Ford Motor Company on Mormons

The following was taken from an article distributed to Ford Motor Company employees. It was presented by the 'Ford Interfaith' group which promotes unity by sharing information about all faiths and features these types of articles about various religions and faiths.

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QUICK FACTS about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “The Mormons”

OVERVIEW

· Named "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"; informal nicknames are "LDS" or "Mormon" -named after the prophet-historian who is believed to have compiled their book of scripture, “The Book of Mormon, Another Testimony of Christ.” Media relations at the church discourage the use of the nickname, “Mormon,” because of the church’s insistence that it is a Christian denomination.

· Believes it is the Lord's restoration of original Christianity as foretold to occur before Christ's Second Coming.

· Core focus is that Christ and His teachings bring happiness in this life, and through Christ’s atonement, exaltation in the next.

HISTORY

· In 1820 14-yr-old Joseph Smith told of a vision of God and Christ foretelling a church restoration.

· Organized in New York in 1830, the church moved to near Cleveland, then near Kansas City, then Illinois .

· Fleeing continued mob attacks 158 years ago, the first Mormon pioneers started their Westward trek from Illinois in the dead of winter. Of the 70,000 who began this 1300-mile journey, 6,000 were buried along the way, including many children. Mormon pioneers founded Salt Lake City in Utah and over 600 other Western communities.

· Polygamy has been against their religion since 1890.

SALT LAKE CITY

· Temple Square in Salt Lake has over 5 million annual visitors, more than the Grand Canyon.

· The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a world famous choir and has the world's oldest radio program.

· The Salt Lake Temple is the most famous, but there are 136 other temples built in Detroit and around the world while others are under construction.

· The Church is home to the world's largest genealogy database; visit it online or through 3,700 free branch libraries.

ACTIVE CONGREGATIONS

· Sunday services entail a three-hour block of three meetings; about 27,000 congregations exist worldwide.

· Highly vibrant programs exist for youth, children, singles, men, and women; very strong family focus.

· Everyone has a calling; some surveys show LDS have the highest U.S. attendance and service rates.

· Families receive personal fellowship visits at home from other members on a monthly basis.

FINANCES

· Members tithe 10 percent, and also donate generously to the needy the first Sunday of each month.

· The Church has a lay-ministry with unpaid area leadership including clergy and all other congregational positions. (However, much of the janitorial is paid).

· The church has no debt; all buildings are paid for in cash (an average of two new congregations a day).

· The paid positions in Salt Lake are low-salaried; funds are frugally used and tightly audited.

· Members are also encouraged to become debt free and live provident, productive lives.

HEALTH CODE

· With a health code from 1833, LDS avoid alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, coffee, and tea .

· This 1833 code specifically encourages eating grains (especially wheat), fresh fruits and vegetables, and sparing use of meat.

· A UCLA study showed that active LDS live longer than most Americans, men by eleven years, women by eight.

· The State of Utah, (where the church membership is most prevalent,) ranks 50th in smoking, alcohol consumption, drunk driving rates, heart disease, cancer, and sick days.

EDUCATION

· With four colleges, Utah's BYU with 32,000 students is the largest single-campus private college.

· BYU Independent Study has 130,000 students in North America (340 web courses, 530 via mail).

· Daily seminary is a class usually held around 6:00 a.m. that serves 376,000 high school students.

· There are Institutes of Religion at 1,950 colleges worldwide that serve 367,000 college students.

· The church operates public education schools in parts of the Pacific Ocean and Latin America educating 10,000 students.

· Utah is 50th in spending per pupil, but first in adults that graduate from high school and attend college.

WOMEN

· In 1842 the "Relief Society" was organized; it's the largest women's organization in the world. It is structured with a president, counselors, and directors called a general board—which oversees the needs of families. Leadership of this organization is now, and has always been women.

· The children’s organization of the church—serving children ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years--also has a leadership organization identical to the Relief Society, i.e., a president, counselors and general board. This leadership is also comprised solely of women.

· Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote; Utah was second, two months later, in 1870—decades prior to the United States’ passage of the 19^th amendment in 1920.

· Women preach and pray from the pulpit and serve in other leadership and auxiliary positions as presidents, teachers, committee chairs, etc.

