Nelsonian reforms part 2
I just realized that a very big reform of last year escaped mention in my previous post. That was the official publishing of the questions asked to missionary candidates. This flows in line with later reforms and so makes some of them seem less stark.
The start of reforms under President Nelson might be seen in his choice of President Oaks and President Eyring as his counselors. This is the first time since the release of Marion G. Romney in 1985 that someone was released from the 1st presidency by other than death. It also represents the first time since 1951 that someone was moved from 1st conselor to 2nd counselor. Since the combination of the two is unprecedented, it is worth noting. However it may not be as much a sign of as symptom of reform. The trends of incorporating the Quorum of the 12 more into central decision making that seem to have happened under President Hinckley would make being in the 1st presidency seem less of a major change. I may be reading more into what is going on than is though.
The next major change was announcing the new first presidency with a broadcast from the entrance of the Salt Lake Temple to all members. This is more of a sign of changing abilities to use technology. In many ways it follows up on the first email to all church members a few years before. It is a change, but not major.
The international questions from Brazil and Mexico allowed in the press conference more reflect the acceptance that new changes will come with a press conference, that was a shock in 1995. While the questions from international journalists were new, and a clear sign of an international church, the process that lead to hear was long in development.
The next major reform I can pinpoint is the new guidelines on abuse and interviews. While in some ways they can be seen as reactions to reports of some bishops downplaying abuse, it is not clear they were really a change. Previous leaders had clearly denounced abuse in all forms at least as early as 1994. President Hinckley had forbidden return to working with children of those guilty of abusing children in 2001 or 2002. Even the policies on interviews are more publications, not changes.
General conference saw some major changes. The unification of Melchizedek Priesthood quorums was really big. So was the shift to ministering, although the new program is not that different than how the old program was meant to be done.
Other things heavily focused on included the calling of Elder Soares and Elder Gong to the 12. While having non-white aposles to some seemed a major change, to others it was less clear. Elder Gong was raised the son of a university professor in California. If we are looking for apostles from marginal backgrounds, we can find them in an economic sense, Elder Rasband's father was a wonder bread delivery driver, but Elder Gong is not where it is at. At the same time both Elder Soares and Elder Gong were advanced from the Presidency of the 7-. They were the top people in line for the position. This represents several years of changes in who the 70 are, not immidiate changes.
Later that month the new area presidencies saw area presidencies restored in the US. However these in some areas combined areas, so it is not the one to one correspondence we saw before the end of the area presidencies in about 2005.
May saw the announcement of an end of the Boy scout relationship, an end to the young women personal progress program, and that at the start of 2020 a new world-wide program would be inagurated covering all children and youth ages 8-18. Much of the reaction to this ignored that it was meant to create a unified worldwide church, and not a specific reaction to BSA events. The biggest secondary reason was probably to balance pudgeting costs for young men and young women programs. Cub Scouts had often dwarfed the rest of the primary budget. The increasing cost of BSA programs was probably a key reason for this reform, especially when it was in cooperation with inadequate funding of programs outside the US.
June saw announcement of the questions given in interviews with youth. There was more publicity here but little if any change. The emphasis on not being overly probing on sexual issues can be traced back to statements in the 1970s by President Kimball, and that is only because it is hard to get good access to such statements before 1970.
I am priobably going to miss some of the major changes in this review. August saw the major inititative of emphasizing the full name of the Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was not a totally new initiative. President Nelson had spoken on this matter in general conference in 1998, policies were used to emphasize it in 1995, and 2001 saw a major push. This however has gone beyond past initiatives, and in some ways counteracts the effects of the "I'm a Mormon" campaign and the film "Meet the Mormons", the 2001 inauguration of Mormon.org and related events. The renaming to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square is the surest sign of this major reform, but there are others. Still the test of success is still in the future.
September saw a communication on suicide and a suicide prevention website inaugurated.
October conference saw even faster announcements of new temples, bringing to 19 the number announced under President Nelson. Also the huge change to 2-hour church, a more home-centered curriculum and related changes. Making ward misison leaders optional, making it possible to have a ward family history and temple leader, the end of all optional Sunday school classes, and probalby some other reforms we have not yet comprehended.
The next major change was the discouragement of pageants. The final balance only saqw 4 of the 7 pageants elimanated, although 2 of the three that remain will be under the auspuices of the area presidency. This may also be a continuation of the earlier decision to stop having cultural celebrations at temple dedications and replacing them with youth firesides. To some this is a big change, but it has very little effect on the Church in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and even its effects on much of the US is debatable. The fact that cultural celebrations at the local level are still allowable represents that this is not a major change in how the Church functions in local congregations.
Back to September there was the publication of the first volume of Saints. However since the beggining chapters were serialized in the Ensign in January and the process of approval and writing the first volume took 6 years, this clearly predates the death of President Monson.
Just this week a third MTC has been announced for closure under President Nelson. However MTCs have been closed in the past, and the major expansion in the size of both the Provo MTC and those in Mexico City and Ghana in the last few years have lead to concentrating missionaries in fewer MTCs being reasonable.
