LDS Church Confirms Self-Canning To Be Ended At 89 Of Its 101 Home Storage Centers

On May 4th, 2013, I attempted to debunk the rumor that the FDA has ordered all LDS canneries east of the Mississippi to shut down, revealing that the LDS Church had merely eliminated self-canning at those Home Storage Centers. Nevertheless, the rumors persisted, and on June 18th, 2013, the Church issued a statement intended to be the last word on the subject.

In their statement, the LDS Church acknowledged that in all but 12 of the Church’s 101 Home Storage Centers in the U.S. and Canada, patrons will no longer self-can products, but they may still purchase these same items pre-canned or prepackaged at no additional cost. None of the 101 Home Storage Centers will be closed. Although the Church acknowledged that more stringent food safety regulations promulgated by the FDA are a factor, the primary reason for curtailing self-canning is efficiency:

While many individuals have enjoyed self-canning at the Church’s home storage centers, the advantages of providing pre-canned or prepackaged goods include:

-- It’s more efficient and cost effective for the Church to produce and ship high-quality, pre-canned or prepackaged goods in bulk rather than ship the same goods and empty cans to a location where individuals can them on their own.
-- By offering the goods pre-canned or prepackaged, the Church utilizes less warehouse space.
-- Pre-canned and prepackaged operations allow for higher quality and safer preparation of home storage food.
-- It is much more costly to maintain and upgrade facilities that must meet food production standards (such as in a self-canning operation) than it is to maintain a facility that simply distributes pre-canned and prepackaged food.
-- Volunteer personnel time can be used more efficiently.

The following 12 home storage centers will continue to offer self-canning for the time being as the Church continues to monitor the goods and services offered at home storage centers and makes adjustments as needed:

-- Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
-- Mesa, Arizona
-- Boise, Idaho
-- Idaho Falls, Idaho
-- Carrollton, Texas
-- Lindon, Utah
-- Logan, Utah
-- Ogden, Utah
-- Salt Lake City, Utah (Welfare Square)
-- Sandy, Utah
-- Springville, Utah
-- St. George, Utah

The remaining 89 centers, all listed HERE, will provide pre-canned goods. One reason why only the canneries in the western part of the U.S. and Canada will remain operational is because the concentration of Mormons (and pool of prospective volunteers) in much higher in this area than back East. Although non-Mormons use the facilities, the majority of users are Mormon.

In their story on this issue, KSL Channel 5 identified blogger Kellene Bishop as one of the primary bloggers pushing the original story. On June 18th, on her Preparednesspro website, Bishop responded to the LDS Church's new statement in this post, noting that it substantiated one aspect of the story that she originally published on May 4th; namely, that all canneries east of the Mississippi would stop canning activities. She said she contacted 25 different people connected with 14 different canneries before publishing her original story, and that all of them gave her similar information. Consequently, I'd say she engaged in adequate due diligence, and was not intending to exaggerate or hype the situation. Her explanation is plausible.

The issue continues to be discussed on the LDS Freedom Forum.

Glenn Beck Cites Book Of Mormon As Evidence The World Is In The End Times During His June 14th Radio Show

During the third hour of his radio show on Friday June 14th, 2013, LDS entertainer Glenn Beck cited the Book of Mormon as evidence that the world is about to enter the end times before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He cited examples of ritualistic cannibalism as described in Moroni chapter 9 verses 8 and 10, where Lamanites and Nephites alike would eat the hearts of their vanquished enemies out of the belief that this would give them courage, and linked it to similar practices taking place during the civil war currently in Syria. Beck cited the example of a Syrian rebel soldier who was filmed ripping out the heart of a vanquished government soldier and eating it. Here's the segment where Beck cites the Book of Mormon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8jzPwlOXq4



The Money Shot: "I happen to believe in another book called 'The Book of Mormon,' and in it, in the very end is the story of the Americas. And it's only a story of 'watch for these things.' It is really a calendar, that's all it is. Watch for these things and you will know".

