De-emphasis on Food Storage?

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

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.

He and my daughter were “we”. I have learned to simply speak to him when spoken to now as these kinds of barbs seem to typify conversation with him. I think I’ve sort of lost his respect given my activity level and non-TR holding status. I can only speculate.

Very happy their marriage is fine though; but barbs like that are unacceptable to me now. And I’ve received them more times than I can count whenever the subject of church comes up and I make no contrarion or objectionable statements. He also changes the subject whenever he thinks I am saying anything that could be remotely construed as negative toward the church. Even when there is no intent behind it (like above). I keep my mouth shut now.

The good part about children getting married in America is that you don’t see them much. This is as they move around the vast land mass for jobs, school, etcetera. The bad part about children getting married in America is that you don’t see them as much either (I realize these statements latter portions are equivalent).

But in the end, I’m just glad my daughter is happy being married to him and they seem very happy together….that’s really all that matters. And I know not to talk about anything church related now that he’s obviously determined to set tight boundaries.

I have to confess, when children set boundaries with parents, it can be hard. To me, it communicates a lack of respect when boundaries are drawn around subjects that don’t seem to deserve boundaries. It’s even harder when I believe that my actions, for years, have done nothing but support my daughter in her TBM desires. And having such, in my view, unwarranted boundaries come from younger people is harder as you get older — at least for me.

Interesting, she called me a while back with testimony issues about the way gay people are treated in our church. I encouraged her to shore up her testimony, encouraged her to temper her unquestioning regard for policy as revelation, and told her to lower her expectations of the organization and its leaders. It seemed to help. I didn’t encourage doubt, but simply listened and gave advice that I hope allows her to cope within her TBM world.

But this is a different topic, but I feel well-equipped after years of learning to live comfortably with unorthodox ideas in the orthodox world in which I live.

Back to food storage — glad its deemphasized. I could stand to lose a lot of weight so a bit of starvation might be good for my blood sugar levels – if it turns out food storage really IS necessary after all for the long-term:)

[Anonymous]

I think another reason for the de-emphasis is the change to have the church be more acceptable world wide. There are regions where a year food storage is, if not impossible, a huge strain especially for members already learning to pay 10% tithing. I think of my family in El Salvador. They do not have space, money, or ability to keep a year of food along with the risk of it being ruined or stolen.

[Anonymous]

I think for practical reasons the church moved a few years ago from suggesting a years supply to suggesting starting with three months supply.

In some parts if the world regulations prohibit hoarding food and for many in poor countries it’s simply impossible.

Our ward had a preparedness meeting a few years back where we were given a list of what food was needed per person and how it would fit in so many five gallon buckets to stack for storage. I added up the buckets and calculated how much space it would take and came to the conclusion that most people wouldn’t have room in their house to store so much food.

Also, recommendations on many things were a bit crazy. Like needing say 1200 pounds of sugar. No family is going to eat that much sugar.

I think leadership is becoming more practical.

In most instances of disaster I’ve seen the food storage is lost anyway such as fire, flood, hurricane, tornado and earthquake.

The best use of food storage is for your individual needs if for some reason money gets scarce. However I think the best preparedness is a years supply of money

[Anonymous]

BJE wrote:

I think leadership is becoming more practical.

I think the leadership is becoming more focused on Jesus Christ and His teachings.

[Anonymous]

BJE wrote:

However I think the best preparedness is a years supply of money

A year’s supply of money is probably outside the reach of most. Although I do believe that an “emergency fund” for unexpected expenses is something all should work towards.

DarkJedi wrote:

I think the leadership is becoming more focused on Jesus Christ and His teachings.

Amen

[Anonymous]

I use to have some 5 gallon buckets of wheat. Sort of silly what was I gong to do with it? We all live in a totally interdependent economy. If some kind collapse happens then we are all in the same boat. So if everything goes to hell there will be no one to turn the lights on and you can’t cook your bread.

I do strongly believe in having enough on hand to last 30 days or so in the event of some sort of natural disaster. But if the lights are not back on by then it would be Chaos after that.

[Anonymous]

When I was a kid in the 70’s not only was a years supply of food and fuel preached but also we were told we needed to be prepared to walk to Jackson county Missouri to build the new Jerusalem. When I asked why we’d have to walk I was told we’d have to flee on foot because there would be no fuel.

You don’t hear talk of walking to Jackson county anymore

[Anonymous]

BJE wrote:

When I was a kid in the 70’s not only was a years supply of food and fuel preached but also we were told we needed to be prepared to walk to Jackson county Missouri to build the new Jerusalem. When I asked why we’d have to walk I was told we’d have to flee on foot because there would be no fuel.

You don’t hear talk of walking to Jackson county anymore

Welcome to the church of 2019! Much nicer, isn’t it? (And how, exactly, were you to carry those buckets of wheat [that you might not have known how to use anyway] to Missouri?)

[Anonymous]

DarkJedi wrote:

BJE wrote:

When I was a kid in the 70’s not only was a years supply of food and fuel preached but also we were told we needed to be prepared to walk to Jackson county Missouri to build the new Jerusalem. When I asked why we’d have to walk I was told we’d have to flee on foot because there would be no fuel.

You don’t hear talk of walking to Jackson county anymore

Welcome to the church of 2019! Much nicer, isn’t it? (And how, exactly, were you to carry those buckets of wheat [that you might not have known how to use anyway] to Missouri?)

Yes, it is my observation that we no longer actively teach that stuff. By not actively teaching it I believe that people that believe in it with all their hearts and people that do not believe in it can more easily coexist in the same congregations. Some of the stuff we used to teach sounds cultish but I am sure that a number of the older generation would defend it vehemently if pressed. It was a fairly significant thing when Elder Packer said that young people of today should plan their lives as though the “end of days” would not occur in their lifetime.

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