Recently, I have been revisiting thoughts about community. Such thoughts have been pulled together from a number of diverse threads and I have attempted to create something. Is it whole cloth? Is it wearable? I am unsure.
It all starts with a poll taken by my wife many years ago. She was teaching a Sunday lesson in Relief Society. She handed out 3 x 5 cards and asked everyone in the room to write down what it was that brought them to church every Sunday. What did they hope to get out of the time they spent in church on Sunday. What was it that motivated them to attend.
Only one person wrote anything that had to do with learning about scripture or doctrine, Every person, other than that one, wrote a response that was about searching for community and trying to find a sense of belonging. The desire to find their tribe, their people and their community was what kept people showing up on Sundays.
The next thoughts I had about community came from reading a research paper on Far Right political fringe groups (otherwise known as hate groups).
An article had been written about interviewing and polling members of hate groups. That article stated that between 25% and 50% of the members of any hate group do not agree with the core beliefs and positions of the group. They were involved due to the sense of belonging that they felt in that group. They found a sense of community that had not been found in more traditional organizations.
That particular article focused on people looking for community. The realization that belief in core principles, in fringe groups, was not shared by a large part of the membership of most groups revolutionized that area of study. The idea that people belong because the group gives them a sense of community and place was not what the researchers expected to find.
Then I started thinking about friends of mine from other religions.
I know a lot of Catholics. It is extremely uncommon for the ones I know to believe in the core doctrine of papal infallibility.
I know a lot of members of Trinitarian faiths. Many of them are Monists.
Looking at the basics tenents of mainstream Christian religious doctrines, I have known a number of people who belonged to religions that included predestination in their core doctrines. I never met one who truly believed in that doctrine.
Finally, I got a chance to look at research on the LDS Church.
For many members of the LDS Church, their political identity has become more important to them than their religious identity. That is a dramatic change from fifty years ago when membership in the Church was much more important to people than political party affiliation. Current research tells us that a majority of parents would be more comfortable with their child changing their religious affliation than their political affiliation.
I routinely meet people who believe singular studies that cannot be reproduced, and that were published fifteen to twenty years ago, over multiple peer reviewed studies that the Church has embraced. Why? Because the singular study agreed with their political party.
It appears that the loss of community in the Church, that has taken place over the last forty to fifty years, has had major impacts.
Many members do not care about truth claims. After all, God appears to deal just fine with less than one out of a thousand people on this planet being a member of the LDS Church. The truth that the LDS chuirch declares of does not seem as important as other things. A sense of community, of tribalism, drives everything when it comer to religious affiliations.
This led me to look at the scriptures, where I found this:
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
From Matthew, Chapter 25.
Christ seems to recognize the human tendency towards tribalism and an insular community. He spoke directly on the importance of us, as individuals, to look outside of our community and prioritize the needs of individual people over finding commonality in belief, doctrine or membership.
Questions
- What do you think is important?
- Do you think community matters?
- Do you think how we treat “the least of these” matters as much as which political party we belong to?
- Why do you think things have changed in the Church?
Wheat & Tares 
Interesting thoughts, Stephen. When we talk about community for LDS, it’s good to remember that we are talking primarily about our own particular ward or branch. In that primary sense, we are all (all we readers and commenters here at W&T) in a different community — similar in some ways but somewhat different in others. Some LDS communities are better than others. LDS policies pretty much force us to attend our assigned community short of moving to another neighborhood, town, or state. That places strong limits on an LDS trying to do what a lot of other Christians do, “finding a church that works for me.”
But LDS truth claims work at the institutional level. No one says their ward or stake is true in testimony meeting. It’s about the Church writ large — the big-C Church — or the leadership of the institutional Church, or the canonized scripture of the institutional Church. So an individual LDS person’s sense of belonging and that person’s affirmation (or not) of LDS truth claims work on entirely different scales. That makes it easier to understand why the two LDS senses, of community and of truth, seem largely independent.
This opinion piece has hit the nail squarely on the head. Whatever people may believe, they sit in the pews because they want to be part of a community.