At times, Glenn Beck may seem like a huckster whose style of discourse puts off those who are more intellectually inclined. But his testimony of the Book of Mormon is rock solid, and if he was to discuss the secret combinations in the Book of Mormon and describe their equivalents today, he would gain more credibility with much of the LDS community. LDS Freedom Forum gives Beck a thumbs-up.

Bucket Of Worms: If Gay Marriage Can Be Legally And Morally Justified, Then Why Not Plural Marriage (Polygamy)?

As you can see in the Wikipedia graphic published above, gay marriage will be legal in 12 U.S. states effective August 1st, 2013. They are Washington, Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Yet despite this, some gay marriage advocates don't believe plural marriages can be justified.

Back on March 23rd, 2006, Slate published an article by William Saletan in which he justifies gay marriage but opposes plural marriage. Saletan writes "Here's the answer. The number isn't two. It's one. You commit to one person, and that person commits wholly to you. Second, the number isn't arbitrary. It's based on human nature. Specifically, on jealousy". However, this explanation in and of itself is arbitrary. Who empowered Saletan to define human nature for the rest of us? In fact, many make the case that a considerable number of men are, by their very nature, polygamous. And women, too, which explains why adultery is so commonplace in contemporary society. In fact, some religions, particularly Islam and the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints, insist that plural marriage is ordained of God, although the Quran imposes a limit of four wives upon Muslim men. Worse yet, Andrew Sullivan, a gay man himself, wants legal gay marriage for himself but would selfishly deny legal marriage to polyamorous groups, writing in 2006 “Legalizing [polygamy] is a bad idea for a society in general for all the usual reasons (abuse of women, the dangers of leaving a pool of unmarried straight men in the population at large, etc.)”.

The bottom line -- if gay marriage is morally and legally justified, so is plural marriage. To claim that gay marriage is O.K. but plural marriage is wrong is intellectually dishonest. It is selfish for gay marriage advocates to get their brand of marriage legalized but freeze out those who believe someone should be allowed to marry more than one spouse. In contrast, bestial marriage could never be justified because only one party, the human, is capable of knowingly consenting to the arrangement. Animals are not capable of giving informed consent.

If the federal government was to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and declare gay marriage to be legal nationwide, they would be opening themselves up to lawsuits to be filed by plural marriage advocates. Both the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints and Muslims would have grounds to sue to get plural marriage recognized, at least for religious purposes. While it is possible that such lawsuits would be rejected since neither religious group recognizes the right of women to have more than one husband, this may not stop them from suing. And although the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has indefinitely suspended the solemnization of plural marriages, there would be a demand for Congress to formally repeal the Edmunds-Tucker Act and other anti-polygamy legislation used by the federal government to oppress Mormons during the latter half of the 19th century.

If you think gay marriage is complicated, think about the additional complexities of plural marriage. How would the law mandate property rights and responsibilities in partial poly divorces? What about the rights and responsibilities of marriage that merge into preexisting marriages? And how about setting default laws for multiple inheritance in the absence of a will, allocating Social Security benefits, etc.

This is just another reason why gay marriage should be rejected. It opens up a big bucket of worms.

LDS Woman Shelby Orr Deploys On A Mission To Mesa, Arizona Despite The Orr Family Farm Being Severely Damaged In The Moore Tornado

Here's an act of faith. A woman who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deploying on an 18-month full-time proselyting mission for the Church despite the fact that the family farm upon where she lives in Moore, Oklahoma was severely damaged by the May 20th tornado.

