An offering to the Earth Mother for Solstice

Today, I was honored to witness a Yoruba Summer Solstice ceremony. My friend invited me and I want to say thank you for this enriching experience. Let's get started.

Atmosphere:

The ceremony was held in the woods behind Rainbow Gardens in Ogden. It was lovely and natural with a dirt path leading to the ceremonial location. Around the ceremonial location were chalk crosses at the four cardinal points of the compass. There were chairs set up for the guests, and a hole dug in the earth with colors around it. It was explained to me that there is a ceremony to open the hole and they ask permission of the nature spirits before doing so and surround it with colored powders all made of organic materials. They explained that this represents both one of the gods of their tradition who is envisioned as a rainbow serpent coiled around the earth, and as a symbol of protection against any malicious forces that would come forth from the ground.

There wasn't much more to the atmosphere than this. No candles, no images of the deity, just the earth opened up ready to receive the offerings presented to it.

I loved that it was outdoors and I loved the symbolism of breaking open the earth and offering to it directly.

The People:

I didn't interact with many people there really except for my friend and the priest. The priest was very kind to me and answered a lot of questions. He was dressed in lovely green robes and had on several necklaces, one made of sea shells and one that had his title written on it, "Baba Aworo Oshun" on it.

There was also the priest's partner assisted in parts of the ceremony as did another woman who translated some parts of the ceremony in English.

The rest of the people were quite and didn't interact much with us, though I didn't sense any hostility or suspicion from them.

Overall, it was a nice, quite crowd, not many of us there.

The Ceremony:

I am deviating a bit from the normal structure as there was no sermon or traditional service like in Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam). Instead, it was an offering ceremony done almost exclusively in the Yoruba Language, though some parts sounded like Portuguese or possibly Spanish. The first part had some translation into English, but the rest was indiscernible to me. So, I will only be talking about the ceremony.

First off, a little background on the ceremony. The Summer Solstice is the New Year for people of this tradition. On this day, it's traditional to offer a cow as a sacrifice to the Earth, then the cow is to be cooked and eaten by the whole community. In countries like ours, where animal sacrifice is not legal, they instead make other offerings.

The ceremony started with the priest ringing a bell and honoring the spirits of nature. He told me that normally a drum is used, but their drummer had another commitment, so they used the bell instead. He honored the four corners: North, South, East, and West; the Sun, the water, the Earth, the Orishas, etc. After that, he and the two helping with him went to the chalk crosses marking the four corners and either blessed or offered them water and cornmeal while chanting something in Yoruba.

After that, offerings were made into the hole that was dug. The offerings were cakes made of cornmeal and another set of cakes. For the life of me I can't remember what those were made of.

He then offered water into the hole and cornmeal. After that, he took a swig of gin and blew it into the hole as an offering. I'm not certain the full symbolism of this gesture, but it was kind of cool to see.

There was a bowl containing a bunch of kola nuts soaking in water. He took one of the nuts out of the water, then chanted something over it, then touched his head and heart with it. He then came around and touched the head and chest of everyone present with it while saying something in Yoruba. He came back and offered the nut into the hole.

They then passed out kola nuts to all of us telling us to speak our hopes and wishes into the nut. He did the same and then split the nut open and scryed his own fortune from the nut. He then had everyone come up one at a time to split the nut open and to offer them advice that he said the spirits told him based on what was said into the nut.

While he was reading for other people, I took a picture of my nut.

The priest's advice to me based on the reading was really interesting and not what I expected to hear. After he was done reading, he had me blow on the nut, then toss it into the hole as an offering.

Once the readings were over, we were told that the ceremony was to be closed, but that the closing was sacred and not to be seen by outsiders. So those of us not in the Tradition left and that was that.

Overall Experience:

This was a very moving ceremony. It was all about honoring the Earth and experiencing a connection with everything around you. The idea that religions like this, particularly Voodoo and Santeria (which is derived from Yoruba), are demonized and made to be cheap horror tricks actually upsets me now. I saw nothing even remotely disturbing or upsetting about this ceremony. Do I believe in these things? No. But of all the types of spirituality out there, these ones are pretty benign.

