I rather enjoyed Elder Ballard’s recent presentation to the 235 stakes of Southern Utah.
He speaks of false prophets who would deceive the elect.
He speaks of personal spiritual habits of scripture reading, prayer etc.
He speaks of not dismissing peoples questions.
He speaks of failing to listen to prophets and apostles.
He speaks of living within our means and not keeping up with the Jones’.
He speaks of not being over scheduled and using too much technology.
He speaks of loving our neighbour.
He speaks of not looking down on people because of not having educational opportunities.
These are wonderful aspects of the gospel and fine counsel to abide by. Particularly the council regarding not being dismissive of peoples genuine concerns.
However the way that Elder Ballard framed his comments gave me some concern.
He said, “In one sense, the Church in Utah is the heart of the worldwide Church body. The heart is a muscle which pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system, providing the body with needed oxygen and nutrients. The Saints in Utah help pump gospel truths through the entire world—giving the members important spiritual oxygen and essential nutrients” [1]
What??? The Church in Utah is the HEART??? He goes on to list a number of reasons why he says that…
- 77% of people in Provo/Orem go to church
- 51% of people in the state of Utah go to church
- There are 3 missions, 6 temples, BYU, institutes, MTC and lots of Church buildings
- Members in Utah provide tithes and offerings, missionary service, temple work, good deeds, and leadership to the rest of the world.
These are all external things – buildings, outward actions (church attendance) or church organisation related. What about what these people ARE?
Whilst I am no Doctor and have no medical training, I do believe a human body only has one heart. To the lucky people in those 235 Stakes, YOU are that one and only heart of the church. YOU are the ones that pump the truth of the gospel throughout the world. You are the ones providing money and leadership to the world. You are the ones who present such a generous resource to the world.
I’m sure Elder Ballard meant no malice with his analogy. However, I wonder what people outside Utah are meant to think when they hear that a specific geographic group – which just happens to be in Utah – is the heart of the church. What are we, outside Utah to make of that? What are we, as appendages to that heart to think of our position, our station, our purpose? Why is there a need to single out a particular geographic location as being fundamentally different than any other? Even though Elder Ballard indicated that the heart like any other organ needs a checkup from time to time, Utah is still the heart.
I wonder what some might do with this information. “I am the heart of the church”, a young man from Provo going on a mission might think. Kangaroo recently commented that in the European Mission in which he served, another missionary couple from Utah commented that – after seeing a female wearing pants to church – that “this is the reason we have been sent here” [to get her to wear a dress]. This sense of “pump[ing] gospel truths through the entire world—giving the members important spiritual oxygen and essential nutrients” has unfortunately broadened to giving members worldwide the “Utah” version of the church. We, outside Utah, absorb so much of the Utah Church culture and do so to our detriment. What works in Utah does not necessarily work anywhere else. But, if we are being asked to view the Utah version of the church – with all of its cultural accouterments – as the “heart”, we will be focusing less and less on the Saviour, less and less on things that are important to us in our culture and less and less on helping the poor and needy.
To someone about as far away from southern Utah as you can get (12,893km or 8,067 miles) I wonder what Elder Ballard thinks I am.
I don’t really know, but I think I am a Dorsal Digital Artery. This is the blood vessel that runs along each of the toes on your foot. Toes are are usually thought of as inessential digits, good for traction and balance and not much else. But David Carrier, a biologist at Brown University, thinks toes deserve more respect. To him they are the gears in the engine of the human body, letting us walk and run with exquisite efficiency.
I wonder when we will be a truly wide church . When the leadership reflects the diversity of the membership [2]. When we stop referencing one geographic group over another. When we realise, that to the Lord, we are all “the Heart of the Church”. Yes Utah- this is the place. Yes Utah – where the Prophet lives. Yes Utah – where there’s lots of Church stuff. But with only 2 million members in Utah of a church with 15 million members, I’d like to think that we can move away from looking to Utah as the end all and be all of what a church member should be like.
So to Elder Ballard – thanks for a great talk mate!! I really did enjoy reading it. As a “Dorsal Digital Artery” here in Australia [3] I hope that my small contribution of being the blood supply to the big toe of the church helps it stabilise, walk properly and not fall over….[4]
[1] Let it be known I have many friends in Utah. I have lived there for a 3 month period in my youth and have returned 3 times in the last 10 years. I love Utah and will definitely be back.
[2] Three new Apostles from Utah, oh well…
[3] And the other non-heart related body structures across the entire world
[4] Sarcasm acknowledged and intended….
