Comments on: Mormon Replacement Rate Negative in United States

By: Announcing the inaugural recipient of the Deseret Dingleberry award: Mark Paredes | Main Street Plaza

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:17:11 +0000

[...] Notice the bigotry? Neither did I. The only thing objectionable about that comment is that it was copied-and-pasted without attribution from Hellmut’s 2008 post. [...]

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By: Chino Blanco

Chino Blanco — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:08:34 +0000

Yeah, it was that closing bit that blew my mind … in a discussion offering advice to a tradition that counts Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed (not to mention all the myriad communities of diverse origin and culture within Judaism and Israel), Mark unwittingly hauls out contemporary Mormonism’s biggest challenge: how to get beyond the black-and-white, in-or-out, true-believer-vs-anti binary mindset. Physician, heal thyself. And giving up fudged numbers would be a good first step on the path to a healthier religious life.

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By: chanson

chanson — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:31:48 +0000

chino @68 — Wow, that’s quite an article!!! This is my favorite part:

As a member of one of the fastest-growing faiths who wishes to see more Jews become active in their communities, I humbly offer several suggestions for making liberal Judaism more relevant and meaningful to people who are voting with their feet to abandon organized Judaism.

I am in awe of his great humility, kindly offering less “relevant and meaningful” faiths tips on how to be as “relevant and meaningful” as the CoJCoL-dS. Of course the follow up — where Brother Humble explains that the problem is that Jewish services aren’t spiritual like LDS services (but instead preach politics, unlike LDS services!) — also showed impressive empathy and self-awareness. Then I also liked this closing bit to head off all those haters who disagree with his humble take on Mormonism vs. Judaism:

Regular readers will note that comments from anti-Mormon bigots have been deleted from this site. I figure that if they have something to say to Jews, they can get their own blog.

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By: Chino Blanco

Chino Blanco — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:17:11 +0000

The latest Mormon attempt to tout LDS church growth: How to Make Liberal Judaism Relevant? Ask a Mormon

It’s really unfair to the rank-and-file that the official church won’t come out and honestly present membership and growth numbers. It makes the membership look dishonest when all they are is simply misinformed.

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By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:33:40 +0000

http://thomas-monson.blogspot.com/2010/09/gayle-smith-accuses-mormon-prophet-of.html

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By: Ms. Jack Meyers

Ms. Jack Meyers — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:13:35 +0000

Interesting article, Hellmut. (Slightly tangential comment incoming . . .)

“That’s not a real shocker” about Utah scoring the top fertility rate, said Brooke Welsh, a labor and delivery charge nurse at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. That hospital had 471 births last month, for example, about 15 per day.

I gave birth to my daughter at UVRMC in June 2006.

Never again. That place is a baby factory. They practically don’t want you to check in for labor and delivery until the baby is crowning, plus the nurses didn’t know that a baby with a cleft palate can’t breastfeed. Ugh.

OTOH, the pediatrician and the feeding specialist they got for me were both excellent, and the geneticist who visited from the University of Utah to see my daughter was ace.

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By: Ms. Jack Meyers

Ms. Jack Meyers — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:02:51 +0000

While I appreciate Deseretian’s thoughtful response, I really hope that the church does not attempt to remedy this problem by encouraging young married couples to have at least four children each. Easing up on birth control rules and toning down the exhortations to have large families is one of the few areas effecting women that the church has actually improved on in the past several decades. I’d hate to see it regress on that.

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By: Hellmut

Hellmut — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:12:48 +0000

I agree with you, Deseretian, that the Brethren must know about this. I have reports from demographers that they apprised the Church statisticians about the inconsistencies of the annual membership statistics.

I also think that current LDS policies actually contribute to the problem. Particularly, the abuses of statistics induce mission presidents to compare themselves to each other by baptismal numbers.

That creates rather counterproductive incentives that lead to baseball baptisms and other ways of pressuring and bullying people into baptism who have not been really converted.

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By: Hellmut

Hellmut — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:07:38 +0000

Good to meet you, Deseretian.

It’s difficult to determine Mormon fertility rates. I suppose Utah fertility rates can be a proxy.

Here is a discussion from the Deseret News about the 2006 statistics.

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By: Steve EM

Steve EM — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:00:09 +0000

Deseretian,
Your anecdotal observations can be confirmed by many others elsewhere. We’ve lost most of a generation. But while I too am sure the GAs are aware of the problem, it’s also self evident they don’t give a rat’s ass about it or are too old to act. The first step when one is in a hole is to stop digging. I’m still waiting for the GAs to stop chasing people out of the church.

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