PROSTELITING: SHARING THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST

· 61,000 missionaries serve in 165 countries; 93 percent are college-age; 22 percent are female. They serve whereever they are “called”.

· Unpaid and paying their own way, most work 65 hours a week for two years, many of them learning a new language to do so.

MEMBERSHIP DISTRIBUTION

· The population of Utah are 70% LDS members, 30 percent of Idaho. After Catholics, LDS are the largest group in 10 states.

· The church has 5.5 million members in the U.S., making it the fourth largest individual U.S. denomination.

· Other countries: New Zealand 95k, Japan 115k, UK 175k, Philippines 500k, Brazil 900k, Mexico 925k.

· Worldwide 51 percent are female; about 55 percent are not Caucasian; about 70 percent are converts.

MEMBERSHIP GROWTH

· For the last 15 years, a daily average of 800 people worldwide joined the LDS church.

· Half of the growth is in Latin America, but the rate of growth is highest in Africa and the former Soviet bloc.

· Worldwide membership just passed 14 million, a tenfold increase in 50 years.

· In 1984 a non-LDS sociology professor of sociology estimated 265 million members by 2080; thus far, growth has exceeded that estimation and may become the first major world religion since Islam.

CHARITY/SERVICE

· Members that are in need obtain assistance from within the LDS Church. The welfare program takes the form of education and employment with a goal to improve and self provide.

· Members volunteer time at 220 welfare storehouses or canneries and about 400 farms.

· There are 210 employment centers placing over 175,000 people annually, and 64 family service centers.

· The church operates 46 thrift stores, in part to provide employment for the disadvantaged.

· The 61,000 missionaries spend half a day each week doing service.

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

· Over 200 million pounds of food, clothing, and medicine were donated in the last 20 years in 147 countries. Almost all of this help is slated for non-LDS people; LDS charities also work with and donate to many non-LDS charities.

· Very rapid disaster relief has been given in 144 major disasters since 1986.

· Almost 3,000 welfare "missionaries" work without pay in 55 countries (farm instructors, doctors, teachers, etc.).

· LDS charities fund a wide variety of projects like drilling water wells or funding small business startup loans.

· Beginning in 2001, members in poor areas can get low-rate college loans; 10,000 loans have been made to date.

GRAB BAG

· Utah is first in: charitable giving, producing scientists, household computers, children with two parents, and in birth rate.

· Noted LDS included five senators, and other famous dignitaries. The Osmonds, Gladys Knight, Steve Young, and the inventor of TV -Philo T. Farnsworth. Also, three former Lions quarterbacks are members, as well as hundreds of Ford employees.

· LDS members played a key role in the 2002 Winter Olympics; the chair was Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts .

· Hawaii 's #1 tourist site is the LDS Polynesian Cultural Center ( Tonga and the Samoas are one-third LDS).

· Latter-Day-Saints have sponsored Boy Scout troops since 1913; 23 percent of all Scout troops are LDS.

· The BYU Women's Cross Country have been national champions or in second place each of the last seven years.

DETROIT AREA

· The Detroit metro area has 30 congregations; the Dearborn chapel is on Rotunda by Ford's Building #5. Detroit has a temple, storehouse, cannery, employment and family service office, and family history libraries.

Ford's Interfaith Network, sends out monthly interfaith notes to thousands of Ford employees who have asked to receive them.

Mitt is SO Mormon that:

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/5103/how_mormon_is_mitt_romney/

By: Joanna Brooks

Earlier this week, Florida evangelical Christian leader John Stemberger endorsed Rick Perry’s campaign for GOP presidential nominee. According to Stemberger, Perry was more “trustworthy” on social conservation issues like abortion rights.

On Romney, Stemberger said: “The issue not that he is a Mormon. The issue is that he wasn’t Mormon enough. If he had been consistent with traditional Mormon values his whole career, that would make me feel a lot more comfortable about where he’s coming from.”

Mitt Romney. Not Mormon enough. Yeah. Right.

