Sacrament?
This year saw a few LDS wards allowing girls to help with passing the sacrament. While it doesn’t seem to be a concession to women wanting LDS priesthood, it does signal a lessening of restrictions on women participating in areas that were previously male-dominated. One bishop justified the change in practice by saying it is “no different than deacons handing trays to members in the pews, who then hand them from person to person, regardless of gender.”
[“With the church’s blessing, Mormon girls are passing the sacrament—and not just to the members sitting next to them,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 3, 2018]
Two-Transfer Missionaries?
In recent years the LDS Church has sought ways to insure a successful missionary experience, especially for special needs people. In 2017 one blogger observed:
What are two-transfer missions? A two-transfer mission is a temporary, three-month mission where a missionary facing unique challenges (e.g. social anxiety disorder, autism spectrum, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.) stays in their home area and serves with local missionaries. In effect, it’s a “trial run” for a missionary who may not be confident in their ability to serve a full-length mission and needs a chance to experiment. Two-transfer is different from a “mini-mission,” where a prospective missionary goes out with local missionaries for a week or two. The two-transfer option is suggested by church headquarters, not requested by the missionary.
Two-transfer missionaries don’t go to the MTC when the mission begins. Instead, they get dropped off directly at the mission home and get to work in the community immediately. If their performance doesn’t go as hoped for, they are honorably released from their mission call after three months. If they find success and maintain their desire to serve, they can be called to a church-service mission or full-time mission. They might stay in their home area or be called to another part of the United States. A trip to the MTC occurs in-between their two-transfer and full-time missions.
[https://theprogressivemormons.com/two-transfer-missionsyes-these-missionaries-have-every-right/]
12 New LDS Temples Announced
Russell M. Nelson, 94-year-old president of the LDS Church, announced at the October general conference plans to build 12 new temples. One will be in southern Utah, bringing the state’s total to 20 temples. Also planned is the renovation of the historic Salt Lake City temple.
[Twelve Temples Announced as October 2018 General Conference Closes]
President Russell M. Nelson recently spoke of the importance of temple rituals, and future revelation:
“The Book of Mormon teaches over and over again that you need to have the ordinances,” he emphasized. “And of course, that’s why we have temples so that all the potential that God has in store for His children can become a fact, a reality. . . . No one else can offer perpetuation of the family unit beyond the grave. And that, according to our Heavenly Father, is the greatest gift that He can give to His children.”
“We’re witnesses to a process of restoration,” said the prophet. “If you think the Church has been fully restored, you’re just seeing the beginning. There is much more to come. . . . Wait till next year. And then the next year. Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest. It’s going to be exciting.”
[Latter-day Saint Prophet, Wife and Apostle Share Insights of Global Ministry]
Tithing Ends Poverty Cycle?
President Nelson recently declared tithing can break cycles of poverty in poor nations and families.
“We preach tithing to the poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles of poverty, generation after generation,” he said. “That same poverty continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing.”
The law of the tithe was followed by ancient peoples as taught by Old Testament prophets. LDS faithful believe God restored the law and its blessings for those who follow it by giving one-tenth of their income to the church.
End of Mormon Pageants?
According to the Deseret News, October 27, 2018, the LDS Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York will end after its 2020 season.1 The other six pageants are also coming under review. If the Mormon Miracle Pageant, held in Manti, Utah, continues it is assumed it will see a name change as well as a paring down of the size of the cast.
[Deseret News, October 27, 2018]
For some reason, the LDS missionaries were forbidden to attend the Hill Cumorah pageant this past summer. The attendance at the pageant evidently reached its height in 1997, with about 73,000 attending. But this year the number dropped to 25,000, and most were already members of the church.
[Salt Lake Tribune, July 20, 2018]
Lawsuit filed against LDS Church relating to Child Abuse
The Salt Lake Tribune, on October 3, 2018, reported:
A lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City’s federal court on Wednesday alleges sexual abuse and a cover up involving family members of the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
FOX 13 is reporting that the lawsuit lists six unnamed plaintiffs, identified as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe” and two unnamed defendants. Brenda and Richard Miles, who are the daughter and son-in-law of LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson, are those unnamed defendants and they vigorously deny the allegations, according to their attorney.
Former LDS Bishop, Sam Young, Excommunicated for Challenging Bishop Interviews.
Every young Mormon has at one time or another been asked to meet with the local bishop for a “worthiness interview.” Part of the bishop’s interview is to determine if the youth is honest, morally clean, and abstaining from sexual activity. According to CNN, “While all bishops are required to ask whether members ‘obey the law of chastity,’ abstaining from all premarital sexual activity, Young says more than 3,000 people, including four of his daughters, have said their bishops probed for the explicit details of their sexual conduct as children. . . . The church calls the practice of bishops’ interviews a “sacred responsibility” and offers the opportunity for mentorship; critics argue it is traumatizing and creates opportunities for grooming and emotional or sexual abuse.”
[https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/24/us/mormon-young-excommunicated]
After hearing stories of inappropriate questioning by some bishops, Sam Young
built up the courage to ask one of his daughters if she had ever been asked sexually explicit questions during an interview for the church.
She admitted that she had, “all the time,” from ages 12 to 17. After her first interview, she told her father that she had to look up “masturbation” online, since she had never heard the term before her bishop brought it up.
[https://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/houston-belief/article/Behind-closed-doors-12524563.php]
After enduring a 23-day hunger strike, Sam Young was formally excommunicated from the Mormon Church.
Originally appeared in:
Sandra Tanner, “In the News,” Salt Lake City Messenger, no. 131, November 2018, 10-12.
Footnotes:
- By 2020 the LDS church did indeed end the Cumorah pageant, as well as other pageants celebrating church history, which they had held for decades around the USA. This came on the heels of an official statement from the church leadership, in which such pageants were now being “discouraged” by them ↩︎
