I live in the high-elevation tropics, where the best weather in the world occurs. My home is in the Panchoy Valley of Guatemala, which includes Antigua. At 4500 ft above sea level, a hot day might get into the upper 70s, and a really cold night will dip into the upper 40s. Only the fanciest hotels in Antigua have air conditioning. If you can open a window, you are almost always cool enough.
On just about any Sunday, many people here actually wear cold-weather jackets to church, some even on the warmest days. Most members clearly do not think there is a need to cool the chapel.
I was very surprised to learn, then, that the chapel I attend is being converted to central air. Jalousie windows are being removed and replaced by unopenable panes. All this to cool people who for the most part already feel too cool. No doubt other chapels in the Antigua area and likely Guatemala City are being outfitted for central air.
So, an unneeded expense. Perhaps not a big deal. On the other hand, this kind of expense represents serious insensitivity to a number of issues. Very few buildings in this part of Guatemala have AC. Probably no other churches in this entire area have AC. So what kind of message are we sending here? An unneeded expense like this in a country as poor as Guatemala is baffling to say the least. How about climate change issues? Here we had a perfectly suitable building with very little carbon emissions now joining the ranks of the worst carbon emitters in this area. But even more damning, the Panchoy Valley is not but 50 miles as the crow flies from the Dry Corridor (Corredor Seco) of Guatemala, where hunger and malnutrition abound. What use could this money have made in that area? Maybe since the poor we will always have with us, maybe we feel no real need to make institutional sacrifices. No need for us to break a sweat, not if the AC is working anyway.
We are not a poor church, institutionally speaking. There is enough and to spare for “upgrades” like this, even if totally unneeded. As we become a mature third-century church, perhaps more of this is to be expected. We want and can afford “nice” facilities. It is difficult for any organization lasting as long as ours has to keep its “edge”.
Elder Holland made an unusual call a year ago in GC to retake what should be our natural leadership role, by going to the poor, like our Captain of old. He declared that that we must commit our resources to freeing the world from the virus of hunger, [and to] freeing neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty. That was about as radical a call to action as you can get. But it did not appear to stir many to action. Maybe such a call is unimaginable in a 3rd century church?
This brings us to the $100G, our very flush rainy-day fund. That is a lot of money. But what if we decided to be a “poor” church, and added all the unneeded expenses to that fund? Difficult to put a finger on that amount, but it would add significantly to an already overflowing pot.
But maybe we could imagine a way to heed that call. Catholic Charities operates in the US on about a $5-billion annual budget, with about $3 billion of that coming from the US Government. They do some good work with that money. I wager we could do better.
We could fund a very effective Mormon Charities. Oops, wrong name—how about Restoration Charities? Five percent of $100G is 5 billion bucks. That’s that kind of scale we could be operating at. We could live a little large and maybe draw $7 or $8 billion from that rain-maker fund. Eight billion put to work globally would be a very big deal.
The expertise provided could cover just about all areas of human need. We can’t necessarily solve all kinds of problems, particularly structural issues that increase poverty, but we could strengthen weakened hands and knees by direct assistance in many ways. We could foment and guide cooperatives for both agricultural and light manufacturing initiatives. We could set up entrepreneurial training programs. We already do a lot of this –but not anywhere near $7-$10G-worth annually. We could hire first-class experts, and with something as big and imaginative as this, likely recruit many more volunteer senior welfare missionaries, increasing greatly the value of that rain-maker fund. I come from the Extension side of the land-grant university system. Restoration Charities would be a global land-grant extension system on steroids!
Its no longer time to wait for a rainy day. Its time to become a rain maker. Folks in the Corredor Seco need that rain. And people in the Panchoy Valley will happily sacrifice that AC to help those folks.
We need two things. First we need to be a poor church. Donations need to be put to the best use. We could suffer a little extra heat. Maybe we don’t always need to wear a suit jacket to church. Even in Houston, where we previously lived, male leaders kept the thermostat low in the summer, so they could be comfortable with their coats on. Maybe we can sacrifice coats in the summer to help deal with climate change, for example.
Secondly, we need imagination, from our leaders and from ourselves. Wouldn’t a vast global enterprise like this make you proud to be a member? Maybe you would even want to lend a hand. I think this is how Brother Joseph might have imagined the Restoration playing out in the latter days. The third century of the Restoration would be a vibrant time indeed.
Turn down the AC, and turn up the heat!
Featured image: Wiki Commons: The crank of a jalousie window in the closed and open position.
