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In another thread, it was mentioned that food storage might be de-emphasized now. I would like to explore this further. Is this true? How do we know this, and what would be the rationale for it, if true, given the recent statements that the second coming is night? (it’s always nigh)…
Interested in what people have to say.
SilentDawning wrote:
In another thread, it was mentioned that food storage might be de-emphasized now.I would like to explore this further. Is this true? How do we know this, and what would be the rationale for it, if true, given the recent statements that the second coming is night? (it’s always nigh)…
Interested in what people have to say.
On a semi-related note, i noticed the church producing youtube videos concerning the bishop store house, showing the process of making different foods and who they are for.
Seems emergency preparedness has always been a topic of concern, but with so much social media coverage in the past ten years and less, it’s harder to focus on all the important “established member” topics such as food storage, family history etc.
What i’d like to see is an expansion of food storage. we are told to become self-reliant, which implies and to me means to avoid depending on other companies to produce and provides the services that we use and take for granted. Food is the common one. Growing a garden. But i see other uses for “being prepared”. I remember on my mission in texas we had a literal sunday school /combined hour lesson that consisted of an emergency prepardness video of the city, how to prepare for weather and natural disasters as well as medical emergencies. It talked about car breakdowns and other things. It was really cool to see the ward encourage it’s members to not just think spiritually.
With all of that said, i think we have all become caught up in dependency of other companies and businesses and perhaps growing a garden can be a good start to a more minimalist lifestyle?
My take on it is that when I grew up in the 80s and 90s we wore the “peculiar people” badge with honor and pride. When I was on my mission, the Missionary Guide had a story about a member who didn’t drink coffee and spent his free time grinding wheat and his coworker thought he was odd and wanted to learn more. I think the food storage thing was both a preparation for the second coming (that was more recently down graded to preparing for any kind of natural disaster) and a throwback to pioneer values of thrift and self-reliance. I think we are backing away from a lot of these things and quietly trying to move more mainstream. I also think it’s interesting that a lot of the recent changes are getting rid of things that critics pointed to as “culty” like not letting missionaries call home, the one-year temple waiting period, etc. I think we are going to see more of these changes in the future.
I agree that we are backing away practices that might categorize us as a “doomsday prepper” church. grobert93 wrote:
What i’d like to see is an expansion of food storage. we are told to become self-reliant, which implies and to me means to avoid depending on other companies to produce and provides the services that we use and take for granted. Food is the common one. Growing a garden.
I honestly believe that this is what the church does not want. Members that make their own clothes, grow and can their own food, anything that says that we are getting ready to detach from society and go off the grid had a decidedly cult like feel.
I believe that most every reference to self-reliance that I have heard in the last decade deals almost exclusively with not being dependent on government assistance or welfare. It is about acquiring the skills to get and stay gainfully employed at a level that will financially support yourself and your family. At least that has been the perspective from my neck of the woods.
Roy wrote:
I agree that we are backing away practices that might categorize us as a “doomsday prepper” church.grobert93 wrote:
What i’d like to see is an expansion of food storage. we are told to become self-reliant, which implies and to me means to avoid depending on other companies to produce and provides the services that we use and take for granted. Food is the common one. Growing a garden.
I honestly believe that this is what the church does not want. Members that make their own clothes, grow and can their own food, anything that says that we are getting ready to detach from society and go off the grid had a decidedly cult like feel.
I believe that most every reference to self-reliance that I have heard in the last decade deals almost exclusively with not being dependent on government assistance or welfare. It is about acquiring the skills to get and stay gainfully employed at a level that will financially support yourself and your family. At least that has been the perspective from my neck of the woods.
For sure, and becoming self reliant to where you do not depend on government assistance or the church’s welfare programs is what i believe the most important thing to live by. I think my idea of “off the grid” would be for those who have mastered the self-reliance and/or are independently interested in avoiding the corporation as i previously mentioned. my examples were meant to be on the extreme side, so i apologize for mis communication.
SilentDawning wrote:
In another thread, it was mentioned that food storage might be de-emphasized now.I would like to explore this further. Is this true? How do we know this, and what would be the rationale for it, if true, given the recent statements that the second coming is night? (it’s always nigh)…
Interested in what people have to say.
When was the last time you heard it (or similar things like planting a garden) mentioned in GC?
I’m going to leave it at that for the moment, partly because I’m short on time, but if you’re looking for that you might as well look for what has been talked about in GC. (Hint: since 2014 there has been a clear emphasis on one topic above all others and it has increased with every conference)
No worries Grobert. Thanks for the clarification. DarkJedi wrote:
SilentDawning wrote:
In another thread, it was mentioned that food storage might be de-emphasized now.I would like to explore this further. Is this true? How do we know this, and what would be the rationale for it, if true, given the recent statements that the second coming is night? (it’s always nigh)…
Interested in what people have to say.
When was the last time you heard it (or similar things like planting a garden) mentioned in GC?
I’m going to leave it at that for the moment, partly because I’m short on time, but if you’re looking for that you might as well look for what has been talked about in GC. (Hint: since 2014 there has been a clear emphasis on one topic above all others and it has increased with every conference)
I’m the remedial student regarding emphasis at GC — can you tell me what the topic is? All I can think of is preparing for the second coming.
The Church absolutely has de-emphasized formal food storage, especially a year’s supply, over the last decade or so. No question about it. The topic, just to get it out there officially, is Jesus Christ.
Food storage is useful, we just went overboard with it. SilentDawning wrote:
DarkJedi wrote:
SilentDawning wrote:
In another thread, it was mentioned that food storage might be de-emphasized now.I would like to explore this further. Is this true? How do we know this, and what would be the rationale for it, if true, given the recent statements that the second coming is night? (it’s always nigh)…
Interested in what people have to say.
