Hello once again everyone!
This is a special chapter in my journey, the Mormon Church.
I am planning on additional writing on the subject which will be explained
below. If you would like to jump right into the review, feel free to skip ahead
into the “Quick Note” section. There is a lot of reading in this one...
This week Chad and I visited a Mormon sacrament service.
Now, being that we are in the Mormon capital of the world, it would be a shame
not to take advantage of that and go all out by attending the service in as big
and important a chapel as possible, the gold room of the Joseph Smith Memorial
Building right across from the Salt Lake City Mormon temple in Utah’s Capital
city. Oh yeah, we went all out on this one. Being that there is so much to
cover I will follow Chad’s lead and break this one into a few different entries
beginning with the usual synopsis of the service and of course the breakdown
and review.
This will be part one in a series of three entries I will
write to cover the LDS Faith. I go into more detail on this particular religion
for a couple of reasons; first, because it is the faith with which I am most
well acquainted and has been and continues to be a very big part of my life. It
is the dominant religion in my home state, it is the faith of much of my family
here, and it was the faith of my childhood through my teenage years. Secondly,
it is a curious belief system that has occasionally entered the spotlight in
films, satirical TV series and musicals, and more recently gained public
interest during the latest presidential election with Governor Mitt Romney, a
republican, running against incumbent democrat, Barak Obama. There is a lot of
mystery surrounding the Mormon Church and what it is that they really believe.
I have been meaning, for some time now, to write at length about stereotypes
and myths surrounding the church as well as sharing my experiences and what I was
taught in seminary, Sunday school, etc. I will save that for another day and
perhaps another independent project, we will see.
So here’s the plan
1)
This entry will be business as usual and follow
the same format as other entries in this blog. I’ll talk about the service, my
thoughts and reaction, and I will rate it in categories.
2)
The second entry will cover the visit to the Mormon
History Museum we visited the same day before the sacrament service. Here I
will talk more about the history and background of the church.
3)
Lastly, I will talk about my own experience with
the church, why I left, and some of the central dogma and core beliefs of the church
as I was taught them.
These are in the planning stages yet, so they may be subject
to alterations and adjustments, but here is the framework of what you might
expect if you care to follow. Without further ado, here’s my breakdown of the
visit …
**********
QUICK NOTE:
I am aware that I have a history in this church. I want to
assure all readers that I made and will continue to make a concentrated effort
to set aside all bias and personal feelings, reservations, and personal history
while covering the Mormon Church. It will be treated just as any other, with
fairness, integrity, and honesty. I will not in any way pull punches to placate
my family who may be reading this, nor will I deal out consciously harsh or
undue criticism. With that said, let’s begin.
**********
ATMOSPHERE: 6/10 candles
The Joseph Smith Memorial Building was actually very pretty.
The building was once a Hotel but later converted to the Joseph Smith Memorial.
The ground floor lobby was very wide and open with a large crystal chandelier
overhead. It had several floors, the
sacrament service which we attended was on the second floor in what was called
the golden room. Directly across the open lobby was the Jade room which was a
much smaller and quaint room with padded chairs like those you would find at a
seminar or similar event that required quick rearrangement. The gold room was
where the sacrament was held. The entrance was a series of very high doors. It
was much more open than the Jade Room and had two chambers, the main one where
the pulpit, pews, and sacrament tables were and another one further back that
could have easily been sanctioned off by closing a few doors in the back of the
main chapel.
(this is the main lobby)
(Statue of Joseph Smith, the Founder of the faith)
(Here is the ceiling of the chapel, note the fruit carvings on the wall and the floral design on the ceiling. Not my style, but still very pretty!)
It was a very quiet atmosphere though you could hear quiet
conversations among the congregation. I noticed that the majority of the
members here at this service were quite elderly, it may also be because this
was the afternoon service (12:50 pm). There were however a few younger brothers
and sisters (LDS members, like the JWs address each other as brother and sister).
The room was much more ornate than the chapels of my youth, however sitting
there and listening to the music as the congregation was waiting for the
service to begin brought back many memories of my earlier days when I would sit
in sacrament. The music was just as I remembered it, very difficult to put into
words, but the association I had of it
wasn’t good, nor bad, it just meant that I would for the next couple of hours
have to remain quiet and anxiously wait for the service to end. I have never
been a fan of the Mormon Hymns and music. It is very slow and has quite a few
verses, a few of the hymns that were sung at this service had upwards of six
verses, all of them sung.
The walls were ornate with carvings of fruit and other
biblically relevant shapes, I think this may have been alluding to the garden
of Eden. The Genesis story is a very important component of Mormon doctrine, in
fact, much of the sacred temple endowment ceremony revolves around the Adam and
Eve story. The ceiling was painted white and trimmed with gold. Very flowery
and intricate carvings in the wood made it almost look Baroque in style. While honestly
I did feel a little uncomfortable, I could tell that there was a very reverent
atmosphere. I also noticed several curious glances thrown our way so there too
was the element of being watched. So, because of the lovely décor and cleanliness
I gave the atmosphere a generous 6 candle rating.