Wheat & Tares 
We’re 10,300 miles away from SLC here in South Africa and judging by the 3 new white and delightsome guys we must be the capillaries!
LDS_Aussie, I get what you’re saying, I really do, but I just thought of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:
Could Britain claim to be the brain in view of all those early converts? 😉
In building up Utah, he failed to mention the Utes, who are currently ranked 5th in the nation in Football. I, for one, am deeply disappointed.
If they can will beat four of the five ranked, or previously ranked teams (Cal, Arizona, Arizona State, USC and UCLA) they will move to the top slot in the nation.
It’s the leadership’s view of Mormondom. It just is.
Utah County, UT and Rexburg, ID are the greatest exporters of the type of MormonNESS the leadership values: “dyed in the wool;” correlated to the core; conservative-culture-loving; men with a white-shirt-and-tie, samurai-zeal for obedience; and “women who know” their duties and place.
The further you get from that region, the more likely you are to be heterodox, heteroprax or totally inactive.
By the leadership’s standard of Mormonness, we are anything but a “worldwide church.”
I thought this quote was particularly ironic:
“One thing that is constantly on my mind is knowing that individuals who don’t stay focused on the simple doctrine and gospel of Christ will eventually listen to false teachers and self-declared prophets and adopt worldly philosophies. These alternative voices include: Viewing podcasts and Internet sites that raise questions and doubt without being intellectually honest and that do not adequately and honestly present the Lord’s perspective.”
Is he advocating judging things by their intellectual honesty? I don’t know that I would describe much of my time growing up in the church as intellectually honest. Not that there weren’t many other virtues that I think are equally important. I just don’t think his insinuation that voices of the world are intellectually dishonest, as opposed to voices in the Church is an intellectually honest claim.
I’ve never lived in Utah. In my 50 years, I can remember only three of my bishops or stake presidents who hadn’t been either raised or educated in Utah or Idaho.
It’s not hard to see how he got the concept. Looking purely at physical/external factors, the intermountain wes is a clear central hub of activity for the church. Think about the MTC, prior to a few years ago, most missionaries would have to fly to Utah for training prior to serving elsewhere. Students from all over attend BYU or BYUI and then go back with that “Utah training” to wherever they came from (many vowing to never follow that Utah training because Utah Mormons are nuts, but I digress). From a purely objective standpoint (finances, administration, population), it is not hard to justify Elder Ballard’s claim.
I’d be careful about equating the physical heart of the church to a spiritual heart. Just because you provide the framework doesn’t mean you supply the life-giving force. Doctors can artificially keep a heart beating in a brain-dead patient. The common accusation Jesus used against the Jews was that they were like white sepulchres – beautifully carved stone ossuary boxes filled with dried bones of long-dead corpses. External factors do not correlate with internal ones. Hence Elder Ballard’s emphasis on checking their spiritual condition as well.
Hedgehog, I’m happy to declare Britain the brain if I can claim affiliation through my British Mormon ancestry. 😉
Just proves that GAs, like YOURS TRULY, sometimes have an issue with “Foot in Mouth Disease”, despite best intentions. So there’s a higher than usual Church activity rate in the heart of “Happy Valley”. Not a bad thing, but easily attributable to the necessity of being active (a qualifier for matriculation, and my hard-money and three kids went to the “Zoo” though I’d have been just as happy to see the same kids wear Bulldog Red) at BYU.
However, if the stats from the Cumorah.com site are accurate, the West African Saints are doing that level of activity and more, and with considerably less governmental stability and cultural experience than in “Yew-Tah”. IMHO, they’re as much the “Heart” of the Church as any other, if not more so. I do hope to live long enough to see many of their number at the rostrum during General Conference, my guess is already they can teach we “haoles” a thing or three.
I don’t think you were supposed to be listening to that conference. He was trying to flatter his audience, but wouldn’t have said that in Australia. But I think Utah IS the heart of the church, in the same way the Vatican and Italy is the heart of the Catholic Church. Not that it’s the best part, but that is the historical and physiological center.
IMO, Elder Ballard’s hyperbolic flattery of Utah Mormons is but another example of what kindly, well-meaning old men are best at. Now, if they weren’t also God’s chosen leaders of His worldwide church: prophets, seers, and revelators all.
With all the tact and goodwill we can muster, I think they should be reminded not to (seemingly) always act like the former and preach and teach as, primarily, products of their (mostly) 1940s/50s cultural era.
