NEWS LDS IN AFRICA: GROWING MEMBERSHIP SEES AMERICAN CHURCH WITH UNIQUE VISION
by Peggy Fletcher Stack Salt Lake Tribune religion writer
1 LC>IUCLIL JpCIICCI VV. Tnis story originally appeared in Emball, whose an- the 4 April 1998 Salt Lake Tribune. nouncement that year Reprinted in its entirety by pemis- of a divine revelation sion. ended the ban on blacks in the priest- HARARE, Zimbabwe-Across hood. sub-Saharan Africa. traditional For many black Mormon hymns are sung in African converts, the clipped British accents. LDS Mormon story of how lesson manuals preach Family LD~church founder Home Evening and food storage Joseph Smith saw to people who have no food for God and Jesus Christ tomorrow, let alone a year. In in a grove of trees some homes, Mormon inspira- when he was just tional posters and temple photos fourteen years old bedeck the walls. seems natural, in Such is the power of the LDS light of their own vi- church in Africa, where the Mormon ranks have swollen from a handful to more than one of Accra said he was hundred thousand in the two studying medicine in decades since black men first England when two were allowed to hold the priest- hood in the faith all-male clergy. It is a testament that a religion born on United States soil 168 was suf- years ago can so transform lives fering from severe halfway around the world. health problems. African Mormons gve up their "She invited them drums for organs, their dashikis in and they offered to for white shirts, beads for CTR give her a blessing," (Choose the Right) rings, and Kissi said. "She was cured in- A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH So Church leaders moved the their lively religious services for stantly" subdued reverence. It took Kissi anoth 'We want to do it just right," said Ben Ntiamoah, a Mormon convert who works in the tem- poral affairs office of the Church in Accra, capital of the West African nation of Ghana. Ntiamoah was among the thousands of Africans who in February got their first glimpse of a man they revere as their prophet, when President Gordon B. Hinckley visited Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Hincklev was the first Church president to visit the African con- the LD~church in Africa.
JUNE 1998 PAGE 71 SUNSTONE
African saints at a meeting where President Hinckley spoke. Church leaders moved missionaries from villages into cities; once a nucleaus is established, then missionaries move I I I When Monica Opare re- tural and religous traditions. then was called Rhodesia. In "colonial" languagesEnglish, turned to Ghana in 1977, there 1980, the white government was French, and Portugese-others was no Mormon presence. Then PRE- 1978 overturned by black nationals speak primarily tribal languages. Opare saw a newspaper adver- who won independence and "We did not know that when tisement for a "Meet the KIMBALIS REVELATION, which changed the nationk name to we first went in," Holland said. Mormons" evening and told his many hoped would erase the Zimbabwe. "We thought we could do every- wife, "There are your people." stigma of racism from "We went into the war zone to thing in the colonial languages, Opare joined the church a Mormonism, was heralded by hold church, but never felt because that's what the mission- short time later some African threatened," Neald recalled. But aries could handle the best." in a scenario whites as a many white members were What the Church discovered. seen often "Before -neat step for- "scared of the unknown . . . [and] however, is that the colonial lan- throughout the ward. But frightened to treat blacks as guages worked best for men in Mormon mis- mvmisison. while Holland equals." the workplace. Women tended to J sionary effort- said he knew The former prohibition also use tribal languages. women lead the 1 could not of no negative caused trouble for African mis- That was one reason the way ,, reaction in sionaries seeking converts. Mormon women's organization, One com~romise. Africa, mem- "People thought it was racist," Relief Society, took on its world- I Mormon group bers in South said Peter Chaya, the first black wide literacy project in 1992. in a village Africa and missionary in Zimbabwe. He "They have had some wonderful about 350 kilometers outside of Zimbabwe report that some served from 1981 to 1983. "I got success stories from Africa, par- Johannesburg has only women Mormons left the Church or big opposition. But I managed to ticularly among women," members! They receive the sacra- moved to whiter neighborhoods overcome it with my testimony. Holland said. ment, or communion, just once a or even countries. They could not take that away In addition, the Church