White Shirts with Dirty Collars: Utah Valley Mormons and the Environment

Winter is coming and with it the dirty air. Each winter we drive our cars, heat our homes, build our fires and all of that adds to the dirt in the air. I remember one winter when I had a small child that some people didn’t take their babies to church to be blessed because the air pollution was so bad it was not safe. What was our community’s reaction to the problem? Nothing. We acted as though our own actions were an unsolvable problem created by nature. And I suppose that is true, though it was not a problem brought by mother nature, it was the result of our human nature.

I debated writing about our need to find a way to improve our lives. I wanted to write about how we could work together and develop a new way of live that would allow us to enjoy so many modern conveniences without polluting our environment to the point of danger. A sustainable way of life that we could share with our children. But then I stepped back and realized that we are not prepared to move forward. We have not put in the effort to understand our world and the tools available to us so that we can take on new challenges. I realized that even if we did pause for a moment to look at our future we would only attempt half hearted and poorly thought out solutions. And that in the end those programs done on the cheap for political show might be worse than doing nothing at all.

I began to think about my grandmother who used to worry about preparing for lessons on the cultures of other people. She did not grow up traveling but there was something in her life that made her and my grandfather want to know more about the world. Ultimately thy did travel and they encouraged their family to learn and to travel. Today it seems that our culture has lost that energy along with the desire for improvement and is turning its back on building for the greater good.


When I look at our leaders I don’t see a team with the education, understanding and determination to solve our difficult problems. Sure, they can build roads, and I enjoy good roads, but they don’t appear to even notice that our air is bad and our limited water is used to keep silly lawns green in the desert.

This week I read how the Chinese are worried about their pollution and they are working hard to find solutions. Why are the supposedly godless communists able to see through the smog while those of us who think ourselves as chosen are more concerned about trivial political sound bites. The author of the article suggested that educated communists understood that sick people were bad for business. That concept appears too complex for our community despite their love of freedom (which I’ve come to understand means a love of money).

How can a people with an eternal perspective be so short sighted?

I suggest we go back to some of the values my grandparents held, that reading good books and learning skills is important. That learning about other lands and respecting the good they have is of value. I suggest we worry less about pop culture notions regarding our founding fathers and spend less time listening to blow hard commentators and the radio and TV. We might spend that time researching real solutions to local problems. Better yet, we might insist that our children learn about science, research and critical thinking since they will be the ones who have to clean up the mess we are making.

One final note on Latter-day Saint thought: If we believe that the Earth will become a paradise, just who do we think will clean it up?

We Don't Want You

This week I saw a video trailer for a painting by an artist whose work I find offensive. He falls into the group of cultural leaders whose views, words, and actions I am unable to reconcile with charity. It is constantly puzzling to me how people can profess to follow the lord and at the same time embrace the values of these leaders. My desire was to write a post asking these people to go away and let the church grow without the burden of their ignorance, hate, fear, and greed.

As I gathered my thoughts I kept returning to a story I heard in conference years ago. It was the story of a boy who in his desire to be popular chased away another boy who was in need of friends. With a little searching I found that story. It is The martyrdom of Andy, by Ben Burton (Look for Powerful Stories from the lives of Latter-day Saint Men, Leon Hartshorn, comp.)

Clearly I have no right to ask people who are doing bad things to leave the church. It would be the wrong thing to do. I understand that their hate had called up my hate like one rotten banana left in a basket will ripen a bunch of green bananas overnight.

Still, it makes me sad that children will see the followers of these people and think that they represent the gospel. They will grow up thinking that pictures born of hate and fear are symbols of the right and the books based and published through ignorance and fear teach the truth. They do not. It makes me tired and embarrassed to think I will not only have to explain to people why the church I belong to is different, but why it tolerates stupid, greedy, and deceitful people. When I think of Lehi’s dream I think these are the people who make the fog we must wander though. (And, to be fair, I wonder how much I’ve contributed.)

I have no right to ask these people to leave, it is the Lord‘s church and he will do as he sees fit, but I will have to work long and hard to understand why I should stay with them.