During our recent stake conference we were introduced to the LDS church’s new Christmas initiative, #LIGHTtheWORLD (in 25 ways over 25 days), and which we were told is set to go live on mormon.org 25 November. Now, I’m something of a jaded cynic when it comes to initiatives of this kind, and the introductory video we were shown had me gazing in horror at the screen. Was it just me? Those introducing it seemed to love it, and those who apparently know assured me that the film would go down very well in the US, though perhaps not so much in Britain. Or maybe I am just too jaded after a lifetime of seeing folk excited by such initiatives, but which generally leave me cold or rolling my eyes. Perhaps I have more in common with the Grinch than I’d like to believe.
It was with some relief that I discovered this document on mormon.org (yes before 25 November), that spells out the concept rather better than the video had, and with considerably better taste for the most part. Phew! It takes the form of a calendar which identifies different attributes or actions of Jesus for each of the 25 days, and gives suggestions of things we can do for each. It’s not set in stone, nothing to stop you shifting the days around. Participants can include the things they usually do as part of their Christmas. So, I guess I don’t mind getting on board so much. With caveats. I always have those. It all kicks of with December 1 designated as a worldwide day of service. I don’t know about elsewhere in the world, here Dec 1 is a standard school and working day, and it seems that missionaries will be providing the bulk of persons required. The video for the day of service is available now.
What was my problem with the introductory video we were shown? What we saw were clips depicting Christ performing various acts of service, miracles in the main: healing the sick, the blind, feeding the 5000. These were interleaved with clips of people today performing acts of service: visiting the sick in hospital, assisting a blind man reading braille, serving in a soup kitchen. I found this incredibly jarring. Firstly, where were the miracles for the sick in hospital, the blind man? These are not equivalent and I found the juxtaposition with no other explanation to be both tasteless and patronising. Secondly, in this country it is local churches who generally work together to run soup kitchens year round, providing teams from the different congregations on a rota basis, and guess what – the LDS church is not involved in this local ecumenical community service (I discuss some of the possible reasons in this post, and the Hanns talk about what happened when they tried in this podcast).
The red flags for me in the calendar are not unrelated. They would be those ideas that involve doing something for someone (a person identified as hungry, lonely, disabled etc.), and risks objectifying them. In and of themselves the suggestions may not be bad things to do, but they shouldn’t be part of a check list to be ticked off and forgotten. They need to be part of building a relationship with the person. Anything else and we are at worst going to be using people to achieve a goal, or at best patronising them, and that simply isn’t good enough.
- What do you make of the annual Christmas initiatives?
- Do you find them helpful?
- Do you appreciate the emphasis on service?
- Are there ways in which you serve regularly every Christmas?
- Am I just being oversensitive to what I perceive as an objectifying or patronising tone?
Discuss.
Edited 25/11/16, once the video was made available on line. In the original post I had recalled a blind woman reading braille.
Wheat & Tares 
Hedgehog! Thank you for a provocative post. While most of my response will not be validating to your OP, I will certainly be a more sensitive person as I give the new initiative ago than I otherwise would have been.
I think you are letting the great get in the way of the good. This program, while imperfect will certainly will get me out of my routine and get me thinking of people and ways to serve that I have long forgotten. I have found the calendar to be inspiring, not only because it encourages me to serve, but because it centers that service in Christian discipleship. Day 1 is “Jesus lifted other’s burden’s and so can you.” Each day is similarly themed. Although I’m sure the day “Jesus Healed the Sick and So Can You” may cause you some heartburn (as you pointed out above, my personal service will be a considerable let down compared to Jesus’ service to the sick, and the blind, and the deaf and the dead) I appreciate that this initiative, though imperfect combines a how, with a why. I also appreciate that the church doesn’t tell members how to serve, rather, they provide us with some good things Jesus did and a list of suggestions to get the brain churning on things I can do.
