I don’t see any evidence of Tscc shrinking in the South. The meeting houses are packed and the youth are faithful. Plus, they are taking the teens on trips to “sacred” sites in droves in order to bolster their warm fuzzies Does anyone have any proof that the church is losing members here? I can only hope that it is actually happening.

No evidence for or against it.
You be the judge.

Wait, are you the judge?
Your honor, I have an offer!

What evidence would you like?
Would you like to see things
As They Truly Are?
No illusions?

Go to church 100 Sundays in a row (2 years)
Then tell us what you come up with.

Otherwise, you must continue to assume the lies are true.
What say you? Did you only attend once. or 25 years?

Mormons are moving south maybe, to get away from the cold/ 'church'.

M@t

The south of what? The USA? South America? Southern England?

Lol. It's like "The Church". Point taken.

The (US) Bible Belt is one of the faster growing parts of the country. I don't think the growth of LDS Inc is keeping up with general population growth in the region. I don't see many news items about new stakes being formed in the SE.

I've got some friends from BYU who went there with corporate transfers. I got the sense that they clung to Mormonism because everything from the accents to the food to the religious prattle of the Bible Belters made them a bit uncomfortable, and the ward was a place of "normalcy". Yeah, I know, ironic.

Anyway, I suggest a lot of Mormon growth and stability in the SE is western transplants clinging to their roots. That's why Church History trips are so popular.

I think you are right.

The Bible-Blessed-Jesus thing worked into everything is really overwhelming and quite foreign to Mormons. It's not unusual for a business to have a scripture on their business billboards.

Somehow if you display Christianity somehow or say words like saved or Bible babble, they associate that as "good people" who are trustworthy.

I saw something funny here in Alabama. I saw a sign that said "Put Christ back in Christmas" and someone wrote "Try putting Christ back in Christianity." (The sign was by a Build the Wall sign.)


To be honest, I have only seen Mormon missionaries here rarely and don't even know where the wards are. Mormons are definitely not prominent. Born Again types are suspicious of Mormons for sure. One uber Christian co-worker decided to tell me how there are "good angels" and "bad angels" once. She said JS saw a bad angel. Eye roll! Of course she's seen good ones.


The South has been interesting but I won't miss many things about the culture when I retire soon and move away.


The South is making a big push to give big businessses incentives to come here.

I believe Dagny and I live in similar worlds. On Tuesday I started searching on the net for a place to buy new tires for my car. One of the reviewers mentioned she loved that they played Christian music in the waiting area at a particular tire dealer. Plumbers almost universally have a Christian symbol on their trucks. It is assumed you attend a church here. To cling to the Mormon culture, if it can be called a culture, is a way of settling into the Bible belt and have a sense of familiarity.

This area of the South is growing rapidly. House appreciation for years was negligible. This year our house has appreciated 60k. It is nuts. People are moving here from all over the country and we are not an oil patch area. The Mormon growth here is most likely from transplants. A friend mentioned a Mormon family moved into a house next to him.

We will likely continue to live here. We have learned how to bite our tongues without bleeding....

Eric K Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... We have learned how to bite our tongues without bleeding.... >

I'd like to know how to do that! lol

M@t

Eric, when I was traveling in North Carolina years ago, I was shocked by the open (and constant) displays of religiosity. That wouldn't fly in New England, where I was born, or the mid-Atlantic, where I live now.

To Brother of Jerry. Thank you for your reply, which was straight forward and non-snarky. It was very much appreciated.

I'm living in the South. Plenty of Utah Mormons have come down here for work.

During the oil price crash recently a lot of them returned to Utah as the work down here evaporated. Now the oil price has risen, the jobs are available again and I see the same immigration of Utah folks.

I don't recall many locals in the ward I attended, most people were transplants from somewhere or another. Coming down to the South for employment and good paying Oil & Gas jobs.

I wonder which mormon sites they are going to in the South? cuz I can't remember any. I'm assuming they are going to Nauvoo and Kirtland (which is up north).

The trouble with the South is that they haven't expanded their tourism enough. When I was there there weren't sidewalks, bike trails, historical markers. Georgia use to be the number one place of obese people, watching tv, eating potato chips. The South is a beautiful place with lots to see yet very few see any of it.

Nauvoo and Jackson County, MO, are pretty close to being in "The South". Kirtland is clearly in the Midwest, right on Lake Erie, but even it is only a couple hundred miles from Kentucky and W Virginia.

I know when I was a kid and did the Hill Cumorah Pageant pilgrimage every August, there were busloads of families or youth coming up from DC and northern Virginia/Maryland. I assume that has expanded over the years. Dumping that pageant is going to put a serious dent in those summer youth trips for the east coast kids.

Still going strong in...

South Jordan
South Draper
South Orem
South Provo


Did I miss any? :D

In my area, the bishop was so desperate that he pitched the idea that my wife wouldn't be expected to attend every Sunday, but she could attend sparsely. That's how desperate he was to fill a vacancy in the YW presidency.

Thankfully, she declined the offer.

I just travelled all through Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and I never saw a single LDS chapel.

I spoke with a local in Memphis and he said, "Welcome to the South where you'll see a church or lawyer on every corner."

Hi Beggie,

In the US South, I live in Mississippi, and the converts here are few in the ward I attended, but there are many life-long members. However I did see in the year I attended, that 'consolidation' reduced the missionaries in the Ward by 50% and the Senior Missionaries by 100% (there aren't any here anymore, they were centralized to be someplace else).

