The Mormon Moment

So recently there have been several articles talking about “The End of the Mormon Moment”, most recently an article in the NY Times by the same title “The End of the Mormon Moment”.  In these articles, many claim that the excommunication of Kate Kelly and the Ordain Women movement has driven the final nail in the coffin and thus this Mormon Moment (narrowly defined as the LDS Church gaining national recongition, much of which is associated with the church’s PR campaign “I’m a Mormon” and Mitt Romney’s Presidential run) has ended and from this point forward the church will just go away into obscurity.

While it is true that  there was a major spike in terms of coverage of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints associated with Mitt Romney’s run for President, the over all search trends of church related terms such as  “mormon”, “mormonism”, “lds”, and “lds church” has continued to increase and has almost doubled since last year at this time.

 

This idea or notion that the church is now irrelevant because Mitt Romney is no longer running for president is just simply not true.  Scholars, journalists and many individuals throughout the country continue to write stories and headlines about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The fact that they are even writing about “The end of the Mormon Moment” shows the church’s continued relevance.

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Another aspect to consider is that there are so many influential and prominent members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that there will inevitably be another “Mormon Moment” to come for the church.  This was not the first time a Mormon has run for the President of the United States and I assure you it won’t be the last.  Also, members of the church are now found throughout executive level positions in prominent Fortune 500 companies, the film, theater and music industries, the highest levels of sports and in scientific and other scholarly endeavors. In short, Mormons are everywhere and hold prominent positions in pretty much every industry of note. With so many prominent members throughout various industries and throughout the world, strictly in terms of interest and making national headlines, the church will be perfectly fine moving forward and will have plenty of opportunities and exposure to tell its story to the world.

The Deeper Issue At Hand

The much deeper issue at hand however is this current PR battle that the church is facing dealing with the “Ordain Women Movement” and the “Gays and Lesbian” issue.

I’m not going to sugar coat it; this is a difficult challenge to handle.  On the one hand you have the church’s official stances on the issues and on the other, you have many individuals (not all of them) asking sincere questions as to how to handle the issues at hand.  The church has been more compassionate and welcoming of those of same sex attraction as can be seen through their recent efforts and website Mormons and Gays.org.  They have been open to listening to members of the church in terms of women’s contributions to the church, their roles and making changes as is necessary and appropriate.

All this being said, this is the Lord’s church.  He will run it as He always has and ultimately that is what all of these questions boil down to.  Do you believe that this is the Lord’s church?  Do you believe that He still leads, directs and inspires His leaders to run His church accordingly, despite any human or personal weaknesses they may have?

This is not the only time the church has had to face tough questions or situations.  Will the church or leaders of the church make mistakes?  Of course, they’re only human but in the end the Lord is in charge and just as it has in the past, the Lord’s church will continue to move forward “boldly, nobly and independent” despite any momentary challenges it may seem to be facing at the time.  The leaders truly are the Lord’s anointed and as such, they will guide and lead the church in a manner that is in harmony to how the Lord wants His church to be run at the time.

Our religion has always faced opposition even from the very beginning.  This idea that the “Mormon Moment” started only a few years ago is taking a very myopic view of the history of the church.  The “Mormon Moment” really started in a quiet grove, when a 14 year old boy had a sincere question he wanted to ask of the Lord.

Many of these articles and posts about how “This is the end of the Mormon Moment” brings up old distant memories of newspaper headlines proclaiming “The End of Mormonism” when the prophet Joseph Smith was murdered.  Just as it was shown back then and just as it will prove to be in the future, this is not the end but the beginning of the “Mormon Moment.”