There is nothing to fear from these faiths. In fact, we should admire them. These are traditions that testify of a human spirit that won't be crushed. A culture and and people who have not let their traditions die under the hands of malicious slave owners, attempts to assimilate them into a foreign culture, or the judgmental eye of a society that fears their practices. This is a testament to how strong and how beautiful we can be. To condemn it as some sort of collection of parlor tricks done to harm people and bring about evil is abhorrent.

I loved Yoruba and would like to see more of it sometime.

Additional Notes:

Because of how busy of a week it has been, I haven't had a chance to do a pre-service blog for where I'm going tomorrow. So I will combine both blogs about the church I am visiting into one blog. I will be visiting Elim Lutheran Church, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Until next time, peace be with you.

Summer Solstice with those of the Yoruba Tradition

This Friday, I've been invited to join in a Summer Solstice ceremony with the Yoruba Tradition. Most of you have probably never heard of this faith tradition. It's largely unheard of due to another system with a similar type of origin getting most of the attention: Vodou (commonly called Voodoo).

Yoruba is not Vodou, and the two systems come from different origins, but do have overlap with each other in some fundamental ways:

• Both traditions come from the African Diaspora, that is, Africans who were brought (mostly, if not exclusively, by force) to the West, bringing with them their tribal beliefs. Vodou originated in Ghana, Yoruba in Nigeria, and both traditions incorporated elements from the New World into their faiths.
• Both traditions believe in a distant, supreme deity which is incomprehensible, outside of gender, the first, the state of existence itself, the ultimate. Vodou calles it Bondye (Good God), Yoruba calls it Olodumare (Ruler of Heaven). Generally, this being is not directly interacted with by humans.
• Because this supreme deity is generally unreachable to humans, practitioners of Vodou and Yoruba work with lower gods that are manifestations of natural energies. In Vodou, these are called Loa, in Yoruba, they are called Oshiras.
• Both traditions believe they work with these deities to alter conditions in their own lives and the world at large.

Some things about Yoruba:

• Yoruba believes in reincarnation.
• Yoruba has various schools of thought that differ in teachings, practice, and culture.
• Much of their practice is handed down in traditional teaching and not taught in a public forum.
• Some of the primary Oshiras (deities) are:
• Orunmila: The Grand Priest, keeper of knowledge, healer of illness.
• Esu: The Adversary or Trickster responsible for misfortune, but also the messenger, and the force between positive and negative.
• Ogun: Lord of metal.
• Yemoja: Mother of Water and nurturer.
• Oshun: Lady of grace, beauty, and sensuality.
• Shango: Lord of Virility.
• Oya: Lady of the Tempest and Guardian of the Cemetery.

I'm not sure what it will be like as I have nothing to truly compare it to in my spiritual past. I'm just going to go in with an open mind ready to learn and get the full experience. I'm honored to have been invited, and will let you guys know how it goes.

Until next time, peace be with you.

"God, humble me to the dust," my Sunday at Berean Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Today, I attended Berean Orthodox Presbyterian Church. How was my experience with the hardcore, traditional Calvinists? Interesting.

Atmosphere:

The church meets in the United Church of Christ building in Ogden as I mentioned before hand, as evidenced by this sign:

The outside of the church is very 60's or 70's modern and accented by a giant cross in the church yard.

The inside of the church has a small chapel that is octagonal in shape and the sanctuary was a very simple design with rock work on the walls and a simple altar and pulpit.

Overall, very homey and simple atmosphere that was warm and inviting.

The People:

The people were interesting. Not a very diverse congregation, I believe everyone there was white and the average age was above 50. Everyone in the congregation was very kind to me. Pretty much every member of the congregation came up and introduced themselves to me, and joked with me a little bit.

After the service, the pastor came and talked to me outside the building. There was a loud crow and he told me how he used to shoot crows with his BB gun when he was a kid and how he wished he had one for that crow. He then told me how he hoped the Lord spoke to me in the sermon and that he can be rather blunt, as you will see in "The Message" section.

Virtually everyone invited me back, and it was an interesting group of people. In general, they were very nice.

The Service:

The service was a simple service starting with a hymn, then an opening prayer, then they had announcements, read from their church's Confession of Faith. Afterward, they recited the 10 Commandments (what people traditionally refer to as the 10 Commandments, but that's a topic for another time) and the 2 Great Commandments Jesus gave. After that, they sang another hymn and read from 1st Corinthians before he got into his sermon. More on that in "The Message" section.