has month when a male missionary Reg Neald, a white Mormon from me." approved the translation of scrip- or leader comes to bless the in Zimbabwe since the 1950s. tures into a few of the largest bread and water. said the the pre-1978 prohibition THE NEED TO READ tribal languages, such as Twi in At the same time, the per- was "hard for us. We had met Ghana and Shona in Zimbabwe. centage of black African male people who were worthy of the IF OPPOSITION has dimin- But what of those people who converts who advance in the priesthood." ished, the Church still faces in- join the LDs church without priesthood is higher than any- After 1978, Neald became the ternal challenges, the most being able to read any of the where else in the world, Holland first president of a black branch, difficult of which is literacy faith's scriptures? said. Again, he credits their cul- or small congregation, in what Though many Africans speak "Well, they are responding to
PAGE 72 JUNE 1998 I MISSIONARTES IN AFRICA 1 "Before we joined the Church, I was alwavs afraid of mv father because he was so strict and GROW AS THEY SEEK rigid," she said. "After we joined, he treated us like children of NEW CONVERTS God." B AFRTCAN by Peggy Fletcher Stack Freetown, the capital of Sierra Salt Lake Tribune religion writer Leone, and presented himself for CULTURE baptism. Two years later, after This story originally appeared in finishing his degree in agricul- PRESENTS the 4 April 1998 Salt Lake ture, Banya, twenty-eight, left for Tribune. Reprinted in its entirety by his own mission. CHALLENGES permission. His two-year mission would have ended in January, but it was FOR MORMON ACCRA, Ghana-There are some extended when war broke out in things that African Mormon mis- Sierra Leone and kept him from sionaries find difficult to under- going home. Banya credits his CONVERTS stand-like Utah weather. mission with enlarging his char- "How many of you have had acter. malaria?" Mormon Mission "Before my mission, 1 could President Larry Bodhaine asked not compromise. Now I have by Peggy Fletcher Stack the eager young men and learned to live with a com- Salt Lake Tribune religion writer women gathered at an Accra panion," Banya said. "What I chapel in February. used to mock at when I came, I This story orignally appeared in Almost all of the hands shot would never mock at now." the 4 April 1998 Salt Lake out in concentric circles. UP. The African missionaries at- Tribune. Reprinted in its entirety by "You know how you get the tend a missionary training course permission. the promptings of the spirit," chills, shivering all over? Well, in Accra. But unlike most other President Hinckley said in an in- that's what it's like to be in Salt missionaries, they have not taken CAPE TOWN, South Africa-After terview in Zimbabwe. "They are Lake City during a snowstorm," temple vows because the nearest the exhilaration of conversion growing in the faith, being Bodhaine explained. one is in Johannesburg, South comes the wake-up call of real helped by those in a position to But for these missionaries to Africa, and it is too expensive to life in local LDS congregations. help them. People can talk to work effectively in their African travel there, Bodhaine said. Just ask Nigel Giddey, who them." lands, knowledge of airborne "We expect them to do every- heads the Guguletu Branch, a And in many places, mission- diseases is much more essential. thing they can to support them- small LDS congregation in a black aries and members offer free lit- Of the eighty-seven mission- selves on a mission," he said. township outside Cape Town. eracy classes as a way of reaching aries in the Accra, Ghana mission, "But sometimes all they can af- "Too few shepherds for too out to the community In the past all but thirteen are Africans. They ford is their own passports." many sheep," said an over- decade. the LDS church has-be- come mostly from Ghana and its The rest of the cost of the whelmed Giddey, from his come immersed in such humani- West African neighbors, Nigeria, two-year mission is picked up by makeshift office in the courtyard tarian service projects in Africa. It Liberia, and Sierra Leone. the Church's General Missionary between buildings. has provided money and workers For some. a mission is their Fund. The story is in the statistics. to dig wells in Kenya, distributed first trip outside of their country Most of the missionaries have Of twenty-three people bap- clothing to war victims in or even their village. In a conti- been through public schools, but tized into Guguletu Branch of Uganda, sent textbooks for nent long plagued by tribal and they see their mission experi- The Church of Jesus