- RLD on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “On the question of how close a friendship has to be to “count,” I think it depends on why you’re bringing it up. If you’re saying “I’m not racist–some of my best friends are black!” then they’d better be *best* friends, and you really need to lean more about racism. But I have found that having immigrants and LGBT people in my ward has changed how I feel about related issues. I’m not “best friends” with anyone in either group: I don’t speak Spanish, most of the active LGBT people are youth, and I’m an all-too typical male of my generation and don’t have really close friends outside my family anyway. But I care about them (that’s what we’re trained to do, right?), and when something happens, I now think “How will this affect so-and-so?” That hasn’t necessarily changed my positions, but it does change how I respond.” Sep 26, 15:37
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “What seems to be missing in this list is single parents, seniors, people struggling economically, suffering depression or worse people feeling they need to keep up the “image” of Mormonism while struggling with doubts about the faith.” Sep 26, 10:08
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “Thank you not today for sharing. My experience is similar that most people stop coming in order to preserve their mental health from taking a beating every Sunday when they feel othered at church. We must do better. My experience is similar to RexT and Brian G. My community is diverse; my ward is not.” Sep 25, 22:12
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “@Brian G: And the Census Bureau’s map tool actually makes doing that really easy. If you look for “percentage Hispanic” or whatever it’s pretty easy to get maps of the racial composition of your ward boundaries, or at least the census blocks that make up your ward boundaries. https://data.census.gov/map?layer=VT_2021_040_00_PP_D1&loc=43.3751,-113.1138,z2.6270.” Sep 24, 21:31
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “If you want do do a much more interesting and informative study why not compare the racial and ethnic percentages of local wards with the local census records. Where I live in the mid south is still quite segregated in many ways but has a very high percentage of the ward boundaries with a dense black and Hispanic population. My old ward did not reflect that. Very few local wards or communities match the average for the whole country. That should be obvious to any study of demographics.” Sep 24, 21:25
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “Hispanics are about 20%, but the Hispanic case is a little different since they’re often apart in the Spanish speaking units. Jack makes a good point about Utah. People tend to chide Utah for not being diverse because it doesn’t have a lot of Black people, but in response I’ll sometimes point out that you can go for a while back East without crossing paths with a Pacific Islander. Utah has its diversity too, just different kinds. (And that’s beautiful that your ward is good about ministering to its members in all their diversity even if they can’t make it to a pew). ” Sep 24, 21:25
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “We have a lot of racial diversity in our ward in Orem, UT. A lot of Whites, of course–but a fair number of Hispanics too. Plus a few Polynesians, Asians, and even one or two African Americans. We also have a few Whites who’ve immigrated from Europe. As far as the other kinds of diversity are concerned–we’ve got some of that too. I rarely attend church myself because of mental illness. But the ward sends the young men to my home to administer the sacrament to me and others in my family who suffer from similar mental limitations. Its a wonderful thing to see those bright Latino and Gringo boys working together to serve my household.” Sep 24, 20:05
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “I’d be interested in seeing the numbers for Hispanics. I live in a town that is 65% Hispanic, but there’s only 1 Hispanic family in our ward and a very small Spanish branch. In every other aspect of our town (school, kids friends, hobbies), Hispanic town members dominate. I’ve always found it kinda sad that the ward doesn’t really fit in the town.” Sep 24, 18:43
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “@acw: That’s part of what I’m saying here. It’s very plausible you could have a 300-attender ward in Orem/Provo without a single person of color, and it’s useful for people in those situations to know what it would look like if it was more representative of the US.” Sep 24, 17:16
- on Some of my Best Friends Are…, or Representation in our Wards: “I’ll also be anonymous, I’m in a Wasatch front ward, my experience also leads me to believe some categories are higher although maybe it depends. I started out my stint as RS President believing that the less active members of the ward, who are about 50% of the total on record, were probably just not interested in religion or just never had a testimony, but I ended it believing that many if not most were really pushed out due to social rejection by other ward members. I believe abuse/rape victims, LGBTQ people, single adults, and people with chronic illnesses tend to be marginalized, often unintentionally. So those that remain in the pews are more likely to “look the part”. Some of them are hiding their burdens in order to fit in as well. It’s sad.” Sep 24, 11:03