Wheat & Tares 
Amen
This issue is remeniscent of the old Buddhist parable of the empty boat:
A young farmer was covered in sweat as he paddled his boat up the river to deliver his produce to the village. As he looked ahead, he saw another vessel heading rapidly downstream. He rowed furiously to get out of the way, but it didn’t seem to help. He shouted to the other vessel to change direction, to no avail. The vessel hit his boat with a violent thud. He cried out, “You idiot! How could you manage to hit my boat in the middle of this wide river?” As he glared into the vessel, he realized that night one was there. He had been screaming at an empty vessel that had broken free of its moorings and floated downstream with the current.
Well, speaking from about 45 years of experience with and observation of remodeling and building efforts by the SLC facilities people, I believe it impossible to get them to pay any attention to actual local needs, conditions, acoustics, or building or landscaping styles. Once in a while, however, they will correct some stupid remodeling job or a stupid standard design error – generally 20 or 30 years later.
If you’re particularly unlucky with the central air, it’s temperature settings will be controlled by a computer to which the users of the building will have no access. We’re on our third iteration of remodeled heating/cooling system and this latest fiasco allows the users no control over anything except saying certain rooms are “occupied” or “unoccupied.” Oh, well.
I spend as much time as I can in isolated rural villages in Uganda, Peru, and SE Asia. I couldn’t agree more with this post. The need is great. There are all kinds of areas where the Church could cut expenses. The “charity” contributions to Kirton McConkie for unnecessary legal work would be a great place to start. The Church also needs to take a hard look at its chapels. Along the Wasatch Front, they are almost idle for 6 days a week. And with shorter Church services and reduced number of meetings, the buildings will be used even less. The parking lots and landscaping are ridiculous. And how about more solar?
In the Rwenzori Mtns of Uganda, the subsistence farmers grow excellent coffee beans (destine to be the devil’s brew) as a cash crop. The farmers use some of the money from the sale of the beans to pay for their children’s education. However, compared to price of roasted, ground coffee in the developed world, the farmers get practically nothing for their beans. The undervaluing of specialty cash crops in the world is a serious problem. I can’t help but think that the Church with it finances and professional membership has the ability to help ameliorate these mis-allocations. Helping the subsistence farmers in other ways is also much needed.
With the boomers (and younger) retiring, there is a huge knowledge base that the Church could use. Instead they seem to frequently send senior missionaries to work in fields unrelated to the retirees professional skills. I have a friend who is a land use planner/landscape architect. His skills are much needed in the developing world. But the Church sent him on senior mission where he didn’t use his skills. Proselyting missionaries need to spend more time on volunteer work. They do some now, but they need to do more, a lot more.
The Church needs visionary leaders..
Great thoughts! I have a lot to say about thermostats and how they are sexist (and wasteful as they are designed for men, not women, and men take 35% more cooling power): https://bycommonconsent.com/2017/06/23/the-thermostat-wars/
But aside from that, there was a story that I’m going to get the details completely wrong about a temple renovation that was needed because it was built in a hot, humid climate, not the arid western US, and it was still built on the template for a Utah climate. It was full of mold as a result. Correlation has run amok!
Several of the small temples built in the late 90s (OKC, Memphis, Raleigh, Baton Rouge off the top of my head) were torn down and rebuilt from the ground up (and slightly redesigned) for the reasons Hawk mentioned above. The cynic in me thinks all of these large scale temple renovations, new temple construction and other chapel projects like the one cited in the OP are a place to move (almost wrote launder, but I’m quite that cynical…yet) some of the money and a way to keep the well connected fat on church building projects.
Plus all of the building is a growth metric that they can control. “Look at all of the temples were building! We’re even going to destroy (read: we already did it) the interior of our flagship pioneer temple in the name of increased capacity. Isn’t it great!?! The church is growing and has never been stronger!! Don’t forget to pay your tithing!”
I think everybody that has been in the church for 20-30 years will have a story about wasteful church building. Here is semi-arid Southern California, we had a building with deep gutters build down the middle of the parking lots surrounding the building. They made great “inverse” speed bumps, because if you hit it going to fast you blew out your oil pan. For the Wasatch range they were probably necessary, for California, just a waste of money and a PITA.
I digress…ward tries to get me to turn on camera for zoom meetings. If it happens again, I will refer to the Deseret News article “Help the environment, turn off that zoom camera.”