Christ of schoolchildren in Ghana. and national conflicts, they often are ences as equally beneficial. They Latter-day Saints during 1997, gave food staples to Somalian paired with companions from are coached through Mormon only three were men age eighteen refugees. other tribes and countries. and biblical scripture and learn or older. Of these three, only one Technology, training, eco- "It requires of them a new skills such as public speaking remains active in the Church. nomic aid and better manage- meaning of tolerance," Bodhaine that will help them in future ca- The branch has 253 members on ment will be enormously helpful said. reers, Bodhaine said. the rolls, but an average weekly to Africans, said Elder Alexander Elder Ahmed Kailondo Banya All are grateful for their new attendance of about sixty-five. Momson of the LDS Quorum of of Sierra Leone joined the LDs faith. Seldom are there more than two the Seventy in a recent speech. church in 1993 after coming Sister Bassey Inyon of Nigeria mamed couples. Five married But for the peoples of Africa across the word "Mormon" in an joined the LDS church with her men attend regularly, four have to reach their hivine potential, encyclopedia while studying at family when she was eleven. She jobs. Momson said, "only the gospel Njala University in Sierra Leone. said the conversion transformed "My ideal convert would be a of Christ, in my view, will suf- He contacted missionaries in her father. mamed man with a job who can fice." V
JUNE 1998 PAGE 73 SUNSTONE
Victor Kpah, an African Saint, displays a familiar icon of his faith. LDS practices often conflict with African cultures-in the Xhosa tribe, for example, nineteen-year-old boys are initiated into manhood in a three-week ceremony of revelry and circumcision. read [English] comfortably," three-week ceremony that in- ministers are expected to preach has been a member for nearly Giddey said, adding that many cludes circumcision. Although to surviving family members. thirteen years. Ntshokok ex-hus- members struggle with LDS the LDS church permits circumci- "If you don't come and visit band, Victor, took&L"t~ -- lessons and scripture. sion, (most LDS men are circum- every night, the other churches other woman and was excom- Giddey also questions how cised as babies), the accompan- will get up and say, 'Look, the municated. But Ntshoko and her well missionaries prepare candi- ylng revelry can include Mormons don't care,"' Giddey two children, Rosemary and dates for baptism. drinking, smoking, swearing and said. Nyameka, have remained faith- "I do not think that the mis- "carousing" with women. On the day of the funeral, the ful. sionaries read much beyond a During Jordan's initiation, family must feed everyone who During Giddey's three-year few key scriptures to the poten- he was isolated in a hut be- attends--which might number tenure, the branch has sent its tial converts or possibly a few cause he eschewed some of the five hundred or more-and the first two young men on missions, pages of the Book of Mormon," activities. cost is enormous. produced its first temple mar- he said. "It created tension between Some impoverished LDS riage, found a place to build Getting potential converts to me and my family, especially my members have asked Giddey to Guguletu's first chapel, estab- ask questions is another hurdle. uncles," Jordan said. "But they help pay for the funeral. He lished the branch's auxiliaries In the Xhosa [pronounced respected my beliefs even though cannot, and that has antagonized (Young Women, Relief Society CAUSE-A) tribe, people are ex- they were not happy." some converts. and Primary), and updated pected to agree with leaders and Many promising young men But for all the headaches, membership records. often are uncomfortable saying drop out of the LDS church after there have also been joyous mo- And he has felt God's hand on they do not understand. the experience, he said. "It's ments and important advances. his shoulder. Mormon practices also con- hard for some people to have For example, last month thir- Giddey, who is white, spends flict with the local culture, said courage to stand against the teen-year-old Nyameka Ntshoko endless hours and many nights Phila Jordan, Giddey's second clan elders." became the first person to play in the black township. On at counselor. Another Xhosa tradition is the piano for the branch. She is least three occasions, he felt en- At nineteen, Xhosa men are that between death and burial, a the daughter of Relief Society dangered, and each time, some- initiated into manhood in a period of about ten days, all local President Linda Ntshoko, who thing or someone intervened.
