Article claims that it's a Utah Mormon's religious duty to water their grass.

[bluebell]

There's an article in The Guardian that claims that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah are bleeding the state dry because we believe that it's a commandment to "make the desert blossom as a rose". 

Quote

 

In June 2021, Marlene and Emron Esplin stopped watering their front lawn. Given that the Esplins live in Utah, where maintaining lush green turf is often associated with the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy, the decision to let their grass go brown was a radical act.

“I just felt like it was morally wrong to be watering our yard so much,” says Marlene who, along with her husband, is a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A month earlier, Utah Governor Spencer Cox had declared a state of emergency due to a record lack of precipitation and he asked the public to pray for rain. He declared a second drought-related state of emergency in April 2022.

Like the rest of the south-west, Utah is in a megadrought that started in 2000. As the second driest state in the United States behind Nevada, the unprecedented aridity has hit Utah especially hard. For the last two summers, about 90% of the state was in exceptional, extreme or severe drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. But this did not stop people in Utah – the Esplins notwithstanding – from keeping their grass green all summer long.

For many Mormons in Utah – who make up two-thirds of the state’s population of 3 million – the concept of being a good steward is wrapped up in a pioneer nostalgia that favors an artificial, irrigated landscape over the natural desert environment. This Mormon version of Manifest Destiny is at the heart of why Utahns suck up so much municipal water as well as why the state is moving at a dangerously glacial pace to deal with the climate crisis.

 

Uh, what?

I've lived here for almost 9 years (9 in October) and I have never heard this spouted by anyone, member or not.  It's not a concept that is even on my radar.  So I have to ask, are there members that actually believe/teach that we have to keep watering our lawns to be obedient to God?  I'm up here in Davis county (and our town saved so much water last year that the city is still talking about how amazing we did with letting our lawns die) and I'm not seeing it but maybe it's more south that this attitude prevails?  

I honestly have no idea.  Does this ring a bell with anyone?  Do Latter-day Saints love a green lawn more than people anywhere else in the country?

(I only quoted the first few paragraphs of the article so feel free to check out the link and read the whole thing).

 

[Rain]

I have never heard anyone I know quote scripture about it and I lived there about 40 years.

I have heard talks (conference?) about good stewardship which means taking care of your house inside and out. Perhaps a few mentioned scriptures or lawns?

But as to grass specifically I think it has to do more with having children - a place for them to play.  And once the children are grown you just keep it up. 

[blackstrap]

Constantly watering your lawn is a sure fire way to watch it die quickly in a drought. The roots need to be forced to go DEEP to find water at lower levels rather than just surface moisture. 

[The Nehor]

That is a weird take by a weirdo.

[smac97]

In my experience, the only unusual thing that Utah Mormons do relative to water is to pray for more of it on a regular basis in church meetings.

 

[CV75]

If it's for medicinal use, sure!

[Scott Lloyd]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

There's an article in The Guardian that claims that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah are bleeding the state dry because we believe that it's a commandment to "make the desert blossom as a rose". 

Uh, what?

I've lived here for almost 9 years (9 in October) and I have never heard this spouted by anyone, member or not.  It's not a concept that is even on my radar.  So I have to ask, are there members that actually believe/teach that we have to keep watering our lawns to be obedient to God?  I'm up here in Davis county (and our town saved so much water last year that the city is still talking about how amazing we did with letting our lawns die) and I'm not seeing it but maybe it's more south that this attitude prevails?  

I honestly have no idea.  Does this ring a bell with anyone?  Do Latter-day Saints love a green lawn more than people anywhere else in the country?

(I only quoted the first few paragraphs of the article so feel free to check out the link and read the whole thing).

 

If anything, I would think a sense of civic responsibility taught by the Church leaders would have local members voluntarily cutting back on their landscape irrigation in drought-stricken areas (though I can’t say I’ve seen this strongly promoted either). 
 

By the way, lawns don’t typically die from inadequate water; they go dormant. I know this from recent experience. During the earlier hot months of this past summer I cut back to once a week of watering. The lawn largely went brown. Then I felt social pressure from all the green lawns in the neighborhood, so I went to every day for a while, then every three days. The lawn was revived within a couple of weeks and began to need mowing twice-a-week. 

[JustAnAustralian]

I wouldn't go to the guardian as a general source of truth about the church or church members.

[Bernard Gui]

13 hours ago, smac97 said:

In my experience, the only unusual thing that Utah Mormons do relative to water is to pray for more of it on a regular basis in church meetings.

 

Yes, if by water you mean moisture (or moischer). 🙂

Edited September 26, 2022 by Bernard Gui

[Bernard Gui]

3 hours ago, bluebell said:

There's an article in The Guardian that claims that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah are bleeding the state dry because we believe that it's a commandment to "make the desert blossom as a rose". 

Uh, what?