After the sermon, there was another hymn, then a blessing and dismissal.

Overall, it was a very simple service with no frills or ceremony. It was focused exclusively on preaching and music.

The Message:

This was the bulk of the service. There was a formalized sermon, which the pastor admitted he was winging because his computer had experienced issues and he couldn't get the sermon off it in time. But, even though there was a formal sermon, the message(s) were repeated many times throughout the entire service.

Because there wasn't very much structure on the sermon, I will instead do bullet points of some of the quotes that best demonstrate what the message was:

• In relation to teachings, "If it's new, it ain't true."
• "If there are contradictions in scripture, it's not an error in the Word, it's an error in our understanding."
• "There can be no private interpretation of scripture, and no personal revelation."
• "Worship isn't about you, it's about pleasing the Sovereign Lord."
• "We must love and FEAR God. A good dose of fear is healthy."
• "We live for Him (God), not ourselves."
• "Fear of God is the goal of the Gospel."
• "Salvation is an ongoing process, not a once in a lifetime moment." In other words, they do not believe once saved always saved.
• "The grace of God is given, not claimed."
• "No person is worthy of being on a pedestal," and "Don't think too highly of yourself."
• "Test everything against the scriptures."
• "Submit to the elders of the Church." This was in regards to questions or if you were making a big decision in life. Basically, consult with them and make sure what you're doing is godly. "If the elders are corrupt, the scriptures will tell you."
• He said a powerful prayer to utter would be, "God, humble me to the dust -- make me usable."
• "God will never let you down."

Overall, the message felt like a barrage of mental abuse. You were completely and utterly evil and inadequate without God. He stated at one point, "Man is wicked, there is not even an island of goodness in mankind." This is a horrible message, and to sit around telling people they are horrible, there's a defect with them and you have the solution, but they must submit entirely to your authority is pretty disturbing. It amazed me how everyone was smiling and taking all of this in like it was pleasant. I can only imagine what hearing something like that every week, and believing it would be like.

Overall Experience:

This was pretty much what I expected from hardcore Calvinists, lots of Hell fire and damnation mixed with messages of living life to please God, but it was still rather uncomfortable to see acted out in person. I would definitely not go back for  a round two.

Until next time, peace be with you.

Going to see the Orthodox Presbyterians

This will be the third Presbyterian church I've been to during this blog expedition. All branches of Christianity (and religion in general) have a spectrum of belief from conservative to liberal, orthodox to modern. Presbyterianism is no exception. The Presbyterian churches I previously attended were the Presbyterian Church USA and the Japanese Christian Church. Both of them are more theologically modern and, especially on the part of the Presbyterian Church USA I visited, more theologically liberal.

This week; however, I will be attending the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church split from the Presbyterian Church USA in the 1930's over what it saw as an alarming trend towards modernism. As the name implies, they seek to adhere to the traditional, conservative doctrines of Presbyterianism. These include:

• The Bible is the Word of God, completely free from error and trustworthy in all matters of doctrine and practice.
• The Bible is the only source of revelation of God.
• Belief in the Trinity.
• Total sovereignty of God, nothing is beyond his control or will.
• Mankind is totally depraved by nature, dead in sin due to Adam's transgression.
• Christ is fully God and fully man, incarnated through the Virgin Mary.
• Christ's atonement frees man from the burden of sin and fills mankind with God's redeeming grace.
• Christ's atonement is limited, only for those God has predestined to save.
• God predestined the fate of each person. Those whom God has chosen to save will end up in Heaven all others will end up in Hell.
• Those whom God has predestined to save, the elect, will find his grace irresistible and seek to please him in their lives.
• Those who believe seek to keep the Commandments because they love God, not in an attempt to earn salvation.
• Ministry of the Church, particularly of preaching and the sacraments of baptism (both adult and infant) and the Lord's Supper (in which Christ's body and blood is spiritually present among believers).

Additionally, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church generally espouses conservative social values and practices:

• Prescribed gender roles for men and women.
• Condemnation of homosexuality.
• Condemnation of abortion except in the case of the mother's life being in jeopardy.
• Belief the Roman Catholic Church is in extreme error in doctrine and practice.
• Barrier method and rhythm method birth control are allowed, while other methods such as morning after pills or IUD's are considered sinful as fertilization may have happened at that time.
• No sex outside of marriage.
• Communion for only those who are Christians in good standing with their church and of a similar understanding of God's word.
• Belief in creationism and denial of evolution.

