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“- only 70% of Americans believe in a “personal” God.” – not sure why “only” is used here, that’s the vast majority of the population. I’m surprised that Pentecostals have not been mentioned especially the Assemblies of God.
Sam, it’s “only” 70% mostly because 20 years ago it was nearly 90%, iirc. Fair enough, but it’s still far from a secular majority. I bet even of that remaining 30% you’d find that a good chunk of them held some form of religious or spiritual belief, even if it was something vague and New Agey (an energy force) etc I believe the article said “only” – because actually it’s funny but I thought the same thing you did – 70% seems rather high to me! Rix wrote:This gets right to the crux of the topic…can the church continue its growth and strength if 1) a member does not believe many dogmatic teachings …and 2) if one does not believe he/she must attend/receive the temple ordinances to “make it to the best place in heaven” in the next life?
Let’s face it…a very strong motivation for active members to pay a full tithing is that it is required for a temple recommend…Those tithes are helpful for running (and growing) the church…I’m sure they don’t want to see a decline in the revenue stream….
So I see the transition of beliefs from the staunch, one and only true church and authority to redeem the dead, etc…to a more metaphorical, take what is good and leave the rest sort of approach, a bit problematic.
You’re right it would be very problematic for the Church to just abandon their exclusive claims of authority and being the “one true church.” If they came right out and said that there were many legitimate reasons to doubt their previous claims about Joseph Smith in one step the results could be disastrous or possibly even fatal to the Church. Much of their success so far has depended on these claims for so long that it’s hard to see any easy way out of the current position. More important than the temple requirements in my opinion is that some of these beliefs give the Church more of a competitive edge in terms of voluntary service such as the lay callings and especially missionary work.
However, one problem with the status quo is that such staunch beliefs often depend too much on a thoroughly whitewashed version of history to maintain. At this point if they simply continue to compound the situation with unreasonable demands and an intolerant all-or-nothing attitude they are more likely than ever to get nothing in return or even worse they could end up with more bitter ex-Mormons actively trying to expose their dirty secrets. What is the solution to the dilemma? I don’t know, but if enough lukewarm cultural Mormons simply ignore what they are increasingly starting to see as empty promises and idle threats then the Church will probably have no choice but to scale back and tone it down with some of their claims.
Personally, I think the tithing and the Word of Wisdom have gone too far and currently do more harm than good when it comes to the total membership, growth, and activity levels. As far as I’m concerned these are mostly relics from a time when they clearly had more leverage to tell members what to do than they do now. It’s not like the Church really needs nearly as much money as they are currently asking for to build and maintain churches and to pay for whatever else is absolutely necessary. They already have more money than they know what to do with at this point. Seriously, they have been spending it on all kinds of investments and businesses and building all these extra temples.
hawkgrrrl wrote:I believe the article said “only” – because actually it’s funny but I thought the same thing you did – 70% seems rather high to me!
If someone got that in a democratic election, it would be a landslide… Anything above that, and it would be like a “tinpot dictatorship”.
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