Breaking Down Barriers Between Latter-day Saints and Others
By Joni Hilton

Ever heard a Protestant minister quoting a General Authority?   Amazing things can happen when we mingle with—and show our support for—members of other faiths.

Also, a few more tips on protecting the family computer from porn, at the end of today’s column.

If you haven’t heard of Interfaith Bureaus, ecumenical endeavors, or community choir festivals, you’ve missed getting in on some of the most exciting events unfolding in the church today.  In broadcast media relations for my region, I get the latest news about dramatic progress made in breaking down barriers between the LDS and others who, for years, haven’t truly understood us. 

For such a long time, Latter-day Saints were accused of sticking to themselves, scarcely mingling with non-Mormons in their communities.  We’ve all cringed when we’ve heard of a new family in a “Mormon town” who got ignored, or worse.

But all that has changed, and huge strides are taking us into the buildings—and hearts—of our non-member brothers and sisters.

Just in the Sacramento area alone, let me give you a glimpse of why we had a record number of religious leaders from other sects, on hand to lend support at our temple groundbreaking:

Ø       Together with the Interfaith Service Bureau, Rebuilding Together, and Habitat for Humanity, local LDS stakes are building one of the homes in Call for Unity’s project to provide new low-income units in the Oak Park district.

Ø       LDS members attend inter-denominational potluck dinners, picnics, and social events.  We’re visible and involved

Ø       The choir that assembled for the temple groundbreaking was so phenomenal, that other religions are clamoring for them to perform in their meetinghouses. 

Ø       LDS choirs are routinely invited to Christian choir festivals, once leaders visit and feel the Spirit of our hymns. They particularly enjoy seeing youngsters participate, something not seen in other choruses.

Ø       Rabbis and preachers know that when disaster strikes, they can count on the LDS to help them repair vandalism, flood and fire damage, etc.

Ø       Members, such as former Stake President Richard Montgomery, who recently received the Building Unity Award, are being recognized and applauded for their tireless work in bringing the community of faith together.

Ø       LDS members join with other faiths to assist with AIDS relief in South Africa.

Ø       Supplies for war refugees are gathered by truckloads—shoes, clothing, and school supplies are flown to Afghanistan.

Ø       Media biases and walls are toppling; we are becoming known as a people who care about and benefit their community.

Ø       Attention is drawn to our humanitarian service, our food banks, our service to homeless and women’s shelters. Our cannery is available for interdenominational use.

It’s just plain exciting, is what it is. And all this is just in the Sacramento area!

In the April Conference of 1998, President Hinckley said, “We can respect other religions, and must do so… we must teach our children to be tolerant and friendly to those not of our faith…they are our friends, neighbors, and co-workers in a variety of causes.  We are pleased to lend our strength to their efforts.”

What a joy it is to witness the coming together, and resultant strength, of God fearing people of all stripes.  Satan would have us compete and compare, fight and feud.  But through the Public Affairs arm of every stake, we have noticeably shown the world that we are team players, that we are in harmony with many of each other’s causes, and we are there for them.  Just one result was the tremendous support we received for our new temple in Sacramento.

I recently received this letter from my friend, Lisa West, who also works in Public Affairs, here in Sacramento. She had previously sent it to her bishop:

Dear Bishop,

I wanted to tell you about a little adventure I went on with 4 youth from our ward.  Richard Montgomery, President of the Interfaith Service Bureau, asked if I would bring some youth to an interfaith meeting called Youth for a Better Understanding (YBU).  He said that he could not get any LDS youth to attend the last two meetings (they meet 3-4 times per year) and it was kind of making us look bad.

YBU is an interfaith gathering of youth for the purpose of better understanding - and eventually they want to expand their mission to include interfaith service projects and other activities.  The meeting is hosted by a different faith group each time.  This time it was hosted by SALAM (Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims).  They have a very nice facility near ARC - a setting similar to our cultural hall (not their Mosque). 

Although I have attended many other interfaith gatherings, I wasn't sure what to expect and couldn't brief the youth very well before we went - other than to tell them that 4 youth from Elk Grove Stake would also be there and that we were asked to have one of them speak for 3 minutes about our Church.  After they got their parents permission, I took Renee Harris, Diana Johnson, Kevin Denison and Carson Cooper. 

When we got there the first thing they said was, "We're overdressed" because everyone else was in jeans and tees.  I said, "No you're not - it's the Sabbath and this is how you dress on the Sabbath - not how you dress for school".  The other LDS group was in their Sunday-best as well so that eased their minds a bit, as well as a young man from the Elk Grove Stake who agreed to be the speaker.

The room was set up with round tables - all decorated red, white and blue.  They served a full course catered dinner and it was fabulous.  About 12 other faiths were represented and each spoke for about 3 minutes.  All the youth were forbidden from sitting at a table with someone of their own faith so they were forced to mingle and talk.  Even me - I had a great time talking with several youth from other faiths. 

