Posted on 04/21/2005 9:32:00 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Utah May Be One of Fastest-Growing States
By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press Writer
April 21, 2005, 7:42 AM EDT
SALT LAKE CITY -- With a big influx of retirees and lots of fertile, family-minded Mormons, Utah is projected to be one of the five fastest-growing states over the next three decades.
The Census Bureau said Thursday that Utah's population is expected to increase 56 percent, or by more than 1.2 million people, between 2000 and 2030. Nevada and Arizona are expected to double in population, and a gain of nearly 80 percent is projected in Florida and almost 60 percent in Texas.
One reason for the boom in Utah is the Mormon church. It is estimated at least 70 percent of the state's 2.2 million residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Because of the church's emphasis on big families, Utah's fertility rate is 2.56 children per woman of childbearing age, the highest in the nation. (The national rate was 2.03 in 2001.) The state also has the nation's highest average of people per household, 3.13, and the lowest median age, 27.5.
It also has one of the nation's fastest-growing older populations. Its 65-and-older population has climbed 27 percent in the past 10 years, and will rise an additional 28 percent in the next decade, according to the Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services.
Retiring baby boomers -- many of them from California -- are moving to Utah, often drawn by the red-rock beauty of the southern part of the state.
Judy and Steve Merrill moved to St. George, billed unofficially as Utah's retirement capital, last fall from their home in northern Virginia. They previously owned a second home in Arizona.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
But even if polygamy was legalized, the LDS church might not resume its practice due to political considerations. Yes they still have the 132nd Section of the D&C scripture book. But lately their prophet Gordon B. Hinckley has taken a very flexible approach on doctrine/truth. For example:
(1) Whether God was once a man and whether men can become Gods used to be a very solid teaching in the church. But now nobody really knows anything about it anymore. Its just more a couplet than anything.
(2) Valiant women are no longer required to covenant to obey the law of their husband. Now they just have to hearken to his counsel as he hearkens to the counsel of the Father.
(3) Joseph Smith and Brigham Young knew very profoundly with absolute certainty that the ancestors of the Indians were of Hebrew origin. Now with the Limited Geography Theory, this whole idea is pretty fuzzy.
(4) President Hinckley has said in the October 2001 General Conference that he doesn't know what the future holds. In the past, LDS prophets knew all sorts of things about the future. But now the prophets don't know much about the future.
(5) The church used to be very vocal about the evils of Monogamy and how the one-wife institution brought down the Roman civilization or any other civilization that practiced such an institution. However, lately, the church has not been critical of the institution of monogamy.
(6) God's law used to be DEATH ON THE SPOT for interracial marriage according to LDS prophet Brigham Young. In 1978, the LDS First Presidency announced that black men could be ordained to the Priesthood but the church leaders re-emphasized in a light manner their concerns about interracial marriage. Lately they don't talk about this much anymore.
They still believe that Brigham Young was a true prophet. Same goes for the other 13 men who are former church presidents. But they think that God has been changing his doctrines to adapt with the times through modern revelation. Just like D&C 101 was zapped in 1876 (i.e. the one that forbid polygamy) to make way for canonization of the present D&C 132, the LDS church president might get another revelation to abolish D&C 132.
I tend to think that they'll not resume practicing polygamy because overall it'll bring them more tithing and baptisms to not resume it's practice. As my sister, a returned LDS missionary, once told me, "who cares if they lie, what matters is that they save souls".
Okay, granted. Doctrine & Covenants does lay out the groundwork for the practice, based in Old Testament customs of taking multiple wives. The Manifesto issued by Wilford Woodruff in 1890 established the "restraining order" if you will, and asked that all members of the Church judge for themselves to continue the practice or be subject to reprisals per the Law of the Land. What I was getting at was that practicing members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints DO NOT practice polygamy at this point in time. There are members of the Reformed Church in Southern Utah and Norther Arizona, which are pretty much the Orthodox version of the Mormons, that still practice polygamy on the sly, but if I remember right the RLDS Church frowns on the practice as well. These people are not associated with the LDS Church in any way. They chose to follow Joseph Smith's son as a prophet rather than Brigham Young.
Anyway...not to hijack this thread into a discussion of polygamy, having been raised Mormon (my wife and I attend a small Bible Church now) it still irritates me when people make false statements about the Church.
You forgot to mention the Churches on almost every block. :)
So...you saw my sister with her 5 kids in the supermarket?
at the rate Phoenix is growing it might be the opposite, LA might be a suburb of Phoenix.
MY family isnt Mormon, but I have 8 brothers and sisters, and 22 nieces and nephews.
I did not say it was only a momon thing. But They do have a bus load of kids.
Quite true! Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, etc. churches have to be located in the commercial sections of cities, but every residential neighborhood has an LDS church right smack in the middle. If you stood on a rooftop, and looked at the steeples, they occur with the frequency you'd see the pins on a golf course!
So...you saw my sister with her 5 kids in the supermarket?
Yes, they were yelling and screaming for some hyper-sugared cereal to make them even MORE unpleasant! I just look at the women and give a quick smile, they seem to be grateful for some adult human contact.
Yeah, my brother-in-law works long hours keeping up with his job. :)
Seriously though, they were only going to have 4 but the last batch turned out twins. All very cute, but then I am biased.
Mmm... my mom grew up there... Utah is most certainly not big on polygamy. And while the church organization refrains from influencing politics, as do most churches, I am not in a position of authority, and am more than welcome to involve myself in (and take sides in) politics. I find it quite entertaining.
And all the people in New York are pro-Hillary for president.
"Liberals move to conservative areas when they tire of the consequences of years of liberal policies. Unfortunately, they bring with them their same liberal mentality."
That's what I've been saying for years. They're like parasites that have killed of the old host and move to a new one.
Show me documentation. I'd bet that you don't even know his name. If you really aren't interested, and you certainly aren't educated, don't go running your mouth. Read in James ch4 on the tongue... good stuff.
"Boy ain't that the truth....even in Nashville."
We didn't have to many out in Dickson county. The ones that were there were mostly in Kingston Springs where they could be next to the interstate. White Bluff, where I used to live, was just a little too rough for them.
God is unchanging, now, before, forever. If he were anything else, he would cease to be a god. You would not find any of the 6 points supported in any LDS book or site... try www.lds.org for all of your facts on the Mormons... I think they know best.
I was just in Salt Lake City last week. It is a beautiful place with the moutains everywhere. My dad said that because of the mountains if the wind ever dies down they have smog issues though. Thankfully the wind blew pretty good the whole time I was there.
Also anyone thinking of moving there better trade in what they are driving now and get a Subaru Outback. It looked required to have one.
White Bluff still has a don't mess with us rep.
Good point on the Outback, I drive a small SUV, and it helps in the snow.
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