#12 – Did you actually read the transcript of Elder Ballard’s talk? He did also reprove them for pride, arrogance, unkindness to non-LDS and/or inactives, and living beyond their means. I would take from it that though they’re doing good things, there’s yet room for improvement, so all is NOT well in “Zion”.
My Dad and I had an interesting chat about 1940’s/50s culture, more specific to baseball (though he roots for the Cubs and will be delirious if they progress on fulfilling their “Back to the Future” prediction of a 2015 World Series Championship, I root for the Giants and contend myself with success in even-numbered years), but with agreement that we could do well to have kept the better parts of American culture of those times. Spoil sports who decry those times act as if somehow progress, especially thanks to liberal ideas, has come forth in this land. A further delusion, along with the notions that “Uncle” (Sam) knows best how to run your life, especially if “Auntie Hillary” is running the show.
With a background in the science of sociology and of statistics, and known to my friends to be pedantic, I must nitpick at the “numbers” Elder Ballard used. He said,
“77% of people in Provo/Orem go to church
51% of people in the state of Utah go to church”
If 77% of the people in Provo/Orem (using as a proxy the Mormon density in Utah County at the end of 2014…82%), then 94% of Mormons there “go to church.”
If 51% of Utahns (density in Dec 2014 of 62.7%) then 81% of Utah Mormons “go to church.”
Ergo, he misspoke. He meant % of members. Precision and clarity is not the hallmark of leadership. Either he misspoke or the Mormon cultural pressure in Utah and Utah County to appear “active” is off-the-charts intense. I base this on my assumption that Utah Mormons are not all that different from those of us in the “mission field” as to the strength of their personal faith–if that is what gets you to attend church.
Having been a clerk many times, or otherwise privy to such statistics, 35% attendance is the norm–and I have lived in the East, South, and West. Though I did see a quarterly statistic for one ward of 52% (in the Southwest, during the 4th Quarter when the ward had a lot of snowbirds attending).
A bored, retired, pedant
MH you beat me to it.
🙂
I think that if this is offensive to anybody, that they were not the people he was speaking to! When specific talks are given by leaders of the church to specific audiences, ignore them! Why the angst?
Stem cells, Hedgehog. That’s what British saints are. They can be Talmages or Tom Phillips.
I interpret Elder Ballard’s remarks to mean that in Utah the density of saints creates excess resources that fund temple building, missionary work, and humanitarian aid around the world. It produces the youth that make up a big chunk of the Church’s missionary force. Temple presidents and workers, senior missionaries, the theologian (to the degree that they exist in Mormonism) are pumped out of the Utah South Area.
We can argue about whether that’s good or bad, but it’s hard to argue the facts. FWIW,I would posit that Jacob 5 proves that Utah culture/pioneer heritage is most fruitful when scattered in the nethermost part of the vineyard, and that convert’s enthusiasm (wild branches) are made most fruitful by grafting onto historic, traditional Mormonism.
Thanks you all for your comments.
MH – Jared really has had an influence over you recently…!!!
Yes, aware of that scripture. However, a few comments. Paul does not affix a label to any of the saints. He mentions that some are ears, and mouths etc, but pulls short of saying that the people at Corinth are the arm, leg or heart. On the contrary, he makes special reference, which is not in Elder Ballards talk, that all are baptised “into one body”. Whilst Paul was speaking only to the Corinthians, he referenced the whole church. The context of that scripture, as you know, is speaking about spiritual gifts. Paul is making reference to the fact that each person presents a different gift to the church and that in combination, they make up a body. I feel this is contextually very different from Elder Ballards remarks.
Paul – referencing spiritual gifts. Elder Ballard – referencing geography and external behaviour
Paul – not labelling specific saints as body parts. Elder Ballard – Utah saints are the heart
Paul – we should rejoice in all parts of the body. Elder Ballard – we should rejoice in southern Utah.
As I said, I’m happy to cut him (and you!!!) the slack as I’m sure it’s not said in malice or I’ll will. But when you are on the other side of the world, having been one of very few kids in my high school, one of the very few members in my work place, really being pioneers in our country and community, it gets a bit old to continually hear the celestialisation of Utah members. I rejoice with my Utah friends and love them. I just think our narrative needs to grow up as the church has grown out….
I think that if this is offensive to anybody, that they were not the people he was speaking to! When specific talks are given by leaders of the church to specific audiences their words should be understood in the context they were spoken.
LDS Aussie, I totally get what you’re saying and definitely think it has merit. But I will also agree with Nate on this point: “He was trying to flatter his audience.”