The church that I'm attending is Berean Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The interesting thing about them is that they do not have a permanent building. Instead, they meet in the chapel of the United Church of Christ here in Ogden. I find this an interesting pairing as the Orthodox Presbyterians are extremely traditional and are theologically conservative, whereas the United Church of Christ is what is referred to as Progressive Christianity which seeks a modern interpretation of scripture, theology, and tradition. I have already covered the United Church of Christ, in fact, it was my very first blog. I may stay for both services just to enjoy the diversity of the Christian spectrum a bit.

Until next time, peace be with you.

Sunday at Washington Heights Church

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I started a new work schedule this week and I'm still adjusting to it. This past Sunday, I went to Washington Heights Church, which is an Evangelical church of the Baptist tradition. It is officially a member of the Conservative Baptist Association.

What was it like?

Atmosphere:

I went to this church 10 years ago when a friend of mine from school invited me to it. A lot has changed in 10 years. First off, the building(s) are completely different. When I went the first time, it was a huge building with a chapel that had stadium seating and a stage in the center and classrooms off the main chapel. It was big and reminded me of the churches you see on TV with the various televangelists.

Now, there are three buildings, one appears to be a children's chapel/Sunday school, another that is, what appears to be classrooms and a small coffee shop. This building had a really cool design in the bricks of a Jesus fish.

Sandwiched between these two buildings is the main chapel. Unlike the grand chapel that used to stand there, it's now a much smaller chapel, no stadium seating, a stage that now looks like a concert stage, all together, it no longer had the chapel feel of the original, but now looks like a Christian rock arena.

I preferred the old building. It was very beautiful and, while modern, still felt like a chapel and a church. This building just felt like it was trying to be some other church now, like Alpine or the Genesis Project. I feel like the community lost something it had once had and replaced it with something trying to be something else.

In all, the atmosphere was fine, it was modern and cool, but it wasn't what it once was in its glory days.

The People:

The people here were very friendly, and there were a lot of them ranging in age from elderly to youth. There was a coffee bar set up with some decent coffee. Several people came up and introduced themselves before and after the service. One was an usher, one was a nice young lady who told us to take as many cookies as we wanted from the coffee bar and joked around a bit about it. After the service, a group of people came up to us and introduced themselves and asked a number of questions.

In all, they were very friendly and seemed very sincere in wanting to get to know us.

The Service:

Nothing exceptionally remarkable about the service other than on the chairs were business cards that said, "I am Jesus." That's right, this church has business cards for Jesus. It started with a hymn, which was a standard Christian rock hymn.

After the hymn, they had communion. They said a prayer over the bread and grape juice, then the ushers passed trays around that had small cups of grape juice lined on them and small crackers in the center of the tray. Everyone took one of each and waited to take them all together.

After that, there was another hymn and then a sermon.

After the sermon, there was a video featuring a bunch of children. I'm not entirely sure what this video was about, but I could tell they were asking money for some kind of education program for children. The way it was framed, it sounded like the children's salvation depended on this program. I found that quite interesting, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

The Message:

The sermon was on the story of Jesus among the teachers in the Temple. The story basically goes that when Jesus was 12, he and his family went to the Temple in Jerusalem for Passover, and Mary and Joseph left without Jesus and didn't realize it. When they come back, Jesus tells them that they should have expected him to be in his father's house.

The person giving the sermon said that this story shows us that Jesus doesn't fit into our boxes and that he's a confusing figure.

He then talked about how Judaism doesn't have a concept of God as Father like Christianity has and only sees him as a father of their nation. This is entirely untrue. Jews have the same emphasis on God as their father as Christians do. Christians place more emphasis on it in many ways, but the concept nevertheless is present and strong in Judaism.

There's this trend among Evangelical Christians in the US to talk about Judaism extensively. While I'm happy that Christians are exploring their Jewish roots, as there should be a lot more of that, I feel the methodology of this often, but not always, misses the mark. Christians don't tend to approach Judaism as its own complete religion with its own rich heritage completely independent of Christian dogma, but as the prequel to Jesus. As such, they often get things wrong about Judaism by trying to project Jesus onto every aspect of it. Jesus was molded by Judaism, not the other way around. Can you go back and reinterpret the Jewish stories and scriptures to fit the Jesus narrative, yes, Christians have done it for centuries. But in doing so, you miss the entire point of these stories in their original form and what they have taught Jews for thousands of years.

