Church membership numbers not good.

[Chap]

Lots of announcements - not so many temples, though ...

An article published April 39, just prior to Nelson’s announcement of 17 more, gave additional details (apparently there aren’t 2 completed, but 2 scheduled for dedication):

Altogether, the 83 announced temples are the most ever announced by a single Church president — slightly ahead of the 78 locations identified by the late President Gordon B. Hinckley.

A breakdown by status for the 83 temples President Nelson has announced:

Scheduled for dedication — 2
Under construction — 32
Scheduled for groundbreaking — 8
With site location and exterior rendering released — 11
In planning and development — 30
The Church has 265 total temples that have been dedicated, are under construction or are in planning and development stages. The 83 temples announced by President Nelson account for 31% of that 265 total.

And a breakdown of the Church’s 265 temples overall:

Dedicated — 170
Scheduled for dedication — 3
Under construction — 43
Scheduled for groundbreaking – 8
With site location and exterior rendering released – 11
In planning and development — 30

https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2 ... tus-246115

So… none of the 100 temples announced by Nelson are actually functioning yet?

Interesting stuff! Thanks, Marcus.

[MG 2.0]

The temple statistics came up in a couple of Reddit threads. It seems Nelson has announced 100 temples during his tenure as President, but only 2 of those 100 he announced have opened.



So 100 announcements by Nelson, 2 completed, 39 have had a groundbreaking or have a scheduled future groundbreaking date. That leaves 59 temples announced by Nelson in 4 years, with no plans. I wonder what the logic is in having so many in limbo? Has land been purchased, at least?

Read, then report back.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/Mormon-temple-building-process

https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2021-10-03/all-temples-announced-by-president-nelson-228547

By the way, not to be disrespectful, but is this where you typically get your information on the church? Reddit?

Regards,
MG

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/Mormon-temple-building-process

Here was the relevant quote from the article (but there’s more if you take the time to read it):

The design process can take up to two years, and Elder Walker notes that all along the way — “from architectural detail clear down to colors and carpet swatches” — the First Presidency is involved and provides final approvals.

In my estimation the numbers that are important are the proliferation of temples throughout the earth. The church isn’t going to invest in these buildings unless they can see that the membership numbers in a given area are strong and active enough to support it.

I don’t think you’ll find many members that haven’t recognized that there is a winnowing process occurring. The scriptures seem to support the fact that this process would take place. But the work itself will continue to progress, temples will be built throughout the world, and those that come unto Christ will continue to receive the ordinances of salvation/exaltation.

As the prophet Joseph Smith said:

The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear; til the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

And there is nothing that the fiery darts of the adversary can do to stop it. Whew!

Or to stop the building of hundreds of temples throughout the earth.

Granted, there will be a formidable opposition and we can see those forces marshaling themselves. But the truth of God will rise triumphant. Even discussmormonism.com won’t be able to stop the work from rolling forth. ha ha.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Can you see his replies when someone else quotes them?

Yes, he can!

But he won’t!! I realize that may handicap me, but so be it. ‘They’ have been a pesky gnat for way too long. Ignoring is the only way out. Gnats just don’t go away.

I’m fairly skilled at ignoring when I choose to. And it will save me a lot of time that otherwise is wasted.

Regards,
MG

[Chap]

I’m fairly skilled at ignoring when I choose to.

Oh, I'm sure you are.

After a good few years observing discussions between Mormon believers and critics on von this and other boards, I think that is a vital tactic for preserving your testimony. It's a delicate thing, after all.

However, ignoring substantive statements of facts that you find inconvenient does rather obviously diminish the value of your arguments, even if it makes you feel (sort of) OK.

[Marcus]

In my estimation the numbers that are important are the proliferation of temples throughout the earth….

Announcing 100 temples but having 0 open is a proliferation of something, yes. Not temples.

The church isn’t going to invest in these buildings unless they can see that the membership numbers in a given area are strong and active enough to support it.

That doesn’t seem to be the case. For example, a third in Tennessee? Even less understandable, given the steep drop off in the UK, a third temple there also?

[Schreech]

I was just thinking about these constant temple announcements the other day as my mother-in-law was all excited about the vienna austria announcement....

I was having trouble understanding who finds these types of announcements 'inspiring". You have a church that is losing members in droves (like 100k OFFICIAL resignations last year and a pretty major downturn in activity rates over the last 2 years that doesn't seemt to be correcting). Dozens and dozens of barely used temples around the world already exist and sit mostly unused. Announcements of temples in areas that have almost no active members to support them (austria, for instance, has less than 5k members in the whole country with an active count around ~1500 people maybe). Confirmation that they are already recycling names as they don't have enough new names to even keep the few people still attending the Mormon temples busy (so much for redeeming the dead - just more useless busy work for the Mormon leaders to guilt members into wasting their time with), etc. Its obvious that this is the only metric they have control over at this point in order to try to encourage the remaining blind faithers to remain "faithful" but it seems so transparent and desperate to those of us that have seen through the sham....

Then, I visit this site and see the appropriately name MG praising these types of superficial, meaningless announcements and it makes total sense...There are so few straws for the ever-diminishing group of older blind faithers to grasp that even these obviously empty announcements provide hope that they have not devoted their lives to a useless pseudo-religious corporate cult for nothing.

[Res Ipsa]

I was going to put the rest of my updated charts here that I've shared before, but the board says my quota is reached. I'll see if I can figure it out later, for any interested parties.

PM Gadianton about that. I’ve never run into a limit for attachments before.

As an alternative, you can upload the charts to a free image hosting site like imgbb. It will give you the full bb code reference to paste in the post.

[Shulem]

But the truth of God will rise triumphant. Even discussmormonism.com won’t be able to stop the work from rolling forth. ha ha.

God's truth through Joseph Smith? Like King Pharaoh in Facsimile No. 3 with his name written above his head in the writing? If that's true, what is the NAME? What's the King's name? What size bra does he wear?

More and more members of the Church will leave because the Book of Abraham has been nuked and I've personally enjoyed blowing it up to kingdom come.

So, take that!

Pow!

Bam!

[drumdude]

MG2.0,

What is the purpose of all the temples when names are being recycled due to lack of new genealogical records?

It seems to be the sole purpose of all these new temples is to convince members that the church isn’t suffering a decline.

Which also explains why there is a rush to announce then but no rush to actually build them.

[Fence Sitter]

In my estimation the numbers that are important are the proliferation of temples throughout the earth….

Announcing 100 temples but having 0 open is a proliferation of something, yes. Not temples.

The church isn’t going to invest in these buildings unless they can see that the membership numbers in a given area are strong and active enough to support it.

That doesn’t seem to be the case. For example, a third in Tennessee? Even less understandable, given the steep drop off in the UK, a third temple there also?