Ryan Reeder
History 390R
Derr and Esplin
March 27, 2001
1. How has the implementation of the welfare program changed as its programs have shifted from a focus of helping the Saints (mostly localized in the Rocky Mountain area) get through the Great Depression to its current status as employed with welfare sister missionaries in third-world countries? Have basic principles changed, such as Harold B. Lee's idea to work through pre-existing structures, such as the priesthood? How did the Great Depression, by creating a need for an organization such as the welfare program, prepare the Church to move into these third-world countries?
2. With the heavy rollback of full-time missionaries during World War II, how were the missions affected? Many missions begin to develop a kind of culture that gets passed down from one generation to another. With a missing generation of missionaries, how much of that culture carried over and how much was lost? How did the first new missionaries called in 1946, 1947, and so on rebuild the culture of the missions? Was this a factor in the heavy international expansion of the Church following World War II?
(Theme of last two questions-discussion)-How have major international events, such as the Great Depression and World War II, played a role in furthering the international expansion of the Church? It can be theorized that many major advances in technology and world trends have opened the way for the Church to move forward and accomplish its message. I'm not using the idea that TV-was-invented-just-so-that-we-could-see-General-Conference, as there are likely many other purposes for these events. Yet we see often, both individually and in the aggregate, that "every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2). By the 1920s, the Church was regularly organized in Utah. It had come through a period of persecution, and was beginning to find general acceptance. Current programs and practices had found their niches-at least the major ones had, and minor ones were beginning to develop. But the Church was destined to fill the earth. While the Church was beginning to expand into other countries, for the most part it was slow (though there were some exceptions), at least compared with major postwar expansion. Between the 20s and the 50s, then, something happened to cause the Church to change from a local U.S. western organization, aware of its worldwide mission, but not yet really accomplishing it, to an organization that was still regional, but was vigorously growing outside the United States, and at such a rate that by today, with no major shifts in growth trends since the 1950s, there are more members outside the United States and who don't primarily speak English than those within the United States and who do speak English. Yet, as the Church moves into its second and even third generations in many of these postwar expansion nations and becomes more and more established and regularized there, we still see many other nations, such as China and much of Asia, and the Middle Eastern Muslim nations where the Church has little or no official presence. What major world event then, might take place to bring the Church into those nations? Based on current patterns of the Church's development in its postwar expansion nations, how long will it be before the Church is ready to move into the next phase of nations?
3. A quote by Marion G. Romney in the text indicates that it was common for new General Authorities to learn of their call as it was announced from the pulpit. How late did this practice continue? Did it grow out of the practice of announcing missionaries in General Conference? Why were calls extended publicly without extending them privately beforehand? Does this have any relation to the current practice of keeping a new calling secret until its been announced publicly? Why do we do that anyway-simply to avoid rumors, or is there some other reason?
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