Mormons have a hard time identifying service that isn't (1) yard work or (2) baking (and if you need anything more, you're generally on your own). So a new article in the New Era is letting the youth know that there are new ways to offer new service!

https://www.lds.org/new-era/2017/03/service-you-didnt-think-was-service?lang=eng

--Sharing a personal story in church
--Texting something nice to someone
--Cheering at sporting events (or music recitals, or engineering exhibits)
--Sharing your talents
--Watching your little brother's favorite TV show
--Sharing helpful tips with others
--Praying

It's like that verse from the Bible says, "Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee presenting thy engineering exhibit, and we cheered thee on? or cooking pasta, and we shared that if you add a little olive oil, it'll help it not stick together? or having some general malady, and we said a prayer? When saw we thee watching thy favorite TV show, and we came and watched it with thee?"

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as we have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

But nothing requiring any real sacrifice or that requires you to get off the couch. Cause yard work's boring, ya'll.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2017 11:33PM by focidave.

Great parody!

I can't remember who told me this story. I don't even think the story was told to me, actually, it was just told in front of me. I was pretty young at the time, so it was just adults talking. Anyway, this woman had a bunch of kids, and a couple of them were severely disabled, I think. The Relief Society in the ward was trying to figure out ways to help her out, which in and of itself is a very nice thing. If I recall correctly, the woman was going through an especially hard time, I think perhaps maybe a family member had just died, like one of her children or her husband or something like that. It was a time of tragedy for her.

Anyway, some of the suggestions I remember were to offer to watch one of her children for half an hour to give the belabored woman some 'alone time.' Another was to offer to plant a flower in her front yard. I believe there were several about baking her muffins or cookies. Another one was maybe to offer to go on a walk with her, as bizarre as that sounds. You know, the kind of stuff the original poster was talking about, the kind of non-service service that the church parades about as being so wonderful but really isn't helpful in the slightest.

Anyways, the woman who I was hearing the story from apparently got really indignant, I don't know if it was at the Relief Society suggestions, or just in private to my mom, the latter seems more likely since she didn't seem like the kind of woman who wanted to make serious waves during a church meeting. However, she was really derisive of all the suggestions, and said that if these women really wanted to help this woman out, then think of the things that you don't want to do or don't prefer to do but have to do after a while: things like cleaning your bathroom, or scrubbing all your floors, or doing all that nitpicky yard work that you have to do annually or whatever, or cleaning out your garage or cleaning your attic or something like that.

Your story reminded me of what a warped sense of service Mormons have. A plate of cookies is not service. A card in the mail to say we missed you is not service. These things may be nice, they might even make someone feel good, but they are in no way tantamount to service. In fact, it is a mockery of real service to suggest that this kind of bullshit is service, both the things I talked about and the things the New Era listed in the Original Post.

It seems like I constantly hear the church talk about service, but they never really want to do anything that is really helpful. The only thing the church cares about is making sure their buildings get cleaned, and that's the only kind of service oriented task I can really think of. Other than that, it's making sure they get their money and all of their bureaucratic type callings get filled to make sure that there is no interruption of the flow of money from the envelope where you put your check to the deposit box at the bank, where the tithing money gets send off to Salt Lake, to be dispersed equally among all wards and stakes according to need of course.

Of course.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2017 02:50AM by midwestanon.

midwestanon, I really thought your story was going to go this way: others offered to help the despondent mother out so she could have some free time...to...serve a calling in Relief Society!

Hahahahhahaha, god that would've been 10 times worse...

'lets free some time up for you to do the most worthless tasks imaginable.'

And, the type of service that gets the most mileage is that of bringing someone into the church or to church which, of course, benefits, if it sticks, the MormonCult's money vault.

Well, they did help us move once. Of course, they took the furniture to the wrong house.

"Service" in Mormonism is easy!

You don't even need to leave the couch-house.

If you are FORCED to do something (most usually) for another member, like smile, text, hug, rake, bake, home-visit peach, move, or give a lift, count it as service... even if you didn't want to do it in the first place. And rest easy for the rest of the month - or longer - if possible/ you are lucky.

LDS sucks all the time and money out of it's members and hijacks their personal (private) [free] time energy , through forced WORK, like "callings", janitorial (service), missionary (work), temple (work-'service'), HT/VT, meetings, genealogy, cannery-farmwork, WoW, seminary, scripture repeating, lds conversations/ thoughts, family prayer, 'tithing', general - and specific - conference, steak conference, church themed trips, etc., etc., etc.