In terms of checklists and objectification, weak/stupid people like me need checklists to get us going and check our progress before we become the type of person we want to be. For example, I really do believe that home teaching should be about relationships. For example, I would say my best home teaching success was developing a relationship Patty. Patty eventually went less active, however, our friendship was so strong she continues to invite me to her birthdays, to come help her move into new apartments, and calls me up in emergencies or when she needs help. However, that relationship started by the loathed awkward home teaching visits. I’d some up, talk about our weeks, share some message from the Ensign and leave. After two of three home teaching visits I was planning a camping trip with some friends when it occurred to me Patty had mentioned she enjoyed camping. I invited her and she came and after that home teaching became much more meaningful and we became friends.
Now, I know many people probably could have done what I did without the lame home teaching visits. But THIS guy couldn’t. I honestly wonder how many other Patty’s there could be in my life had I just done my home teaching. My point is only that some of us need a starting point. Lame church programs have been some of the best spring boards of my life, even in the program itself sucks, it got me off my couch or off the internet and into the real world.
All that isn’t to say that there isn’t a better way. People aren’t the same and what may be uplifting for me, may be incredibly dull or offensive to other people. I probably am not going to do all 25 or 26 days or however many there are. But hey, if I do 6 that is probably more service than I normally do on an average December. And while that probably speaks to me not being as great of a person as I ought to be, hopefully those 6 times will turn to 9 times the following year.
Again, thank you for your thoughts as it will make me more sensitive those 6 or 7 (or hopefully more) times that I do serve.
Really lovely comment Jason. Thank you.
I did like the calendar overall, the emphasis was on suggestions I thought rather than dictating what we ought to do, and a lot of them looked like good ideas that I might not have thought about otherwise. It would take someone superhuman or with a lot of time on their hands to be doing all 25 days I think. I’m certainly no better at serving others than the next person.
Your relationship with Patty seems to be an example of how things ought to work, building as it did a better longer term relationship as both her home teacher and friend.
“Firstly, where were the miracles for the sick in hospital, the blind man?”
When I visited the church humanitarian center on a trip to SLC for general conference, I was struck at how the church’s efforts around the world do mimic the miracles of Jesus during his mortal ministry. Wheelchairs for those who cannot walk, infant resuscitation, many water projects to provide clean water, vision care….
https://www.ldscharities.org/what-we-do
I was teaching the New Testament in Gospel Doctrine at the time, and for our Thanksgiving lesson, we talked about these things, reading the stories of the miracles and then discussing the church programs.
One of the people in the congregation had lived in Syria, and talked about a young girl who had lost vision when a bullet hit her at a wedding (they traditionally shoot off guns during the celebration, and apparently a bullet came back down and injured her). Her sight was restored by visiting LDS surgeons–so yeah, it was a miracle.
That doesn’t bother me as much as it does some. We are the Lord’s hands today. I’ve seen what a difference the church water projects and road building can make in the lives of people.
But I didn’t see the video or feel that pressure.
Thanks for the comment Naismith. I am of course pleased that the church does so much good in humanitarian service worldwide. Sounds like that was a great GD lesson. It didn’t look like those were the things depicted in the video however, which gave the impression of being small individual acts of service locally – not that those can’t be good things, but placed side by side with Jesus’s miracles I found it jarring.
I do agree that we are very often the Lord’s hands today.
Love this Hedgehog, I think we do have to consider carefully what we are doing and why. A friend of mine, a very active member, put this sharply into perspective when she said to me ‘no-one likes to be someone else’s project’. Sting.
So I try mostly to be an ongoing friend, I try to do good stuff that we will both enjoy or work with groups where there is mutual enjoyment. Book groups, language groups, dance groups.It means there is an immediate connection. Choirs also work well bringing lonely people into community. So much good stuff, so much enjoyment. We give what we can, with humility. ‘Service’ as a concept works better for me when all gain from the interaction.
Thanks, handlewithcare.
“A friend of mine, a very active member, put this sharply into perspective when she said to me ‘no-one likes to be someone else’s project’. Sting.” and ” ‘Service’ as a concept works better for me when all gain from the interaction.”
Agree absolutely.
BTW, I forgot to say that we had stake conference this month, and we also attended a stake conference in Ohio a few weeks back. Neither of those meetings mentioned this initiative. This is the first I heard of it.
In our stake , leaders may have felt we were a bit serviced out, as we’ve had a very active JustServe program all year, some of our local Boy Scouts have chosen Eagle projects that required a lot of helping adult hands (scouting rules prohibit the boys from using certain power tools), and numerous volunteers from our stake donated two weekends to cleanup after a natural disaster.