Shelby Orr received a call to deploy to the Mesa Arizona Temple, where she'll serve her 18 months. But even though she could be useful for the cleanup, her family fully supports her decision to serve. The family farm is no ordinary farm -- the 106-acre Orr Family Farm is also a farm-themed amusement park with horse stables that attracts thousands of visitors each year from Oklahoma and elsewhere. Watch the video from LDS Public Affairs below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd3DIi9eV4s



The video doesn't even scratch the surface of the task confronting the Orr Family at this time. Adjacent to the Orr Family Farm is the Celestial Acres Training Center, also owned by the Orrs. It is a thoroughbred horse training facility, which was also struck by the tornado. An indoor arena and 172 stalls were blown away, and it's estimated that as many as 100 horses were lost. Thirty-two horses that survived were being kept in a horse barn, while others were transported to animal hospitals to receive medical care after the tornado. Many of the horses actually belonged to trainers who rented stalls at the facility. Hundreds of volunteers have reportedly came out to help the Orrs begin the task of rebuilding; among those responding included Mormon Helping Hands, JourneyChurch, and Baptist Disaster Relief as well as private families and military units from around the region. The objective is to re-open the Orr Family Farm for business by the fall of this year. They solicit donations so they can accelerate rebuilding and to keep their 30 employees on the job.

When people make sacrifices for the Lord, the Lord responds.

Latter-Day Saints In Alaska Recreate 19th Century Mormon Treks Across The Great Plains, Focusing On The Handcart Expeditions

The Anchorage Daily News has published a gallery of 44 photos depicting a group of Alaska Mormons re-creating the Mormon treks across the Great Plains during the 19th century, specifically the handcart treks. The group of 220 youth between the ages of 12 and 18 and 50 adults began the re-enactment at Jim Creek near the Knik River on Tuesday May 28th and pulled handcarts up the Jim Creek Trail about 10 miles and set up camp within sight of the Knik Glacier. Over the next three days they made their way back, camping along the way. They returned to the Jim Creek trail head on Friday May 31st, where a scrumptious barbecue awaited them.

This is not the first time Alaska Saints have done this. In 2007, Mormons from the Kenai Peninsula and Homer held a three-day handcart trek reenactment in the shadow of the Ring of Fire volcanoes. They traveled three hours by ferry, two hours by car, and another hour and a half by bus just to get to the trailhead. The most dramatic event occurred on the third day, when the group awoke to a terrible storm with winds blowing more than 50 miles per hour. Pegs pulled loose, tents collapsed, the rain pounded down, and dark clouds covered the entire sky. Fearing that the weather would stop the trek, the leaders knelt in prayer. Soldotna Stake President Randy Eberline asked the Lord to calm the storm. Throughout the camp, trek families also knelt and prayed for relief from the weather. Suddenly, the clouds parted and a bowl of warm sunlight shone down.

According to the LDS Gospel Library, ten companies of handcart pioneers walked the 1,300 miles from Iowa City (the end of the rail line) to Salt Lake City between 1856 and 1860, pulling and pushing all that they owned. Of the total of 2,962 handcart immigrants, about 250 died along the way. The most tragic were companies four and five, the now-infamous Willie and Martin companies of 1856, in which 220 Saints lost their lives. These two companies, consisting of 980 people and 233 handcarts, began their journeys across the plains too late in the year due to a series of mishaps. The majority of the 220 who lost their lives froze to death in early snowstorms near the Continental Divide in central Wyoming. Many others suffered trailside amputations of fingers, toes, and legs due to frostbite. When Brigham Young heard about it, he was horrified, and promptly dispatched rescue parties from Salt Lake City to avert further tragedy.

The reenactment was designed to convey a sense of this history to the next generation of Alaska Mormons. Yet some anti-Mormon trolls spewed their filth in the Anchorage Daily News comments section. Anti-Mormon trolls not only falsely claim that the LDS Church pretends the Mountain Meadows Massacre didn't happen (there's a memorial on the site maintained by the LDS Church), but they continue to insist that the LDS Church is antigay, ignoring the fact that the LDS Church accepted the recent decision by the Boy Scouts to accept all Scouts who agree to the Scouts' code of behavior. I have no obligation to respect anti-Mormon trolls who lie about the Church; those who want respect must earn it by acting respectably.

I define "anti-Mormon" not merely as someone who disagrees with Mormonism, but someone who expresses that disagreement by deliberately misrepresenting and lying about Mormonism. Such people are unworthy of civil discourse; one does not cast pearls before swine.