Rob Murphy

I don't know if I can make a comment without sticking my foot in my mouth on this one.

I was going to say they could just walk 2 minutes in the opposite direction, but you beat me to the punch on that one! :-)

Well yeah, there are two LDS churches that are at least as close as the one they go to. Abby is really sad about it.

Why do they have to move to go to another ward? Can't they just go to the one they want and still live in your neighborhood? I am confused.

I'm not LDS, but I've pretty much lived here my whole life and my wife was raised LDS. Apparently it is very very very difficult to transfer wards, just shy of impossible. Look at it this way, it's easier to move your whole family than it is to be granted a transfer.

I have answers for ya'll . . . The stance of the LDS church is that you attend the ward where you live (they have very specific ward boundaries). Like Mike said, it is very difficult to get a transfer of records without physically moving (you would have to have some major and legitimate issues for wanting the transfer) I also think that is the case because they really want it to be about neighborhoods and communities.

This is an issue that I feel is unique to Utah, because in other parts of the country/world people can't just walk 2 minutes in the other direction to get to a different church. In Utah it would probably turn into a popularity contest, and get really out of hand if the church didn't enforce the boundaries, much like the situation is in High School sports (kind of a weird example)

People moving just to change wards is not super common, but it can happen, especially if something happens that makes people uncomfortable in the ward they are attending.

I am sorry that your daughter is losing her best friend, that is unfortunate. The good thing is that it is much easier to stay in contact with people these days! I hope I have been able to answer some questions, if you have any more about the boundaries/organization feel free to message me or ask in the thread.

I also apologize for how scattered the thoughts are!

Preston made some great points. I'll add my two cents.

Members must stay in their boundaries!

There are interviews or meetings between the bishops(appointed ward leader) and the members at least once a year.

Each ward member has a tithing settlement once a year with the bishop in order to review their tithing status.

Any member that wants access to the temple must pay 10% of their income to the church.

In addition to the tithing "settlement", there are worthiness interviews between the bishop and his ward members. These are done in order to assess who can enter the temple as well as hold certain callings/positions..

The questions don't change in these interviews so members pretty much always know where they stand.

Having certain boundaries allows the bishops to monitor their members and keep as many people active in the church as possible.

Without boundaries, the control element is lost.

Well, this turned into more of a wide-ranging discussion than I thought it would.

Preston - As you probably know, most churches do not exercise any control over which building people choose to attend on Sunday. When I was growing up, my family drove by about ten Baptist churches to get to the one we attended. So you had tiny churches with just a handful of members and huge churches with thousands.So it was a popularity contest. It does become a popularity contest as you say with people often following a particularly dynamic pastor. Looking back on this, I'm critical of it. You have cults of personality developing.

So I guess I like certain aspects of the LDS emphasis on the local ward. It does, as you say, promote strong neighborhoods and communities. I am a little surprised at how rigid it is. In this particular case these people would still be a part of the same neighborhood and community if they could transfer wards.

Good thoughts.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing that information.

Now you can't say that I don't write long enough entries on the blog, Rob.