Part of trecking to the temple is that when the temple is far away, people need accomadations. Those who sell their car to get the tickets to go rarely can afford even a cheap motel.
In many places the church has patron housing on or near the temple grounds. However Bishop Caussee has reflected on the expierience his family had of camping on the temple grounds in Switzerland and noted it was quite common among European saints of his generation.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017
The 20th and 21st century gathering to Zion: Trecking to the Temple
In the 19th-century Church members gathered to Zion by leaving their homes, and moving permanetly to a place to be gathered with the Saints.
From 1847 until the 1890s the destination was Utah.
After 1900 the Church leadership stops encouraging members to gather to Utah. In about 1915 the Church leadership explicitly asked members from Hawaii living in Utah to move back to Hawaii in preparation for a temple there.
After the Laie Temple was built in Hawaii there were some members from especially Samoa who moved to Hawaii to be near the temple. I also knew a sister whose family came into Salt Lake City by train having left Norway in about 1948 and they were gathering to Zion.
However after 1900 the gathering to Zion more and more becomes not a permanent move, but a journey to the temple, that is followed by going home.
Brother Michael J. Lantz and his wife made this joruney in the early 1970s, from Michigan to Salt Lake City, managing by dint of being open about their journey to find member homes to stay in along the way. Elder Lansing, an Area Authority Seventy from Virginia, can tell of his family's journey to the Salt Lake Temple from Richmond Virginia in the late 1950s.
I know another couple who in the early 1980s journeyed to the Salt Lake Temple from Iowa to marry, only to find the temple closed due to flooding. They had to continue their journey to Jordan River Temple to marry.
There was a president of the Sydney Temple whose family had sold their car among other things to finance going to the New Zealand Temple at its dedication. President Monson has a story of a family from Tahiti where the husband worked several years in the mines of New Caledonia to fiance the family going to the temple.
Elder Fallabella can tell of the long treck from his home in Guatemala through Mexico to get to the Mesa Temple where he was sealed to his father and his deceased mother.
Vai Sikehema's family saved money when he was young to go from Tonga to New Zealand to be sealed. They did not have enough money to go home, so for a few months his father worked shearing sheep in New Zealand.
By the time I was born the journeys were not quite as long. By the time I went to the temple as a youth we only had to drive about 4 hours each way to get to the temple.
However to this day many have to drive much, much further. Even in the mid 1990s both Brazil and Mexico had only one temple. In both countries many people would travel for days to go to the temple. When the temple opened in Aba Nigeria the first group from Camerron traveled for 60 hours one way. Looking on a map and calculating the distance it would not seem to take this long, but when you are going through muddy roads and have to push the car it can take this long.
There are lots more stories of trecking to the temple. Chile still has not gotten a second temple. Arequipa Peru still requires a long treck to the temple, and Iquitos deep in the Amzonian interior of Peru will probably require such a treck much, much longer.
While there is a temple announced for Nairobi, it will be a time of long tecking for much longer.
While the Perpetual Education Fund is the one named after the Perpetual Emmigating Fund, and it has some similar purposes, in another way it is the Temple Patron's Fund that more closely matches the goals of gathering in the 19th-century PEF. This fund allows members to contribute toward helping those members who live so far from the temple to be able to go. I would encourage all who can to contribute.
From 1847 until the 1890s the destination was Utah.
After 1900 the Church leadership stops encouraging members to gather to Utah. In about 1915 the Church leadership explicitly asked members from Hawaii living in Utah to move back to Hawaii in preparation for a temple there.
After the Laie Temple was built in Hawaii there were some members from especially Samoa who moved to Hawaii to be near the temple. I also knew a sister whose family came into Salt Lake City by train having left Norway in about 1948 and they were gathering to Zion.
However after 1900 the gathering to Zion more and more becomes not a permanent move, but a journey to the temple, that is followed by going home.
Brother Michael J. Lantz and his wife made this joruney in the early 1970s, from Michigan to Salt Lake City, managing by dint of being open about their journey to find member homes to stay in along the way. Elder Lansing, an Area Authority Seventy from Virginia, can tell of his family's journey to the Salt Lake Temple from Richmond Virginia in the late 1950s.
