On Sunday morning, I went to Church. People in my congregation gathered in our local chapel and taught lessons on the words of early church prophets, participated in discussions about Book of Mormon teachings, and then gathered in one large group to take the “sacrament,” the Mormon version of communion, where bread and water are consumed in remembrance of Christ. In my little congregation, which covers eight or so blocks in the heart of Salt Lake City, there were probably about 150-200 people gathered to worship. In other words, this was an example of Mormons “Religiously Demonstrating en Masse.“
That last line is a play on the extensive media coverage that followed an unusual event last week. Somewhere between 120 and 150 people gathered in Salt Lake to publicly renounce their membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They wrote letters to the church, signed a “declaration of independence,” hiked a local hilltop that holds some historical significance for the church, and there exchanged hugs and shouted out with whoops of freedom.
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