I've lived here for almost 9 years (9 in October) and I have never heard this spouted by anyone, member or not.  It's not a concept that is even on my radar.  So I have to ask, are there members that actually believe/teach that we have to keep watering our lawns to be obedient to God?  I'm up here in Davis county (and our town saved so much water last year that the city is still talking about how amazing we did with letting our lawns die) and I'm not seeing it but maybe it's more south that this attitude prevails?  

I honestly have no idea.  Does this ring a bell with anyone?  Do Latter-day Saints love a green lawn more than people anywhere else in the country?

(I only quoted the first few paragraphs of the article so feel free to check out the link and read the whole thing).

 

Nope. California is squeezing water from all the surrounding states. 

[Emily]

This article is only talking about the Mormons in Utah, not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. It says so, right in the article... The Mormons in Utah.

The Mormons in Utah are always getting into all kinds of weird stuff members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have never even heard of.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Emily

[bluebell]

1 minute ago, Emily said:

This article is only talking about the Mormons in Utah, not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It says so, right in the article... The Mormons in Utah.

The Mormons in Utah are always getting into all kinds of weird stuff members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have never even heard of.

Sometimes this is true, but from what people who live in Utah are saying, this doesn't appear to be one of them.   

 

[Emily]

5 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Sometimes this is true, but from what people who live in Utah are saying, this doesn't appear to be one of them.   

Well you can read that right in the article too - the one member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that they quoted said they weren't watering their lawn. Oh and some professors at BYU, who are probably members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not Mormons in Utah.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Emily

[carbon dioxide]

So what about all the non-mormons in Utah who water their lawns too much?  Or those in other states.  Apparently if we do it, its a religious experience.

[JAHS]

3 hours ago, bluebell said:

There's an article in The Guardian that claims that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah are bleeding the state dry because we believe that it's a commandment to "make the desert blossom as a rose". 

Uh, what?

I've lived here for almost 9 years (9 in October) and I have never heard this spouted by anyone, member or not.  It's not a concept that is even on my radar.  So I have to ask, are there members that actually believe/teach that we have to keep watering our lawns to be obedient to God?  I'm up here in Davis county (and our town saved so much water last year that the city is still talking about how amazing we did with letting our lawns die) and I'm not seeing it but maybe it's more south that this attitude prevails?  

I honestly have no idea.  Does this ring a bell with anyone?  Do Latter-day Saints love a green lawn more than people anywhere else in the country?

(I only quoted the first few paragraphs of the article so feel free to check out the link and read the whole thing).

 

Environmental Stewardship and Conservation
God has made us accountable for the care and preservation of the earth and the wise use of its resources (see Doctrine and Covenants 104:13–15). As stewards, we avoid complacency and excessive consumption, using only what is necessary (see Doctrine and Covenants 49:19–21). We make our homes, neighborhoods, and cities beautiful. We preserve resources and protect for future generations the spiritual and temporal blessings of nature.

Spencer W. Kimball
“We are a throw-away people. ... Now we ask you to clean up your homes and your farms. ‘Man is the keeper of the land, and not its possessor.’ ... We look forward to the day when, in all our communities, urban and rural, there would be a universal, continued movement to clean and repair ... and to make our properties a thing of beauty to behold. ... Therefore, we urge each of you to dress and keep in a beautiful state the property that is in your hands. (“God Will Not Be Mocked,” Ensign, Nov. 1974.)
-------------------------------------

Of course making our homes and properties beautiful does not require the presence of grass, although many would assume it does.  I have seen yards in New Mexico and in California that have no grass at all but make their yards beautiful with alternate types of landscaping.


 

[Scott Lloyd]

40 minutes ago, Emily said:

This article is only talking about the Mormons in Utah, not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. It says so, right in the article... The Mormons in Utah.

The Mormons in Utah are always getting into all kinds of weird stuff members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have never even heard of.

Broad brush much?

[InCognitus]

3 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Broad brush much?

She's being way too subtle (I told her that.... she's my wife ).  I said she should have put "Mormons" in quotes.  Her point is that the article is being disrespectful to actual members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by referring to us as "Mormons" instead of calling the church and its members by the correct name, as requested in the official media Style Guide.  

[Scott Lloyd]

22 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

She's being way too subtle (I told her that.... she's my wife ).  I said she should have put "Mormons" in quotes.  Her point is that the article is being disrespectful to actual members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by referring to us as "Mormons" instead of calling the church and its members by the correct name, as requested in the official media Style Guide.  

Ah. Thanks for the clarification. My apologies to Sister InCognitus (and to you) for misinterpreting. 

[InCognitus]

24 minutes ago, carbon dioxide said:

So what about all the non-mormons in Utah who water their lawns too much?  Or those in other states.  Apparently if we do it, its a religious experience.

