http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/2014/05/what-do-millennials-want-from-the-church/

Interesting read... saw this on some of my more progressive Mormon friends' Facebook pages.

It looks like they are voting with their feet. They want OUT.

Good for them.

Good for humanity.

Great article.

These were good points in the article:

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http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/2014/05/what-do-millennials-want-from-the-church/
Some specific shifts in policy and rhetoric that I think Millennials want to see include…

1) Dialogue. We live in a world where we can go on social media and provide feedback to our favorite brands—I’m talking about huge, multi-national corporations—and receive a response within days, if not minutes. “Engagement” and “activation” are major buzzwords. It’s about community-building, user-generated content, likes, shares, comments, creating real dialogue between organizations and end users. In contrast, there is literally no way to share feedback with top leaders of the LDS church. Even Mormon.org, where you can put up a profile about your experience as a Mormon, is heavily moderated. This is a stark contrast to what we experience elsewhere in the world, and we notice that.

2) Transparency. Perhaps as an extension of the first point, we want openness and honesty: about finances, about decision-making practices and procedures, about history. We want to see where our tithing is going. We want to be able to address difficult issues in church history or doctrine without fear of ostracism or discipline. We want a say in the policies that affect us, and to know what’s being said in the conversations happening behind closed doors. We believe that “sunlight is the best disinfectant,” and inherently distrust decisions that have been made in the dark.

3) More Humanitarian Service Opportunities. Mormons spend a lot of time doing unpaid service, but much of it is inward-focused: fulfilling callings, teaching lessons, going Visiting Teaching. While our lay system of church organization provides wonderful opportunities for spiritual growth, we want to reach beyond our own in-group and make a difference in the world at large. We want to be involved in initiatives that fight poverty, stop human trafficking, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, heal the sick, encourage peace, and take care of the environment.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2014 01:25AM by raiku.

Other churches understand that the church exists to meet the needs of its members, not the other way around. People join and participate in spiritual communities for the benefits it brings them. Mormonism may have functioned more like this in its early days, but today they have it completely backwards: the members are there to serve the interests of the leadership, primarily through by giving money and recruiting new givers of money.

I think this is a bigger threat to TSCC than anything else, even more than the lies. The lies just prove that something other than spiritual community is the real goal. If it's not true, why are they still teaching it? Because it brings in the money. Most members have some exposure to other churches and most will probably have some opportunity to see first-hand that other churches actually "feed" their members spiritually and socially. I think that's why so many who leave the Morg end up in other Christian denominations. They suddenly realize they've been starving and that someone is willing to feed them.

LDSInc. as it currently exists is unsustainable. Those who will give endlessly and be content with getting nothing back are a very small segment of humanity. Most will not tolerate it for very long. That means that only those who are directly benefiting from church membership in some tangible way, and those few who don't mind being exploited, will eventually be the only ones left. If the church doesn't completely change its culture of exploitation and control, it is doomed.

Their unquestioning do what you're told members are dying off. Most are in their 70's and up.

Many of the baby boomers are walking and taking their kids with them. If not, their kids are leaving and keeping that info quiet if they can, or need to.

Baby boomer kids are walking and taking their kids and money with them. Not all, but enough to take notice.

I'm hoping that by the time I die there will be very few in my family of origin that are still Mormon. Maybe i'm dreaming, but i have big hopes.

What do they want? They want it to stop being a cult. Since it has nothing else holding it up except cult dogma they simply want to leave.

I also liked these parts.
"As a result of these new developments, we have an innate distrust of institutions or organizations that claim to have all the answers. We’re not sure if something like “all the answers” even exists, let alone that there is a single source to find them. We are invested in coming as close to Truth as we can, but we see Truth less in terms of empiricism and more in terms of authenticity, resonance, and effect on the world and the people around us."

"We live in a world where we can go on social media and provide feedback to our favorite brands—I’m talking about huge, multi-national corporations—and receive a response within days, if not minutes. “Engagement” and “activation” are major buzzwords. It’s about community-building, user-generated content, likes, shares, comments, creating real dialogue between organizations and end users"

"we want openness and honesty: about finances, about decision-making practices and procedures, about history. "

"We’re tired of culture wars. "

"With smartphones, we carry around basically all the information humanity has ever amassed. If we have a question, we can get an answer with a few swipes of our fingers. We can find blogs, networks, videos, and forums where people are engaging with questions that concern us. A culture that discourages questioning or feels a little too much like, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” stands in stark contrast to the open flow of information we have at our fingertips. "

"If the church is going to call itself pro-family, it needs to actually be pro-family. "

I think these sentiments not only apply to Mormonism, but religion in general. I think these attitudes also explain why many young people who still believe in some higher power want to remain vaguely spiritual, but dislike or have distrust in organized religion.

I liked the post, thought it was good. But it still disturbs me that it's coming for a "Mormon feminist housewife" They are asking for something that doesn't exist. Time to leave and find what they are looking for somewhere else instead of trying to push a square peg through a round hole.

Just because they're asking for changes to be made in the church, it doesn't mean they don't believe in it. I wouldn't expect someone to leave a church that they believe in, even if they have some disagreements about how it's run.

However, maybe things will build up over time and they'll leave in the future.

true, I guess the real question is, what part do they really believe in and are hanging on to? If they just believe in Jesus, they can find comfort somewhere else pretty easily. If they are hanging on to Joseph Smith, well...I don't know how to help them there.