{"id":93935,"date":"2022-01-18T21:27:27","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T04:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=93935"},"modified":"2022-02-15T21:08:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T04:08:19","slug":"sunday-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/sunday-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mormon<\/a>
In a Sunday school class
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I recycle here, with a small handful of slight modifications, some thoughts that I jotted down a few years back.\u00a0 I think they\u2019re still relevant:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not infrequently, I read comments from purportedly liberated ex-Latter-day Saints about the glories of churchless Sundays. \u00a0Instead of attending mind-numbingly dull and repetitious meetings, they seemingly claim to spend most of their Sundays skiing, golfing, biking, reading classic literature, listening to superb music, perfecting their highly toned bodies through exercise, enjoying the beach, and sipping fine imported wines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And perhaps they do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Would I gain by skipping out on Sunday meetings and spending the day as if God didn\u2019t exist? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0In some ways, quite undeniably so. \u00a0I\u2019m not a big fan of meetings myself. \u00a0I love forests and oceans and some deserts (e.g., today, Snow Canyon). \u00a0And quietly reading.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I think that my life would also be seriously impoverished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bracketing the truth-claims of my faith, I simply want to jot down, in no particular order, some of the things that I would be missing if I were to drop permanently out of participation in my ward on Sundays (as opposed, of course, to temporary enforced absences owing to COVID, which I regret).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I would lose a great deal of social contact, and other types of socializing probably wouldn\u2019t fully (or even significantly) compensate me for that loss. \u00a0I think of people who lack the kind of close society that the Church provides \u2014 and not merely of young people who need to cruise singles bars in the hopes of picking somebody up with whom they can have a long-term (or even short-term) relationship. \u00a0I\u2019ve often noticed boastful entries on a couple of message boards where apostates want to know what everybody else on their board is doing that Sunday morning instead of attending Latter-day Saint services; the obvious answer, at least during the time that those people are writing there, is that they\u2019re sitting alone in front of their computers, typing comments into cyberspace that are directed to strangers, to people whom, overwhelmingly, they\u2019ve never met and probably won\u2019t<\/em> ever meet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Virtual community simply isn\u2019t entirely the same thing as real community. \u00a0It\u2019s a well-publicized fact that study after study has demonstrated significant health benefits for religious believers. \u00a0Some opponents have dismissed those benefits as coming not from religious belief itself but from being participants in a strongly supportive community. \u00a0Fine. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure that that\u2019s all it is, but let\u2019s grant that claim for purposes of the argument. \u00a0The fact remains that religious believers have pretty easy and regular access to such supportive communities; the irreligious, on the whole, suffer by comparison.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last night, my wife being in Hawaii, members of our ward called me and invited me out to a restaurant. \u00a0Tonight, I enjoyed dinner at the home of neighbors from our ward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On other, quite different, occasions, funerals are well-attended and grieving families are lovingly supported. \u00a0(I\u2019ve been to some funerals, outside of Mormonism<\/a>, where the non-family mourners could easily be counted on one hand.) \u00a0Mine is a community of people who \u201care willing to bear one another\u2019s burdens, that they may be light; y<\/span>ea, and are\u00a0willing\u00a0to mourn with those that\u00a0mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort\u201d (Mosiah 18:8-9). \u00a0\u201cThou shalt\u00a0live\u00a0together in\u00a0love, insomuch that thou shalt\u00a0weep\u00a0for the loss of them that die\u201d (Doctrine and Covenants 42:45).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weddings and wedding receptions draw large, supportive crowds. \u00a0Wedding and baby showers attract eager helpers and enthusiastic participation. \u00a0The community rallies around its members at the crucial pivot-points of their lives. \u00a0We aren\u2019t social atoms. \u00a0As I say, my wife and her sister have been in Hawaii for several days. \u00a0By coincidence, so are several members of our ward, in the same area of Maui. \u00a0They\u2019ve spent a lot of time together. \u00a0By contrast, my parents spent their last three decades in an upscale California neighborhood where there was seldom any contact of any kind with the people who lived on either side of them or across the street. \u00a0They were all past the age when they had kids in school and ran into each other at PTA meetings, so they had virtually nothing in common, nothing to bring them together. \u00a0They sometimes waved at each other across the street, but that was essentially it. \u00a0When my parents died, nobody from their neighborhood attended the services. \u00a0I doubt that any of the neighbors even knew.