Stemberger’s ludicrous assessment of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism inspired an eighteen-hour-stream of “Mitt Romney is so Mormon jokes” on Twitter at @askmormongirl. I’m reprinting the best here, with thanks to the comic geniuses of the Mormon Twitternacle, especially Matt Workman--@matthewworkman--and Jerilyn Pool--@auntmarvel."

(Just a note: for some of these, you may have to be Mormon to understand.)

So, how Mormon is Mitt Romney?

Mitt is so Mormon he’s related to the other Mormon presidential candidate and half of his own campaign volunteers as well.

Mitt is so Mormon his campaign bus is a pioneer handcart.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d call 19-year-old boys to serve as US ambassadors.

Mitt is so Mormon his Israel policy will be centered on Jackson County, Missouri.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll make the income tax a flat 10% and collect fast offerings to fund Medicaid.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll ask the Senate to “sustain” his appointees by manifesting with an upraised hand.

Mitt is so Mormon he doesn’t do Pilates, he does golden Pilates.

Mitt is so Mormon that his campaign “oppo” team has done all the other candidates’ genealogy.

Mitt is so Mormon he’s organizing his precinct walkers in pairs to knock doors with a very special message.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d make the Book of Mormon required reading at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mitt is so Mormon, that if he’s elected the “First Lady” will be known as the “First Wife.”

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll choke up and weep during his inaugural address. And then say, “I told myself I wasn’t going to cry.”

Mitt is so Mormon he’d commission a presidential motorcade built entirely of 10-passenger family vans.

Mitt is so Mormon, he will actually hang the Constitution up by a thread, just so he can save it.

Mitt Romney is so Mormon that he’s afraid to join the Tea Party because of Doctrine & Covenants 89.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll start the State of the Union with the words: “I wasn’t going to get up, but the Spirit just carried me up here.”

Mitt is so Mormon his campaign biography begins, “I, Willard, having been born of goodly parents.”

Mitt is so Mormon, he will ask members of Congress to go home and pray about his economic plan.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d ask the Elders Quorum to move him into the White House.

Mitt Romney is so Mormon that his first act will be to make July 24 a national holiday.

Mitt is so Mormon, he asks donors to stack chairs after fundraising dinners.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll award Ty Detmer, Steve Young, and Jimmer Fredette Congressional Medal of Honor.

Mitt is so Mormon he refers to expatriates as “apostates” and non-US citizens as “Gentiles.”

Mitt is so Mormon that his campaign slogan is “What do you know about Mitt Romney? Would you like to know more?”

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll reroute the Freedom Trail through Palmyra, New York, Nauvoo, Illinois, and Winter Quarters, Iowa.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll rename the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms the Word of Wisdom squad.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d do an ad for the LDS Church: “I’m a husband, father, and leader of the free world. And I’m a Mormon.”

Mitt is so Mormon he isn’t as concerned about getting American youth jobs as he is about getting them married.

Mitt Romney is so Mormon he tried to convince CNN to let him bring a visual aid to the debate so he could turn it into an object lesson.

Mitt is so Mormon that he refers to Congress as “The Great and Spacious Building.”

Mitt is so Mormon that out of “concern for the one” he’ll invite Kim Jong-Il to join the fold.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll end every address with “hope you all get home without any harm or accidents.”

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll assign a friend to every new member of Congress.

Mitt is so Mormon he’s already picked out a room in the White House for his year’s supply of wheat and beans, and he’ll require the White House Chef to rotate the food storage.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll replace the Secret Service with the Danites.

Mitt is so Mormon his Secret Service codename will be Mahonri Moriancumr.

Mitt is so Mormon he thinks Harvard is the BYU of the east.

Mitt is so Mormon he thought the debt ceiling was something that could only happen in a temple.

Mitt is so Mormon, he doesn’t campaign: he “fellowships.”

Mitt is so Mormon that he’s installing two basketball hoops at the inaugural ball so there’s a place to hang decorations.

Mitt is so Mormon that he’ll change the name of “Cabinet Meeting” to “Correlation Meeting.”

Mitt is so Mormon that if he got elected all of the White House Pyrex 9x13 pans would have a piece of masking tape on them with his name written in Sharpie.

Mitt is so Mormon, he has four cats named 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, 3 Nephi and 4 Nephi. (4 Nephi is the small one.)