PAGE 74 JUNE 1998 UPDATE
MORMONS WILL PROVE TO BE coordinator, said, "There's no language we don't have resources for." Leavitt's off-the-cuff comments disturbed the beehive back home as INVALUABLE VOLUNTEERS individuals of other faith traditions said they had a volunteer spirit, UTAH'S MORMON Governor Mike too, and complained that they were being left out of the Olympic Leavitt recently expressed a belief that plans. Mormons would provide valuable assis- tance during the Olympic Winter Games SEX ABUSE LITIGATION of 2002 in Salt Lake City During an inter- view while attending the 1998 winter BLAMES LDS CHURCH Olympics in Hakuba,Japan, the governor A RECENTLY filed Oregon lawsuit alleges that an eleven-year-old told the Salt Lake Tribune that Mormons boy was sexually molested by an LDS Sunday School teacher and the "have the ability to motivate people to Church was negligent in reporting the incident. The lawsuit claims participate. If you need . . . Japanese- that Church leaders and Bishop Gregory Lee Foster knew eighty- speaking volunteers, they can find them. seven-year-old Franklin Richard Curtis had a history of sexually If you need people who speak Russian, abusing children but failed to report the incidents to authorities or they'll get them." According to Leavitt, members of the Church. The lawsuit claims that Bishop Foster did the LDS church's returned missionaries will provide a volunteer pool not inform the boy's mother of Curtis's sexual misconduct when she from which Olympic organizers may draw workers. These volunteers told him of her intentions to house and care for the aged man. Curtis are expected to assist people at information booths, venues, and press lived with the family for approximately one year, during which time centers, utilizing a variety of languages. John Fowler, state Olympic he sexually abused the boy After the boy's family moved out of state i PEOPLE
AWARDSQHONORS as Black rights, environmentalism, over- throw of the U.S. government, and, later, President Thomas S. Monson Mormonism and Republicanism. Bap- of the First Presidency and his wife tized into the LDS church in 1983, Frances were presented with the Cleaver became less active in the '90s but Continuum of Caring Humanitarian continued to support the Church. Award on 22 April 1998 by the Friends Alma P. Burton, LDs theologian, of St. Joseph Villa. The St. Joseph Villa, author, and educator, died 30 April 1998 a health-care facility for the elderly, is at age eighty-five. Burton served as super- owned and operated by the Sisters of intendent of the Alpine (Utah) School Charity of the Incarnate Word, a District, as dean of admissions at BYU, Catholic order. The Rev. George and, also at BYU, as a professor of Church Niederauer, Catholic Bishop of the -salt Lake Diocese, said the history and doctrine. He was also assis- Monsons are "the personification of human faces of concern and tant administrator of seminaries and institutes for the Church. love and outreach to the entire community here in Salt Lake, here in Burton authored and co-authored many books, his latest, The Divine Utah, and around the world." Mission oflesw Christ, being released in 1997. Marjorie P. Hinckley, wife of Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, was presented with a Distinguished Service Award by the ANXIOUSLY ENGAGED Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists on 2 April 1998. Sister Hinckley's "service has been in the form of steady, un- RLDS church President Grant McMurray recently visited the wavering, and continual expressions of care, interest and support LDS church's East Lansing Michigan Institute of Religion at Michigan for all her brothers and sisters in all areas of the world and at all State University The visit was an informal opportunity for the levels of status," said association president Janet Scharman in pre- church leader to see the Student Living Center and institute pro- senting the award, according to the Church News. gram while having a "nuts and bolts" discussion with institute coor- dinator Steven Henrie. A copy of Max Weber's Methodology, Lowell Bennion's doctoral DEATHS dissertation, was donated to the Harold 6. Lee Library at Sixties rebel and later Mormon Eldridge Cleaver died at age Brigham Young University by the University of Utah's Marriott sixty-two on 1 May 1998. Cleaver was the famous Black Panther Library. Only twenty copies of Bennion's work-the first on leader and a major force in the U.S. civil rights movement who was Weber ever printed in English-are known to exist out of an orig- once involved in a shoot-out with Oakland, California, police and inal one hundred copies. Prior to the donation, which was orig- subsequently jumped bail, fleeing to Cuba, Algeria, and the Soviet nally suggested by the late Sterling M. McMunin, the Bw library Union. Throughout his life, Cleaver advocated such disparate causes did not possess a copy of the work.