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some years ago, Hillary Clinton made an African proverb famous: \u201cIt takes a village to raise a child.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m not a fan of either Clinton, and she caught a lot of flak for what she said.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t think that she was wrong on this matter.\u00a0 And Latter-day Saint wards supply such \u201cvillages.\u201d\u00a0 They supplement the efforts of parents and extended families, providing teachers, youth leaders and activities, scouting programs, youth service projects, and the like. \u00a0Parents aren\u2019t left on their own for the moral and social formation of their children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m put in mind of Robert Putnam\u2019s famous 2000 book\u00a0Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. \u00a0<\/i>The book\u00a0surveys the decline of \u201csocial capital\u201d in the United States since 1950, describing what Putnam holds to be\u00a0a marked reduction in all the forms of in-person social intercourse upon which Americans once\u00a0founded and enriched the fabric of their social lives. \u00a0A distinguished\u00a0political scientist, he believes that this trend undermines the active civil engagement on which\u00a0a strong democracy depends. \u00a0If the earlier Harvard sociologist David Riesman hadn\u2019t already used the phrase, in rather a different sense, as the title of a famous book of his own, Putnam could easily have described America as, more and more, a \u201clonely crowd.\u201d \u00a0And I doubt very much that Putnam regards internet message boards as an adequate replacement for genuine community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are many other values to be found in participation in Latter-day Saint Sunday meetings, or, anyway, in something very like them. \u00a0They may not be as hedonistically satisfying as snowboarding or mountain biking on the Sabbath, but they\u2019re probably more important, and perhaps even more satisfying, in the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Take singing, for example. \u00a0Some have noticed that, once Americans are out of high school and into their mid-twenties, most never sing much any more. \u00a0A small thing, you might think, but not completely unimportant. \u00a0Church, however, offers not only congregational singing, but the chance to participate in a choir. \u00a0And, for some, the opportunity to play the piano and the organ on a regular basis. \u00a0Good things. \u00a0They keep music alive among ordinary people who aren\u2019t professionals at it. \u00a0We who participate in church have other sources of music beyond iPods. \u00a0We\u2019re not just spectators, not merely passive consumers of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Latter-day Saints, Sunday worship offers a weekly opportunity to renew covenants. \u00a0Even if critics recognize no transcendent significance in the sacrament service, surely they might be able to see that taking weekly stock of where one stands, and forming weekly resolutions to improve, can have real value.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunday services provide a chance for reflection on the biggest of big issues, an opportunity to pause and take stock of oneself and one\u2019s life. \u00a0And not just during the administration of the sacrament. \u00a0Otherwise, the pressures to careen thoughtlessly through life \u2014 \u201cdistracted from distraction by distraction,\u201d as T. S. Eliot puts it in the first of his Four Quartets<\/em> \u2014 are intense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At church, we think about the meaning of life. \u00a0We become part of a community of Saints that reaches back not only into the early nineteenth century but beyond, into biblical times. \u00a0And, even beyond that, into an eternity before this life that extends into an eternity ahead. \u00a0Especially for Americans, who tend to live in an ahistorical Now, this provides a deeply rich ground for our daily lives and decisions and pursuits. \u00a0We\u2019re part of a communion of Saints, of those who\u2019ve gone before and those who will follow after us. \u00a0And I haven\u2019t even mentioned family history research, so much encouraged and supported by the Church.) \u00a0On an even grander scale, too, the Plan of Salvation, the Great Plan of Happiness, endows every day with potentially cosmic meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently a Gospel Doctrine teacher in Sunday school. \u00a0It\u2019s my favorite Church calling, bar none. \u00a0And, today, we discussed John 3-4, focusing basically on Jesus\u2019 encounters with Nicodemus and then