Term Paper on "How the Mormons Upward Mobility Work by Their Programs of Youths"

Term Paper 9 pages (2396 words) Sources: 3 Style: Chicago

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mormons' upward

The LDS church, and its members (commonly known as Mormons) are demonstrative in their ability to help provide upward mobility to one another as an aspect of the development of the individual in the faith. There have been many research theories associated with eth causality of the relative success of this group over other's base don faith comparisons. This work will not serve as a comparison between the LDS church and other churches but will instead serve as an introduction to youth organizations and support in the faith. The connection between youth organizations and the upward mobility of members is a common and logical connection as support for the next generation, with regard to moral, physical and social connectivity is essential to this group doing remarkably better than the group or generation prior to it (i.e. The parents).

Youth activities that will be included in this work are those that include the youth alone and those that are an aspect of family and youth collective communication activities designed to create multiple opportunities for older members to guide younger members in faith and life activities.

As a foundation of the church there is a sense that the welfare of all active members is the responsibility of his or her fellow church members. It is for this reason that the culture of the church is flooded with examples of mutual business and community support, as well as an active mandate regarding volunteerism and communal welfare systems.

The church in short assumes the responsibility of those within its flock to such as degree that is actively seeks to make sure that no future member of the church (or as few as possible) are placed in a position of poverty.

For this reason the biggest influence of the church is on the development of its individual members to become capable and successful members of the society in which they live. This includes a strong emphasis on youth and individual development that emphasizes personal and community responsibilities and stewardship

Boy Scouts, in some regions Girl Scouts, Campfire, Fireside, Family Home Evening, and as will be explained later in this work a demonstrative list of organizations/activities that form transitional situations for members from childhood to adulthood, are all expected activities associated with childhood in the Mormon church. These activities all work toward the development of the child's adult roles, i.e. each of the groups rules, regulations, personal sacrifices and standards demonstrate a structure that feeds the need to develop such skills early in life. These skilsl then transplant themselves into developmental growth so each individual child, will then have the ability to fulfill roles that are in some cases beyond their age of development.

What this in turn creates is a child who is capable of fulfilling roles of adult expectations later in life, such as education, higher education, employment and in many cases the abilty to actually run an independent business at very young ages. This incentive development is then supplemented by community support of industry, i.e. personal job or education referrals from other members of the faith, utilization of faith owned businesses by many members of the church as an aspect of membership and so forth. So, one can see the logical connection between the early emphasis on structure, goal achievement and opportunity for communication with, elders in the sense of real age and the role name in the church and through youth activities all of which support upward mobility through individual and community skill development. Other faiths, have comparable programs but the Mormon faith seems to be fundamentally more successful than most at youth development.

The high level of involvement among youth in certain activities may be as a result of the Mormon emphasis on compulsory activities. Though children are offered a limited amount of personal freedom the emphasis in the church is definitely placed on role expectations that when defined and displayed to children come across as mandates. At the very least, every other boy or girl his or her age that he or she goes to church with (which is also usually the group they play with at school and otherwise do activities with) are members of the organizations. It is simply a matter of expectation that they will also be involved in such activities. The activities which have been mentioned previously are also in addition to a substantial church sponsored schedule of mandated individuals and family functions:

On Sundays men and boys are required to attend an hour-long priesthood meeting followed by Sunday school for men, women, and children. Sunday activities also include a Sacrament meeting when a communion service is accompanied by impromptu sermons and testimonies of faith from individual members. Young Men and Young Women (Mutual), the two LDS youth groups, meet for at least two hours every week, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday night. The church requires that families spend Monday nights together participating in organized Family Home Evening activities, singing, praying, acting out skits, doing handicrafts, and other activities designed to bring home Christian principles. Most weeks a two-hour fireside address via TV from Salt Lake or various ward socials-pancake breakfasts, dances, spaghetti dinners-are held at meeting houses. Those who don't show up likely will find themselves visited by "home teachers," priests and women in the church's Ladies Relief Society who are required to make one call per month on all members. It is all but impossible to be just a "Sunday Mormon." An additional five hours per week are taken up for students who must attend Mormon religion classes at the seminaries that the church maintains in proximity of public schools or, in areas where Mormons are a minority, at similar sessions in the local ward house.

One can clearly see from this very brief list that the demands of the church for time are substantial and that any additional organizational commitments would add to this active daily and weekly commitment and ensure that youth are fully involved in the organization and fully encapsulated in the fellowship of the church. This brief synopsis is likely to give a clear sense of what Mormon boys and girls tend only to play with other Mormon boys and girls, depending on the region in which they live, and the number of Mormons in the area. The more saturated the local population the more activities an individual child would participate in where the major composition of the group is of the LDS faith.

In communities where there are fewer LDS members, parents and children have a tendency to still get involved in traditional church sanctioned activities, such as Boy Scouts as well as other family/child enrichment organizations in the region. Parents may volunteer to support and/or organize youth programs to ensure their child's participation in them. In several personal examples I can think of, having grown up in a Mormon majority community and lived the rest of my life outside one, mothers may volunteer to become den mothers (or in the case of girl scouts, troop leaders) for an entirely new troop, so the composition of this troop can be mostly young members of the troop. Adult church members might also sponsor independent childhood organizations such as 4H (an agriculture program that allows children to raise livestock and then sell them as a growth and learning experience.) Parents may also choose to home school children or in some cases be very actively involved in volunteer work at a school they choose to allow their children attend. Volunteerism is a strong cultural and community standard within the church.

One author chose to bring out the emphasis of the faith of youth organizations as an aspect of strict regimented and organized rites of passage for members into codified adult roles. Structure is clearly a sentiment of the faith, as one can see from the overwhelming schedule, expected to be upheld by members as well as the formation of social and civic participation as a compulsory aspect of church membership and service.

The difference may be found in the amount of structure that exists in the LDS culture, in general, and the LDS university, in specific. While emerging adulthood in the United States tends to lack roles and responsibilities, the LDS culture tends to provide a great deal of structure that outlines roles and responsibilities for emerging adults. Examples include (a) advancement in the Priesthood (i.e., authority to engage in certain ceremonies and ordinances) for males between the ages of 18 and 20, (b) entering the Relief Society (i.e., the women's organization of the church) for females, - attending the temple for the first time, (d) mission service, and (e) "callings" to serve in positions of responsibility (i.e., conduct church meetings or assignments to care for other church members).These events provide LDS emerging adults structure and require them to focus on others and engage in "proper" behavior.

The church mandate that is associated with the development of "exclusive" organizational participation in youth, is demonstrated later in teen, and… READ MORE

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