To put it in better perspective, Islam comes from the same tradition as Judaism and Christianity and shares common stories with them. If Muslims started to interpret Christian scripture their own way to prove that Christianity was all along pointing to Muhammad, Christians would probably feel a little outraged. This is the same thing that Christianity does to Judaism when it doesn't respect Judaism as a whole tradition with its own merits.

He then talked about how Jesus confused Mary and Joseph with this story and that they didn't understand what he meant. He then explained that Jesus often acted exactly contrary to how people expected him to. He also explains that Jesus and the concept of God itself can be very disturbing and hard to deal with.

He mentioned that bad things happen to good people and to think that if you believe in God and live well that nothing bad will happen to you is foolish, yet many seem to think that's how it will be. He mentioned several tragedies that befell some Christians who did missionary work in Africa as an example. I was liking where this was going as I often think modern Christianity overlooks the hard questions and he was at least touching on them. Then he dropped the ball at the end by saying, just have faith in God, and don't worry about it. I will say though, that at least he was addressing that there is a darker side of Christianity and exposing people to it and opening up the conversation a bit.

Overall, not a bad sermon, in spite its flaws.

Overall Experience:

Overall, I miss the old Washington Heights Church and felt this current incarnation was basically trying to be like a bunch of newer churches in the area. That being said, it wasn't an unpleasant experience, just deja vu.

Additional Notes:

There won't be a church this upcoming week as I will be attending the Utah Pride Festival and it is also a friend's birthday on Sunday. But don't worry, there will be another blog coming your way very soon. I have a few good groups lined up. Also, expect some kind of video blog this week to fill the void.

Until next time, peace be with you.

Washington Heights Church, here I come

I was going to do Good Friday at Washington Heights Church, but the plans got cancelled last minute. So, I'm just doing a normal Sunday there instead.

I have already done a pre-service blog about Washington Heights Church, and don't want to rehash that. I realize that it talks about Good Friday, but I'm just going to provide a link for anyone interested here:

http://52weeks52churches.blogspot.com/2014/04/next-stop-good-friday-at-washington.html

My surreal visit to the Apostolic United Brethren, a Mormon polygamist church

I went down to Bluffdale, Utah to the world headquarters of the Apostolic United Brethren. As I mentioned, this is the church that the people from Sister Wives belong to. I have to say, this was unlike any other religious exploration I'd ever done.

Atmosphere:

First off, the city of Bluffdale is between Salt Lake, and another slightly metropolitan area about a half hour south of Salt Lake called Provo. It's a very rural area filled with windmills, strip mines, and miles upon miles of desert landscape. You really do feel like you're in a small city in the middle of nowhere in the area.

Bluffdale is about an hour and a half drive south of where I live. Finding the place proved to be a lot harder than we anticipated, we knew it was near Camp Williams Army Base, but it wasn't obvious. We drove around for a very long time before we finally came upon it from the main road. We turned down a side road that actually turned out to be the road leading there.

When we saw it around the bend, it was more surreal than I expected. I was told this was a ranch. This is was not a ranch, but a compound. There were two main buildings and several smaller buildings, including what looked like a couple of housing units, surrounding the two main ones, and a large parking lot.

Here are the two main buildings:

 

We were unsure which one to go to, so just followed members to the one on the right. I asked someone if this building was opened to the public, he said "Yes," and then quickly sprinted away from us. From my understanding, one of these buildings is the meeting house, and the other is their Endowment House (a substitute temple) used for their Endowment Ceremony (a special and secret ceremony in the Mormon tradition that is believed to endow you with special blessings from God).

This building was their chapel. 

The entry way to the building was a simple foyer with white walls. There was a picture of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. I've seen this painting in many LDS churches and buildings. The significance of this painting to Mormons has never been explained to me, and anyone who can tell me why it's so common, please let me know. Right next to the entrance was a picture of this church's most influential leader, Rulon Allred. The picture was surrounded by a few flower displays. Also along the wall was a picture of Joseph Smith and one of Jesus.

