What is Fast and Testimony Meeting?

Once each month, ordinarily the first Sunday, Mormons fast for two meals or 24 hours and donate what they would have spent on those meals to the poor. These offerings go to the ward itself and then only to the main church coffers if there is excess for the ward’s needs. These offerings are made in private, not dropped into a collection plate.

The sacrament meeting for the day follows a different pattern than those for other Sundays, where speakers are assigned ahead of time to deliver spiritual messages to the congregation. After the emblems of the sacrament are passed to the congregation, the meeting is opened up to whomever is moved by the Spirit to come up and bear testimony of the gospel. The main desire is to share testimony that Jesus is the Christ, that He atoned for our sins and invites us to repent and come unto Him, that He lives. Secondarily, a person might offer a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet, and that our current prophet holds the keys to priesthood power today. Most people have had spiritual experiences that have brought them to this witness, and they are free to share them, if they so desire.

Congregational leaders in the Mormon Church are not professional clergymen. They are the plumber or accountant down the street who have been called to serve for a period of time while still attending to their professions and families. They do receive counsel about fast and testimony meetings, and once in awhile have to interrupt testimony-sharing for a number of reasons. For example…

• The person is rambling and going on for too long. Testimonies are meant to be short, so that all who desire to will have time to share.
• The person is not really bearing a testimony, but is using the podium as a soap-box for some personal agenda.

The congregational leader will always try to be gentle and polite in asking the person at the podium to cease speaking, although there are rare occasions where the speaker was trying to cause a commotion and police had to be summoned.

Note that just as in every religious gathering, there are expected patterns of behavior from the congregation as well as the speaker. Speakers in testimony meeting are meant to speak from the heart, and they never bring prepared messages. Congregants never take photographs or videos in the chapel. No one ever applauds. Mormons never call out their approval, as Pentecostals might do, but simply offer a quiet “Amen” after the speaker says at the end of his talk, “…in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

How was this Event Unusual?

Little children often really want to bear testimony, and usually are excited to do so. This desire decreases typically as they mature and really begin to consider what they believe. Very young children will often parrot other children without thinking about what they believe. In Utah, their testimonies commonly sound like this:

I’d like to bear my testimony: I know the Church is true. I know Jesus lives and loves me. I know my family loves me, and I love them. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Children attend “Primary” until age 12, where they are taught basic gospel principles and learn hymns and do activities suitable for their age. At age 12, they move up into classes for teens, then at age 18 move up to classes for adults. Children are baptized at age 8, called “the age of accountability,” when they can discern right from wrong and understand the process of repentance.

This 12-year-old’s experience was unusual in many ways. First, she arrived with a prepared “speech” that was not a testimony, but a declaration of same-sex attraction and perception that the Church could not provide a safe place for her. Second, she had a support group with her that filmed the event, and reacted joyfully after she was eventually interrupted. She and her support group essentially hijacked the meeting.

The mic was switched off before she finished, but the congregational leader was courteous and repeated to the congregation many of the principles from her talk that were universally good.

Is the Mormon Church a Safe Place for Gays?

This girl’s mother had already decided to leave the Church because of the Fall 2016 policy “change” regarding gay marriage among Mormon members. This policy “change” has gotten repeated bad press, and many Mormons don’t even understand it. They have made radical decisions thinking they understood it, which is truly unfortunate.

The repeated statement (incorrect), especially seen in the press, is that children of gays are now considered apostates.

The policy not to baptize or perform ordinances for minor children whose parents oppose the Church has always been in place to avoid contention in the home. These children wait until they are 18 to be baptized but still report many spiritual experiences in the duration. This policy was extended to children of gay households, just as this policy has applied for over 100 years to children whose parents are polygamists. One thing people seem not to understand is that where gay parents are truly supportive of activity in the Church, children may have all ordinances (on a case by case basis), and the full support of the congregation is hoped for and expected.