After dinner we were invited to watch the Muslims have prayer (they pray 5 times per day).  We watched reverently.  Following that they told us about a "Clothes Closet" they had.  They gave many truckloads of clothing away for charity and had lots left over.  They asked everyone to take something home.  It was authentic middle-eastern attire - very beautiful, beaded and in good condition.  The girls were thrilled but even Carson was happy to leave with a treasure and took some kids’ clothing to his niece. 

We were there a little over 2 hours.  When we got in the car I asked each of them to give me a "one sentence" impression of how it went.  Carson immediately said, "That was a major testimony builder!!!".  Renee said she never realized how many other religions there were and that she didn't know anything about them.  We discussed the various groups on the way home.

 … I was proud to be with these very enthusiastic and spiritual youth and especially happy they seemed to get something positive out of it.  I'm grateful to be able to report back to President Montgomery that the LDS Church was well-represented and our youth made some new friends.  Some rumors and myths were dispelled about us as well as the Muslims.

… Earlier that day I attended Westminster Presbyterian Church downtown with the Groundbreaking Choir which sang there.  Dr. Thompson gave a very nice sermon and prayer.  He prayed for the LDS community and prayed we would have success in building our Temple.  His sermon was "The Doctrine of the Stranger".  He read a quote by President Hinckley, he read from the Koran, Torah and Bible.

… Sorry to go on so long - but again, I cannot stress enough how grateful I am to know such wonderful, strong youth in our ward (and stake and Church).  They will be our future leaders and they have strong testimonies.  The Church will be in good hands I'm sure.-- Lisa West, Public Affairs, Sacramento, California

How far we have come!  When we join together for good causes, and support our community, the support comes back to us—we even have leaders of other faiths praying for our temple!

 Write and tell us what you’ve done in your areas, and about the bonds of love you are creating with your brothers and sisters of other creeds.  I can’t wait to hear of the good being done all around the world.  Please include your full name, city and state or province.

And now some more tips on avoiding porn.  A mother of seven writes: 

..There is one very important item that has been left out of all your articles… and that  is File Sharing programs or Peer to Peer networks.  People know these as Kazaa, Napster, etc.  These programs are widely used by people to download music.  The scary thing about these networks is that as little as 14% of the content that comes up from a basic search is appropriate.  The rest is pornographic.  The most disturbing thing is that this is completely untraceable on your computer and bypasses any filter system in place.  Unless an individual saves the file to the hard drive there is never a single trace that they viewed any images at all.  People can then view unlimited amounts of pornography, including live videos and movies, parents can scan and view their reports and there will be absolutely no trace.

I have attached the following links to better illustrate this disturbing loophole.  The House of Representatives compiled a very detailed report on this concern in February 2003.  It is very important that parents know…once kids realize they are being watched and tracked they will soon find out from friends that this is the gateway to unlimited porn and no one will ever find out.

The following links may help: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-hooks072203.asp  and  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03351.pdf

This is clearly an example of how obeying the 12^th Article of Faith will protect our homes and families.  “We believe in honoring, obeying and sustaining the law.”   Downloading music is illegal.  If we refrain from what appears to be a very innocent activity but which is illegal we would be protected from this doorway that is a phantom ghost that cannot be traced. – Diane Lefrandt, Mesa, Arizona

Thanks for the heads-up.  Copyright laws have long been shrugged off by many who copy and share music with reckless abandon, and now you’ve shown us another of its pitfalls. 

A brother wrote:

I have another filtering option, and it's probably more useful than a lot of the 'computer-based' ones mentioned in the reply article on Monday, September 20th.

It is the filter provided by MSTAR.NET.  And you don't have to be a user of MSTAR to have this filter, you can have it regardless of what ISP you are on.  And it has a very small footprint on your PC, mainly for caching frequently-visited URLs.

Since it is web'based but is used by a small application on your computer, it accesses a huge database of URLs, with many more being added daily. This means that when you type in a new URL that is not in the filter, the system immediately checks the content, and allows or blocks the site based on your preferences.  Even new porn sites that were previously something else are caught before you ever see them.  And the database is updated immediately so all other users are protected as well.

The three main categories of concern in the fight against pornography are able to be filtered out. 'Pornography' (sexually explicit pictures or content), 'Adult/mature' (sexual talk of a nonpornographic nature, or ads for products that relate to sexuality or sexual activity), and 'Swimsuit/Lingerie' which will catch swimsuit and underwear ads.  Often these are explicit, due to the revealing nature of today's swimsuit fashions--both male and female.

Another filtering service which is nowhere near as immediate in catching new or changed sites as MSTAR's service reported that over 1500 travel sites became porn sites last year, and expired domains account for a lot of the new porn sites.  They grab these so they can deceive people into visiting the sites, and thus they lure many unsuspecting viewers into them.

But MSTAR's service catches these when they are first accessed after they change, and that offers additional protections to those concerned about porn on the 'net. Contact http://www.mstar.net/ for more info, or call them.  Contact info is available at the website.
-- James W. Anderson, Provo, Utah

We also had a request for Dallas Erickson to give a recommendation for blocking software—Dallas, if you’re still reading, we’d love to hear from you again.

A thousand thanks, to all our contributors-- Joni