That is the reason why more and more pews are empty each Sunday. The institutional church has taken active steps to destroy the sense of local community.
When we were Mormons, we were a community. A community that worked, served, and played together. We knew and loved each other.
The banishment of the word “Mormon” has been accompanied by a reduction in planning for and paying for ward activities that bring people together. The money is hordes by the institution in a hidden coffer.
The love that has been lost lost from the ward has not been replaced by love from the institution. The institution these days expresses all of the emotional depth of grandma’s blender.
In a way, it is little wonder that many would rather stay home and zoom sacrament meeting on one screen while Dua Lipa and Bon Jovi gyrate on another. If one can’t be part of a community, one will turn toward entertainment.
As a former TBM of the COJCOLDS I will admit that I have lost the community aspect church membership that I enjoyed for 50 years. But with that loss came a realization that I will never ever join again a religious organization as a “member”. And somewhat coincidently about the time I left the Church I also left the Republican Party (thanks Trump). And another realization: I will never ever again be a member of a political party. I simply can’t relate to most political communities (it’s not that I don’t have strong opinions, it’s that nobody represents me).
In sum, you often lose community when you walk away from religious and/or political affiliation. And you build up a defense that prevents you from ever making the mistake of joining again. I have ZERO interest in seeing what other religions have to offer. And I have ZERO interest in becoming some kind of anti-Trump Democrat.
I’ll sacrifice the benefits of community and remain unaffiliated. That’s just the way I role now. By the way, it’s not that I don’t value human relationships. I value those more than ever. I just can’t stand the labels anymore and oftentimes communities demand conformity to these labels.
Ditto to everything josh h said! Exactly the same on every point!
Since I am somewhat maverick, a friend sent me this link this morning: https://latterdaysaintmag.com/for-misfit-members-and-those-who-love-them-exalting-community/
I found the underlying tenor of the article to be disturbing in its discussion of conformity, in a way that is difficult to articulate. It feels dangerous, whilst presenting a reasonable surface.
Christ was saying that everyone of God’s children is your family. That isn’t what most Mormon communities are about and most certainly isn’t what the repugnant party has gotten to be about. Christ wasn’t against community, but saying we should all be one large human community.
In fact, I want to differentiate between community and tribe. Your community should be all those around you, in a mutual support group. In pioneer communities they didn’t look at immigration status before doing a barn raising. If you lived there, they came to your aid when needed with no qualifications other than you be willing to help others in the community in need. Modern tribalism is quite different. It is more about who the enemy tribe is than it is about helping in your own community. Sure modern tribes have leaders they swear loyalty to, but the identity is more about who they fight against than it is about mutual support. Communities may or may not have a formal leader. Quakers form a community and they have no formal leader, no common enemies, and a willingness to help others in the community. MAGA is more of a warring tribe than a community. MAGA loyalists really don’t care about the well being of other MAGA loyalists, as long as they are loyal to dear leader and support anything he wants and hate who he hates. If you doubt that, look at Trump’s Big Disastrous Bill and how badly it is going to hurt Trump’s fan base in red states. Religious groups can either be a tribe or a community or a combination of both.
I love my W&T community! Hope y’all enjoy the long weekend!
I grew up in a community where predestination was an official doctrine and practically everyone sincerely believed it as far as I could tell.
The reason I loved following all the LDS rules so much is that it planted me firmly in the LDS community. I liked the structure and the certainty: “Do these things and you can belong here.”
A lot of the reason I left had to do with not fitting in anymore. Socially, a single mom in my ward is a misfit. Doctrinally, the fact that I didn’t want to be married to a man also made me a misfit. My life didn’t follow the covenant path. If it had, maybe I would still be there, a PIMO who attends because that was my community and a large part of my social life.
Church hasn’t had a community feel to it for almost a decade now for me. We cut too much, focused to much on the family doing everything so the two hours on Sunday don’t mean anything other than getting the sacrament. The Church needs to invest the time and more importantly money into going back to what it was. Even in culturally different places where the growth is happening. Make it more local focus than North American (US+Canada). Would slow the bleeding in places.