I know another couple who in the early 1980s journeyed to the Salt Lake Temple from Iowa to marry, only to find the temple closed due to flooding. They had to continue their journey to Jordan River Temple to marry.
There was a president of the Sydney Temple whose family had sold their car among other things to finance going to the New Zealand Temple at its dedication. President Monson has a story of a family from Tahiti where the husband worked several years in the mines of New Caledonia to fiance the family going to the temple.
Elder Fallabella can tell of the long treck from his home in Guatemala through Mexico to get to the Mesa Temple where he was sealed to his father and his deceased mother.
Vai Sikehema's family saved money when he was young to go from Tonga to New Zealand to be sealed. They did not have enough money to go home, so for a few months his father worked shearing sheep in New Zealand.
By the time I was born the journeys were not quite as long. By the time I went to the temple as a youth we only had to drive about 4 hours each way to get to the temple.
However to this day many have to drive much, much further. Even in the mid 1990s both Brazil and Mexico had only one temple. In both countries many people would travel for days to go to the temple. When the temple opened in Aba Nigeria the first group from Camerron traveled for 60 hours one way. Looking on a map and calculating the distance it would not seem to take this long, but when you are going through muddy roads and have to push the car it can take this long.
There are lots more stories of trecking to the temple. Chile still has not gotten a second temple. Arequipa Peru still requires a long treck to the temple, and Iquitos deep in the Amzonian interior of Peru will probably require such a treck much, much longer.
While there is a temple announced for Nairobi, it will be a time of long tecking for much longer.
While the Perpetual Education Fund is the one named after the Perpetual Emmigating Fund, and it has some similar purposes, in another way it is the Temple Patron's Fund that more closely matches the goals of gathering in the 19th-century PEF. This fund allows members to contribute toward helping those members who live so far from the temple to be able to go. I would encourage all who can to contribute.
Why Stark is wrong internation Church growth will cause resitriction on Coffee etc to end
Peggy Fletcher Stark in her article on the Word of Wisdom's changing meaning misses the point that the Word of Wisdom is meant to set us apart. To claim that it is especially hard for the Church to grow in Brazil because of the Word of Wisdom ban on coffee consumption is ludicrous. There is no way to have more of a coffeee culture than the US. The only thing that Kroger provides as a fee item for employees on break is coffee. Many college students in the US entering Mormon studies just do not believe that Mormons really do not drink coffee.
I have colleges who find refusal to drink coffee so odd they do not believe me when I tell them my religion does not allow it.
Stark clearly does not understand overall US culture if she thinks anywhere else could have more of a coffee culture making it harder for a sell of the Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom is an outward sign of internal belief. True, its exact meaning has changed over time, but that does not lessen the fact that it currently is a full power commandment from the Lord. The order of the Church does not require the directives of the 1st presidency to be clearly enunciated by written forms.
I have colleges who find refusal to drink coffee so odd they do not believe me when I tell them my religion does not allow it.
Stark clearly does not understand overall US culture if she thinks anywhere else could have more of a coffee culture making it harder for a sell of the Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom is an outward sign of internal belief. True, its exact meaning has changed over time, but that does not lessen the fact that it currently is a full power commandment from the Lord. The order of the Church does not require the directives of the 1st presidency to be clearly enunciated by written forms.
Why the Church grows more among those in Africa than among African Americans
It generally seems the LDS Church is making much better growth among people in Africa than among African-Americans.
However the stats on the latter are hard to know. 2009 surveys seem to say that 3% of US Latter-day Saints were African-American, but without knowing what the overall US African-American percentage in the same survey was, it is a little hard to compare. Plus this was of adults. In Sterling Heights Ward there are 4 sidblings, all 15 or younger, who are African-American converts.
In Southfield Ward our last 10 or so baptisms have all either been African-Americans or immigrants from Ghana.
Most interesting to me was this article http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2017/apr/28/operation-streets-founder-calls-recreation-program/ from the Richmond Free Press about Charles A. West, a former Chuch of God minster who recently was bpatized in the LDS Church. This is a true sign of inroads among African-Americans.
I could also cite people of prominence, like Congresswoman Mia Love, NBA player Jabari Parker, NCAA players Frank Jackson, DeMarcus Harrison and Jordan Chatman, and Jordan's dad Jeff Chatman who joined the Church while an NCAA player at BYU. This is not even close to a comprehensive list.