A few years ago my paid job moved from a Health Science Center to the main college campus. I miss the opportunities for service that were so easy when I was in the hospital setting. Grabbing a toddler before they escape out a door, helping an older couple figure out where they had parked their car, giving directions to the pharmacy, etc.
In our area we spend thousands of dollars and hours on an egregious display of wealth called the “Nativity”. Members are pressured to donate time and money. After it’s over everyone is burnt out and broke. I don’t participate. We used to do other community wide projects but several needful ones were dumped in favor of this one. Quite honestly I find it disgusting. Especially since they started a live nativity using young women as Mary.
Naismith, it was the Saturday evening session of our stake conference we got to preview the video. I gather it’s a worldwide initiative, but it’s reasonable there’d be variation in the extent to which it’s pushed by leaders in different places. Our stake seem very enthusiastic.
It’s certainly true that some jobs and locations provide more natural opportunity for small regular acts of service than others.
witheld, I’m curious what the reasoning is behind that decision. did it get much discussion before it was implemented? I’m surprised monetary donations are required. I didn’t think that was allowed. Also surprised the YW have the time!
Ugh.
Seriously? Most LDS just voted for a president who mocked a disabled reporter, and we’re going to pretend that didn’t happen and go set ourselves up for perfect photo-ops like reading to the blind???????????????
Seriously????? We just voted to ban immigrants and build a wall, and create a religious registry of Muslim persons, but it’s all going to be better because now these people are out of sight and out of mind and we can bake cheesecakes and snicker doodles for our middle class neighbors?????????
Seriously?????? 25 days of unorganized do-good deeds (which will inevitably involve scrap booking) were worth an official church video and a big church wide push, but we stood silent as we voted in a racist administration????!!!!!!???? We voted to take away healthcare (translation-care for the dick) from 20 million of the neediest persons and children, but that can be swept under the rug because we give ourselves permission to turn a blind eye to that as long as we spend 15 minutes visiting someone in the hospital with our well-wishes. When did we slip into the Twilight Zone?????? Can we really think our little band-aids will atone for our more egregious acts of selfishness and greed?
(Hedgehog, many of these problems arent just a US thing, Brexit can’t be ignored!)
Sure, whip out the caroling and the cheesecakes, the snicker doodles, the secret santa gifts, and the little acts of questionable service. At least we didn’t have to do anything really significant like standing up for our neighbor’s religious freedom or take in scary refugee families, or worry that our wealth and jobs will be lost to immigrants. It makes up for it if we serve someone soup one out of 365 days in a year. We always mock the very old and rescinded Catholic practice of indulgences, citing it as evidence of the great apostacy, but can’t seem to see that we are doing the same thing.
I hate to say it, but it feels so hollow to me. My heart mourns that something core was ripped out of our Christian identity (in my country), and no amount of Ho-ho-ho’ing is bringing it back.
Eep, typo— “care for the sick”. I didn’t mean to type in a bad word.
Mortimer,
I suppose the planning for the effort started well before the election — after all, a video was prepared and that takes time. Thus, I suppose the effort was not at all impacted or caused by the election.
Clearly, you are still grieving that your favored candidate didn’t win the election. I hope you get over your anger and hatred soon.
Is THIS not cause for utter lamentation?
Thanks for the comment Mortimer. I can certainly see your point. Sometimes it can feel a lot like we’re blind to the big stuff, whilst simultaneously patting ourselves on the back for the small stuff, in a somewhat self-congratulatory way.
I didn’t mention it in my post, but it did cross my mind to wonder what the cost of the videos was.
Did you see my Brexit post? That’s still an aching wound.
(NB. Since we transferred to a new host, a lot of my comments on my earlier posts have inexplicably been assigned hawk’s icon…)
ji, I find your assigning hatred to Mortimer to be rather an extreme over-reaction to their comment.