Another change was that although gay marriage was an offense that could lead to excommunication (as can adultery and fornication by heterosexuals), it used to be called a sexual sin. The world is quickly coming to a place where churches will not be able to label any sexual behavior a sin. Foreseeing this, Mormon leaders changed the name of the sin to be a sin against doctrine, which we call apostasy. Same result, but this is a legal protection so that the Church will not be sued into performing gay marriages. Note that excommunication in the Mormon Church is a step in the repentance process, and all who are removed from the rolls of the Church are encouraged to begin to take steps to be re-baptized. The pursuit of re-baptism happens often, even with gays.

Although the Church will never change its doctrines of marriage, it continues to forward gay rights in all other matters. Salt Lake City was named the most gay-friendly city among cities of its size in the U.S., because of liberal policies encouraged by the Church in Utah. Salt Lake, at the time of this writing, has a gay mayor, and she has had very friendly relations with church leaders as she performs the duties of her office.

*The featured image at the top of this article is a stock image from the Church, and not the girl spoken of in the article.

Elaine S. Dalton has served for five years as the General Young Women’s President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often mistakenly called the Mormon Church).  This is a five-year term of voluntary service fraught with responsibility, service guided by personal revelation from God.  It’s a huge job.  Especially in times when the world is at such odds with religious beliefs.  The Young Women of the Church are taught to be faithful, loving, service-oriented, pure and chaste.  At the beginning of every Sunday young women’s meeting, they recite a theme, which begins, “We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.”  This is the truth Mormons wish to share with the world.  We are sons and daughters of God, and we are eternal beings.

Mormon missionaries teach the “Plan of Salvation” to people who are seeking Christ and trying to find out who they are.  The Plan of Salvation teaches that we have always existed.  We were individual “intelligences” before God the Father made our spiritual bodies before this earth and our mortality.  In our pre-mortal state, we dwelt with Him as His literal spirit-children.  We were intensely interested in the creation of this earth as our future home.  In order to learn to become like our Father, we were taught of the benefits of mortality on earth.  Mortality is a place to learn, to live by faith, and to use our free agency to make choices.  We are also here to form relationships with eternal potential.

Because opposition is an indispensable aspect of free choice, we knew we would sometimes make bad choices.  God promised us a Savior who would take upon Himself our sins and also overcome physical and spiritual death brought upon the world by the fall of Adam and Eve.  All of us supported Jesus Christ, through whom all the worlds were made, as our Savior.  Those who did not, chose to follow Lucifer and were cast out of heaven.  Their progress stopped, and they never will gain mortal or immortal bodies.

All of us were born on earth with the Light of Christ.  Our natural spiritual intuition helps us to know right from wrong.  As we draw closer to Christ, it burns more brightly, but as we turn away, it begins to fade.  The Holy Ghost connects us even more with Our Father in Heaven.  Those who are saved into God’s presence after their mortal journey will continue to grow spiritually, until they become like God, one with Christ.

Because of this plan and our own eternal history, we have identity even before we are conceived.  We have identity, divine identity, even after we pass from this life and for eternity.  When we find out who we are, we also learn that we were unique before we came to earth.  Each of us was asked to perform specific acts of service during our mortal lives.  We have spiritual gifts to help us with things with eternal importance for our families and for God’s work.  Communing with God through the Holy Ghost helps us to find out what our earthly callings are.

Once a person finds out that he or she is an eternal being whom God loves like a father and his children, his or her view of life changes immensely.  We are no longer completely defined by the family or culture we were born to on earth.  Stereotypes, and other negative opinions, no longer need to burden us.  Our Father in Heaven talks to us and we can receive revelation from Him that can guide us back into His presence to inherit eternal glory. Then we can continue to progress in knowledge, talent, power, and service for eternity.  We can become like Him.

Said Sister Dalton of the Mormon Young Women she meets:

It is not only an affirmation of our identity—who we are—but also an acknowledgment of whose we are. We are daughters of an exalted being!

In every country and on every continent, I have met confident, articulate young women, filled with light, refined by hard work and trial, possessing pure and simple faith. They are virtuous. They are covenant keepers who “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.”2 They know who they are and that they have a significant role to play in building the kingdom of God.

May we all discover our own role in God’s eternal plan.  May we discover our eternal worth and our Father in Heaven’s love for us each as His individual children.

