Pioneer Heritage
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:36 pm
I live far away from the Morridor. In a community rich in diversity and culture. Youth conference this week-pioneer treks and handcart activities......sigh.
A place to love and accept the people who think about and live Mormonism on their own terms.
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I don't know if it is pride in them or a tool the leaders can use to guilt common members into obedience. Kind of like, "look what these people sacrificed for you. How can you throw away this kind of sacrifice?" Kind of like don't ever eat out with my husband, because if you don't eat every bite, he will tell you how that cow sacrificed its life for you and how can you just throw that kind of sacrifice away. He TRIES to do it all with a straight face because if he cracks up laughing, it gives it away. He pulled it on a friend once in Florida about not eating all her shrimp and made her eat the rest and she was sick from eating too much. Who would dare to turn their back on a church who the founder gave his life for, plus all those poor children who died crossing the plains to establish Zion.Corsair wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:56 am Mormons are really proud of pioneers. It's an example of large group of people who were willing to "Follow the Prophet" and make a dangerous trek to a new land where LDS leaders had decades of religious autocracy. Most pioneers lived and died in humble abasement before the prophet that sent them to a remote wilderness to toil away their mortality in poverty, sacrifice, and obedience. The pioneer spirit greatly desired by leaders today.
The hard work, determination, and general lives that these people lived, as well as the infrastructure built and that we enjoy today is something to be celebrated. I’m not a big fan of the Mormon interpretation of “pioneer,” or the idea that the only pioneers out there were Mormons – something I think Mormons forget sometimes. Many, many people lived very different pioneer experiences; Mormonism is just a part.FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:49 am On one hand I look at what these people accomplished in populating so much of the western US and am simply amazed at what they built. Going from living in adobe hillside caves and wagon boxes and nearly starving to death, to building the amazing infrastructure we enjoy here in the western US today. It is an amazing human accomplishment.
Very true, I like what historian Will Bagley often says in his speeches at the post mormon conferences, which paraphrased is that you can be proud of what they did, while still not buying into the ideology.MerrieMiss wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:08 am I’ve never been on a pioneer trek, but I think it sounds goofy and promotes characteristics, ideals, and a past that is deeply flawed. I doubt I would have enjoyed it as a youth, and I certainly wouldn’t enjoy going as a leader.
I live in the western US, in a non-Mormon area, that was heavily settled and influenced by pioneers (not the Mormon variety). Every year our school district has the kids (4th grade, I think) decorate little red wagons, and you can see the kids walking a hike and pulling the wagons around the community until they end at the park and have a picnic lunch and play. The kids love it and remember it fondly.
The hard work, determination, and general lives that these people lived, as well as the infrastructure built and that we enjoy today is something to be celebrated. I’m not a big fan of the Mormon interpretation of “pioneer,” or the idea that the only pioneers out there were Mormons – something I think Mormons forget sometimes. Many, many people lived very different pioneer experiences; Mormonism is just a part.FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:49 am On one hand I look at what these people accomplished in populating so much of the western US and am simply amazed at what they built. Going from living in adobe hillside caves and wagon boxes and nearly starving to death, to building the amazing infrastructure we enjoy here in the western US today. It is an amazing human accomplishment.