Thanks Hedgehog! I didn’t mean to swirl controversy, but it just makes so little sense to me. I don’t discount the importance and beauty of small acts of service, but there is an undeniable hypocrisy that comes when we intentionally vote down or ignore the big stuff, then focus on the little stuff. We might as well be saying, “let them eat cake”. If we vote away our neighbor’s healthcare, public schooling, or religious freedom, we are doing nothing but assuaging our guilt in baking cookies for them. The fact that this type of hypocrisy is not accidental, but institutionally endorsed leaves me with an incridibly bitter taste in my mouth.
Here we are, endowed members, families with the holy PH of God, voters in the most influential countries, some of the most affluent people on the planet, and we ignore all that stewardship and focus on cookies. Why? To evade having to truly sacrifice or share.
Dear. G–. Forgive us.
Mortimer: “Dear. G–. Forgive us.”
Amen!
Hedgehog,
My apologies to you. I just wish that Latter-day Saints who voted for one candidate wouldn’t attack fellow Latter-day Saints who voted for a different candidate, and accuse them of being unchristian and hypocrites as Mortimer has done. We cannot let civil politics destroy our religious brotherhood. A person can be an honorable Latter-day Saint whether he or she voted for or against Trump in the U.S., or for or against Brexit in the U.K. Honorable Latter-day Saints voted both ways in both elections. I hope Mortimer will forgive others who voted differently than he did, and stop mocking them as they prepare for the Christmas season — I suppose most U.S. or U.K. Latter-day Saints honestly did not know that they had a Christian duty and stewardship to vote against Trump or against Brexit.
With regard to your original posting, I am conflicted. I try to do good, and I support a religious society’s right to ask its members to do good, but I am leery of programs. I am concerned about another tasking and possibly a reporting burden being put on members, and also possibly the weaponizing of the program as some Latter-day Saints try to force participation and judge others on their compliance. If it is just an invitation and a encouragement, that’s well, but I don’t want for some Saints to unkindly look on and judge their fellow Saints in this matter (as it sometimes seems they tend to do in other matters).
I suppose I would have preferred an Ensign article, or even a video, sharing how one real person decided to do this in a previous Christmas season and how he or she found happiness in so doing, along with an invitation or encouragement for the reader or viewer to consider seeking similar or different ways to make the season more meaningful for self and others. I hope none among us feels another mandatory tasking has been received, and more importantly, I hope no one weaponizes the program against other Latter-day Saints.
JI,
Ignoring your religiously abusive “you must forgive me and repent” statement, here’s the situation (from @canyonhaus)
“I am not mad at you that Clinton lost. I am unconcerned that we have different politics. And I don’t think less of you because you voted one way and I another. No. . . I think less of you because you watched an adult mock a disabled person in front of a crowd and still supported him. I think less of you because you saw a man spouting clear racism and backed him. I think less of you because you listened to him advocate for war crimes, and still thought he should run this country. I think less of you because you watched him equate a woman’s worth to her appearance and got on board. It isn’t your politics that I find repulsive. It’s your personal willingness to support racism, sexism, and cruelty. You sided with a bully when it mattered and that is something I will never forget. So, no. . . you and I won’t be “coming together” to move forward or whatever. Trump disgusts me, but it is that fact that he doesn’t disgust you that will stick with me long after this.”
(Brits, feel free to insert your own like-minded politicians in the paragraph above.)
You cannot claim any sort of allegiance or support from me based on ‘brotherhood’, while putting forward these immoral actions, these hateful and degrading behaviors. No! Our brotherhood was one of service, charity and love and it is repugnant to me that it was even cited as a basis for me to ignore your actions and those of your chosen moral-reprobate-of-a leader and continue to go about our lives as if nothing happened. I will not forget that you have done this to our other brothers and sisters.
ji, thank you for your broader comment.
Firstly whilst I can accept your apology, it might have been better directed towards Mortimer, who was the one mischaracterised.
On a broader note, I would recommend you give people a little bit of space to deal with the shock, the disappointment, the disbelief, the devastation they are feeling right now. I felt all that and more at the Brexit result, and was myself taken aback by the US election result. I saw pain not mocking in Mortimer’s comment. Sometimes people need to vent. Particularly when wounds are raw. The results of both Brexit and the US election were very close. It’s not like there was a huge majority in terms of percentage voters favouring one side or the other in either of these elections. That makes it all the harder when you’re told the people have spoken, because those against constitute half the people. I can understand that you feel concern for the political divisiveness you see erupting, but I would suggest that trying to understand where the pain is coming from would be more productive than suggesting folks just suck it up, or plaster it over. People need to feel understood.