Some of the people above may not show up in surveys as African-American because they are of mixed race origins, and so depending on various factors may be identified in other ways. By some I mean Parker and Jackson and maybe Jordan Chapman, although I have no evidence on Chapman's mother's race.
On my mission we had African-Americans tell us flat out they would not come out to our Church anymore because they did not like going to a Church where there were no African-Americans. This is a situation that presents an insurmountable barrier. This is one reason why in some areas the Church has at times created specific urban congregations.
Another big hurdle is a widespread belief that the LDS Church is racist. A true knowledge of the past racial restiction policy with regard to priesthood is generally showing the Church in a more positive light than what some think the policy was.
In African outside of South Africa and Zimbabwe they Church has always been black members, and usually black missionaries. In Zimbabwe there were hard times of growth to the black majority in the early 1980s, but especially with the role of Edward Dube the Church thrived and overcame these draw backs.
In South Africa the conversion of Julie Mavimbela in 1981 helped. It also helps that the end of the priesthood restriction in 1978 predates the end of apartheid of white minority rule by 16 years. This makes a big difference from the US, where having the policy as late as 1978 is used as an attack point, when so many other things seen as racist were officially removed by 1968 with the fair housing act, or going back to Brown v Board in 1953. Or even the desegregation of the US military by Truman no latter than 1951.
There are some barriers to overcome in South Africa, but with a population that is 8% white and 80% black, the Church has to overcome them to thrive.
In the US, not so much, although we do have to overcome them to take the gospel to ever nation, kindred, tongue and people.
One problem is the unspoken nature of some objections. Even Gladys Knight's Saints United Voices does not overcome all the linger worry. Marvin Perkins and his "Black and the Scriptures" work is making progress.
Maybe though the issues are more complex. Maybe the question is why is the Church growing so much in countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. In a lot of ways this is because of a long process of local leadership development.
In the US we are not yet seeing strong leadership development for local congregations of African-Americans. There is possibly an issue of less religious commitment by African-American males, high incareration rates, and lots of related facts.
The fact that even in a city like Detroit, where 85% of the population is African-American and 98% or more in many neighborhoods, the vast majority of missionaries are white and black missionaries are fairly rare, makes things difficult.
On my mission I saw that phenotypically black Brazilian missionaries could at least get people dialoguing on these issues.
Another issue is white Latter-day Saints need to work to speak of the issues of the past priesthood restriction in ways that are not offensive. Make sure to not attribute it as a direct design of God, and state that we do not know why God allowed it.
I have no disrespect towards Keither Hamilton and his last laborer views, but have to say I can not accept them.
More talking on this is good. Even if it causes uncomfortableness.
Another issue is some people objecting to the Church's position on those on probation or parole getting baptized. I have seen people mishandle sharing this with investigators. Lastly it should be emphasized that this is not based on the Church holding that such a punishment is in any case just, but that they Church embraces the order of law.
This does make it hard for the Church to reach people who feel that the order of law is against them. However I think if being subject to kings, etc is properly explained it creates less offense. Also, always remember the route to conversion is through sharing the Book of Mormon and tesitfying.
However the stats on the latter are hard to know. 2009 surveys seem to say that 3% of US Latter-day Saints were African-American, but without knowing what the overall US African-American percentage in the same survey was, it is a little hard to compare. Plus this was of adults. In Sterling Heights Ward there are 4 sidblings, all 15 or younger, who are African-American converts.
In Southfield Ward our last 10 or so baptisms have all either been African-Americans or immigrants from Ghana.
Most interesting to me was this article http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2017/apr/28/operation-streets-founder-calls-recreation-program/ from the Richmond Free Press about Charles A. West, a former Chuch of God minster who recently was bpatized in the LDS Church. This is a true sign of inroads among African-Americans.
I could also cite people of prominence, like Congresswoman Mia Love, NBA player Jabari Parker, NCAA players Frank Jackson, DeMarcus Harrison and Jordan Chatman, and Jordan's dad Jeff Chatman who joined the Church while an NCAA player at BYU. This is not even close to a comprehensive list.
