The Mormonism Thread 2.0
Zioneer:
So I started a thread about Mormonism a couple years back, but it's been a while and I don't really want to bother bringing the old thread back. So I'm reviving it as this thread, especially since the major biannual LDS General Conference is happening on Saturday and Sunday (technically part of it already happened this last Saturday, but eh). This is probably the biggest event in Mormonism that happens every six months.
So, go ahead and ask me anything about Mormonism. I can usually answer it, and there's a couple of other Mormons floating around the forum that might spot this thread and can answer something if I can't.
PresidentSamTilden:
What political issues are important in the mormon community?
DC Al Fine:
Two questions:
1) What does a typical Mormon liturgy look like for a normal Sunday service? Does it vary much between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the fringier groups?
2) Related, to SamTilden's question, what are the major theological debates in the main LDS denomination.
Mr. Smith:
Quote from: PresidentSamTilden on September 29, 2016, 06:43:38 PM
What political issues are important in the mormon community?
- Gay marriage, and that one ain't goin' away anytime soon. Honestly just about anything LGBTAQ is gonna be turn the community into a bunch o' deer-in-the-headlights. LGBT for one reason, AQ for another.
- Weed/Marijuana , there's one side that's still ahead that takes the "it's bad for you so ban it" route, and then there's the anti-prohibitionist route (I personally favor the latter category).
- There's probably a good chunk that think exactly like SunriseAroundTheWorld since there's a bit of Zionist streak going on [No idea if the OP chose that name with some irony or not, but it's rather reflective]
Quote from: DC Al Fine on September 29, 2016, 07:04:23 PM
Two questions:
1) What does a typical Mormon liturgy look like for a normal Sunday service? Does it vary much between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the fringier groups?
2) Related, to SamTilden's question, what are the major theological debates in the main LDS denomination.
A normal service looks like:
A: 1 hour of what is called Sacrament Meeting, which is pretty much our mass.
- Albeit with 8 people to do the Communion, since the figurative body and blood of Christ goes to the people rather than forcing the people up.
- Instead of a bunch of "Readings" from -Insert Bible Book Here- and a sermon or two, you get a bunch of individual speakers on one concrete gospel related topic...unless it's Fast Sunday, then you got a bunch 'o people telling things as they see it, most of them go down to inelegant blubbering.
B
1. Sunday School
2. Primary (Sunday School Jr)
3. Nursery
C: A Bunch o' meetings segregated by Age and Gender
1. Elder's Quorum (that's me)
2. High Priests (the codgery dudes)
3. Relief Society (women)
4. Young Men
5. Young Women
Everything comes out to about 3 hours [but if you got some talkative, smarta^& teachin' or disruptive people at any point it could go longer]
No idea how much splinter groups keep to the formula.
...And that's all I have time for.
Zioneer:
Quote from: PresidentSamTilden on September 29, 2016, 06:43:38 PM
What political issues are important in the mormon community?
In addition to Ralleytand/MormonDem's comments, abortion is a fairly important issue, though not overriding over other issues. Religious Liberty has gotten big recently among American Mormons and the mostly American leaders of the church, especially in the context of being able to express opposition to same-sex marriage. However, in terms of defending other minority religions, we use religious liberty and our own history to justify defending them.
Being really in favor of Israel is definitely a thing, though unlike some evangelicals, Mormons don't have any animus against Palestinians in particular, they just like Jews and therefore Jewish Israelis more. In fact, there is a BYU Jerusalem Center that's rather fair to all sides, that mainly teaches history, archaeology, and the like. The ultra-Orthodox were opposed to it at first since they thought the Mormons would use it to convert Jews, but we promised not to do conversions in Israel, and we've tried our best to hold to our end of the deal.
As for my username, I took it more for the purposes of a pun on "Zion" (as in, the Mormon definition), and "Pioneer", hence, "Zioneer".
Oh, and in Utah, opposition to alcohol is a thing the LDS Church does. If you've ever heard of the "Zion Curtain", it's basically a barrier legally mandated in front of drinks being served, so that kids don't see it. It's exactly as silly as it sounds.
Quote from: DC Al Fine on September 29, 2016, 07:04:23 PM
Two questions:
1) What does a typical Mormon liturgy look like for a normal Sunday service? Does it vary much between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the fringier groups?
2) Related, to SamTilden's question, what are the major theological debates in the main LDS denomination.
1)
A
-What Ralleytand/Mormon Dem said, but also there's a bit of "charismatic" Christianity dragged in, in that you're encouraged to speak from the heart, premonitions are often mentioned in these laymen sermons, and crying is not considered uncouth or inappropriate. In fact, a man getting all teary is considered masculine, in a way. Hence why Glenn Beck is considered a model Mormon in some respects during his show. He cries when feeling something inspirational or terrifying, and speaks emotionally of his experiences with faith and spirituality. That's considered okay during these speeches.
B
1. Sunday School: In Sunday School you have a (again, layman) teacher talking about a gospel principle, encouraging (limited) discussion of the principle, and affirmations of the righteousness of said principle. Opposed discussion is not really encouraged.
2. Primary: Basically Sunday School for 5-12 year olds, it's a simplified version of Sunday School, and often there's a lot of recounting of Book of Mormon stories and practice for Primary "concerts" during Sacrament Meeting in between speakers.
3. Nursery: exactly what it sounds like.
C.
1. Elder's Quorum: I am also in Elder's Quorum, and it's similar to Sunday School, but more focused on priesthood matters.
2. High Priests: Old codgers, stereotyped as either falling asleep easily, or getting way too into heated debates about an esoteric bit of Mormon theology/history.
3. Relief Society: All about being the best mothers and wives you can be, single women can sometimes feel excluded.
4. Young Men: Teaching the young men to be priesthood leaders and trying to lead them into having a righteous life, and so forth.
5. Young Women: Preparing to be a wife and mother. Stereotyped as not having very deep discussions about anything.
All of this combined comes out to be about 3 hours to 3 hours 30 minutes, depending on how long things drag on.
2) As we're a very centralized church who believes that the prophet/church president literally has revelation from God, there's not a lot of serious theological debate at the layman level. Whatever the First Presidency (church president and his counselors) and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the highest authority in the church) say is doctrine, is doctrine. At least that's how it officially goes.
Unofficially, there's debates about women's role in the church, especially whether women should be ordained to the (layman) priesthood or not, a change advocated by the group Ordain Women. Related to this are the lingering questions about polygamy; while the mainline church has banned it and has excommunicated anyone who tries to bring it back, there's still the lingering specter of it in our history.
Additionally, the questions about the church's pre-1978 racial attitudes are often discussed unofficially, and lingering attitudes from that era sometimes crop up.
The biggest differences between the mainline church and the splinter groups are that the splinter groups are almost all very fervent believers in polygamy, are extremely racist, and center all power within a couple of families; the Fundamentalist LDS or FLDS with the Jeffs family are a key example of this.
However, then you've got the RLDS/Community of Christ, who started out opposed to polygamy and what they saw as some of Joseph Smith's excesses. They had an almost monarchical church presidency restricted to members of the Smith family, but they've abandoned that in recent years, and basically become a mainline liberal Protestant church. There was a relatively recent (up until 2012, I think) Congressman from Iowa who was RLDS. Leonard Boswell or something like that.
Any further questions?
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