We both of us share that leeriness for programs then ji, and the concern that these things can sometimes be perceived as mandatory by some. I’m not aware of any reporting requirements for this particular Christmas initiative, though some leaders have apparently been assigned to promote particular days from the calendar for those days on social media.
Mortimer, I have yet to see anywhere ji has said what he/she voted.
Hedgehog, I appreciate your peacekeeping skills, and the effort to not make W&T ground zero for the new Jello Wars (Mormon political divide). Not intending to bring a storm cloud to your thoughtful posts.
For the record though, I am dead serious about the things I’ve written and would say the same thing 20, 30 or even 500 years from now. I am not simply venting. This isn’t just sour grapes or raw emotion from the fallout. I take cruelty, sexism, and racism extremely seriously any time. These are things I will not “cool down” about. I question anyone who would.
It is 2016, the time for compromising or covorting with sexists, racists, and bullies is long over. Despite the uneasiness of this topic and the uncomfortable feelings disagreement produces in our culture, we cannot gloss over these issues or shuffle them under the carpet, pretending that all the strife of the campaigns are over. The consequences for the poor, for women, for children, and for immigrants and non-white families are only just beginning and can still be held back.
I know conflict is unsettling, but I speak out because it would be wrong for me to remain silent, passively condoning what is going on right now in my country and in my church. Im sorry that the conflict agitates readers or W&T staff, but we are facing extremely serious issues. I’m not shell-shocked or raw or venting. I know full well what I am saying. I fully anticipate looking back at this time in 20, 30, or 500 years and not regretting my analysis of the the current social climate or this too-little-too-late service project.
Mortimer, I fully appreciate that your concerns for cruelty, racism and sexism are deep and ongoing. Indeed they would be what inform your response to the US election result and wider global political climate. I don’t believe I intimated you didn’t know what you were saying, or that you wouldn’t mean it in the weeks, months or years to come. I apologise, if I appeared to minimise your position. That was not my intention. My position on Brexit hasn’t changed either.
I have been involved discussions with siblings on Brexit and the US election who profoundly disagree with me, who see the same problems with Trump/UKIP, but apparently found the alternative even more terrifying. I am certainly alarmed by the ‘news’ sources they reference and apparently believe (why oh why?), but I can’t deny that they feel it was the best of a bad choice. And we’re able to hug and tell each other we love each other in person, furious online debates notwithstanding.
Insofar as this particular post goes, you have definitely made your point very clear, and I agree with much of it. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion. I do think we have now covered the political angle to as wide an extent as is relevant to this particular OP.
Hedgehog,
No, my apology was purposefully directed to you. Even so, I think that subsequent postings in this thread support my original assessment of the other poster. I feel sorry for him and hope for the best, for him, for our religious brotherhood, and for our country. I still support our republic and our elections process, even with the outcome we got this time. We’ll have another election in four years. I’m not British, but I was surprised by the Brexit outcome — but maybe you have a safety net as I understand the Parliament has to vote on the matter before it becomes official.
I also hope the Christmas initiative works well. Christmas is a time for hope and forgiveness and good.
ji, subsequent interactions notwithstanding, I still think hatred is too strong a word, personally. Possibly nuances are very different in the use of these words in Britain and the US.
In any case, I view the comment section of a blog post as the place to be discussing the content of the OP, and responding to the content of comments. I’m happy with debate that is in context. I don’t think the comment section is the place to making personal attacks or judgements towards other commenters, and I prefer to take the best possible interpretation rather than the worst.
Okay. But I reject the assertion made and repeated in this thread that a Latter-day Saint’s effort to do kind things for others (the Christmas initiative) is hypocrisy in light of the U.S. election outcome. I think Latter-day Saints are generally good and honorable people, and sincere Christians, even those who voted for the winner. I hope no one will mock their efforts to do good during this Christmas season. I’ll go with you — the other poster’s comments do appear as from someone still in a grieving process.