Additional Resource:

Meet Mormons

In the Doctrine and Covenants, a collection of modern revelations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often mistakenly called the Mormon Church), it says this about murder, and these are the words of Christ Himself, given by revelation:

And now, behold, I speak unto the church. Thou shalt not kill; and he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come (Doctrine and Covenants 42:18).

It is important to understand how repentance works in Mormonism.  One must recognize his or her sin and feel “godly sorrow,” which is the kind of sorrow that results from the realization that one has offended God.  One must confess to God that one has sinned and prayerfully seek for forgiveness.  Serious sins must also be confessed to one’s bishop (the head of the congregation), and church discipline could be enacted.  Then the person must forsake the sin, turn to God and fully keep His commandments.  The person should also make restitution for whatever he has taken or damaged by restoring what he can to the person or people he has offended.  And here is the reason why blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, murder, abortion, and adultery are the most serious sins — restitution is nearly impossible, so repentance can never be completed.  To be forgiven means to go through this process of repentance with utmost faith in Christ.  Through the grace of Christ, then, our sins are forgiven, and we need not suffer for them, as Christ has suffered for us.  When a sin cannot be forgiven, it means that we must suffer ourselves for that sin, not only in this world, but in the afterlife.

Murder violates the sanctity of life and cuts off the ability of its victims to “work out their destiny” (Benson, p. 355). Moreover, because “man cannot restore life,” and restoration or restitution is a necessary step for repentance, obtaining forgiveness for murder is impossible (Kimball, 1969, p. 129; D&C 42:18-19). Murder wrenches all lives connected to the victim, and ultimately the perpetrator of this crime suffers even more than the victims. “For Cain suffered far more than did Abel, and murder is far more serious to him who commits it than to him who suffers from it” (Kimball, 1982, p. 188 — as quoted in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism).

Mormon doctrine holds that murderers should be dealt with according to the laws of the land where it occurs; Mormons are law-abiding citizens and do not have as doctrine any certain form of earthly punishment for murder.  However, they admit that the death penalty may be acceptable punishment for murderers.  “Those who have been convicted of, or have confessed to, homicide cannot be baptized without clearance from the First Presidency [of the Church of Jesus Christ], and excommunication of members guilty of murder is mandatory. Joseph Fielding Smith, as an apostle, indicated that vicarious temple work should not be done for deceased murderers” (DS 2:192) (Encyclopedia of Mormonism).

Note that “murder” can have all sorts of variations, and what we are talking about is premeditated murder, not self-defense, murders that occur in the process of war, or negligent homicide.  Only God can judge what murders might qualify for forgiveness, or not.

If only those who commit the sin against the Holy Ghost are condemned to outer darkness in the afterlife, what then becomes of murderers?  The answer lies in the fact that there is a difference between an unforgivable sin and an “unpardonable sin.”  The sin against the Holy Ghost is both unforgivable and unpardonable.

Spencer W. Kimball, the twelfth LDS Prophet said, “Even the murderer is justified in repenting and mending his ways and building up a credit balance in his favor” (The Miracle of Forgiveness,
p. 131).   Explaining this is easiest when using King David of old as an example.  David began to repent of his two very serious sins — committing adultery with Bathsheba after having her husband Uriah killed — the minute the prophet Nathan exposed him.  He repented all the rest of his life, and he is still repenting.  He is suffering for his own sins, since forgiveness cannot come to him through the atonement of Christ, because murder is unforgivable.  He will continue to suffer until the last resurrection, which will occur after Christ has finished His work on the earth, after His millennial reign.

God revealed to Joseph Smith, the prophet, that because of David’s repentance and suffering, he will be saved into the Terrestrial Kingdom, which is second in glory to the Celestial Kingdom of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:40-42).  (See also Doctrine and Covenants 132:39 .)  David received a promise that the Lord would not leave his soul in hell—which is the process of suffering for one’s own sins in the Spirit World before resurrection and final judgment.  Thus, David has not been forgiven, but will be pardoned.  Thus, murder is not forgivable, but it is pardonable.  Murderers will suffer for their own sins, meaning they are unforgiven, but they will not be completely cast outside the influence of God’s glory in the life to come, if they do try to repent.

The Power of Forgiveness

http://youtu.be/wD4miMfENow