What Joseph Hath Wrought

[_Runtu]

Driving around Utah County, I'm struck by the way the LDS church dominates the environment with its presence. Churches are everywhere, with some sharing a lot. BYU keeps growing, and a rather ostentatious (some might say monstrous) Hinckley alumni building stands guard over the previously low-key (at least by Mormon standards) entrance to campus. (Does it bother anyone else that the alumni building is named for someone who never attended the university?)

At the store, I overheard two cashiers discussing a cannery assignment. My coworker talks about his calling in the bishopric. In short, the church is in everything.

This morning I noticed that several flags were at half mast, and I wondered who had died. I remembered that James E. Faust had passed away, and I had to assume the flags were meant for him. I have nothing against him (in fact, from everything I know about him, he was a good and decent man in every sense), but I thought how peculiar it was that in any other region of the United States (and the world, for that matter) James E. Faust was an obscure leader of an insignificant religion. But here he was accorded the honor of a president or world leader.

Mormonism barely registers in the consciousness of at least 95% of the world's population, and of the remaining 5%, most don't know much about it except the obvious polygamy.

When I lived in Texas and was a believing Mormon, it bothered me to no end that people would come from Utah and announce their arrival as if they were the ward's saviors. "It's so great to be out here in the mission field where we can really make a difference," they would say. It was as if they assumed that Utah really was the center, and everything else was peripheral and dependent on the largesse of Zion.

I knew back then that such was not the case. We managed just fine on our own, and most people greeted new Utah arrivals with a knowing smile and often a roll of the eyes.

But what would Joseph Smith think about today's church, which in so many ways has to have surpassed his wildest dreams, but has done so largely by abandoning much of Joseph's teachings, such as they were. Ideas that were central to Joseph's theology are now dismissed as mere couplets without meaning. There's no more talk of consecration, other than the lip service in the temple. Even Brigham Young's self-supporting economic system has largely been jettisoned. Welfare farms and dairies have been sold, and the church buys its raw materials from outsiders, a damnable heresy in the days of the Reformation.

These days the church is larger in numbers but much smaller in scope and vision. Its grand visions seem to have more to do with building more empty and unused temples than with preparing for the coming of the Lord. Terry Eagleton's prophecy has come true: it's no longer a revolutionary movement but has reduced itself to forbidding the word "f***."

Again, I wonder what Joseph would have thought. Part of me thinks he would get a huge laugh out of it. A bad hoax (and Mormonism is a bad hoax if there ever were one) has wrought an economic and religious empire that claims the allegiance of millions of people worldwide. Maybe he would have laughed, but I'm guessing he'd be more interested in getting his cut of the cash and his share of the MIA Maids.

[_Blixa]

So I'm guessing you cross-posted this over at MAD, right?

[_Runtu]

So I'm guessing you cross-posted this over at MAD, right?

I don't think they'd appreciate it. Probably think it was mean-spirited or something. I don't post much over there anymore. It's just a matter of time before I get banned anyway.

[_Blixa]

Well start making a list of places of historical interest you want to see...I have some places in Provo I want to check out...

[_The Nehor]

I expect he would weep for Zion and ask, "How long?"

[_Runtu]

I expect he would weep for Zion and ask, "How long?"

Of course that's how you would see it. That's how I would have seen it a few years ago. But I have to be honest about my perception of who and what Joseph was. I don't see him doing a lot of weeping for Zion. You obviously disagree.

[_Yoda]

Hey, Runtu, this is a really good thread that I think deserves some more exposure.

I'm moving it to the Terrestrial Forum. A lot of people who post here don't go the the Telestial Forum, and it would be interesting to have more input. I will add my thoughts a little later tonight.

I did the small edit on the "forbidden word".

;)

[QuestionEverything]

I did the small edit on the "forbidden word".

I didn't see "Voldemort" anywhere.....

[_wenglund]

Driving around Utah County, I'm struck by the way the LDS church dominates the environment with its presence. Churches are everywhere, with some sharing a lot. BYU keeps growing, and a rather ostentatious (some might say monstrous) Hinckley alumni building stands guard over the previously low-key (at least by Mormon standards) entrance to campus. (Does it bother anyone else that the alumni building is named for someone who never attended the university?)

At the store, I overheard two cashiers discussing a cannery assignment. My coworker talks about his calling in the bishopric. In short, the church is in everything.

This morning I noticed that several flags were at half mast, and I wondered who had died. I remembered that James E. Faust had passed away, and I had to assume the flags were meant for him. I have nothing against him (in fact, from everything I know about him, he was a good and decent man in every sense), but I thought how peculiar it was that in any other region of the United States (and the world, for that matter) James E. Faust was an obscure leader of an insignificant religion. But here he was accorded the honor of a president or world leader.

Mormonism barely registers in the consciousness of at least 95% of the world's population, and of the remaining 5%, most don't know much about it except the obvious polygamy.

When I lived in Texas and was a believing Mormon, it bothered me to no end that people would come from Utah and announce their arrival as if they were the ward's saviors. "It's so great to be out here in the mission field where we can really make a difference," they would say. It was as if they assumed that Utah really was the center, and everything else was peripheral and dependent on the largesse of Zion.

I knew back then that such was not the case. We managed just fine on our own, and most people greeted new Utah arrivals with a knowing smile and often a roll of the eyes.

But what would Joseph Smith think about today's church, which in so many ways has to have surpassed his wildest dreams, but has done so largely by abandoning much of Joseph's teachings, such as they were. Ideas that were central to Joseph's theology are now dismissed as mere couplets without meaning. There's no more talk of consecration, other than the lip service in the temple. Even Brigham Young's self-supporting economic system has largely been jettisoned. Welfare farms and dairies have been sold, and the church buys its raw materials from outsiders, a damnable heresy in the days of the Reformation.

These days the church is larger in numbers but much smaller in scope and vision. Its grand visions seem to have more to do with building more empty and unused temples than with preparing for the coming of the Lord. Terry Eagleton's prophecy has come true: it's no longer a revolutionary movement but has reduced itself to forbidding the word "f*Celestial Kingdom."

Again, I wonder what Joseph would have thought. Part of me thinks he would get a huge laugh out of it. A bad hoax (and Mormonism is a bad hoax if there ever were one) has wrought an economic and religious empire that claims the allegiance of millions of people worldwide. Maybe he would have laughed, but I'm guessing he'd be more interested in getting his cut of the cash and his share of the MIA Maids.

I am sorry that your return to Utah has engender such vile sentiments in you towards your former faith--at least enough to motivate you to share it in such harsh ways publically here.

It causes me to wonder, though, like with so many of Kimberlyann's posts, what value you expect to derive in saying these kinds of denegrating things. Do you suppose it will somehow make you a better person, or improve conditions generally? Is it born of love and intended to encourage mutual respect?

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

[_beastie]

Wade -

Tell us which specific parts were "vile".