When was the last time you heard it (or similar things like planting a garden) mentioned in GC?
I’m going to leave it at that for the moment, partly because I’m short on time, but if you’re looking for that you might as well look for what has been talked about in GC. (Hint: since 2014 there has been a clear emphasis on one topic above all others and it has increased with every conference)
I’m the remedial student regarding emphasis at GC — can you tell me what the topic is? All I can think of is preparing for the second coming.
What “the church teaches” comes up a lot here. The question in my mind every time the phrase is used is “How do we know what the church teaches? According to who?” I think the website is often referenced as a source for what the church teaches, but in my experience in working with the general membership in my own ward/stake almost nobody actually looks at the website. For example, I am tasked with doing training stuff on ministering somewhat frequently but hardly anybody has actually looked at the stuff on the website. I know I’m probably deluding myself, but I think people do pay more attention to General Conference and there is emphasis on teaching from General Conference. Hence in my mind General Conference is a better barometer of what “the church teaches” than other sources.
In situations like this BYU has a great asset.
https://www.lds-general-conference.org/https://www.lds-general-conference.org/” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.ldsliving.com/The-Most-Common-Topic-in-General-Conference-Why-Prophets-Are-Talking-About-It-More-Than-Ever/s/86462 ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.ldsliving.com/The-Most-Common-Topic-in-General-Conference-Why-Prophets-Are-Talking-About-It-More-Than-Ever/s/86462 Here’s another fun one to try on the BYU corpus: plug grace in there.
When I was young, I heard that the three “S”s were guaranteed to grab everyone’s attention: Sex, Satan, and the Second Coming. Food storage ties in nicely with that last one; not to mention, former prophets were very specific in stating we’d one day need it. It makes people feel proud and excited. For many, I’d almost say they can’t wait for the world to end, to show everybody how right they were all along. Can you imagine it? The apocalypse has broken out, everyone is starving, and the faithful member benevolently shares their food storage with their neighbor. “Don’t you wish you listed to the prophet, like me?” Of course, they’ll be instantly converted. And when Christ finally comes, they’ll get to walk over the corpses of all the haters, and Christ will embrace them and praise them for their faithfulness…
I think the Church has begun to move away from prophecy, and into advisement, at least as far as the GAs and Q15 are concerned. Of course, individuals and local leaders will still prophecy… but it’ll be held up to much less scrutiny, doesn’t have the backing of the Church heads, and can be easily written off if it’s bizarre or doesn’t come true. That’s what happened with food storage. It went from prophecy to “advisement”.
I think a lot of it also comes from stake and ward goals, which are often heavily influenced by area authorities, which are in turn influenced by leaders higher up the chain of command. If you have a SP whose pet project is food storage you’ll probably hear about food storage more than members in other stakes… and it could be merited. Stakes in more disaster prone areas (hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires) may make food storage more of a priority.
My observation over the years is that we tend to have a theme that we stick to for prolonged periods of time and that we fixate on the theme until fatigue begins to set in. At least that’s my experience.
Food storage may have been one of those themes. I’ll add FHE to the list. Back in the day it felt like every few weeks at church it would be, “Are you doing FHE? You should be doing FHE. What do you do to make FHE successful in your family? You should do FHE even if you don’t have children.” Now FHE comes up once every blue moon. Maybe because “ministering” is currently king of themes with “home church” as a potential challenger to the throne.
I’ve noticed in my family a lot of put-offs from TBM’s when I broach any subject that isn’t downright faithful. At a family event, I asked my son-in-law, who works for the church, if he’d heard the church is de-emphasizing food storage. I mentioned I’d seen it on the bloggernacle for a while. He responded, “we don’t pay any attention to that stuff”. Basically writing it off as an anti-Mormon conversation opener. I found it disrespectful and indicative of his underlying attitude toward me personally.
So, I guess I’ll get my info here and where I can.
I think being prepared is good for us due to the prevalence of hurricanes, ice storms, snow storms, floods, etcetera. Not as a doomsday measure though. I enjoy watching Doomsday Prepper’s — that Netflix reality show. People are afraid of total system breakdowns, the poles of the earth shifting, tsunamis, earthquakes along the New Madrid fault through Tennessee, dirty bombs, and more. At the end, experts share the probability of these things happening, and the biggest one was an earthquake along American fault lines at 20% that is earth-shattering (literally). All the other fears have such a low probability, it’s hard to take them seriously to the point you invest your life savings in a bug-out location, renewable food supplies, perimeter security and training, renewable water supplies, and more.
But I have to confess, hauling around a year’s supply has been a huge hassle. Been doing it for 25 years for the basic stuff like wheat and rice.
SilentDawning wrote:
I’ve noticed in my family a lot of put-offs from TBM’s when I broach any subject that isn’t downright faithful. At a family event, I asked my son-in-law, who works for the church, if he’d heard the church is de-emphasizing food storage. I mentioned I’d seen it on the bloggernacle for a while. He responded, “we don’t pay any attention to that stuff”.Basically writing it off as an anti-Mormon conversation opener. I found it disrespectful and indicative of his underlying attitude toward me personally.
I think what you said was innocuos enough. I agree that his response seems to be unneccesarily defensive. “We don’t pay attention to that stuff”? Who is the “we” in that sentence? I imagine that he hasn’t heard that the church is de-emphasizing food storage because de-emphasis means that it doesn’t get talked about. We don’t hold meetings to de-emphasize things – we just slowly and quietly stop highlighting them until they fade away into our collective memory banks.
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