Some of the people above may not show up in surveys as African-American because they are of mixed race origins, and so depending on various factors may be identified in other ways. By some I mean Parker and Jackson and maybe Jordan Chapman, although I have no evidence on Chapman's mother's race.
On my mission we had African-Americans tell us flat out they would not come out to our Church anymore because they did not like going to a Church where there were no African-Americans. This is a situation that presents an insurmountable barrier. This is one reason why in some areas the Church has at times created specific urban congregations.
Another big hurdle is a widespread belief that the LDS Church is racist. A true knowledge of the past racial restiction policy with regard to priesthood is generally showing the Church in a more positive light than what some think the policy was.
In African outside of South Africa and Zimbabwe they Church has always been black members, and usually black missionaries. In Zimbabwe there were hard times of growth to the black majority in the early 1980s, but especially with the role of Edward Dube the Church thrived and overcame these draw backs.
In South Africa the conversion of Julie Mavimbela in 1981 helped. It also helps that the end of the priesthood restriction in 1978 predates the end of apartheid of white minority rule by 16 years. This makes a big difference from the US, where having the policy as late as 1978 is used as an attack point, when so many other things seen as racist were officially removed by 1968 with the fair housing act, or going back to Brown v Board in 1953. Or even the desegregation of the US military by Truman no latter than 1951.
There are some barriers to overcome in South Africa, but with a population that is 8% white and 80% black, the Church has to overcome them to thrive.
In the US, not so much, although we do have to overcome them to take the gospel to ever nation, kindred, tongue and people.
One problem is the unspoken nature of some objections. Even Gladys Knight's Saints United Voices does not overcome all the linger worry. Marvin Perkins and his "Black and the Scriptures" work is making progress.
Maybe though the issues are more complex. Maybe the question is why is the Church growing so much in countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. In a lot of ways this is because of a long process of local leadership development.
In the US we are not yet seeing strong leadership development for local congregations of African-Americans. There is possibly an issue of less religious commitment by African-American males, high incareration rates, and lots of related facts.
The fact that even in a city like Detroit, where 85% of the population is African-American and 98% or more in many neighborhoods, the vast majority of missionaries are white and black missionaries are fairly rare, makes things difficult.
On my mission I saw that phenotypically black Brazilian missionaries could at least get people dialoguing on these issues.
Another issue is white Latter-day Saints need to work to speak of the issues of the past priesthood restriction in ways that are not offensive. Make sure to not attribute it as a direct design of God, and state that we do not know why God allowed it.
I have no disrespect towards Keither Hamilton and his last laborer views, but have to say I can not accept them.
More talking on this is good. Even if it causes uncomfortableness.
Another issue is some people objecting to the Church's position on those on probation or parole getting baptized. I have seen people mishandle sharing this with investigators. Lastly it should be emphasized that this is not based on the Church holding that such a punishment is in any case just, but that they Church embraces the order of law.
This does make it hard for the Church to reach people who feel that the order of law is against them. However I think if being subject to kings, etc is properly explained it creates less offense. Also, always remember the route to conversion is through sharing the Book of Mormon and tesitfying.
Ending racism in Mormonism
In general I think the Mormon leaders have done well in ending racism. I still think the voice against it could be more clear.
The notion that in 2012 any well informed observer could think that pre-1978 attempts to explain the priesthood restriction were workable is not believable.
In August 1978 Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave a talk to Church Educational System instuctors in which he explicitly said forget what he, Brigham Young or anyone else had said before June 1978 on the priesthood restriction and its meaning.
Today this can be found by going to the race and the priesthood gospel topics essay at LDS.org https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&old=true and going down along the side and clicking on Bruce R. NcConkie's "All Are Alike Unto God" talk. That leads to this link https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-r-mcconkie_alike-unto-god-2/ so I am guessing BYU based searchs might find it.
Back before my mission the internet was not well searchable, and I had never found this. I knew when I heard people quote Brigham Young and Bruce R. McConkie on these matters they were not quoting current Church teachings. I think I first heard mention to this talk about halfway through my mission when a sister in one of our wards whose son-in-law was African American was listening to a recording of a talk by an African-American sister in Oakland California in which she mentioned this talk. I wish I had known of it sooner.
I had read Helvicio Martins autobiogrpahy.
