A religion that's about Family
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 31/01) - At first it looks like a giant cupboard built into the wall. The doors open like window shutters. Inside a mirror hangs on a slant from the back wall to the ceiling reflecting a large tub full of water.
A man and a little girl both dressed all in white stand in the water looking out through the opening into a room full of people sitting on chairs lined in two perfect rows.
An older woman sitting in the back row wipes tears from her cheeks with a crumbled tissue.
The rest -- men in suits, young women holding babies -- look on, some with small grins others with brows slightly crinkled at the seriousness of it all.
A sacred moment. A rite of passage.
Thursday evening at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 52nd St. and the small congregation gathers to see a member of their family take the first step in the longest journey.
Eight-year-old Kelsey Lafond stands in the water, her long brown hair falling in jarring contrast over her bleached white jump-suit.
Her father, Daniel, stands behind her, chin tilted slightly upward, his jump-suit matching his daughter's in whiteness.
"Jesus came to John the Baptist in Judea long ago and was baptised by immersion in the river Jordan's flow,"the congregation sings to pre-recorded music coming from a CD player before the ritual begins.
"I'm proud of you," says Daniel Lafond to his daughter.
He prays and holds his daughter by the back of the shoulder blades tenderly and tightly like someone holds a bird in their hand.
The girl crosses her arms and holds her dad's wrist with one and plugs her nose with the other.
He dips her, totally submerging her in the waters and lifts her up after a slight pause.
She smiles. The doors swing shut.
It's finished and everyone files upstairs for ice cream cake; it's Kelsey's birthday, she's eight years-old, the age of reasoning according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Children cannot sin before that age.
"Everyone needs to be baptised," says Kelsey.
"Heavenly father will always be with me, he helps us in our lives," she says.
"I feel excited, it's a good birthday," says Kelsey.
"It is exciting for us as a family," says Daniel Lafond.
"Now we will be reunited as a whole, without baptism you can't return to our heavenly father," says Lafond.
The Mormons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Few organized groups, religious or otherwise, have been able to market their beliefs and ingrain them as common symbols in western society at the same rate of speed.
From the white shirted, black tie, book of Mormon toting missionaries travelling always in two's to their commercials drenched in family values -- cancelling meetings to play catch with a child, hugging couples against red sunsets falling behind pristine hills -- the Mormon movement has chiselled its niche into popular culture by embracing both modern mediums and traditional modes of disseminating information.
And it all began with a grove in some sleepy New England town with a 14 year-old boy, who according to Mormon accounts, spent his days pondering the immortality of his soul.
His name was Joseph Smith and in little over a 100 years after his death the Mormon church would go from rags to riches, its tendrils reaching almost every corner of the globe.
According to local branch president Monte Christensen, the word Mormon is just a nickname and the true name of the religion is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Prophet Moroni
The word Mormon comes from the prophet Moroni who abridged the book of Mormon.
Moroni appeared to Smith like an angel when he was 17 on the evening of Sept 21, 1823.
According to Church tradition Moroni told Smith of a book written on golden plates hidden in a rock near Smith's home.
On these plates were the complete works of Moroni which contained the history of Aboriginal society in North and South America.
Over the years Smith translated the plates into English from reformed Egyptian and they eventually became the book of Mormon.
Mormon history
According to Moroni's plates the American aboriginal descended from a branch of Hebrews who fled to this continent from the Middle-East after the Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem in 600 BCE. This is the Church's Exodus.
According to the Church, over time the Hebrew culture faded through warfare and eventual annihilation of one group.
The Christian movent in the East drifted from the original teachings of Jesus until Moroni appeared to Smith.
Sunday afternoon at church and the men gather for "Priesthood" class-- women gather in another room for their own session.
During the pre-talk chatter a couple of the men give their definitions of the Church.
"It is not a religion," says Bruce Coomber, "it is a lifestyle."
Church clerk Neil Sutherland agrees, "it is a seven-day-a-week exercises."
"The church tells you you can learn for yourself," says Jared Mynty.
Sutherland says there is no one conversion event but a long process based on individual choice.
Sutherland grew up in the Church, his parents joined when he was five.
"What keeps me going is faith and the ability to reach out to heavenly father," he says and others agree.
But the nut of it for many in the faith is the sense of family the Church creates .
One member, Robert Slaven, illustrates this point with a personal anecdote.
"Four years ago my wife was pregnant," says Slaven.
"And the child came a month early, there were some problems and she had to be medevaced.
I made one phone call and had people taking care of the house and the kids and all I had to do was take a plane to Edmonton," he says.
"It's a big family helping each other out. It's great to have that to rely on," says Slaven.
Later that afternoon everyone has gone home except for Christensen. We stand leaning against a window overlooking 52nd Street and the tops of houses beyond; blue sky and white snow.
Christensen is the public works manager for Yellowknife but he is also the president of the church and he does all the administrative work for free.
He believes in a God that loves and in the one good deed done. For him that is the essence.
"When I spent time with my children I didn't do it because I wanted to do good things and gain in the afterlife," he says.
"I did it because I wanted to, because I love my children," he says.
It's easy to get lost in the abstracts of religion, in mulling over the exact curve of a thing. For Christensen it's about what you do in your little corner of the world.
"Faith without works is dead," he says.
