Electronics in church

When I was a clerk in a YSA branch I’d stand in the back and count the house and see how many of the youngsters were playing games. My wife once took a young guy to task who literally could not leave his phone alone for more than 3 minutes. As a historical perspective I remember when palm pilots came out and for a while were known as high priest’s quiet books.

People are going to pay attention or not but it would be nice if they could do it in a way that didn’t disturb my sleep.

When tablets were brand new (or at least the second incarnation of tablets) someone pulled out a tablet during SM, opened the hymnbook app, and used the tablet to sing the “hey, let’s wake up” hymn. It rubbed me the wrong way because at the time I was in a very poor branch. Tablets were very expensive in those days, no one in my branch had a tablet. I thought using a tablet in church created a have and have not dynamic at church. I decided I’d only ever bring my print scriptures (easy peasy, I didn’t have a tablet).

Well, as with all things new eventually scriptures on electronic devices became the norm, even in my poorer branch. Soon I was one of the few people that didn’t use a tablet at church. Once electronic devices became less and less an indication of financial success I started bringing a tablet to church. I was late to the game, started just this year.

Do you read scriptures, electronic or not, during the sacrament?

Not really. I used to do the scripture hunt thing when someone shared a scripture in their talk but dropped that. 1) Some time ago there was that “rule” where they essentially told speakers to stop asking people to do scripture hunts when they give a reference in their talk. 2) They’re going to read the scripture anyway, might as well listen and avoid looking it up just to read along.

Is it acceptable for people to read scripture electronically during the sacrament?

It’s their funeral. But seriously, no problem at all. Just to be clear when you say during sacrament you mean during the passing portion, not during the SM meeting as a whole?

I suppose this is one of those appearance of evil things. Someone sees you on a tablet and assumes you’re playing Subway Surfers instead of reading a passage that may have popped in your head while the sacrament was being passed.

Have you ever been distracted by someone else reading electronic scripture in church (sacrament or otherwise)?

Again, just in the have and have nots context. When palm pilots were big I remember feeling the same way. I don’t find someone using electronic scriptures at church distracting in the slightest these days. I’m sure the have and have not issue is still present though.

Is it necessary to bring a hard copy of your scriptures to church?

lol One of the principle reasons I finally caved was because I was tired of lugging around a whole book bag full of manuals just to make it through my Sunday meetings. I suppose I’d feel a hard copy were necessary if I owned stock in Deseret printing or something.

Have you been distracted by others doing something else (texting, playing, talking) during the sacrament?

I may have mentioned this, I let my kid play on a tablet during SM (but make them turn it off during the sacrament portion). They hate church already, at least with the tablet they may inadvertently listen to the message. Without some form of distraction they are too busy whingeing about how boring the meeting is. If anything my policy (that may or may not be doing my kid any favors) is distracting others.

I will say that having a phone ring in the middle of sacrament is a little distracting, especially depending on the ringtone. I don’t get mad or anything but I do try to chuckle a bit at how embarrassed some people must be over their ringtone. In my old unit we’d have phones going off multiple times during SM.

Rejecting technology is silly, unless you are old enough to not care.

Rejecting controls on the use of technology is stupid.

Again, like so many things, finding a good balance (a way) is the key.

Also, as has been said here a lot, it is fascinating when “orthodox” members don’t accept the words of their prophets and insist on going beyond even those marks. All members really are cafeteria Mormons.

Do you read scriptures, electronic or not, during the sacrament?

I usually try and close my eyes, but if I really like the sacrament hymn I will re-read it and sing it silently to myself.

Is it acceptable for people to read scripture electronically during the sacrament?

As long as they are not using the “text to speech” option

Have you ever been distracted by someone else reading electronic scripture in church (sacrament or otherwise)?

No, the kids are too noisy and cute.

Is it necessary to bring a hard copy of your scriptures to church?

I stopped a few years ago once the lessons were all online. I have my phone and my tablet and those do just fine.

Have you been distracted by others doing something else (texting, playing, talking) during the sacrament?

No, but when things just get painful, I do sometimes surf (such as read this web site) during class. Gospel Doctrine class is alive enough, but sometimes (and certain teachers) in HP I have to do SOMETHING!

Pretty much everyone in our ward uses digital scriptures except a handful of self-righteous old coots who proudly proclaim the superiority of paper. When E. Oaks spoke in Singapore, he pointed out that he uses an iPad for scriptures, and so do all the Q15 which was at Pres. Packer’s suggestion due to their travel schedules, so feel free to bring that up if you are criticized for going digital!

Our bishop does make a point of asking people to turn their phones to airplane mode if they can during the service and to try to pay attention. Personally, I don’t find it distracting as a member of the congregation what other people are doing, but when I’ve given a talk, it’s tough to feel like you are connecting when all their faces are glowing from screen light, and you know they are not paying attention. Since I started heeding his advice, I have gotten a lot more out of church. I only tune out when it’s really best that I do for content reasons.

A couple Sundays ago in a completely silent moment during the sacrament my daughter was trying to turn her volume off on her phone when her alarm suddenly blared out “APPLE BOTTOM JEANS . . . BOOTS WITH THE FUR . . .” She was mortified! She threw that phone in my lap as if it were on fire. My ward is awesome because nobody said anything to her about it. Not one word.

My guess is that our ward is 2/3 paper, 1/3 digital. I’m still paper, but have nothing against electronics in church. I’d prefer not to see people just scrolling through their Facebook feed, playing games, and texting a lot because it breaks the Sabbath mood for me. Everyone likes the line where they draw it. But since I no longer want people telling me what to do on many other fronts, I really try not to get critical of anyone on this one.

That’s interesting to me, Ann. How does what other people do break the Sabbath mood for you?

FWIW, I haven’t experienced anyone’s phone ringing during SM or any class, although it did once happen during stake conference.

We have discussed this in stake PEC and we have not reached consensus. Interestingly the same quote by Elder Oaks instigated the initial discussion but we didn’t go down the same road as in priesthood meeting. We have also discussed the issue specifically relating to youth.

I love the smell of crayola crayons. 🙂

http://www.teamcc1.com/2013/12/05/nt_crayons/” class=”bbcode_url”>http://www.teamcc1.com/2013/12/05/nt_crayons/

A few more things:

1) If electronic devices were so bad I suspect the church would remove the wifi hot spots any day now.

2) DJ, this is a forum on the internet, results will be skewed. You should send out the same survey via pony express/telegram.