COMMUNITY: 3/10 candles
We really didn’t get a lot of interaction with members of
the congregation. One of the few exchanges we had was with an elderly gentleman
downstairs who told us where the service was being held. He didn’t seem too
happy that we were there. He didn’t really go out of his way to give us a smile
or anything, it seemed more like indifference or offense that we would sit in
on a sacrament service. Either way, the man did not make me feel welcome as I
have been in other services.
During the service, the deacons at the sacrament table kept
glancing at us throughout the service without so much as a nod, again, it felt
like we were crashing some sort of private event, which made me feel a bit
uncomfortable. If I remember correctly, Mormon church services were very open
to the public and people were encouraged to be involved in most events. This
has been my experience at least with my local wards in the small communities in
Layton, Utah where I grew up. This one seemed a bit different however, were we
being mistaken for tourists? Was it because we weren’t dressed formal enough?
Did we do something disrespectful? I am not sure.
I give 3 candles for the interactions among the
congregation. They were I tight group that really seemed to care for one
another. Today there was also a baby blessing and many people showed up to show
their support. Baby blessings still, as I understand it, are not private and
anyone who chooses to attend the service that day is permitted to watch.
SERVICE: 1/10 candles
I knew going in that I should not expect it to be as dynamic
and involved as some of the other services of different denominations I visited,
I knew this from experience. It isn’t the sort of service people go to have
fun, it seems more like a spiritual duty. They take it as seriously as a med
student takes their studies in class, it is spiritual education.
Today was a special service as it was the first Sunday of month
meaning that it was what is known as Fast Sunday. They observe a fast and
during the sacrament service, members of the ward may participate in bearing
their testimonies. These are often very emotionally driven speeches or stories
telling of what the church as done for them, how they found the church, sharing
fond memories, remembering someone they loved, and it almost assuredly ends in
the tearful recitation of the famous mantra “… and I know this church is true”.
The stories can be anywhere from inspirational and uplifting to depressing or a
bit hammy. I could look around the room and see, almost on cue, that members
were brought tears at the deep, emotional stories shared by those brave enough
to approach the pulpit. There were also a few microphones being passed around
to those who wanted to share but could not walk up to the front.
First on the agenda was the baby blessing. A family had just
received a newborn and wanted to have it blessed. It is a pretty simple
ceremony where some members of the family and some other trusted members of the
ward (all male because at the time of this writing, women cannot hold the priesthood,
that is, a special privilege or level of church authority) gather around the
person holding the newborn, place their hands on the head or hands of the other
brothers and one says a short prayer asking for the child to live a full, happy,
and healthy Mormon life and to live pure and spread the Gospel. Missionary work
is heavily encouraged in the LDS faith. I actually thought it a nice gesture to
wish for the happiness and prosperity for the child, so there is a win.
However, I didn’t care much for the part about wishing the baby to live
specifically a Mormon life and that part about perpetuating the religion, it
almost sounded like it was more about spreading the religion than about the
baby. Can’t they just wish the child to live a happy and prosperous life
regardless of the path they choose?
After the blessing, came the testimonies; the bishop spoke
first. He made a few announcements then began sharing a story about when he was
on a mission (Mormons are strongly urged to pursue missionary work). He was
somewhere in Latin America and talked about how the primary religion there was
Catholicism. He mentioned that while he was serving he would often meet people
who, during missionary visits would want to use their own Bible for the
discussions because they didn’t know how much it differed from the ones the
missionaries use. He witnessed them pulling out Bibles from closets that have
never even been opened “They have had these for years but never read them because
in the Catholic religion people are discouraged from reading their scriptures”,
it was at this point that I saw Chad scribbling frantically in his notebook.
Chad is VERY familiar with the Catholic faith and its teachings and I am truly
amazed he did not stand up and call out the bishop on this. To find out more
about his take on this you can read Chad’s blog
here. I caught that as well
and took great issue with it because this man was either 1) knowingly lying to
the congregation about his experience 2) embellishing the story and isn’t at
all familiar with Catholic teachings 3) is familiar with Catholic history and
only chose to share an outdated part of it without mentioning the context.
In the 1500’s yes people couldn’t read their Bible because
first of all there weren’t many Bibles to go around and also compounded by the
fact that so many people throughout the world were largely illiterate. Bibles
in these times were also written mostly in Latin, not the common tongue of the
country where the various members lived, so only the clergy who were trained in
Latin were able to read it, even if there were people literate in their mother
language. The purpose of this was so that people couldn’t take the Bible out of
context as seen by church authorities, they didn’t want things left open to
interpretation. This is also one reason why symbolism is so important in
Catholicism is because people were illiterate, they needed special symbols or
icons to know which saint is which, for example, Saint Paul is often depicted
carrying a sword, etc. Here the bishop
lost many points with me. I am no scholar, but I am doing my best to understand
what I can and I am going out to see for myself, how people worship. I am
making a concentrated effort to educate myself so if any of the information I
present is inaccurate, I would consider it a great courtesy to correct me if I
am wrong. This guy did not give a fair assessment of the other faith. So there’s
my two cents.
