Interplay Of Culture And Teachings Of The Church

[Stone holm]

From the way it was described the recent revelation allowing for younger missionaries was in part triggered by the need of nonAmerican young men (and women?) to serve in their countries' military or meet certain educational requirements that make it very difficult to take two years off in the middle.

http://www.ksl.com/?...95&sid=22445486

I know for a fact that it can screw up scholarships. My eldest son, however, felt that it was more likely the practical realization that if you have boys with too much unstructured time between when they graduate from high school and when they go on their missions, you increase the likelihood that they will commit some transgression that either disqualifies them for a mission or causes the mission to be delayed. The Church has been having increased issues with belated confessions at the MTC resulting in either scuttled or deferred missions. So if you want to increase the number of eligible young men, you got to get to them before they get to the girls -- not that that is going to necessarily solve the problem.

[Stone holm]

I don't know about "official" teaching, but this is likely true for the teachings of cultural Mormons.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

What is a "cultural Mormon"?

[Stone holm]

Perhaps, in that regard, the Church will buckle to the "cultural nudging" from Naturism.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

I rather doubt it. I don't know the reasoning behind the "white shirt" thing -- but I believe that they dispense with the tie already in certain equatorial countries where the dress code is for the embroidered shirts which are not tucked in -- I don't know if there is a name for that, but the middle class business community in those countries do not wear ties, so I suspect the Church goes along with that since the non-Temple dress code appears to be that of a conservative white middle-class businessman.

[Stone holm]

Yes. One common reason for being attracted to the Church in foreign lands is admiration/envy of American lifestyle. I don't know of anyone willing to join the Church who has antipathetic feelings toward the USA....

If that is a common reason to be attracted to the Church, I wonder how many we are driving away from the Church with the association.

[Questing Beast]

Many avoid Mormons in foreign lands because of antipathy toward the USA. Even in places like New Zealand, I ran across Brits who had a mad-on about the USA over lingering resentments from "prosperity envy" engendered during The War, and would have nothing to do with us young "Yanks"....

[thesometimesaint]

Perhaps, in that regard, the Church will buckle to the "cultural nudging" from Naturism.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

I'm not that much into scaring the public.

[Stone holm]

Many avoid Mormons in foreign lands because of antipathy toward the USA. Even in places like New Zealand, I ran across Brits who had a mad-on about the USA over lingering resentments from "prosperity envy" engendered during The War, and would have nothing to do with us young "Yanks"....

Yeah having a recent VP running off his mouth with derogative comments about Europe probably didn't help that image either.

[cinepro]

I am interested in the discussion of the role which culture plays in molding the teachings of the Church. I am using the term "culture" in a broader sense the "pop culture" to mean the inclinations, taboos, and traditions of a society to which the majority tends to conform. I used the term "teachings" in order to avoid the interminable discussion of what constitutes "doctrine" , "official doctrine" and the like. It is my suspicion that culture plays a bigger role than we are willing to admit, and that after the initial burst of innovation that occurs when an organization is established (think the Church at the meridian of time) or restored (think Joseph Smith, Jr./Brigham Young) that churches tend toward conservatism meaning they tend to resist further change. It is also my belief that in the continual struggle between Satan and the Lord, that the Lord influences culture as much, if not more, than Satan and that such influence is not restricted to the influence of the Church and the Saints. PLEASE TRY TO KEEP THE COMMENTS FROM GOING OVERTLY POLITICAL --THANK YOU.

Here's something I wonder which may be related to your question:

To what degree were our current doctrines, policies teachings and traditions formed out of an affinity to, or reaction to, the mainstream Christianity and Catholocism of Joseph Smith's day?

In other words, if the Church had been restored in a non-Christian land with no Christian culture to draw from, how would our doctrines, policies, teachings and traditions be different?

[Stone holm]

Here's something I wonder which may be related to your question:

To what degree were our current doctrines, policies teachings and traditions formed out of an affinity to, or reaction to, the mainstream Christianity and Catholocism of Joseph Smith's day?

In other words, if the Church had been restored in a non-Christian land with no Christian culture to draw from, how would our doctrines, policies, teachings and traditions be different?

That I believe is the very heart of the question, and if you knew the answer to that you could predict with probably 80% accuracy what the future policy changes might be. I would reserve 20% or so to cover changes that had strictly to do with development timing in the world making process.