Reminds me of the Stepford wives. They have to take their pills at noon to stay the perfect wife.
Posted on 01/24/2011 6:39:20 PM PST by Colofornian
(SALT LAKE CITY)-The Salt Lake Tribune reports early indications show the number of babies born in Utah dropped for the second consecutive year in 2010.
Jim Bradshaw, the director of planning information for Intermountain Healthcare, which delivers 55 percent of the state’s babies, blamed the economy as the impetus for reduced numbers.
From 2009-2010, births at hospitals owned by IHC, MountainStar Hospitals and the University of Utah Health Care and Health Sciences dropped by 2.5 percent, or a little more than 1,000 births.
Collectively, these hospitals combined for almost 43,000 births, well below the state average of 55,000.
The state’s department of health has not yet compiled statewide births for 2010, but 2009 marks the first time, births have dropped since 1993.
Bradshaw says that if the economy were functioning normally, last year births would have likely grown as much as the overall population did, an estimated 1.5 percent.
The number of births paid for by Medicaid did not decline, but instead jumped by 2 percent in 2010 to 13,888.
Schools won’t see the effects of these reductions until 2013, when babies born in 2008 will be in kindergarten.
Presently, school enrollment continues to grow, by 13,000 this year, but without any additional money from the extra bodies.
Beyond being a reflection on the economy, why is this article significant?
#1 Utah has the lowest median age in the country…Aside from any Mormon context (Utah is 60% Lds), its increase of child-bearing women these past few years should actually have shown an increase given previous state stats.
#2 Look @ the premium Mormon culture places on childbirth – reason being is because Mormons believe baby-spirits from Kolob are waiting their turn for a new body to show up so they can come down & inhabit it…(yeah, I know, it sounds both pagan – like cultures that used to kill twins because they thought the second baby was inhabited by an evil spirit…as well as overdosing on Greek philosophy – an overkill in separating spirit & body)…
Below is a quote from Lds “prophet” Joseph Fielding Smith, who in turn quotes Brigham Young...Young's words are in the single quotations:
"President Brigham Young has this to say...'There are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty? To prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of EVERY righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles FOR ALL the spirits THEY CAN.' If these iniquitous practices find their place in our hearts and we are guilty, then when we arrive on the other side - and discover that we have deprived ourselves of eternal blessings and are accused by President Young has said, they were forced to take bodies in the families of the wicked-how will we fell? Moreover, may we not lose our own salvation if we violate this divine law?" (Lds "prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines, of Salvation, Vol. II, p. 88).
Lds "apostle" Bruce McConkie wrote: Today the cry is heard in some quarters that these statements calling upon parents to provide bodies for the spirit hosts of heaven are outmoded...But God's decree and the counsel of the prophets remain unchanged...the position of the true Church remains fixed." (Mormon Doctrine, p. 86)
Bottom line: Lds "prophets" have suggested that Mormon women who don't have as many children as they can -- to accommodate all these supposed spirits up there awaiting a body -- can "lose their salvation."
If it wasn't true...then why did Joseph Fielding Smith suggest it? Why does McConkie claim that "the counsel of the prophets remain unchanged...the position of the true Church remains fixed..."???
Utah boasts the most number of married-family homes…a % that actually even rose 2% in the past few years. This means Utah culture is marriage-focused in deterring divorce as couples go through their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
Yet when we check under the hood among Utah singles, we see that the stats are moving the other way.
If you check Statemaster.com & averaged the % of unmarried by state, you’ll see 17 states have more once-married adults (%-wise) than Utah. (A couple of years ago, that was 16 states). Even Nevada has 1% more once-married women than Utah! And when you compare Utah to other Western states that also has a high Mormon population – states like Wyoming & Idaho – Utah has about 2.5% more never-married men than those states. [29% of Utah men have never married: Percent of Men Who Never Married (most recent) by state … see also Percent of Women Who Never Married (most recent) by state ]
Hence, % - wise, marriage is down even tho the actual # of marriages are still high in the state. BYU’s newspaper noted this last January:
…fewer BYU students are getting married during their college years than ever before. According to the Y Facts University Marriage Statistics page, the percentage of married students at BYU has steadily declined from 29 percent in 1992 to 25 percent in 2009. While a 4-percent drop may not seem like much, it reflects a national trend of the aging single population. Source: BYU Daily Universe: Sister missionaries and the aging single population (Jan. 22, 2010)
The thing is that marriage is HEAVILY stressed in Lds culture. How heavy?