Mitt is so Mormon that late last night he snuck out to put 5000 plastic forks in the lawn of Jon Huntsman. And after that, he heart attacked Rick Perry.

Mitt is so Mormon that he’s going to rename the 101st Airborne as “The Stripling Warriors.”

Mitt is so Mormon, he won’t deport illegal aliens, he’ll just disfellowship them.

Mitt is so Mormon, he’ll rename FEMA the Federal Relief Society.

Mitt is so Mormon he’ll start his acceptance speech with “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”

Mitt is so Mormon that if elected he’ll require every state to have an Official Casserole.

Mitt is so Mormon that the Marine Band will play “Praise to the Man” when he enters a room.

Mitt is so Mormon that he’ll appoint Lavell Edwards head of the Department of Defense.

Mitt is so Mormon he won’t allow advisers wearing non-white dress shirts to participate in cabinet meetings.

Mitt is so Mormon that he’ll rename the weekly presidential address “Politics and the Spoken Word.”

Mitt is so Mormon that his cabinet would consist entirely of unqualified volunteers.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d outsource the department of education to the Boy Scouts.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d convene a linger-longer after cabinet meetings.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d hang a copy of the Proclamation on the Family and a picture of the Washington, D.C. LDS temple in the White House.

Mitt is so Mormon he has volunteers combing through old GOP voter rolls for less actives he can reactivate.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d commission a Mod Bod undershirt to be engraved under the sleeveless dress of the Statue of Liberty.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d put everyone in his stake on the inauguration invite list. Just because.

Mitt is so Mormon he’d ask the Chief Justice to use a quad at his inauguration.

Mitt is so Mormon, he will add the phrases “every fiber of my being” and “beyond a shadow of a doubt” to the presidential oath of office.

Mitt Romney is so Mormon he’d plan a youth dance festival for his first 4th of July in office.

Aidan's Summer

Scouts, scouts, scouts! Aidan's summer is all scouts!

The first week out he volunteered 8 hours a day, five days in one week helping the cub scouts. He baited hooks, untangled lines and every once in a while, helped unhook a big one.

He spent the next week getting three merit badges at scout camp and the very next week flew to Utah where he finished his swim badge, started his gardening badge (composter) and worked on home repair badge (already finished once.) Hiking, painting, and cooking merit badges progressed fine.

I think that he's ready to go back to school to get some vacation time.

Working for Mission Money

Ian's challenge this summer is making money for his mission and thus far he seems up to it.

He has split wood, removed, repainted, reglazed the storm windows and mulched the trees out front. He helped cousins paint grandma's picnic table and worked with grandpa to repair Grandma's concrete step. He removed the front planter, rebuilt the front planter and rocked and moved dirt. Split more wood, scraped and repainted the deck. He has pruned and burned all the acreage, doctored the trees, split wood, stacked it, cleaned the garage and the shed, swept the chimneys, caulked mortar joints, reflashed the leaky chimney, split even more wood, and stacked it. He has deweeded, debugged, and removed and restrung the swings, while debriefing all the cousins.

He sings while he works and most of the time, the neighbors don't protest--and Mom only wishes you could hear every verse of the Song of Angry Men sung in a rich, deep, baritone. If only I had pushed video on that camera.

Look out Alaska.

Ian's Mission Call

Ian's mission call story is a true study in patience--as I hear many are.

Dia waited a month while her papers were misplaced, mistaken, misdirected before she could get her interviews, but Ian's wait takes the prize!

Dia helped him prepare his papers and they were ready to submit by his four month deadline, March 1. She left in February and anxiously awaited him joining her in the MTC, or at least news of his call. March passes and appointments are set and missed and reset and then it's April

finals supercede all else.

College ends, dorm addresses change, wards shift, bishops are released and reassigned, and college resumes.

Finally one day all the stars in the universe align and Ian is able to find the stake clerk who will spend a couple of hours with him searching for his paperwork.

Voila! His paperwork is recovered and sent on!

Ah, but not yet. Ian must have further medical sign-offs that could take four more weeks. But amidst Spring finals, he perseveres and receives the sign-off and finally, the papers are in three days before his 19th birthday!