The chapel was a giant gymnasium complete with basketball hoops that were raised up. Towards the front of the gym was a stage. The stage was converted into a pulpit with a podium and several chairs for the leaders of the priesthood and the choir director. To the right side of the stage were pictures of the first three Mormon prophets, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor. These are the only prophets the AUB honor. Below their pictures was a quote from John Taylor which read, "The Kingdom of God or nothing." To the left of the stage was a picture of Jesus, and right below it was a banner that had a quote from the Book of Mormon.

Overall, the atmosphere was not one designed for function and not aesthetic. I wasn't impressed by the look of it, but it was functional and did have a few personal touches on it.

The People:

This was one group of people who didn't want us there. Only two people talked to us the whole time we were there, and the rest wouldn't even make eye contact with us. They were rather friendly with each other, but not us.

The people were dressed like typical Mormons going to church, long skirts and cap sleeve tops for women, slacks and ties on men. There were a couple hundred of them, and apparently that was about a third of the congregation. The rest were at a funeral for one of the members who had died.

There were a few members that looked like the stereotype of a polygamist with the braids and prairie dresses, but they were a minority. I'm assuming these ones are ones who left the FLDS or similar groups and joined this one.

Most of the members of the congregation were white with a few Latino members. In addition to that, most of the people looked remarkably similar to each other. So many of the young boys were tall, lanky guys with blond hair, and many of the women were similarly built. The ages spanned many generations, from babies to people in their 80's or 90's.

When we first entered the chapel, an elderly gentleman came and introduced himself to us. He then found some other elderly gentleman who looked a lot like Vincent Price in his old age. The old man then proceeded to interrogate us as to why we were there. The first question out of his mouth after he got our names was, "Are you guys LDS?" I told him that I was, but that I left, and my two other friends with me told him no as well. He then asked if we believed in the Book of Mormon. We again answered no. He then asked if we believed in Joseph Smith and modern day prophets. We again said no. He then looked at us with this look of disdain and asked why we would waste our precious time by coming there. We explained that we were just there to see what it was all about. For a moment, it seemed he wasn't going to let us into the chapel, and nearly asked us to leave. At the last minute, my friend Lisa won him over by talking about her Mormon pioneer heritage. This seemed to disarm him and he let us come in, but very reluctantly.

We sat towards the back, and the president of their church, along with several other members sat up on the stage. They kept looking at us, pointing at us, then talking about us. This concerned me a bit, but we played it cool.

Overall, I realized we were not really welcome there. They didn't do anything to make us feel welcome and avoided us in general. People even moved to make sure they didn't sit by us. I've never felt less welcome in any place we've been. The families were big and definitely polygamist families, but they were dressed quite normally for the most part.

The Service:

The service was very similar, yet quite different from an LDS Sacrament meeting. It started with the President of the Priesthood (not just the leader of the local group, but the leader of their whole church) saying a few things. Then announcements were made by several members in the congregation.

After the announcements, a hymn was sung. The hymn was a typical, Mormon hymn called "Come, Come Ye Saints." The hymnals were actually old LDS hymnals from the 40's and 50's that it seemed they had bought in bulk, thus none of the songs were different from any hymns of my childhood. After the hymn a prayer was said, and the President stood up again to speak.

He then said that they would begin the Sacrament by singing a hymn. He looked straight at the three of us and said, "Those who have not been baptized by the hands of this Priesthood, we ask that you do not partake of the Sacrament."

The Sacrament was interesting as it was similar, yet radically different from the LDS version of it. LDS Sacrament services typically use pre-sliced white bread torn into bits and individual, thimble sized cups of water for their communion. Here, they used several full loaves of home baked bread and several glass water glasses to hold the water.

There were a group of about 20 men who passed the Sacrament, and two who blessed it. As they blessed it, they all got on their knees. The two guys who blessed the Sacrament then did something I wasn't expecting and put their arm to the Square. This is a symbol that is very sacred in the Mormon world as it's one of the special gestures used in the temple. The only time I've ever seen this done outside of the Temple is during a baptism, so to see it done for Sacrament was quite shocking. The prayers they used to bless it were identical to the ones of my childhood.