Yes I’ve been channeling Jared lately. I think he’s been out of town so I had to fill the void. 😉
Well, a few thoughts. If the church wants to keep saying things like Utah is the heart of the church, implying that somehow Utah “gets” the gospel better and is a great exporter of the real gospel, then it sounds like we’ve made essentially no progress since David O. McKay’s day when he first grappled with how to make the church global.
In the early days, converts were told to gather in Utah so they could build up the kingdom, but then that changed so we could truly grow and strengthen the church. Utah suffers from the excesses associated with being a majority religion. Exporting its culture is not only destined to fail, but also just well, gross.
HG – yes those were my feelings. The church seems to want it both ways. Have a worldwide church as far as bums on seats in as many far flung corners of the globe as possible – but maintain with gusto the white, upper class, western, capitalist and Utah geographical cultural aspects. It seems that they are grabbing that with both hands (or six of them in this case) with the new apostles.
MH – we will agree on that point. “We was trying to flatter his audience”. The divergence of our opinions seems to be in how that might affect those who are not his direct audience (it is posted on LDS.org though). Speaking only of myself, I have a hard time listening to this type of narrative where, for what ever reason, audiences are buttered up or praised in order to deliver the message. Apostles don’t do that to us when they come over here. We get told we are our own version of pioneers (ie you are like we used to be 180 years ago). It would be a hard stretch to argue that Utah is disproportionately in receipt of nearly everything the church has to offer. Just step inside an Australian chapel to see what is left over once the heart has taken its share.
Before Utah saints get too uppity, it’s local lore that Elder Packer told the stake president some time ago (years++) that Rexburg East Stake was the #1 stake in the church. So…..There.
(sigh) You’re right Aussie. Not cool.
Reading LDS_Aussie when he mentions, “Paul does not affix a label to any of the saints. He mentions that some are ears, and mouths etc, but pulls short of saying that the people at Corinth are the arm, leg or heart.” I finally got why each ward I have been in have had a few people I would describe as parts of the body usually covered. It makes sense now! Chalk one up for ponderizing!
Honey, Nate et al – so following your argument we should not read pretty much all of the bible as it was specifically intended for that geographic area of the world, and that specific population..??
I’m neither building an ark, sacrificing goats, or marrying a second wife.
Part of being spiritually mature is being able to take the counsel given to a certain people at a certain time and distill out the timeless principle applicable to wherever we are geographically and spiritually.
If we’re unable to to that, we’re lost.
As an aside, I think the attitude of the OP is the primary reason why members don’t get specific advice directed to their specific situation in life from GAs.
Maybe Utah (intermountain) mormons do provide a lot of financial support (tithing) to support the corporate church body. I assume that is true.
However, the body of Christ, the church is its members. And for me Christ and the spirit pump the blood.
I am not so concerned about the financial health of the church as I am my own spiritual well being, which comes to me, not through 18 year old utah county boys. But directly through the spirit.
Just my 2 cents.
TOC – maybe I want clear enough in the post?? I tried to make it clear that the counsel was sound, appropriate and uplifting. I genuinely feel that and I got a great deal out of this talk. I’ve now read it close to 10 times. The principles contained in the talk are relevant as much to me as to his audience.
My (only) issue was with the reference to that certain geographic area being the heart of the church and the culture that perpetuates. It does go beyond a simple “let’s flatter the audience” for me. It goes toward an unhealthy culture of Utah-centricity. Having lived in Utah, visited many places in the USA, and all the way to the Australian outback I have seen the effects of this inability of the church to culturally break out of Utah. Breaking it down, if this type of church culture did not exist, and he gave the same talk, I wouldn’t really have an issue. Unfortunately, such references reinforce this culture – which is somerimes damaging outside that particular area.
Its a hard case talk alright.
I served my mission in Japan and was only 1 of 2 kiwis in my mission. We had a few Aussies too, so that made it eaier to find someone that got my humour at zone conferance. I had 1 companion from Missouri and the rest from Utah. Alot of my Utah companions strugged with the cultural shift from Utah to Japan and would get very home sick. They didnt know how to adjust and would often criticse Japanese culture and people. I saw many of them get angry and at time abusive of Japanese people. I think the frustration with people being different to what they were used to back home stopped alot of them from being really effective over there.
If the church wants to be truly globel then they need to start embracing the unique church culture that all the dirrernt nations have to offer.
We need to get it through our heads that God is no respector of persons and loves his children no matter what country, colour or ethnicity they are. No one group of people are superior to others, (except when it comes to rugby 😉