Having been married for 41 years, and having two daughters, I can personally testify to the reality of what I call the Thermostat War Between the Sexes:. And in my workspace, men worked side-by side with women; the men had area fans blowing on their desks to cool off (and if they were military, they were allowed to take off their shirt (blouse), and work in their T-shirt). The women were wearing heavy sweaters and sometimes fingerless gloves, drinking hot coffee and tea to stay warm. But if one worked in an equipment room that had to be kept cold, the men wore sweaters and the women wore coats.
Centralized A/C and heat are great inventions. Centralized control of A/C and heat can be a hell devised by bureaucrats.
With regard to our meetinghouses, I think bringing back professional custodial services is a higher priority than being stingy with the A/C. If that announcement came out tomorrow, I personally know several inactive families who would reactivate and become full tithe payers on that news alone.
But, as others have mentioned, as a Church we could definitely be using our building resources more wisely than we are. Efficiency, environmental impact, and considering the needs of the local members (rather than the leaders in SLC) are all important factors that often go neglected when these decisions are being made. Installing solar arrays on Church property, especially in Sun Belt regions, is worth looking into.
@Buddhist Bishop A big amen. I would consider paying tithing again if I thought it would actually go to help the poor and the needy.
@Wondering another amen to PF being completely unwilling to consider local needs. Here in the South where we get pouring rains a lot, every church building of any denomination has a covered section above one of the entrances where people can pull up under with their cars so they can pick up or drop off the elderly or kids or others during rain storms without them getting soaking wet. Every denomination except the LDS churches which are designed by the bureaucrats in SLC for the desert mountain west where it rains hard at most a few times per year.
When I attended in Nigeria – it was opposite – sweltering heat with only ceiling fan
Wish they installed it there
Thanks for the great comments and contributing to the conversation.
My post was not really about buildings and the like. I used the little story about AC in a place not needed as an example of a certain kind of extravagance now that we have become a very wealthy church. I also believe our institutional wealth engenders some real insensitivity towards important issues such as the poor and environmental degradation. And I think Elder Hollands incredible call to solve world poverty could redeem us a church. We really could be the next-level Catholic Charities-kind of global institution.
But physical facilities complaints are just too irresistible not to comment on. So I set up the conversation for that. I have my own trove of stories about the PF folks. The problem is you have PF bureaucrats who think they speak for God. So yeah, if someone in the south tells the SLC PF people that we dont build on grade because of flooding, they are not likely to listen. In fact the Houston Temple flooded during Harvey –it is in the floodplain of Cypress Creek. At least one bureaucrat had the builders tear out the foundation in the early stages and had that foundation elevated. Could have been a lot worse!
In line with the conversation going on with Bishop Bill’s post –Yes, this blog is a place for us to consider alternatives. To talk about how the Church could be better in so many ways. But if I sent the idea about the Mormon Catholic Charities up the chain of command –unlikely to go very far. But I feel better for having posted the idea here. This is after all my church. I have lifelong membership and service skin-in-the-game. In times past some of the biggest changes in the church came from below, from the ground floor. Consider the welfare program as just one example — Harold B Lee as SP is the one who set that up locally first, as I understand it. That likely wont be happening again. But who knows–maybe there is a GA, or maybe a GA’s cousin or brother-in-law lurking among us, who just might whisper in the GA’s ear what great ideas she hears about here (that is if they don’t first report potential miscreants to the Strengthening Church Membership Committee!).
Another extravagance: $2 million to remodel a single floor of the Joseph Smith Building for the Q15 to meet while the Salt Lake Temple is out of commission. I’ll bet they have a spectacular view of the homeless from that vantage point. This kind of stuff puts me in a blind rage and is one reason I left.
I was happy to see that LDS philanthropies donated $20M to UNICEF for vaccine distribution. Bishop Causse did a little video on it that we watched with our kids. It would be nice to see more of that – I have some kids who don’t see the point of Church and only see the downsides, and it’s surprisingly difficult to find things to show them about the good the Church is doing.
My favorite local story is of our stake center. When it was being built, they warned SLC that there needed to be a basement because of tornadoes in the Midwest, and also so the pipes wouldn’t freeze in the winter. SLC didn’t listen, so right before construction began, the local SP took his Bobcat out one night when no one was around, and dug out the basement. Then he moved the relief society stakes to make the room bigger.
Now we have a family history center and a building with no burst pipes (unlike several other buildings in the area that put the pipes straight in the ground, not the ceiling or a basement.)
My dad loved telling me that story as one of righteous rebellion 😄
There are several buildings in Canada that have had to undergo renovations because of burst pipes. In more recent years they’ve had Canadian architects assist with building plans. Imagine that?