The presence of Baptist churches is a very hard thing for Mormon to compare to:
-Mormon, one lady playing piano
-Baptist, big professional choir with electric guitars, pianos, drums,
-Mormon, volunteer lay speakers (often boring and long-winded)
-Baptist, professional charismatic preacher, whose sermons are televised
-Mormon, service 9 am Sunday
-Baptist, services 9 am, 10:30, 6pm and Wednesday evenings.

So I think by the SLC leadership keeping all the local tithe instead of allowing it to expand church facilities and offerings, they are at a huge disadvantage to anyone they are trying to convert from the Baptist churches, with their music and pagentry and huge numbers of members.

Dagny,

I am living in Mississippi and was wondering if you have decided where you are going to move to when you retire?

This is a big question for me and I'm wondering where other people might select, and why.

A general area would be fine, you don't need to tell me the exact town.

Thank you!!!

Hi mel,

I will be moving to SE Idaho to be closer to my kids and help with grandkids. I lived there decades before my job interests moved me to Alabama. I am not from Idaho originally. My kids were born there.

To be honest, SE Idaho is not exactly the location I envisioned for a retirement destination. I had to make the decision to be a present grandparent or move somewhere I like far away.

I will miss many things about the South from my 10+ years here- especially the plants.

One good thing, though. After being here among the most extreme Christian Bible belt types, maybe it won't seem so bad moving back to Mormon belt.


Where do you want to retire, mel? Are you going to stay in Mississippi? It is beautiful there.

"Are you going to stay in Mississippi? It is beautiful there."

It'is-

It's not always hard to be in Mississippi
Or hard to play there, for that matter...
But it can be hard to stay there for ever
For me, anyway. Grew up there and...
'Pre-tired' [pre-retired] there 2000's
Have to work the rest of my life now
Visit often. The love & like. Life
Four (4) seasons: summer/ other
Fall-Winter-Spring its nice
Summer it's sweltering hot
November-May it may be 40-80
Summer it may be 200
(100+100%humidity)

I like Rodney, and other Delta areas
The hill country, the blues trails
The arts, food, music, films, nature
The Natchez Trace, The 'Hub City'
Gibson, Vicksburg, Oxford, Columbus
The swamps creeks, and estuaries
The mosquitoes... the spiders
The cats, and the catfish
The flowers and mushrooms
The Live Oaks, Spanish Moss
Old historic relics
Hospitality
Trains
People

[Not necessarily in that order]

M@t

I lived in MS for a number of years. I moved there from Texas for a really good job. The Southern Baptists were about as over the top as the mormons in Utah, but not as cliquish. The first Spring, I was mowing my lawn on Sunday about 10 am. An older couple slowed their mega yacht Buick and stopped in front of my house and rolled down the window. I thought they might be lost, so I stopped the mower and walked up to their car. The old woman in the passenger's seat chastised me for working on "god's day" and told me I should be in church. I asked which church and she replied "any good Baptist church". I asked her if they had any good ones where they didn't allow nosy, pushy old ladies. The old man rolled up the window (he never said a word) and drove off.
Baptists don't approve of drinking or dancing, but when I attended a few Sunday church meetings with a girlfriend, I saw plenty of people in the pews, that I saw 7 hours ago in the clubs or joints that Saturday night.

The Reconstruction must have been hell.

breedumyung Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just travelled all through Tennessee, Alabama,
> Mississippi, Georgia and I never saw a single LDS
> chapel.
>
> I spoke with a local in Memphis and he said,
> "Welcome to the South where you'll see a church or
> lawyer on every corner."

That's the problem
Mormons don't have churches
They have chapels

They put them where you can't see them
There aren't signs about "open" times
Nothing about classes or community

Most LDS these days worship [in] their new homes
They watch conference with popcorn and coolaid

The buildings are just for the bishop to collect the tithes
The buildings are solely dedicated to Gladys Knight shows
Where she and her husband preach about the uselessness of the gospel
The gyms are no longer used but to house a bishop's score-house

The individual rooms are now used for invasive interviews
Members interview each other and share how they feel
Everyone helps each other, because they want to, naturally
Everyone calls each other [you wouldn't believe the names]

M@t

Is Texas still considered the south? Lived here 3 years and not sure.

My brother is still mormon and he claims a lot of mormons live down here... I've only really met mormons here that they've introduced me to. We have an exmo group here, but I think it's pretty small. The mormons I've met seem to still be deep into it

Thank y’all for your answers. The Mormons around here are still very deep into it. My husband and I left in 2009; but he doesn’t want our grown, very Mormon kids to know because he’s afraid we will be prevented from seeing our grandchildren. Very sad state of affairs.

Sorry. Should be strong. Need stronger glasses.

Stay strong!

This is a question and not meant to be seen as a statement. Could it be that the racism (us vs them of another race), keeps Mormonism afloat more in the Southern US? Are there active black mormons in the deep south these days?

I recently attended a public charity event (as a service provider with another agency) in a Stake Center in Arizona. It felt odd walking back in to one of these buildings as an outsider, after so many years. Something seemed different and it took me a few minutes to figure it out. There were several dozen minorities in the church gymnasium, mostly African americans, all at the same time (never seen that before). It must have been the public nature of the event itself that had drawn a more racially diverse group. Most of the church members in charge of the facility there were typical white church members. I wonder what it's like in the South.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2018 12:26PM by azsteve.