A few years ago, I was teaching a lesson in priesthood meeting in my Utah ward. I concluded the lesson by saying “most people who walked the path that I have walked, have left the church and the reason I stay is that the church is as good a place as any other to serve God’s children.” I lived near a large east coast city for 34 years. My life there could be described as “extreme church service” due to needs, travel distance and capability. During this period of my life, I diligently read Sunstone and Dialogue publications. Last summer, while at the Sunstone Symposium, I told someone “don’t worry about me, I have been nuanced for 49 years “.
A few heats ago, I found myself a widower looking for someone to marry. I had scared away many TBMs. I found someone on a dating site who had been less active for more than 30 years. When I read on her profile that she was a BYU graduate who drinks alcohol occasionally, I knew I probably would not scare her away. We have been married for 4 years. She taught primary for the BoM and NT years. We attend church and have good friends who also attends.
A few years ago at Sunstone, we ran into a couple who was recently brought back into ward due to a boundary change. We learned that their shelves broke in 2017 (gay children). They have family in the ward who don’t know they are nuanced. I am now part of his support system.
Recently, I wrote an essay on my faith journey for my one remaining TBM child , titled “My Faith Journey”. I wanted him to know why I won’t be in the temple when his children get married..I told him in this essay that “I love about 40% of the Book of Mormon, but I don’t believe the book is historical.
The most community my family has ever had in our lives, was the year(1991) my husband had a sabbatical in greater Manchester, U.K. Our branch in Wigan was extremely welcoming, even though some wondered if we would be accepting of them because they were working class and we were professional. (We were very surprised to hear this). I was greeted with a customary kiss on each cheek every Sunday by the bishopric, and we were invited for dinner many times. We also had the missionaries for dinner every Sunday for hamburgers and Patak’s chili pickle.
We developed several close friendships, one I’m still in touch with. Five have visited us here in New Mexico.
We had other communities that we socialized with as well. One was with people my husband knew at work, who were lovely, very genuine, and supportive.
Our other community was the people who ran the folk club that we attended every single Friday night we lived there. I was occasionally a “floor singer” (a 1-2 song guest singer), so we were good friends with the house band.
At a medieval festival we went to, when it was time to learn a 13th C. dance, I heard someone say something I’ll never forget -because it was so different and indicative of the different culture: one of unity and participation: “Everybody has a go at these dos”.
Reflecting on comments here and harking back to my first comment — it seems like LDS relations within the ward are a *community* and LDS thinking about and relation to the big-C Church is more tribal (more emotional, more fact-resistant, more identity and less rational).
Dave B,
Exactly. I firmly believe that we carry an spiritual and moral obligation to love our fellow human beings, not in the abstract, but in the messy face-to-face vicissitudes of everyday life. The institutional Church makes that more difficult, not less difficult. (For heavens sake, how long did it take to get a policy change on getting married civilly, so all family members could attend, prior to a sealing?) When I read the Sermon on the Mount and the most profound teachings of Jesus, I don’t think about what the institutional church teaches and emphasizes. I think about family, friends and ward neighbors. I think about community.
Old Man , yes. The institution makes everything more difficult. The centralisation takes resources from the local church community and fails to invest enough back into the local church community. It encourages members to pay into its humanitarian fund, but then allocates nothing from those funds for the community to invest in local on the ground humanitarian efforts. And having taken those resources from the members, many are left with no further resources to invest in those local humanitarian projects themselves. In areas where church members are very much in the minority, it divorces those members from their wider communities, by sucking out time, energy and financial resources. It’s tragic.
I think that Truth is important.
I understand the importance of community intellectually, but it doesn’t matter to me personally. It’s something that I know that I don’t relate to.
I do think that political votes do factor into how we treat “the least of these”.
I think that things have changed in the church because more women in the Western world are working than 40 years ago. So the church changed to accommodate that new reality. The other large factor is the percentage of members who were in sparsely populated areas. The percentage of members who live in an area where going to the building multiple times a week was realistic has declined as more people joined the church in many far flung places. So the church adapted to that too.