JUNE 1998 PAGE 75 SUNSTONE
in 1993, the boy informed his mother of the abuse. She contacted back my words. I have said that I am wrong. And 1 am not going to Bishop Foster to warn him about Curtis's behaviour. The suit claims explain that the rest of my life," reported the Restoration Press News that Foster said he already knew about Curtis's abusive habits--from Service. Lebed then criticized a new Russian law, enacted by those both Curtis himself and Church leaders. Curtis later died in a nursing who mistrust foreign-based religions, that restricts permission and home, but it was revealed that he had been excommunicated in recognition granted toward organizations engaged in missionary Pennsylvania for sexual abuse and later re-baptized in Oregon. The work. He called the law "short-sighted and said that he, personally lawsuit claims Church officials in Oregon were fully aware of the rea- has "become more flexible, more loyal to other religions." sons for the excommunication, and Curtis allegedly molested five other children in a Portland ward following his rebaptism. Church spokesperson Don LeFevre called the allegations"preposterous," RLDS CHURCH APPOINTS telling the Salt Lake Tribune that the LDs church does not have a his- tory of keeping child sexual abuse committed by members secret FIRST FEMALE APOSTLES from Church or government authorities. "The church deplores child THE RLDS CHURCH, headquartered in abuse in all its forms,"he said. "It was not involved in any way in the Independence, Missouri, named two abuse, which occurred in the plaintiff's own home by a man the women to its Council of Twelve Apostles family invited to live with them." on 30 March 1998. hnda Booth and Gail Mengel are the first women to hold ELDER BALLARD URGES LDS TO "BUILD positions on the council since a 1984 vote allowed female priesthood holders BRIDGES OF UNDERSTANDING" in the church. Both women were sus- IN A speech at the Logan Institute of tained to the council at the churchk Religion near the campus of Utah biannual World Conference, at which State University, Apostle M. Russell "less than a handful" of the twenty-eight Ballard called for LDs church mem- hundred delegates voted against the bers to "build bridges of under- women's appointment, according to the standing among the peoples of the Gull Mcngcl and hct slstev Salt Lake Tribune. Ina a statement given world," reported the Deseret News. In thefaith. . . prior to to the vote, Booth said, "I began Elder Ballard said the Church has a one-year argument with God. I had a been engaged in just such an activity long list of arguments why I could not be for a couple of years, establishing con- an apostle. And every time I had an argu- tacts and meetings with media, busi- ment that I thought was particularly ness, and government leaders. He strong, God would dispel it," reported the cited the CBS 60 Minutes interview Deseret News. Booth and Mengel replace ,qdev M,Russell ~~ll~,.dwith Church President Gordon B. retiring apostles Phillip Caswell and Joe btter-day saints Hinckley as an example of this type of Serig. Before the vote, Caswell stated, "I should ')eacefully coexist "bridge building." "We must re- am grateful personally and ministerially with others not ojourjaith,n member that the Lord expects us to that my change in responsibility enables peacefully coexist with others not of the church to take another step in this di- our faith," he said. "We can pleasantly agree to disagree with them rection. And I would respectfully remind on certain points of doctrine even while we unite with them in the us [RLDS church] that we have a lon~-,way great common denominators of faith in God and benevolent service to go." The 250-thousand member . . . Linda Booth the to others." He went on to outline five areas of doctrine in which church also considered a name change, to first women apostles those of other faiths often accuse Mormons of not being Christian. the World Church of Jesus Christ, in an the mschurch. "May I suggest that what we want most of all is for Christian and effort to draw a clearer distinction be- Non-Christian alike to understand that we love the Lord Jesus tween it and the LDs church, but the resolution was defeated. Christ," he said. "We revere his name. We count it a great honor and privilege to take upon ourselves the name of Christ as Christians WASHINGTON STATE LDS WARDS URGED and as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Further, he stated that Saints should respect the beliefs of others TO OPPOSE SAME-SEX MARRL4GES and expect the same in return. THE LDS church in Washington issued a letter on 25 January 1998, urging its members to exert influence in passing the Washington State RUSSIAN OFFICIAL RECANTS Defense of Mamage Act. The letter was read during priesthood and Relief Society meetings on 28 January. The letter reads: CRITICISM OF LDS CHURCH Dear Brethren: ALEXANDER LEBED told a rally in 1996 that ''[all1 these Mormons On January 24, 1997, we wrote to you concerning the are mold and filth which have come to destroy the state. The state Washington State Defense of Mamage Act-1eg.lslation pending should outlaw them. They should not exist on our soil." In 1996, before the Washington State legislature that defined mamage Lebed was Russia's national security director but is now no longer as between a male and a female, and refused to recognize with Boris Yeltsin's administration. At a National Press Club round- same-gender mamages. table in Washington, D.C., Lebed spoke through an interpreter when The leaders and members of the Church in Washington re- he responded to a question about his earlier remarks. "I have taken sponded promptly in great numbers from nearly every com-
PAGE 76 JUNE 1998 SUNS
munity across the state. As you will recall, the measure passed Chnst~an~tyw11 remain, but he by a wide margn in both the state Senate and House of hopes to create an open forum for Representatives,-but was vetoed by governor Gary Locke. d~scuss~onbetween the Latter-day Subsequent efforts to pass the measure as a referendum to the Sa~ntsand the Bapt~sts M~lletand voters of the state were defeated in the final days of the 1997 BW professor of anclent scnpture session. Stephen Rob~nson met m spnng We are informed that the sponsors of the bill will reintro- 1997 with Tal Davis and Mark duce this as a referendum in the 1998 legislature. We again en- Coppinger, two Baptist representa- courage members to write and to call your legislators to urge tives, to clarify LDs theology and dis- passage of this legislation. Brother Pemn Walker of Tacoma cuss doctrinal differences. "[PIeople has been asked bythe Area Presidency to coordinate efforts on are saved by grace and not at all by this issue. He may be reached at (253) 591-8561 or in the works," Coppinger told the Salt Lake evenings at (253) 654-8852. We pray for the blessings of the Lord to be with each of you cess to the highest heaven by be~ng to d~spelm~s~nformat~on as you exercise your influence concerning this worthy cause. wed ~n the temple or by tith~ngor about Mormons~m Sincerely, North American Northwest Area Presidency what Glenn pa&, Melvin Hammond, Scott Grow. have you." Meeting again in December, LDS THEOLOGIANS DEFEND Millet, Robinson, Coppinger, and Davis discussed the Baptist video, CHURCH'S CHRISTIANITY "The Mormon Puzzle." The video was JUNE 1998 will bring more than warm weather to Salt Lake City created in an effort to explain LDS be- Thousands of Southern Baptists will coverge on Utah's capital for the liefs to Baptist churchgoers. "We faith's annual convention, one of whose activities will include door- asked for their [Mormons'] reactions to-door tracting to Mormons. The prospect of all that "witnessing," to the video," Coppinger stated. In according to the Baptists, may create an atmosphere conducive to ei- the six- or seven-hour meeting, the ther sharing or shouting. LDS representatives pointed out that
BW Dean of Religious Education Robert Millet has made it his the video incorrectly, portrays- the mission to dispel the misinformation concerning LDS theology that Eldcr- Boytl K. Paihcr- Mormon concept of grace. "To say seems to circulate among other faiths, particularly the Baptists. Millet asked Saints to avoid using that our understanding of grace is de- believes the vast differnces between the LDS church and traditional the term "Mormon Church." ficient or mistaken is one thing,"
TLC Church Leader Faces Lawsuit. The fiery, irreverent Jim years earlier" already rescinded the order by providing "a kind and Harmston, polygamist leader of the "True and Living Church of wonderful climate" for "Mormonsy!" Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days," is being sued by former fol- lowers who donated money to the church with expectations of NCAA Eliminates "BYU Rule." On 22 April 1998, the having yesus Christ [delivered] in the flesh," according to the Salt National Collegiate Athletic Association's board of directors voted to Lake Tribune. Cindy Stewart, one of three plaintiffs suing Harmston do away with the so-called "BYu rule" which prevented college for $264,390, said "This is not about money . . . [Tlhis is so not one sports championship events from being held on Sundays. "This de- more person gets sucked in." When Harmston first organized his cision will have no affect on BYU~policies against Sunday competi- church in Manti, Utah, he was welcomed into town by city leaders tion," BW Athletic Director Rondo Fehlberg told the Salt Lake (see SUNSTONE JUNE 1996). Now, however, the Manti residents are Tribune. While the decision will not affect Bm policies, it may effect becoming concerned as Harmston's rhetoric is turning virulent and BW