The race and the priesthood link has made things explicit that were not before. However in 1988 the first presidency denounced racism, without neccesarily explicitly denouncing the folklore to justify the former priesthood restriction.
In an August 1978 interview for Time Magazine Spencer W. Kimball denounced the idea of less faithfulness in the pre-earth life. The one professor I had at BYU who ever addressed this topic as far as I remember in class in an explicit way was Camille Fronk. She explicitly denounced the notion.I think I had other professors state there were no neutral spirits in the war in Heaven, but not explicitly connect it to or use it to denounce specific ideas.
I do have to wonder if the Church should have publicized the gospel topics essays more fully. I am still also hopeful that a general authority will directly recommend or draw on them in general conference.
On the other hand, they have been fully incorporated into the new institute curriculum, and are clearly fully endorsed by the leadership of the Church.
The notion that in 2012 any well informed observer could think that pre-1978 attempts to explain the priesthood restriction were workable is not believable.
In August 1978 Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave a talk to Church Educational System instuctors in which he explicitly said forget what he, Brigham Young or anyone else had said before June 1978 on the priesthood restriction and its meaning.
Today this can be found by going to the race and the priesthood gospel topics essay at LDS.org https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&old=true and going down along the side and clicking on Bruce R. NcConkie's "All Are Alike Unto God" talk. That leads to this link https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-r-mcconkie_alike-unto-god-2/ so I am guessing BYU based searchs might find it.
Back before my mission the internet was not well searchable, and I had never found this. I knew when I heard people quote Brigham Young and Bruce R. McConkie on these matters they were not quoting current Church teachings. I think I first heard mention to this talk about halfway through my mission when a sister in one of our wards whose son-in-law was African American was listening to a recording of a talk by an African-American sister in Oakland California in which she mentioned this talk. I wish I had known of it sooner.
I had read Helvicio Martins autobiogrpahy.
The race and the priesthood link has made things explicit that were not before. However in 1988 the first presidency denounced racism, without neccesarily explicitly denouncing the folklore to justify the former priesthood restriction.
In an August 1978 interview for Time Magazine Spencer W. Kimball denounced the idea of less faithfulness in the pre-earth life. The one professor I had at BYU who ever addressed this topic as far as I remember in class in an explicit way was Camille Fronk. She explicitly denounced the notion.I think I had other professors state there were no neutral spirits in the war in Heaven, but not explicitly connect it to or use it to denounce specific ideas.
I do have to wonder if the Church should have publicized the gospel topics essays more fully. I am still also hopeful that a general authority will directly recommend or draw on them in general conference.
On the other hand, they have been fully incorporated into the new institute curriculum, and are clearly fully endorsed by the leadership of the Church.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Go betweens in Pennsylvania and Utah
I have started to read "Into the Armerican Woods" about the go betweens from Pennsylvania colony to the Native Americans. This caused me to think of Dimick Huntingdon and Jacob Hamblin in Utah. Then I realized I can't remember who baptized Sagowitz. It might have been George Washington Hill. These men were never fully marginalized as were the Indian interpreters in Pennsylvania, but Utah lacked people with the pretense of genetlemen either.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Understanding the world
OK, I have come to see that I do not, and I don't think anyone does. I came across a blog by an Elder Hyrum Kim, I was like "this is an American guy of Korean descent." Then I saw his picture, I was like "this guy looks white". Then I realized his name is Hyrum Kahalena'auao Kim. I was like "this guy is some mixture of Hawaiian and Korean, who looks totally white, I am confused." I am still trying to figure out who actually became the president of the Portugal Porto Mission if Brother Joni Koch, now a general authority, was sent to the Mozambique Maputo Mission. He was the second Brazilian in a row to be mission president in Mozambique. His predecessor had been head of FranklinCovey of Brazil before becoming mission president.
Thoughts on General Conference
The First session had a strong theme of focusing on the Plan of Salvation. A general focus on Jesus Christ and the power of his atonement is found throughout.
I especially liked Elder Renlund's talk denouncing bigotry. Elder Holland's talk was very powerful, especially his call for more care for the poor, and more love for those who suffer mental illness.
I especially liked Elder Renlund's talk denouncing bigotry. Elder Holland's talk was very powerful, especially his call for more care for the poor, and more love for those who suffer mental illness.
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