So embarrassing how they depict the early history of the church in the British Isles. Those who know the history of 19th century emigration to the USA, understand the Mormon missionary effort there as one of many examples of Americans recruiting the disaffected and those looking for economic improvements in their lives. Religion was not the primary reason they emigrated.

Wonder if the people in the Church Office Building squirm when they realize that the British members have fallen for their fiction hook, line and sinker.

Are there any feelings of guilt for having deceived them?

No, I didn’t think so.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2023 06:41AM by unconventional.

They basically present all of the emigrants as English and wave around the Union Jack, which goes down like a bucket of cold sick with most people from the Republic.

Yep, much of the early growth was people fleeing the displacement of the Industrial Revolution. While the pressure/ability to immigrate is greatly diminished, I think a great deal of the Church’s international growth these days is aspirational. The people like being associated with a successful Americas organization. The Mormonism aspect is incidental.

LDS Inc is still writing checks on the goodwill generated by the US from WWII to around 1970 when US foreign aid had a big impact on countries like Brazil and the Philippines.

In fact it occurs to me that President Bush 43 is much revered in sub-Saharan Africa because of the US help in the fight against AIDS. I suspect that is a major factor in the current success of the Mormons and other US-based churches in West and Central Africa today.


Is the British Pageant still being performed?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2023 08:59AM by Brother Of Jerry.

It’s going on right now.

Ah, thanks. I had heard that it was only the pageants that involved the BoM were cancelled a few years ago, like Manti and Hill Cumorah. I was particularly surprised when the Hill Cumorah Pageant was cancelled. There was a lot of expensive infrastructure in place for that, and it was a major summertime event for east coast Mormons in my youth.

The selective cancellation of BoM related pageants reinforced my suspicion that the LDS Church is slowly moving away from the BoM. Their current avoidance of the term Lamanite is another bit of confirming evidence.

I'm being cheated out of my heritage!!!!


Hmmm...  But does it mean I'm no longer expected to turn white to prove myself worthy?

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm being cheated out of my heritage!!!!

> Hmmm...  But does it mean I'm no longer expected
> to turn white to prove myself worthy?

Funny guy, EOD. But often profound. This one's a bit of a tearjerker.

I've been lucky.  

It'd be silly for mormons to say I was blessed, because I have not followed a path that is gospel-approved.

God bless the Bell-Shaped Curve.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The selective cancellation of BoM related pageants
> reinforced my suspicion that the LDS Church is
> slowly moving away from the BoM. Their current
> avoidance of the term Lamanite is another bit of
> confirming evidence.

That would be amazing. I mean in an incredible kind of way. Not a good incredible. Because if you have to ditch your founding document/s, so to speak, then why not just be a whole different group? Because what does that say about the current one?

I have read/heard the label "Church of Christ" and "Church of Jesus Christ" a few times in the past week or so. Some of it was in the LDS' own branding, i.e. articles or sources named, and a few instances were by outsiders who are following the newly preferred LDS style for their rebranded name.

The first time I noticed it I didn't realize it was referring to the Mormon Church, haha. I only came to realize from reading about it here and then putting 2 & 2 together from what you've all said about the New Name.

I guarantee that when people hear "Church of Christ" they don't first think of Mormons.

In fact, for me, it vividly recalls the building across the street from where I lived as a child with its big sign "Church of Christ, Scientist". I thought it was a good thing that Jesus was a scientist, haha.

So them suddenly overnight (it seems) deciding to call themselves Church of Jesus Christ, first seems questionable to me re the need for it - changing your identity can't be a positive can it? - and next, it seems like a deliberate attempt to obfuscate. I don't like to be suspicious but rebranding, especially of a church, does get noticed and does attract questions.

It seems to me a bit like mainstream Mormons distancing themselves from the fundamentalists (polygamy? what polygamy?) and even from Joseph Smith. He's a long way in the rearview now it seems.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2023 08:55PM by Nightingale.

I think Elon/Twitter and the Mormons will discover that rebranding is far harder than they thought. I’m not sure Elon even thought much. At least the Mormons did actually plan ahead a bit, and knew it was going to be a heavy lift. They decided they had no real choice, and I think they are right. The BoM is just too racist to keep around, and it is going to take more than a pure and delightsome band-aid to fix it.

EOD is just going to have to cope with the demotion. Or promotion. I’m not sure which it would be.

    
  

I second that emotion.

It's not just the racism: it's also the utterly absurd historical and genetic claims.

The RLDS has the right idea long ago.

>> I think Elon/Twitter and the Mormons will discover that rebranding is far harder than they thought. I’m not sure Elon even thought much.

I'm still seeing a lot of references to "Twitter." I love how the media is ignoring it.

I've noticed that the media is really wrestling with the church's name changes. If they get the entire name of the church correct, they then revert to using "commonly known as the Mormons" in further references. Or they mangle the name of the church altogether. My favorite so far is the " Church of Mormon."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2023 01:27AM by summer.

I agree with the sentiment that they didn’t have a choice. They had to rebrand, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

"Because if you have to ditch your founding document/s, so to speak, then why not just be a whole different group?"

Their intellectual snobbery required a huge investment in those documents. Why let that expertise go to waste just because the souffle collapsed?

Perhaps those are some of the reasons it is in decline in the UK.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2023 11:04AM by cl2.

Not the sort of story you get from the pageant.

A burqini with Masonic markings, naturally.