What would the church be like if all members were like Mak..

[_mentalgymnast]

or BCspace or WhyMe or Tobin? In my opinion, it would be pretty chaotic. No real belief system. No real structure to that belief system.

Who's to say that the church isn't a bit more on the heterogenous side than you might think? If you make your assumptions based on what you observe as you sit in a pew on Sunday and look at all the white shirts I can see why you might go the route of homogeneity.

I'd place my bets that there are BC's, WhyMe's, Tobins, Macs, and folks kinda like me spread all over the place and throughout congregations all over the church. No way to prove it...but it's as good a guess as you basically saying that members are sheep and don't do much thinking on their own.

Don't let all those white shirts and knee length dresses get in the way of looking at people a bit more charitably.

Regards,
MG

[_Sanctorian]

or BCspace or WhyMe or Tobin? In my opinion, it would be pretty chaotic. No real belief system. No real structure to that belief system.

Who's to say that the church isn't a bit more on the heterogenous side than you might think? If you make your assumptions based on what you observe as you sit in a pew on Sunday and look at all the white shirts I can see why you might go the route of homogeneity.

I'd place my bets that there are BC's, WhyMe's, Tobins, Macs, and folks kinda like me spread all over the place and throughout congregations all over the church. No way to prove it...but it's as good a guess as you basically saying that members are sheep and don't do much thinking on their own.

Don't let all those white shirts and knee length dresses get in the way of looking at people a bit more charitably.

Regards,
MG

Where's the evidence? I'm not suggesting there are none. But you seem to be suggesting there are many. So many in fact that we should be running into them more often than not. If I'm a betting man, and I am, I'd wager there are many more members that are white shirt and knee length dress wearing than not.

[_mentalgymnast]

I'd wager there are many more members that are white shirt and knee length dress wearing than not.

You misunderstand. I'm saying that those men in white shirts and those women in knee length dresses are not all as homogenous as you seem to think.

Gosh, I'm just a regular guy in a white shirt at church on Sunday and at the same time I've been around the block a few times and do my own thinking. I'd guess there's a whole bunch of just regular guys out there. I've met some of them out in the hallway and after church in the neighborhood. And there may be more! The law of averages seem to dictate this to be the case. I'm just one guy in one ward in one stake. I just happen to hang out here now and then (too much lately ) so I stand out more than those that are reading TIME or some other magazine, doing some woodworking out in the garage, watching Netflix, or in a bowling league rather than putting themselves at risk out on an internet "free for all" forum that discusses Mormonism. I suppose I'm just a glutton for punishment.

Regards,
MG

[_bcspace]

If Mo's were like BCSpace the the Mo church would be essentially unchanged.

Close. Our home teaching would be targeted instead of blanket. The wards might break the Fast together with a potluck on fast Sunday. Etc.

[_mentalgymnast]

The wards might break the Fast together with a potluck on fast Sunday. Etc.

BIG +1 You're hired!

When our most recent Bishop took over the reins we started doing a regular "Bread and Spread" on average one Sunday every six weeks or so. Everyone brings some yummy breadstuffs and we visit after the block and enjoy different bread samples along with toppings.

Regards,
MG

[_sunstoned]

If Mo's were like BCSpace the the Mo church would be essentially unchanged.

Close. Our home teaching would be targeted instead of blanket. The wards might break the Fast together with a potluck on fast Sunday. Etc.

Our home ward use to have a large pot luck dinner on the church lawn after ward conference (this was years ago when I was growing up). Our Bishop did get a memo from SLC that stated that such activities should be discontinued. He chose to ignore the memo.

[_Bazooka]

It is condescending to claim that most members don't know much about their history or issues, when that is clearly a misinformed opinion.

Misinformed?
I don't think so. All of my extended family, all lifelong members of the Church with full attendance in every teaching programme of the Church, had no idea that Joseph was a polygamist until they read with interest the recent essay about the polygamy of Brigham Young which stated:

In accordance with a revelation to Joseph Smith, the practice of plural marriage—the marriage of one man to two or more women—was instituted among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1840s.

https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marri ... h?lang=eng

This extended family now want to know where they can find out about the polygamy that occurred before...

This essay primarily addresses plural marriage as practiced by the Latter-day Saints between 1847 and 1890, following their exodus to the U.S. West and before the Manifesto.

...1847.

Do you know which official Church resource it is detailed in so they can read about it?

The same extended family has not yet read the other essay about Book of Mormon translation so they are still blissfully unaware that it wasn't translated using a set of magic spectacles called a Urim & Thummim attached to a breastplate that came with the plates.

As I said above, the fact that the Church feels a need to publish these essays and send memo's round telling people to read them, informs us that the majority of active members are unaware of the historical issues discussed within in them. The opinion is clearly not misinformed.

If your point is that the majority of members are inactive in part because they became aware of these historical issues, then fair enough, you may have a point.

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

From my Mormon experience, I'm glad most members have little to no understanding of their religions history/issues.

That is both untrue and condescending.

Sanctorian is absolutely correct. I'll even go a step further. It's been my experience that most members who have been raised in the Church, served missions and graduated from BYU have little to no understanding of Church history.