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith: ...this doctrine of the eternal union of the husband and wife and of plural marriage, is one of the most important doctrines ever revealed to man in any age of the world. Without it man would come to a full stop; without it we never could be exalted to associate with and become gods neither could we attain to the power of eternal increase... (Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 21, pp. 9-10)
So, Lds "prophets" have said that Mormons can't "become gods" minus marriage...that's how much import is placed on marriage in Mormon culture!
BTW, if you’re wonderin when Joseph F. Smith became a Mormon “prophet” (since he mentions “plural marriage” – polygamy – above) he was the Lds “prophet” during the early 1900s – a decade after the Mormon church issued the manifesto to slow down polygamy!
What implications do these statistical trends have? Does it show men in the region who despite the tremendous cultural pressure refuse to "settle down?"
My daughter & husband live in Park City, UT. They are expecting in mid, late May. This one will be my 5th grandchild. Woohoo!
She was raised Mormon, he’s Catholic. I’m a jack Mormom.
Reminds me of the Stepford wives. They have to take their pills at noon to stay the perfect wife.
Super! (Encourage your son-in-law to assume the spiritual initiative in the household)
Are you pushing a certain religion?
TAXPAYERS!!!
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
You see, while the Mormon church presents God's Kingdom as an issue of personal worthiness, the Biblical Good News is that yes, NONE of us are indeed worthy -- and therefore we are to trust in the personal righteousness & worthiness of Jesus on our behalf.
Please look again at this verse from this parable Jesus told -- v. 15: Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
So we see that the Kingdom of heaven is like $ that HE owns -- and He GIVES (note the word "generous") it out at different stages of people's lives...some early...some late...only HE has the right to determine His generosity...vs. the presumption of workers in this parable who thought that because they worked longer & harder -- that they would get a higher place in heaven.
So can you see based on this parable how what the Mormon church presented to you was way off-base?
You see, you give gifts to your daughter & her grandchildren out of sheer love...no hoop-jumping required. Oh, sure, you expect them to relate to you as "Grandma" and as "Mom," but you don't first make your grandchildren prove their worthiness to you before you love them & gift them gifts & even forgive them if they hurt you. You initiate ALL of that out of your love.
Well, that, too is our true Father's love -- NOT the commandment legalistic overlord presentation of the Mormon god!
So...I was hoping that your grandchildren could escape legalistic ritualism -- which BTW is NOT limited to Mormon homes -- before it enveloped them.
It's devouring Medicaid's budget.
I’ll bet that births among the hundreds of thousands of illegals in Utah are NOT down. And Utah has now declared itself a “welcoming” place.
Illegals will eventually breed the LDS out of their dominance in Utah.
I believe you are correct. The Salt Lake City region has a high (& growing) Hispanic population -- which makes the declining birth rate in Utah all the more noticeable. IOW, I'm sure the Hispanic population is doing their fair share to avoid any kind of birth dearth.
If that's a reality (I don't have #s at my disposal -- just observation in SLC)...then the white Mormon population is probably dipping more than just 2.5% in births the past few years.
Firstly, I'm the grandpa. Secondly, I'm a business owner. From the passage you quoted, Matthew 20:1-16, if I did that I would have disgruntled laborers too. You don't reward slackers. It gives no incentive for the productive workers in your employ and as a direct result, this landowner you cite would surely loose his crop.
I'm sure that there is more to this passage that you have cropped out. I am a jack Mormon. I haven't been inside ANY church in over 30 years. I would like to offer you this one thing. Tearing down anothers religion does not raise yours. I just walked away. Let them be them. They do no harm to others, not like Islam, which is not a religion, but a political ideology bent on destroying all other religions. Yours included. God Bless you and may you have a happy & prosperous New Year.
First of all, Jesus said why at least some of them weren't working -- it wasn't "slack" -- it was lack of a hiring agent: Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. (vv. 6-7)
Think of where all the employees would be if there weren't enough business owners like yourself employing them? It's not always the employee's fault that they are jobless. It's owners like you who have taken the risks, stepped forward, & employed those men. Less of successful men like you = less employed.
When you give gifts to your grandchildren @ Christmas, does the 4 yo complain that he's only rec'd four Christmas gifts through the years while the 14 yo has rec'd 14 such gifts?
You know as well as I do that every business owner already does what you claim leads to "disgruntled workers" -- they agree to give an admin or office worker less than a "professional" in their office.
