Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People

By Living in Zion

Feb. 7th, 2013 at 2:57 pm

A few of the sisters in my ward are participating in a women’s interfaith prayer group and discussion. I haven’t gone yet but it sounds interesting. While I was growing up I got the message it was dangerous to mix with other churches.

I notice our church doesn’t seem to participate in formal interfaith councils, at least not in a way that I would know about. I’ve never heard anyone report in ward council meetings about attending interfaith meetings. I haven’t ever heard of a Bishop or Stake President speaking at a meeting or seen anyone given a calling to officially represent the LDS church at interfaith events.

I have a sister-in-law who’s current calling is assistant to the Public Relations person in her area. They seem to bake a lot of goodies for city council members. She hasn’t said they do anything with other churches.

Today I read this story online :

Lutheran pastor apologizes for involvement in Sandy Hook service

and felt nothing but sad. The pastor was acting in a way that I think was respectful and sincere. I am sorry he has to apologize for doing good.
Does our church have the same policy of not associating with other churches, even when it seems the obvious right thing to do?

1. Carrie

Thu, Feb 7, 2013 @ 4:52pm

I got that same “other churches are dangerous!” message growing up and thought it was ridiculous — I loved religion, all religion, and always tried to make friends with people of other faiths and visit other churches. I went on to major in religious studies in college.

I don’t think our church has any actual anti-interfaith-group policy, and we’ve been opening up a lot. There was a great article in the Ensign this month about a Mormon woman who moved to Georgia and got her family involved with a local Protestant church because it was the lifeblood of the community there, and it was a great ecumenical experience. Last year in DC we held an interfaith academic conference with the Wesleyan Theological Seminary there. And my mother, after years of making friends with other religions in the community, was invited to sit on the executive board of a major inter-faith council in her city. The Stake President is thrilled.

In other words, I don’t think the church has any policy against it, we’ve just been terrible as a church at reaching out beyond ourselves. And I hope that changes.

2. makakona

Thu, Feb 7, 2013 @ 5:04pm

i’m a public affairs rep and we sit on the ministerial council for the city our stake center is in. there’s a huge effort to coordinate between the various churches and needs of the community and it’s a great relationship. our stake president is very interested in maintaining interfaith relations.

we’ve helped to fix up a new born-again church, worked with lutheran communities to rehab homes for the disabled, and we provide volunteers for every shift that the food bank is open. we coordinated for the byu folk dance team to perform at a disadvantaged catholic school.

there are a few things we haven’t been allowed to participate in… we couldn’t do the interfaith advent celebration, though invited, because of concern over the prayers and scriptures that might be offered. i thought that was a shame. ditto for some interfaith choir celebrations that our stake choir could have rocked. all in all, though, i think our area does a fantastic job in the interfaith area.

oh! and when we lived elsewhere, we had good outreach, too… our ward pa rep would arrange for us to visit a different church each month. afterwards, we’d have lunch with members of both congregations (greek restaurant after the greek orthodox church!). we also did a live nativity for a week and invited the public, including advertising in the newspaper.

3. Amos

Thu, Feb 7, 2013 @ 8:56pm

Our branch president has been invited, repeatedly, to participate in a council of church ministers/priests/rabbis in the community where our church is. The problem is, that all of the other leaders are full time employees of their churches and so they meet during the day on weekdays. Our branch president, as other leaders in our church, commutes to a full time job. Although he’d really like to be involved in the group, it just isn’t feasible for him.

We are the only LDS family in our town, and we live 30 minutes from our branch, which means that we frequently visit other churches. Our kids have gone to a congregationalist preschool, evangelical and lutheran playgroups, we do our piano recitals at the Friends church and I’ve attended the evangelical Bible study occasionally. Just a fact of life if you live without an LDS congregation nearby.

4. annegb

Thu, Feb 7, 2013 @ 9:07pm

Not here, we do a lot of things with other denominations; however, that’s not always been the case. People were downright upset if their kids had friends of other faiths. I don’t hear that as much now, but maybe that’s just because I don’t have any kids at home.

I’m not sure what you intended by including the story of the minister apologizing. It doesn’t seem to go with your question. I think, in a way, we all felt like apologizing for that man’s awful act. I still feel like apologizing to the Jews of Europe for WWII.

5. eljee

Thu, Feb 7, 2013 @ 9:44pm

I don’t think there is any prohibition against interfaith activities (depending on the type of activity, of course). I think that how common they are depends on the area. My mother was on an interfaith council, along with women from her stake, clear back in the 1970′s. I believe it was a Church assignment or invitation. This was in southern Arizona. I currently live in Utah and read articles in the newspaper all the time detailing various interfaith gatherings and projects. A decade ago when I was working for a local Presbyterian church as an organist, we participated in an interfaith choir festival where there was an LDS stake choir involved.

I can kind of see the concern about being involved, as a Church, in some interfaith liturgical celebrations (like Advent celebrations)… just because it would be expected to do things like recite the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed at some of those services, or to participate in actual liturgical functions that could be awkward for LDS people. I’d totally attend any of those things just as an individual, but I can see where it could get interesting to attend representing the Church.

6. living in zion

Fri, Feb 8, 2013 @ 8:45am

Annegb – I included the Lutheran pastor story because I was wondering what would happen if a Mormon bishop or stake pres. participated in an interfaith program. Would they get chastised by upper level church leaders? We are protective of our religious beliefs and don’t have a long history of mixing with other faiths.
Is it against the tenants of our church to worship with Jews, Protestants, Muslims, etc? The Lutherans seem to be pretty hardline about where their lines are drawn. Are we the same?

7. annegb

Fri, Feb 8, 2013 @ 12:46pm

Oh, no, I can’t imagine they’d be in trouble here.

…..well, if a bishop participated in a Muslim service, he’d never get elected to public office here. In trouble with LDS leaders? I don’t think so, but not sure.

8. annegb

Fri, Feb 8, 2013 @ 12:47pm

And I apologize, I didn’t notice it was a link, just read the title. I’m always half cocked.

9. Michelle

Fri, Feb 8, 2013 @ 8:52pm

The Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable definitely includes LDS representatives (http://interfaithroundtable.org/membergroups.htm), and I’ve lived in several places where the local LDS leaders made an effort to reach out to and participate with other church leaders when possible.

10. MCQ

Sun, Feb 10, 2013 @ 7:33am

President Eyring gave a talk in GC a few years ago about attending an interfaith conference on behalf of the Chuch, so there is obviously stuff like that happening at the highest level. In our area we have a calling in both our ward and our stake called interfaith outreach or interfaith representative. Those callings have been around for several years now. Our ward interfaith rep just recently formed a discussion group of women from several different faiths in the area. They plan activities and events to bring people of all faiths together.

11. Karen

Tue, Mar 5, 2013 @ 3:20pm

Our stake just announced that Saturday night session of stake conference would be interfaith, with non-LDS speakers. They hope to have a variety of ministers, pastors, imams, etc. There will be interfaith musical numbers. The stake president will only close the meeting and our stake choir will do a closing number.