okay, so here's the question

Monday, June 13, 2011


saturday i participated in the smithfield preparedness expo, given at the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints there, and open to (and intended for) the community. a lot of busy people spent their time planning, asking people to participate, and following up to make sure many areas of preparedness were covered. the participants gathered items for display, made handouts, and spent three hours during the expo answering questions in their areas of expertise. it was very nice and represented a lot of time and stress and taking time away from family and home. both the members and the community pretty much stayed away in droves (i talked to 4 or 5 people in the smithfield ward to were dutifully going from table to table), but that is another blog for another day.

it reminded me of a similar type of event that used to be held in a different stake (which shall remain nameless), in which members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints offered classes in "mormonism" to students from a closeby baptist seminary (which will also remain nameless). these students were studying comparative religion, and the event was set up at the request of the director of the seminary. the seminary students received 4-6 hours of classes on family home evening, the temple, the church's view of the Atonement, the book of mormon, etc. the students were even given lunch at church member's expense. having participated as a teacher in that venue, i know that members who taught spent hours and hours of preparation, trying to anticipate the questions they were going to be asked, and seeking the guidance of the Spirit in their preparation. the students were, almost without exception, disrespectful, arrogant, argumentative, and just rude. after five or six years the event was discontinued.

at the expo yesterday, a volunteer with the national guard (i think, or some emergency action group that wears uniforms) was a notorious anti-mormon (i mean notorious in clayton). in past years, he somehow managed to keep fnding out who was being taught by the missionaries and showing up at their houses with anti-mormon literature right before their appointments with the missionaries. when the missionaries arrived, of course, the people had been influenced by the negative literature or were confused by its content and sent the missionaries away. this happened so many times that the missionaries were actually pulled out of clayton and were gone for many years. they are back now, but this man's agenda obviously hasn't chanaged. this man was there at a building owned by the church, supposedly volunteering to help with the expo. what he actually did was to abuse our hospitality by giving anti-mormon literature to the young 19-year-old missionaries. did anyone raise a fuss? no. someone in charged asked him to not hand out any literature except the preparedness information.okay, so here's the question? what are we thinking? is being polite our greatest commandment? what do YOU think?

2 comments:

Andrew Bosley said...

For the record I AM commenting :) First of all, LOVE the hat. It just suits you for some reason. Secondly, I had no idea all that went on with the anti-mormon guy. Did you know who he was when he came? did you already know all that history? Am I just clueless?

Hope yesterday was a fabulous day for your family!
love,
maren
ps: I'm pretty sure loving God is the first and great commandment....but I could be wrong with that one :)

chris said...

maren, got the gossip from eileen. also more, but i feel really stupid about passing it all along. i was just irritated that we spent all that time to talk to 3 or 4 members who were just dutifully making the rounds of the tables. is the program for the people, or the people for the program? (i wanted to be home working in my garden, which i wouldn't have been because it was so stinkin hot.

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