Some of those admins or other office workers may be among your hardest-working employees -- yet get paid less. Do you automatically assign a "disgruntled" nature to them just because the owner has agreed to pay certain employees a higher wage with HIS $???
No sense of consistency of application there, I perceive.
The bottom line is that it's YOUR $ as the Business Owner. As long as you stick to your agreement, anybody envious about how you spend YOUR $ is sticking their neck into a place it doesn't belong.
If you've given one of your grandchildren 14 Christmas gifts vs. 4 for another -- so what? If you do that every year for the rest of your life, your older children/grandchildren are ALWAYS to be greater beneficiaries of your generosity than the younger ones.
You're not facilitating begrudgement and disgruntledness.
Now if all of this is true in family relationships & office environments, how much more is it true involving a kingdom NO ONE can work his way to...heaven...a place which 100% depends upon the Lord's generosity...a place which is 100% HIS to dispense with as He pleases...without telling the LORD that He's either instilling envy -- or that He must only allow married temple Mormons into His presence for eternity.
Now that is an elitism that NO, nobody should leave alone! That does plenty of harm because it literally defines heaven as a place where God isn't! (It confines Heavenly Father to only the "celestial" part of heaven -- where 99.9%+ of the world won't reside!)
However, you need to engage the working world more. It's different away from the keyboard.
You didn't address my point about tearing down anothers religion nor the part about Islam being an ideology. Any thoughts?
Everest, you have presumed here that the lone or primary harm is of a physical nature -- as if there's not things spiritually worse than the Pentagon & Twin Towers being hit.
I take my cue from Jesus:
"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." (Luke 12:4-5)
So does Jesus say, "fear the Muslims?" (No)
Does Jesus say "fear the political ideologists of destruction?" (No)
Does Jesus say "fear those who are out to cause you bodily harm?" (No)
Instead, does He say to exercise fear of the One who has authority to cast somebody into hell? (Yes)
So, indeed, our "fear" is on behalf of those who are placing their eternal spiritual lives at risk.
As for "leaving them be" I could probably guess that the folks who the apostle Paul warned the church @ Ephesus about had the bulk in common with the sheep there. Both groups were "religious." So, did Paul ignore them? (No)
As Paul was leaving the church of Ephesus, he warned them with this high-priority alert:
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears." (Acts 20:29-31)
Paul's cultural priority? (Defend against the false disciples who will proselytize the flock and draw away men unto themselves!)
Tearing down anothers religion does not raise yours.
You know and I know that Mormons tend toward religious legalism. Now you and I know that's not 100% bad externally speaking.
In fact, Jesus did give a great compliment to to the outward "assets" of legalistic Pharisees when he said that unless your righteousness exceeded that of the Pharisees & the teachers of the law, "you will certainly NOT enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20).
Now had Jesus stopped there in his public ministry re: how he addressed the legalistic Pharisees, we would have none of the "tearing down" types of statements you actually are inadvertently referencing.
Let me provide several examples of Jesus addressing the religious of His day:
* 25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Jesus, Matthew 23:25-28)
* But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Jesus, Matthew 15:9)
* ...guard against the yeast...against the TEACHING of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Jesus, Matthew 16:12)
* ... you have taken away the key to knowledge. (Jesus, Luke 11:52)
* The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. (Jesus, John 8:47...in fact, Jesus went on in this chapter to reference them as children of the devil!)
And:
* He [Jesus] replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!... 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” (Jesus, Mark 10: 6-9, 13)
He even "tore down" the Sadducees on this occasion: Jesus replied, “You are IN ERROR because you DO NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES OR THE POWER OF GOD. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you... (Matthew 22:29-31)
Of course, why would something need to be "torn down?"
Everest, if you absolutely knew that a shack that a family was trusting in to withstand a hurricane about to arrive in two days, would you go around public advocating that the shack be left intact as a sense of false security?
We all know human error involved in condom usage. If you knew that condoms was the only thing standing in the way of your teen-age grandchild having sex with someone with AIDs, would you tout that condom as "doing no harm?"
I mean, c'mon, Everest. Many teens can't even make their bed or clean their room properly, and they, 100% of the time are going to "consistently and correctly" store & utilize a condom? [not to mention any inherent leakages -- some brands worse than others?]
***Reminds me of the Stepford wives. They have to take their pills at noon to stay the perfect wife. ****
You are thinking of a made for TV movie RETURN OF THE STEPFORD WIVES. The original with Kathrine Ross is the women were replaced with robots.
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