scholarly journals A Divine Rebellion: Indigenous Sacraments among Global “Lamanites”

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 280
Author(s):  
Daniel Hernandez
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Identity Shifts ◽  
The Church ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

This essay engages with some of the experiences and metaphysics of Indigenous peoples who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism/LDS/the Church) by responding to their structural construction as “Lamanites”. Lamanites have been interpreted within Mormonism to be ancestors of various global Indigenous peoples of the “Americas” and “Polynesia”. This essay reveals how contemporary Indigenous agency by presumed descendants of the Lamanites, who embrace both an Indigenous and a Mormon identity, shifts the cosmology of the Church. Interpretations of TheBook of Mormon that empower contemporary Indigenous agency paradoxically materialize a divinely inspired cultural rebellion within the Church itself. However, this tension that is mediated by Lamanites in the Church is not framed as an exclusive response to the Church itself but, rather, to a larger global hegemony of coloniality to which the Church is subject. These Lamanite worldviews can be understood as a process of restoring ancestral Indigenous sacraments (rituals) through Mormon paradigms, which are found and nurtured in the cracks and fissures of both the material and ontological infrastructure of Mormonism’s dominant paradigm. When Indigenous Mormons assert autonomous authorship of their own cosmogony and metaphysics, the Church beliefs of restoring a ‘primitive Christian church’ and ‘becoming Gods’ is creatively transformed into a more relevant and liberating possibility here and now.

Utilizing Brief Spiritual Assessments with Clients who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-44
Author(s):  
Gordon Limb ◽  
David Hodge ◽  
Richard Alboroto
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
The United States ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Church Culture ◽  
Spiritual Assessment ◽  
Mental Health Settings ◽  
Consistency Strengths ◽  
Growing Churches ◽  
The Church

 In recent years social work has increasingly focused on spirituality and religion as key elements of cultural competency.  The Joint Commission—the nation's largest health care accrediting organization—as well as many other accrediting bodies require spiritual assessments in hospitals and many other mental health settings. Consequently, specific intervention strategies have been fostered in order to provide the most appropriate interventions for religious clients. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest and one of the faster growing churches in the United States.  In an effort to facilitate cultural competence with clients who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, a brief spiritual assessment instrument was developed.  This mixed-method study asked experts in Church culture (N = 100) to identify the degree of cultural consistency, strengths, and limitations of the brief spiritual assessment instrument. Results indicate that the framework is consistent with Church culture and a number of practice-oriented implications are offered.

Pkejudice and Racial Identity among White Latter-Day Saint College Students: An Exploratory Study

1996 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 1025-1026
Author(s):  
Timothy B. Smith ◽  
Richard N. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Culture ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Racial Tolerance ◽  
The Church

Previous research has documented increases in racial tolerance of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons or LDS). In the present study, 211 LDS college students held predominantly tolerant attitudes on racial identity which were similar to those of 78 non-LDS peers; however, the LDS subjects expressed more naivete, curiosity, and confusion regarding black people and black culture.

Motivation for Mission

1974 ◽  
Vol os-24 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Jean Skuse
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Church ◽  
God's Work

Let us recognize at the outset that we are talking about a complex picture. Any generalization about “all missionaries” or “missionaries as a whole” is likely to be erroneous. We would also recognize that the role of mission is changing, and is constantly being re-examined in the light of new understandings and challenges. We would also admit that it is unlikely that there is a single motivation - that what drives people in different directions depends on so many of life's circumstances. And yet we need to examine our motives very carefully, to identify some as clearly being the wrong motives and to ask the question which was submitted to me for this paper: “How can we get ‘turned-on’ to do God's work today? Why is a Christian compelled to share what he/she knows of what God has done in Jesus Christ?” A motive, of course, is any consideration which moves the will, that which drives us to certain actions, and directs us towards particular goals. Motivation depends so much on the goal and vice versa. The two are almost inseparable. “Mission” or “missions” refer to the special task to which an individual or groups is destined. The usual connotation in the Christian Church involves being sent out by God or the church charged with responsibility for such functions as preaching the gospel, teaching the Word, healing the sick, proselytizing the heathen, and introducing the appropriate rites and ceremonies to accompany these functions. These are the traditional tasks of mission. We talk too of partnership in mission, sharing Christian communities, of involving ourselves in the secular processes. Our missionary motivation is intimately bound up with our understanding of what mission is all about. If we see mission as extending the Christian Church this will call forth one kind of motivation. If it is to be involved in the raising of the level of humanness of all God's creatures the motivation will be different.

Translation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Taves
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Upstate New York ◽  
The Third ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Church

In 1823, Joseph Smith (1805–44), a farmer and treasure seeker in Upstate New York, had a vision in which a personage told him of ancient golden plates buried in a hillside, which Mormons claim he recovered, translated, and published as the Book of Mormon (1830) and which led to the founding of a restored church (1830). The revelation to Smith that Mormons now refer to as “D&C 3,” that is, the third revelation in the current edition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' canonized Doctrine and Covenants, provides our first direct window into the emergence of early Mormonism. Although there is evidence to suggest that Smith received what he and others viewed as revelations prior to this one, this is the first revelation that was written down at about the time it was received. This chapter centers on that revelation, using it to reconstruct not only the event itself but the events that led up to and followed from it, as they likely appeared to those who were involved at the time.

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