athletics. Non-revenue-generating sports such as golf are ex- violent against the LDS church. In a video-taped speech Harmston pected to begn holding championship events on Sundays for the gave on 23 February 1998, Harmston refers to LDS leaders as ''jack- sake of receiving television moneys. Athletes in such sports may asses," and he says Apostle Boyd K. Packer's skin will be turned start choosing not to attend Bm if they will have no possible op- black as coal. "[Hlow do I know that? Because I am the one that's portunity to compete for a national championship. going to make it that way!" Church to Shell-Out Five Million for Intersection LDS History Exhibited in Missouri Capitol. In a 24 April Improvement in Kirtland. One of Kirtland, Ohio's most dan- ribbon-cutting ceremony, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan un- gerous intersections will soon be redesigned and rebuilt, thanks veiled an exhibit featuring Mormon history in Missouri that will be to five million dollars from the LD~church, reported the on display for three months. Elder Pinnock of the Seventy and sev- Restoration Press News Service. The city of Kirtland has no avail- eral other Church leaders also participated in the ceremony and able funds to pay for the reconstruction, and the LDs church has presented the governor and his wife with copies of their genealogy. agreed to pay for the project. The intersection is part of a triangle Elder Pinnock noted that in 1976, then-Missouri-Governor of roads surrounding a general store that once housed Joseph Christopher S. Bond issued an executive order officially rescinding Smith upstairs. The area is now listed as a National Historic Site Governor Lilburn Boggs's 1838 "extermination order." But Elder and contains a museum that attracted thirty-two thousand visi- Pinnock also said the people of Missouri had "at least one hundred tors last year.
JUNE 1998 PAGE 77 Millet said, "but to suggest that we have no no- tion of grace in our beliefs is a misrepresenta- tion." In response to criticism and such misrepre- sentation of the LDs church's doctrine, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Boyd K. Packer reaffirmed the Church's Christianity before a large satellite audience at the monthly Church Educational System fire- side on Sunday, 1 February He cited LDs hymns as an example of the Church's Christianity, re- ported the Deseret News. "These hymns certainly are not the voice of non-Christians," he said. "Instead they reveal a people of devotion and faith who love, indeed worship, our Saviour and our Redeemer." President Packer also urged Church members to avoid refemng to the orga- nization as the "Mormon church." but rather,to use the full name of the ~hurch'toemphasle Christ's place in the doctrine and belief system. Th~rtynew small temples--one to be h~liltnear Columbus, Ohio- President Packer then went outlined several be- will be constructed similar to this rendition. liefs in Church doctrine that serve as focus points for contention and criticism, such as: their larger counterparts but may be erected at about the same costs The belief in the saving power of works in conjunction with as it takes to maintain a larger temple for one year. Smaller temples Christ's sacrifice, rather than salvation by grace alone. will lack such amenities as laundry facilities, cafeterias, and full-time The teaching that humans are literal "spirit children" of God staff. The construction of these new temples, to begn "immediately," and may themselves progress to Godhood. according to President Hinckley, will provide services to those in The doctrine of the trinity, maintaining that the Godhead con- rural or isolated areas. Currently, the Church's fifty-one temples are sists of the three separate, individual components of Father, located near densely populated LDS regions, and those Church mem- Son, and Holy Ghost. bers who reside in central Africa, for example, must travel to either The belief in the concept of continuing, modem-day revelation Johannesburg, South Africa, or Europe to perform temple work. through living prophets. President Hinckley expressed his hope that the additional temples The use of canonical scripture other than the Bible. would ease the travel and economic burdens placed on Latter-day The Doctrine and Covenants' passage that maintains the LDS Saints who must journey great distances to visit a temple. church is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth." The teaching of the eternal nature of mamages and families. PRESIDENT HINCKLEY PACKS NEW YORK'S MADISON SQUARE GARDEN PRESIDENT GORDON B. HINCKLEY REVEALING his "great expectations" for LDS church members- ANNOUNCES CONSTRUCTION OF that each Saint "carry in his or her heart a conviction that Jesus is THIRTY NEW TEMPLES the Christ" and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet-President