Another major change President Nelson has initiated is that he is the first Church President to have given significant addresses in a language other than English. To date he has given two in Spanish. However the short term time of general conference talks in languages other than English has not yet been returned to. That was both initiated and abandoned under President Monson.
Another change I think initiated under President Nelson has involved devolving the duty of ordering building supplies like toilet paper etc to the ward or branch level instead of the physical facilities office. This is more a continuation of the end to paid janitorial services for most buildings than anything else.
Another major change is emailing mission calls and a unified mission reccomendation system. This will allow those who can serve full-time and Church service missions to feel more unified, and those who are not able due to physical or social limitations to serve regular full-time missions to feel more valued. It may also allow a few who think they are not up to regular full-time missions to get a change to serve instead of rushing too quick to Church service missions.
The general trends of these changes are easy to see in outline. They are the Church has sought to more openly communicate with both members and the general public. It has sought to make the private matters of interviews less of a surprise. It has sought to combat abuse and other negative trends like rising suicide rates.
A second push has been to make living the gospel more important than the outward forms of the Church. The mantra is a home-centered Church supported gospel. The new two-hour block is supposed to be much stronger in its emphasis on spiritual things. Ministering is more of a spiritual connection than was hometeaching. Melchizedek preisthood quorums are unified and focused on the spirtual growth of all. Temple attendance gtives more options to more and is made easier by temples in many more areas, most notabily India and Micronesia as well as western Nigeria, Cape Verde and central Brazil. The Southern Phillippines and noth-west Argentina also have both seen two temples announced.
There are other things that I could consider. The First Presidency involvement in the Be One Celebration, meetings of the first presidency and national NAACP leadership, Elder Girard speking to the national NAACP meeting, the self-reliance initiative announced by the NAACP and the Church, the added coverage of Debra Bonner, her family and her choir, all these point to a new era, but that new era was clearly inagurated no later than the Race and the Priesthood essay, and may have come earlier.
Dallin H. Oaks talk in general conference in October threw down the gauntlett on transgender issues, but so did "The Family: A Proclamation to the World". This was more a sign of no retreat than a new statement on anything. The continued treatment of entering a same-sex marriage or long term relationship as an act of apostasy is a clear sign of that.
Do I have predictions for the future? Yes, more temples announced, more focus on doctrine and learniong of Jesus Christ, more openness about the past, and a growing role for self-reliance services and BYU Pathway International.
The Neal A. Maxwell institute has devolved itself of some of its publications, including I believe the Mormon Studies Review. What its role and function and the name of its studies in the future will be remains to be seen.
I predict more moves toward the use of the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and speaking of the restored gospel. However these changes will take time to be felt.
Beyond that I cannot easily predict.
The start of reforms under President Nelson might be seen in his choice of President Oaks and President Eyring as his counselors. This is the first time since the release of Marion G. Romney in 1985 that someone was released from the 1st presidency by other than death. It also represents the first time since 1951 that someone was moved from 1st conselor to 2nd counselor. Since the combination of the two is unprecedented, it is worth noting. However it may not be as much a sign of as symptom of reform. The trends of incorporating the Quorum of the 12 more into central decision making that seem to have happened under President Hinckley would make being in the 1st presidency seem less of a major change. I may be reading more into what is going on than is though.
The next major change was announcing the new first presidency with a broadcast from the entrance of the Salt Lake Temple to all members. This is more of a sign of changing abilities to use technology. In many ways it follows up on the first email to all church members a few years before. It is a change, but not major.
The international questions from Brazil and Mexico allowed in the press conference more reflect the acceptance that new changes will come with a press conference, that was a shock in 1995. While the questions from international journalists were new, and a clear sign of an international church, the process that lead to hear was long in development.
The next major reform I can pinpoint is the new guidelines on abuse and interviews. While in some ways they can be seen as reactions to reports of some bishops downplaying abuse, it is not clear they were really a change. Previous leaders had clearly denounced abuse in all forms at least as early as 1994. President Hinckley had forbidden return to working with children of those guilty of abusing children in 2001 or 2002. Even the policies on interviews are more publications, not changes.
General conference saw some major changes. The unification of Melchizedek Priesthood quorums was really big. So was the shift to ministering, although the new program is not that different than how the old program was meant to be done.
Other things heavily focused on included the calling of Elder Soares and Elder Gong to the 12. While having non-white aposles to some seemed a major change, to others it was less clear. Elder Gong was raised the son of a university professor in California. If we are looking for apostles from marginal backgrounds, we can find them in an economic sense, Elder Rasband's father was a wonder bread delivery driver, but Elder Gong is not where it is at. At the same time both Elder Soares and Elder Gong were advanced from the Presidency of the 7-. They were the top people in line for the position. This represents several years of changes in who the 70 are, not immidiate changes.
Later that month the new area presidencies saw area presidencies restored in the US. However these in some areas combined areas, so it is not the one to one correspondence we saw before the end of the area presidencies in about 2005.