They passed the Sacrament by going row by row giving the people the bread. After all the members had gotten the bread, they asked anyone who hadn't been served to raise their hands. They then went back and had people eat the bread a second time until it was all gone. They then passed the water by taking the glasses to the people and handed it to each of them one at a time. Again, once all the members had been served, they asked if anyone had not been served, then they had the members partake a second time again until all of the water was gone. I liked this part of the tradition of not wasting any of the bread or water, because it used to bother me as a Mormon when I would clean up after Sacrament meeting and they told us to just throw the bread and water out. Their President spoke on this immediately afterward stating that to throw it out would be a dishonor to Jesus and would be like symbolically throwing away his body and blood that had been given up for us.

There was then a speaker. The speeches are given by members, and supposedly impromptu. More on that below. The speech was so insanely boring and long, and only the first speech of the service. We were feeling more and more uncomfortable as time went on and more and more bored. We weren't the only ones bored, everyone was playing on their phones, hunched over, and/or nearly asleep with this speaker. He didn't seem to get them pumped up and inspired.

After he was done, my friends and I sneaked out. We were noticed by everyone, and we weren't sure if they were going to be relieved, offended, follow us out, or all three. They didn't seem happy, and we just wanted to get as far away as possible because we felt very unwelcome there.

Overall, this was the most grueling and uneasy service for me to sit through, it was like a Sacrament meeting of my childhood, but much longer, more boring, and stranger. It was scheduled to go on for two hours, but I have a feeling it would have gone longer as we stayed for only one speech and that went on for 45 minutes after the 30 minute Sacrament portion of the service.

The Message:

This is a hard one to do as the PA system they have was horrible and the room had terrible acoustics. It was hard to understand anything being said. Add to that that the speaker was a man from Mexico with a thick accent and it was even harder to understand what was said. I didn't pay attention to the whole of his 45 minute speech as it required a lot of effort to understand, but he did touch on a few themes.

One of the themes was that the people of the Tribe of Ephraim must go and save the Lamanites in Mexico and elsewhere. Let me explain this one. Mormons teach that the tribes of Israel will gather in Zion, which to them is in the New World and in Jerusalem during the Last Days. As such, Mormons believe they are adopted spiritually into one of the 12 Tribes of Israel and that the tribe they belong to is revealed to them in a special prophecy session most Mormons have done to them in their late teens called a Patriarchal Blessing. Most white Mormons are adopted into the Tribe of Ephraim. Mormons also believe that the current Native Americans, including Latinos, are descended from a race called the Lamanites. They believe the Lamanites were Israelites who came to the Americas and were cursed with darker skin for their sinful ways. Therefore, he was saying that those white people who had been adopted into the Tribe of Ephraim must go and spread the Gospel to the people of Mexico and beyond to bring them back to righteousness.

Another thing he was talking about was the significance of special dates of when the Priesthood was restored and how it coincided with various prophecies. This one was hard to follow and where I spent the least amount of time paying attention as none of it seemed to make sense.

The other thing he said was that it was the goal of their church to go out and purify the LDS Church by actively seeking to convert people in the LDS Church. They believe that the LDS Church is valid, but it must be brought back to the fullness of Truth and that they will be the ones to do it. He stated that they have lots of work to do until the LDS Church fully embraces the Principle (plural marriage) and the United Order (a form of Mormon communism) both of which were once practiced by the LDS Church but later abandoned.

Essentially, he said that we must go out and convert the Lamanites and the Mormons and not rest until they were both brought into polygamy and into agreement with their doctrine and practices.

I wasn't expecting this militant of a message to come from the pulpit. It was all at once horrifying, intriguing, and insanely boring.

Overall Experience:

I can safely assert that after watching that show Sister Wives and seeing this organization that the show Sister Wives is a very polished, well choreographed show to make this group seem more mainstream and progressive than it is. They are not welcoming to outsiders, in spite of saying so, they still have an isolated, compound feel to them even though they are actively engaged in the world, and they are seeking to convert the entire LDS Church into their dogma and belief. They don't seem to be as progressive as the LDS on things like race. While they use modern technology and dress in modern clothing, they are still very much in the mindset of a different time. Try as they want to look like they are part of the mainstream, their lifestyle and radical beliefs will keep them from being so.

In short, this wasn't Sister Wives, it was another Mormon Fundamentalist group in modern clothing.

Additional Notes:

There are some small changes coming to this blog. Stay tuned for more details on that.

Until next time, peace be with you.