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Okay, this is a completely fluffy topic, but there is definitely some acrimony in our stake about it. Stake Lagoon Day: We have people in our stake (including two of my former bishops) who really have issues with the church promoting a private business via Stake Lagoon Day. Their comments are that they want to be able to have home teachers pass out flyers for their businesses too. They do that a bit tongue-in-cheek of course, but it is a strange thing when you think about it.
There are others who are really uncomfortable passing out the flyers/coupons and even announcing it from a cost perspective, because a day a Lagoon is a pretty significant financial drain for many families, and the idea of putting church endorsement behind it creates pressures on the families that they are not comfortable with and even announcing it will cause children to put pressures on their parents to do something they can’t really afford.
On the other hand, we have some stake leaders who take a hard line follow-the-brethren mentality about Stake Lagoon Day.
Just wondering if the staylds-ers have any thoughts on the subject.
Can we really support a place whose feature ride is named WICKED!!!??? (That’s not a serious question; I just think its funny!!)
I thought you were joking about this Stake lagoon Day when I read it in another topic. Here is my two cents — I think it’s BS. I kind of understand the thought behind it, like we need to provide families with wholesome recreational opportunities where other church (ward) members will be around so our kids don’t pick up any bad habits from the heathens and go to hell… Well, I don’t need the church providing and telling me how to spend my Saturday, they already tell me how I’m going to spend half my weekend (away from my family – church). I can decide how to spend time with the fam “all by myself” and i get tired of the church demanding I give up the little free time i have to spend with my kids.
I know we have LDS night at Safeco Field. I’ve never gone on those days. in fact, just to be belligerent, last year i went the next night when it was Gay & Lesbian night.
👿 We have had some of these things in our stake too – Last summer they went to a water park in Boise one weekend. I got a lot of pressure to attend, even asked to supervise a group of teachers from another ward who were going WITHOUT the rest of their family. Of course I said no, i was going to spend the weekend with my own kids and go boating. It ended up that my teen daughter whined and cried enough to “mom” that she got to go to the water park with her group of YW, and we canceled our family activity — and I think this stuff happens a lot. The church comes up with these great activities and programs to help “strengthen the family” and a lot of the time they do just the opposite. IMOI don’t think there has been overt pressure to attend for many years. The custom is probably fifty years old, starting when the Wasatch Front was a much smaller place. Lagoon was relatively cheaper back then and you got free admission and some free rides with your coupons. So Grandma and Grandpa could watch the kids riding Bulgy the Whale at no cost, which was nice. Typically a Stake would (and still does) reserve a pavilion and I remember them providing drinks and having an informal get-together at dinner time. Stake Lagoon Days were much more broadly attended in the 60s and 70s I think. It was a more innocent time and I doubt many questioned it back then.
I don’t think it sounds appropriate the way you described it. Does there need to be an uprising and a war over it? I don’t know about that in particular, but I would not spend any time handing out flyers, and I would really not take my family to that. The Church is not supposed to plan official activities that require members to fork out money individually. The scouting program in particular is very strict about that. It creates so many problems, like you mentioned, with families that absolutely can NOT afford some things. They get left out, and it creates a divisive atmosphere of the haves and have-nots that is contrary to the ideals of a Gospel community. When I was EQP, I handed out the flyers with the disclaimer that it was inappropriate for the church to promote a private business in church, and that if anyone wanted me to hand out advertisements and flyers for their business in church, I would not do it, except for Lagoon Day. The bishops whining about this is really retarded. Their businesses are probably something like selling Tahitian Noni juice or something. I could see them offering an alternative like a stake activity day at This is the Place Park or Hogle Zoo, but not passing out flyers on the wondrous natural health benefits of the WoW-friendly Tahitian Noni fruit and inviting the stake members to a seminar instructing them on the products. That would be like having the dessert cart brought by your table, and your mother getting offended and pulling a stick of gum out of her purse and demanding that it be put on the cart and promoted as well as the other deliciously decadent-looking delicacies. Lagoon is a fun park, and so perhaps going to Boondocks may be a possible alternative, but when people start whining that the church should allow them to promote their own businesses too, that’s just apples and oranges. It has nothing to do with the price of rice in China. It isn’t about promoting a business, it is about promoting a common activity. I know wards organize canyon trips and go to campgrounds and picnic areas for activities all the time. As for the kids pressuring their parents, well, I have no kids, so I have nothing to say about that.
silentstruggle wrote:On the other hand, we have some stake leaders who take a hard line follow-the-brethren mentality about Stake Lagoon Day.
Yes…I see this happens in the church and at the stake level. Our stake had a musical event that they had to commit to a certain number of tickets to make it worthwhile to get the musician group to agree to hold the event. Then the stake put lots of pressure on the wards and members to live up to the commitmentthey made. I see the value of wanting to hold events that some families will really enjoy and remember. Either it is a good idea that many people will want to go, or it is not…it shouldn’t be carried out by pressure or guilt.
I think the stake leaders trying to take the “hard line follow-the-brethren mentality” are doing it for their own reasons. They have their motivations (whether that is impressing their leaders, justifying themselves on obedience, or whatever). However, their priorities don’t HAVE to be my priorities. I would choose whether I wanted to go, or not. Its my family, my money, and my time that I will manage.
I didn’t go to our stake musical event. They pressured us, but after it was over, no one talked about it anymore. It wasn’t a big deal, and I was glad I didn’t let someone else’s priority become my priority.
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