Mormonism CHEAPENS it's adherents' thoughts of service, in meaning and intent, and offers ridiculous excuses for service in the little - if any - time they have left (after following Mormonism occupies every waking thought).

M@t

... into mormonism somehow, then it just isn't a good day.

Besides, the New Era is the teenager church magazine. It's always been a bit shallow. On my mission I became rather obsessed with the New Era. One apartment I lived in held a whole bookshelf dedicated to church magazines. I would fish through that bookshelf for a new era to read during free time. (that area I also had a great companion so we spent a lot of time inside not tracting)

Anyway, those magazines really opened my eyes into how bizarre mormon life can be. I never had read any church magazines as a kid. But reading them as a disgruntled and sexually frustrated missionary made me realize that the church is weird and patronizing! Especially for youth (pun intended)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2017 02:40PM by nonsequiter.

That's a good point to remember, that it's a magazine for teenagers (who may be more limited in their opportunities to actually serve others, especially if their parents never let them go out of the house). But still, I'm sure every city has the need for young people to volunteer and give of their time in some way. Maybe find one of those organizations instead of watching TV.

Forced fellowship does not equal friendship. The church may have many members, but very few friends.

"--Cheering at sporting events (or music recitals, or engineering exhibits)"

Music recitals have cheering? What is an engineering exhibit and would one cheer at it?

Seriously, cheering at a sporting event? I don't even know what to say. So Superbowl Sunday is service for Mormons?

The original article said


"Cheer Your Heart Out (Pom Poms optional)

"So maybe you don’t especially like going to football games. Or soccer games. Or any other event that involves a scoreboard and cheers or jeers from a crowd. Even so, you can still attend your friend’s game and root for them. Simply showing up to lend support often means more to the other person than the couple of hours you spent attending. The same holds true for dance recitals, concerts, engineering exhibits, and any other place a friend or family member is sharing part of what they love."

So it seems like more of the idea of be there for your friends when they have an event of some sort because it'll mean a lot to that person. This is certainly a nice thing to do, but does it really qualify as service? I did theater in high school, and I certainly appreciated it when people came to my shows, but I never would have thought they were performing some kind of service for me. If anything, that would feel really condescending, like they were so much better than me that it was a service for them to get off their couch to come see my play.

Well the single mom with two severely cerebral palsied teen sons in my wife's ward totally wore out the relief society and elders quoroum. after her husband left the mom was induced into the mormon church based on several times the EQ helped load and unload the teens on sunday from a special van configured to transport them. once in the cult she expected lots of service from the RS and EQ 'cause she had to work had no money and the disabled kids need support 24/7. timetables were set, schedules made out for 24/7 assistance which lasted exactly one month. at a F and T meeting the mom got up and complained how the members were so nice in the beginning to help but after a few weeks, members stopped helping load and unload the kids, stopped babysitting in teams of 3, stopped delivering meals daily and she wondered why they stopped being Chritlike. she expected lots more from the members but the members who were stuck helping rn out of steam and crept off into the night so to speak.
she left the church after being baptized one month and was last seen at a catholic church seeking assistance.
in all honesty no church was going to go that far for the poor woman-she need gov. social services but they too were limited.
i heard she had a nervous breakdown.
those life situations are complicated and difficult to resolve. but at least the morg tried if only for a month as they were faced with a challenge to do real service but did not meet the challenge.

This article reminds me of a youth service activity that my ward had where the kids wrote "thank you for your service" on cards and placed them on the windshields of cars in the temple parking lot.

Wow

I remember being in an awful ward in Pennsylvania. I had pneumonia, was in nursing school, and had 3 small children. It was Saturday and I could not move. I called the RS Pres that morning and begged for help. She was very snippy and said all of the husbands and YW were watching children and all the sisters were going to RS conference. Knowing the theme I asked what the theme was so she could hear herself say "Service". She hung up.

'Service'. No these are just every day things humans do for friends or those they see in need. No assignmemt needed. It happens naturally.

Burying your testicle monkeys would be "service". Singing in the rain would qualify as well. Even paying, praying & obeying would be "serving" (the devil [is in the details]).

In other words, just being a mormonite is like 'fool service'... like at a self-service gasoline station on the highway to hell.

Mormons are excused from everything. 'Class dismissed!' No passing the test because they have all the answers. They cheat. The profits give the answers freely. ALL "service" is equal. Real service or twiddling your thumbs.