We just moved to Utah from Arizona.  Many of the yards in the metro-Phoenix area (where it's hot and arid) utilize some form of xeriscaping (including the house we moved from) and the yards in the Salt Lake City area seem to be exactly opposite of that.  On my morning walks through our new neighborhood, I'm constantly dodging wet sidewalks and sprinklers (for all the grass watering) and I jump over water running down the gutters due to overflow from the yards.  I have observed meticulously maintained and manicured grass yards in almost all of the houses in the two-square mile area that I have walked.  So it seems to be a Utah thing, and it's definitely not limited to members of the church, because my non-member neighbor has a beautiful grass yard that he's out mowing at least (what seems to me to be) twice a week.  

There's a Utah Water Savers program in place where the municipalities will give home owners a rebate for removing lawn from their park strip and replacing it for a water efficient design (we will be taking advantage of that).  But I recently heard on KSL that Salt Lake City Public Utilities was offering a lower water grass seed for sale (it is supposed to require 30% less water than typical Bluegrass lawns), but they sold out of it already.  So apparently a lot of people in Utah are addicted to grass.   (I can't complain, it is beautiful.  It's just not what I am accustomed to where I came from.)

[InCognitus]

12 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Ah. Thanks for the clarification. My apologies to Sister InCognitus (and to you) for misinterpreting. 

Don't worry, I misunderstood her at first too.  But at least I can yell down the hall to where she was using her phone to ask her what she really meant .   She kept insisting, "They'll figure it out".  I wasn't so sure about that, so I made my post to explain. 

I should have known better, however, because she and I had been discussing the name calling of "Mormon" vs. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" topic most of the day.  But I knew that people on the board wouldn't have had that same context for what she was thinking.

Edited September 26, 2022 by InCognitus

[Scott Lloyd]

25 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

We just moved to Utah from Arizona.  Many of the yards in the metro-Phoenix area (where it's hot and arid) utilize some form of xeriscaping (including the house we moved from) and the yards in the Salt Lake City area seem to be exactly opposite of that.  On my morning walks through our new neighborhood, I'm constantly dodging wet sidewalks and sprinklers (for all the grass watering) and I jump over water running down the gutters due to overflow from the yards.  I have observed meticulously maintained and manicured grass yards in almost all of the houses in the two-square mile area that I have walked.  So it seems to be a Utah thing, and it's definitely not limited to members of the church, because my non-member neighbor has a beautiful grass yard that he's out mowing at least (what seems to me to be) twice a week.  

There's a Utah Water Savers program in place where the municipalities will give home owners a rebate for removing lawn from their park strip and replacing it for a water efficient design (we will be taking advantage of that).  But I recently heard on KSL that Salt Lake City Public Utilities was offering a lower water grass seed for sale (it is supposed to require 30% less water than typical Bluegrass lawns), but they sold out of it already.  So apparently a lot of people in Utah are addicted to grass.   (I can't complain, it is beautiful.  It's just not what I am accustomed to where I came from.)

The global warming alarmists won’t like me for saying this, but droughts in Utah are cyclical. We’ll get back to a trend of wet seaons, and then I, for one, would regret having dug up my lawn. 
 

But there’s not a religious component to that preference, and it’s reverse provincialism bordering on religious bigotry for the Guardian or anyone else to suggest that there is. 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Scott Lloyd

[provoman]

Alfalfa is a big contributor to waste of water in Utah, along with HOAs in Utah and municipalities in Utah that demand wasting water on grass.

Utah State University has developed a grass that uses 30% less water, at the moment I think it is only available for SLC residents.

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by provoman

[The Nehor]

2 hours ago, Bernard Gui said:

Nope. California is squeezing water from all the surrounding states. 

California is possibly the worst offender but the entire southwest has been living on borrowed time when it comes to water. When Glen Canyon Dam was first built and they assigned water rights they fudged the numbers to be too high even before climate change and demand just keeps increasing as supply keeps falling. Everyone ignored the problem because who wants to the be the alarmist?

[InCognitus]

13 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

The global warming alarmists won’t like me for saying this, but droughts in Utah are cyclical. We’ll get back to a trend of wet seaons, and then I, for one, would regret having dug up my lawn. 

I agree, and I noticed that earlier today when I was looking at this site:  Great Salt Lake Water Levels - The Lake is constantly changing.  

The satellite photos start in 1984 where the water levels are high.  If you click through the images you'll see that the level gets higher in 85 and 86, and then begins to recede, and then goes back up and gets close to the 1984 levels again in 1999.  It does look bad in 2020 (the most recent image uploaded).  But there has been a lot of fluctuation through the years.

21 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

But there’s not a religious component to that preference, and it’s reverse provincialism bordering on religious bigotry for the Guardian or anyone else to suggest that there is. 

Definitely.  And besides, the Guardian says it's those "Mormons" who believe that (whoever they are).   

[Tacenda]

33 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

The global warming alarmists won’t like me for saying this, but droughts in Utah are cyclical. We’ll get back to a trend of wet seaons, and then I, for one, would regret having dug up my lawn. 
 

But there’s not a religious component to that preference, and it’s reverse provincialism bordering on religious bigotry for the Guardian or anyone else to suggest that there is. 

Well...you do know about the great salt lake though. That's a scary situation..