with the Samaritan woman at the well. \u00a0From one perspective, church is a kind of continuing adult education seminar. \u00a0It\u2019s fabulous, as even those who deny their divine inspiration should be able to see, to be able to come together each week in order to discuss some of the greatest and most influential texts in human history. \u00a0For those of us who believe that, in doing so, we\u2019re hearing the word of God, it\u2019s an inestimable treasure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are even benefits to be gained from simply dressing up. \u00a0I\u2019m not someone who loves suits and ties; I prefer, indeed, not to wear shoes. \u00a0But I feel sorry for those whose days and weeks are casual all the time, without variation, without certain times and places being demarcated as special, as worthy of somewhat greater formality. \u00a0This adds richness to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Participating in a community of discipleship offers enormous scope for service \u2014 which, as many studies have shown, is a major source of human happiness. \u00a0It\u2019s not only the children and the youth who benefit from programs for young people. \u00a0The adults who\u2019re involved in them also benefit. \u00a0And this extends beyond youth programs. \u00a0Teaching, heading up activities, participating in organized efforts to fix up widows\u2019 homes and to shovel snow for the elderly, serving at welfare canneries, volunteering at Church employment centers, setting up chairs for stake conference, providing food for a funeral luncheon, and a host of other, similar efforts, can provide deep satisfaction. \u00a0I think, in this context, particularly of my service as a bishop, which exposed me to people and situations and experiences I would never otherwise have had. \u00a0They tested me, and sometimes they worked me to the bone, and I didn\u2019t always handle them as effectively and competently as I wished, but I grew from them in a manner that few other assignments could have matched.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I appreciate a community in which elderly people can still contribute, and in which they\u2019re valued. \u00a0Not merely within a family, but publicly. \u00a0And not merely for their monetary value, or their productivity as employees, which largely ends when they retire. \u00a0In my ward, older men and women serve in multiple capacities, including the temple and various leadership roles. \u00a0They aren\u2019t marginalized into irrelevancy.\u00a0 They still have value.\u00a0 They\u2019re still relevant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that the preaching in our congregations isn\u2019t done by polished professionals. \u00a0It can be uneven. \u00a0Sometimes it can be a bit pedestrian. But it\u2019s often quite personal and heartfelt, and, through it, we learn to know about our neighbors, and to know them, in remarkable ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, in particular, was our monthly day for fasting and for expressing testimonies in sacrament meeting. \u00a0It was, as it generally is when I approach it in the proper spirit, remarkable. \u00a0And not merely the comments made in the meeting by members of our ward. \u00a0The opportunity to abstain from food for two meals, and then to donate at least the amount of money saved thereby for assistance to the (mostly local) poor, is a wonderful one. \u00a0The money doesn\u2019t go to fundraising campaigns, or to expensive overhead, but directly to people who need it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And today, as it happens, our discussion in priesthood meeting focused on Elder Jeffrey R. Holland\u2019s powerful remarks<\/a> to the October 2014 General Conference of the Church, which took as their theme helping the poor.\u00a0 Taught by a neighbor who is a former mayor of the adjacent city of Provo, it was very motivating to me and, I suspect, to others.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

These are just a few hasty thoughts. \u00a0If I were to forego gathering with the Saints on Sundays, I would miss out on all or most of what I\u2019ve mentioned above, and probably on much else besides. \u00a0Would there be some gains? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0I might get more writing done. \u00a0I could, very conceivably, spend more time in the mountains. \u00a0I would have more time for television and, even better, for reading. \u00a0And so forth. \u00a0But, in the long term, even (for now) bracketing the eternal benefits that I foresee, my life would, in several important respects, be measurably less than it now is.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you have anything to add? \u00a0(Confession: \u00a0I\u2019m more interested in comments from believing Latter-day Saints here than I am in hearing from sneering and alienated former believers. \u00a0I already know pretty much what they think. \u00a0That\u2019s what led me to write this.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I look forward to normalcy after COVID.\u00a0 May it come soon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from St. George, Utah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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