And the results will be sent to his dorm - that he's just moved from and is under the demolishing block.

Forwarding order in? A week longer delay?

If nothing else, the guy gets points for patience.

More BYU Women's Conference

Even more notes from Women's Conference:

The next talk was really good, and made for me a new mantra. You Can Do Hard Things. This might come in really handy for a missionary. This sister had four kids, newly converted husband, moved to new house, new job, different state, then he left her. She paged God a lot, was on his speed dial, She wondered if his caller ID response was, "Didn't I just talk to her?"

She had heavenly quotes pasted all over her house. One on her sun visor, "You can do hard things." Jeremiah 32:27, Gen 18:14.

Met someone new and wonderful, married seven years, he went to the Chico Sky Dive, yup, out of a plane dead, but she had her tool box ready, filled with her Savior and a better sense of how to get through hard times and a sense that she had done hard things so she could do it again.

When her daughter was sent to Quanka Mexico, she writes, "I don't even like other people's kids." The speaker wrote back, "You can do hard things." Through service, when she picked her up, the daughter had learned to love the people.

She is a teacher at the prison and tells about NaTasha is a longest felon at the prison, 60 yrs old, at age 11, mafia father told her to pick up this gun and use it. She did. She had "anger issues," even the guards were afraid of her. She was diagnosed with MS, worried that she couldn't fight to be safe in prison, asked her bunkmate if she really believed in God, went to church, changed all personal pronouns to whom God spoke, in her B of M to her own name. Might get paroled this year.

The speaker was asked to teach seventh graders, harder than felons? She drove around the corner, hit by sunshine, put down her sunvisor and read, "You can do hard things."

We can only do this if we believe what we are capable of and who we are. It's easy to say we're stupid and useless rather than you are fabulous and capable because then you expect more of yourself. A Jewish Kaballah says to degrade yourself is to degrade God as you are made in his image.

Do not lie or demean yourself. Your subconscious is literal minded and in a pinch your own words come back.

In a book titled Jesus as CEO She quotes that unlike most notes to the president of the board, "Look what I've done to accomplish my task, health benefits decreased, etc." Christ's note would say, "Look, I present my people as my glory, John 17.

She closed with a book, "So Few Of Me" The last phrase was "what If I did Less, But It was My Best?"

The second half of the time was a good speaker too.

She was Shaunna Thompson, professional actress, and self proclaimed, "Waste of skin." Alma 32, thos compelled to be humbled will still be blessed, those noncompelled much more so than ye.

She says she sees those not compelled have a greater level of peace due to the blessings for living their sacramental promise.

She feared Man more than God and on Touched by an Angel set, was asked to curse God and did it. Noone said anything to her, except the Janitor at the school where she volunteered, and he asked her why. She learned and vowed to do better and said no to matters of impropriety, immodesty, Sabbath filming--which was often and challenging, but without a second thought, put it behind her and went on.

Then when asked to work on Sunday for a Motorola commercial, she sent an email apologizing, "sorry, Mormon and all that... yada, yada." She got a response, "I used to be a Mormon, Man UP, Believe what you believe and don't apologize for your standards."

Then she got asked again, "They really want you and will not shoot on SUnday." She said Yes. Then again a call, Can't get an open office except on Sunday, they will pay $400 more, will you do it.

She went to her actor buddies on her current film (an LDS one) for justification, The Dad said, "I work as breadwinner, so I work every day." The young girl, "Go to sacrament early, then work." The young boy, "I am a priesthood holder, Never!" "Unless they are offering you a bundle, then in a heartbeat!"

Finally she calls her husband, Her conscience, and he says, "What changed from your first decision?Nothing? then you know what to do."

So she refused, the next week, Motorola called again, gave her the part paying more month, not filmed on Sunday, and she thought it was the Lord saying, "This poor, sorry girl who always struggles with the easy decisions. Throw her a Bone!"

She has a wayward son and quotes Orson F Whitney, "that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity."

This is where Shelly and I again wonder about the righteous posterity who lived righteously so we could live again here on earth.

So, this is my last letter to you before hong Kong, it is two minutes to noon. I hope you get it to feast on on the plane.