Gordon B. Hinckley addressed twenty-four thousand Saints on 26 DURING HIS closing remarks at the 168th annual General April 1998 in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden. The Conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced plans for the address was the first by a Mormon prophet to New York Saints Church to expand its temple-building projects to include thirty new since a 1975 address given by President Spencer W Kimball and a structures, reported the Deseret News. The announcement follows a 4 first meeting of Latter-day Saints in the venerable New York arena. October 1997 plan to build smaller, less-expensive temples in areas Dave Checketts, a Mormon and CEO of the corporation that over- without a large Church member population. The October announce- sees the Madison Square Garden, arranged for the prophet's visit after ment called for the smaller temples to be built in Anchorage, Alaska, witnessing there a memorial service in 1995 for slain Israeli leader northern Mexico, and Monticello, Utah. President Hinckley did not Yitzhak Rabin. Orthodox Jews filled the facility to capacity to honor in his April conference address specify the locations of these thirty their leader. Checketts immediately thought of Mormons filling the newest additions to the temple system but stated, "Stake Presidents arena to listen to a leader of their own. Three years later, Checketts's will be advised as property is secured. I am confident the member- dream was fulfilled. ship of the church will do a lot of speculating as to whether one of Saints came to New York in droves to hear their prophet. One these will be in their cities." group chartered a train, and another group rented twenty-four buses. In his 26 April remarks before 6,800 people in Columbus, Ohio, So many people attended the meeting that the square's luxury suites President Hinckley did say that one of the thirty new temples would were opened to accommodate attendees, while others were able to be built near Columbus. The temple will be the first for the Church get no closer to the prophet than the lobbies outside the arena. Some in Ohio since the 1830s' temple construction in Kirtland. seven hundred missionaries from three New York and New Jersey The smaller temples are able to perform all of the functions of missions also attended. At one point in President Hinckley's address,
PAGE 78 JUNE 1998 the audience broke into applause, apparently startling the prophet who is unaccustomed to such a response in an LDS service, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Before the "fireside," President Hinckley met with international dignitaries, corporate executives, and members of the press, including a Time corre- spondent and 60 Minutes' reporter Mike Wallace, who has previously hosted the prophet on the cBs program.
PRESIDENT HINCKLEY ADDRESSES REGIONAL NAACP CONFERENCE IN A first-ever address of an LDS church president be- fore a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Poeple, President Gordon B. Hinckley counseled that the father needs to be rein- stated throughout the United States and the world as the head of the family "[Iln far too many cases, fami- lies of all races have been denied leadership, the lead- ership of a good and devoted father who stands at the side of an able and kindly mother in quietly training, gently disciplining, and prayerfully helping the chil- dren for whom they both are responsible." President Hinckley spoke to some 250 attendees at a 24 April 1998 'western Region 1 Leadership President Gordon B. H~nckleyandJeanetta Williams, Salt Lake NAACP president, converse Conference of the NAACP, according to the Church during the conference in which an LDS leader for thefirst time addressed the African- News. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the four- American association. day conference in Salt Lake City drew people from as far as California, Alaska, and Korea. with a Distinguished Service Award by Jeanetta Williams, who is the President Hinckley was received very warmly, and his speech was Salt Lake NAACP President, conference chair, and a national board intenupted by three ovations. Afterward, the prophet was presented member.
U N S T 0 N E$& C A L EN D A R 1999 Sunstone Symposium to be held at Salt Palace. 1999 marks the silver anniversary of the founding of the Sunstone Foundation, and the annual symposium will be- held at the Salt 1998 Sunstone Symposium Announced. The summer sym- Palace in Salt Lake City on 14-17 Tuly 1999. posium will be July 29-Ausst 1 at Redwood Road campus of Salt Lake Community College. Individuals outside of the Intermountain West wanting a copy of the preliminary program should contact Sunstone, 343 N. Thrd West, Salt Lake City, UT 84103 (8011355- THE MORMON UNIVERSE 5926; fax 8011355-4043;
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