There was one lady who went up there with her child who
could not have been over the age of 6 or 7 years old. At this point I really
began to get uncomfortable because, I remember seeing kids in church years ago
in my age group have their parents convince them to go up and bear their
testimony, but I remember at the age not even knowing what a testimony was, so
how could children stand before an entire congregation and testify that they
know this church is true when they are not even old enough to understand it.
When the lady made it up to the pulpit, the child didn’t want to speak. She
said that her daughter had something she wanted to say but changed her mind “it
must have been a ploy to get me to come up here”. So with that the woman shared
her feelings about the church, cried, and then sat back down. I didn’t know
what to make of this, I really had a hard time believing that the child as
young as she was, would of her own volition and unaided would request to go up
and bear a testimony. I thought the mother put her up to it, but again, I can’t
be certain as I recall once many years ago feeling jealous that my peers got to
stand up and talk in front of everyone, but honestly, I wouldn’t know what I would
say because again, I didn’t know what it meant. So take this bit with a grain
of salt, I personally don’t like the idea of indoctrination of children. I feel
that kids should be taught about various religions and should not be made to
recite that one in particular is true when they don’t understand it. This had
no bearing on my rating for the service for that day, though I am against it,
it is a relatively common thing to do and I knew there was a possibility that I
would see something like this.
The half dozen or so other members that went up to bear
their testimonies had told stories of how they found the faith and the usual “I
am grateful for the gospel and our prophet ____”. President Monson, the current
president of the church was mentioned in a couple of these testimonies, quite
often in one particular speech given by a very elderly woman. She was deaf for
over a decade, found it difficult to move about, but still insisted that she
come up and speak from the pulpit. She was assisted up and down the stairs and
I genuinely felt she was sincere. In her closing, she said that though she
could not hear, that doesn’t mean that she could not still learn because now
she reads more. She is now reading through the scriptures.
There were several more who had come up but I have neither
the time nor recollection to cover all of them here; however they all followed
the same basic framework mentioned above.
I wanted to make one last quick note on the music, I have
never been a fan of church music, but I found this to be among the least
enjoyable, mostly for the slow tempo and long, multiple verses. I give the
service the minimum rating on account of a few factors (with the last one being
the biggest reason):
1)
I found it to be droll and boring. Bishop could
have done a lot better in being more enthusiastic about being part of “the ONE
TRUE church”
2)
Music was bad and monotonous
3)
Bishop distributed blatantly false information
and misrepresented another religion before his congregation which I found to be
both unprofessional and disrespectful. As a leader of a congregation, it is his
responsibility to represent the church and set an example, which he did, but it
was a bad one. Shame on this bishop, his heart was in the right place, but his
mind was elsewhere.
MESSAGE: 2/10
There really wasn’t much of a message to speak of here,
because it was basically open mic day. The bishop took a moment near the
beginning to try and make a point so here was the take home message that I got,
the good the bad and the ugly:
1)
It is not enough to read the scriptures, but to
understand them. Make more of an effort to understand what is being said
instead of just merely trying to read them. (WIN!!! I couldn’t agree more!)
2)
This church is the one true church. (that seems
to be a common theme shared with many)
3)
This church encourages you to read and
understand its scriptures more than other churches do theirs (FALSE)
I am in STRONG AGREEMENT with the first one. I have said it
before, it is not just enough to believe what you do, but to also know WHY you
do. Big, big win there, which is why I give this section a bonus candle.
OVERALL: 3/10 candles
I gave this particular service 3 candles out of 10 overall.
Most of these came from the atmosphere whereas everything else left much to be
desired. Now before anyone cries foul, let us remember what it is that I am
rating, my own experience.
This is by
no means a comprehensive look at the entire religion, just that one service on
that one particular day. Many devout members will also agree that Fast Sunday
is not their favorite meeting. I could have gone a big step further
and attended Sunday, school, and singles ward. Church for LDS members can end
up being an all day commitment! I chose to only sit in on the sacrament and
highlight the big picture. I didn’t really need to go into detail on minor
things. Perhaps another visit on another day in another ward might be merited.
I knew going in that this would be difficult to sit through so I did take that
into account. I am sharing with you now, my own thoughts and opinions. I will
admit, Mormon services are some of the most boring things I have ever had to
sit through at times. However, they can be a very interesting, and insightful
experience for anyone who would like to know more about this new and mysterious
religion. In my opinion, I don’t know how the really devout members are able to
sit through these every week; and in some cases several times a week. I have to
applaud their tenacity.