May saw the announcement of an end of the Boy scout relationship, an end to the young women personal progress program, and that at the start of 2020 a new world-wide program would be inagurated covering all children and youth ages 8-18. Much of the reaction to this ignored that it was meant to create a unified worldwide church, and not a specific reaction to BSA events. The biggest secondary reason was probably to balance pudgeting costs for young men and young women programs. Cub Scouts had often dwarfed the rest of the primary budget. The increasing cost of BSA programs was probably a key reason for this reform, especially when it was in cooperation with inadequate funding of programs outside the US.
June saw announcement of the questions given in interviews with youth. There was more publicity here but little if any change. The emphasis on not being overly probing on sexual issues can be traced back to statements in the 1970s by President Kimball, and that is only because it is hard to get good access to such statements before 1970.
I am priobably going to miss some of the major changes in this review. August saw the major inititative of emphasizing the full name of the Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was not a totally new initiative. President Nelson had spoken on this matter in general conference in 1998, policies were used to emphasize it in 1995, and 2001 saw a major push. This however has gone beyond past initiatives, and in some ways counteracts the effects of the "I'm a Mormon" campaign and the film "Meet the Mormons", the 2001 inauguration of Mormon.org and related events. The renaming to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square is the surest sign of this major reform, but there are others. Still the test of success is still in the future.
September saw a communication on suicide and a suicide prevention website inaugurated.
October conference saw even faster announcements of new temples, bringing to 19 the number announced under President Nelson. Also the huge change to 2-hour church, a more home-centered curriculum and related changes. Making ward misison leaders optional, making it possible to have a ward family history and temple leader, the end of all optional Sunday school classes, and probalby some other reforms we have not yet comprehended.
The next major change was the discouragement of pageants. The final balance only saqw 4 of the 7 pageants elimanated, although 2 of the three that remain will be under the auspuices of the area presidency. This may also be a continuation of the earlier decision to stop having cultural celebrations at temple dedications and replacing them with youth firesides. To some this is a big change, but it has very little effect on the Church in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and even its effects on much of the US is debatable. The fact that cultural celebrations at the local level are still allowable represents that this is not a major change in how the Church functions in local congregations.
Back to September there was the publication of the first volume of Saints. However since the beggining chapters were serialized in the Ensign in January and the process of approval and writing the first volume took 6 years, this clearly predates the death of President Monson.
Just this week a third MTC has been announced for closure under President Nelson. However MTCs have been closed in the past, and the major expansion in the size of both the Provo MTC and those in Mexico City and Ghana in the last few years have lead to concentrating missionaries in fewer MTCs being reasonable.
Another major change President Nelson has initiated is that he is the first Church President to have given significant addresses in a language other than English. To date he has given two in Spanish. However the short term time of general conference talks in languages other than English has not yet been returned to. That was both initiated and abandoned under President Monson.
Another change I think initiated under President Nelson has involved devolving the duty of ordering building supplies like toilet paper etc to the ward or branch level instead of the physical facilities office. This is more a continuation of the end to paid janitorial services for most buildings than anything else.
Another major change is emailing mission calls and a unified mission reccomendation system. This will allow those who can serve full-time and Church service missions to feel more unified, and those who are not able due to physical or social limitations to serve regular full-time missions to feel more valued. It may also allow a few who think they are not up to regular full-time missions to get a change to serve instead of rushing too quick to Church service missions.
The general trends of these changes are easy to see in outline. They are the Church has sought to more openly communicate with both members and the general public. It has sought to make the private matters of interviews less of a surprise. It has sought to combat abuse and other negative trends like rising suicide rates.
A second push has been to make living the gospel more important than the outward forms of the Church. The mantra is a home-centered Church supported gospel. The new two-hour block is supposed to be much stronger in its emphasis on spiritual things. Ministering is more of a spiritual connection than was hometeaching. Melchizedek preisthood quorums are unified and focused on the spirtual growth of all. Temple attendance gtives more options to more and is made easier by temples in many more areas, most notabily India and Micronesia as well as western Nigeria, Cape Verde and central Brazil. The Southern Phillippines and noth-west Argentina also have both seen two temples announced.
There are other things that I could consider. The First Presidency involvement in the Be One Celebration, meetings of the first presidency and national NAACP leadership, Elder Girard speking to the national NAACP meeting, the self-reliance initiative announced by the NAACP and the Church, the added coverage of Debra Bonner, her family and her choir, all these point to a new era, but that new era was clearly inagurated no later than the Race and the Priesthood essay, and may have come earlier.
Dallin H. Oaks talk in general conference in October threw down the gauntlett on transgender issues, but so did "The Family: A Proclamation to the World". This was more a sign of no retreat than a new statement on anything. The continued treatment of entering a same-sex marriage or long term relationship as an act of apostasy is a clear sign of that.
Do I have predictions for the future? Yes, more temples announced, more focus on doctrine and learniong of Jesus Christ, more openness about the past, and a growing role for self-reliance services and BYU Pathway International.
The Neal A. Maxwell institute has devolved itself of some of its publications, including I believe the Mormon Studies Review. What its role and function and the name of its studies in the future will be remains to be seen.
I predict more moves toward the use of the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and speaking of the restored gospel. However these changes will take time to be felt.
Beyond that I cannot easily predict.
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