Iola’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a growing congregation.
Popularly known as Mormons, derived from the denomination’s sacred text, the Book of Mormons, local church members follow a faith that to outsiders may seem puritanical.
Members are to abstain from “unclean” habits such as drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and using illegal drugs. They keep themselves chaste — by being a faithful spouse and by abstaining from premarital sex. They fast one Sunday a month. And they participate in a “somewhat” patriarchal society, said Harry Lee, LaHarpe, the reigning bishop of this area’s ward.
Despite, or maybe because of, these expectations, membership in the church at 1420 E. Carpenter, has increased by about 100 members in the past 25 years, Lee said, bringing the total congregation to about 300.
A typical Sunday has an average of 100 in attendance.
Of the members, Lee estimates 75 percent are “converts.”
He and his wife, Joyce, follow that mold. He was raised a Baptist, she a Methodist. They joined the Latter-day Saints when they were in their mid-20s.
The Lees have seven children — “Doctrinally, that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Lee said with a hint of sarcasm, though it’s hard to be sure. Lee then quotes Scripture from Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply.”
From their seven children come 24 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
The family unit is central to the Church of the Latter-day Saints.
The Iola church is dominated by young, big families. Most have four or five children, Lee said, but one has had nine.
Most of the congregation’s families participate in Family Home Evening. It’s a time when one night a week the family worships together.
This reporter participated in such an evening with the Robyn and Nathan Fawson family and their five children, Alexa, 15, Isaiah, 11, Elijah, 8, Keira, 3, and Moriah, then an infant, one week last summer. The Fawsons since have moved to Branson, Mo.
Components of the evening included prayer, a lesson, a game, a snack, and a time to share personal news. The Fawsons also used the time to get out the calendar and check on a myriad of schedules that included sporting activities, music lessons and church commitments.
SUNDAY WORSHIP can mean a good chunk of the day for Iola Mormons.
Harry Lee is at church by 8 a.m. to lead the Bishopric, a council of five that includes Lee as bishop, two counselors, an executive secretary and a ward clerk.
In his role as bishop, Lee oversees his ward, which covers 2,500 square miles. Above that is a stake, which comprises eight to 12 wards and is led by a stake president. And beyond that is the president of the Mormon State, who is Thomas S. Monson, based at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
None of the bishops or stake presidents are paid for their services, Lee said, which can last several years.
Regular church service follows at 10 a.m. After that is Sunday school. From there the sexes part with the women attending Relief Society and the men, Priesthood.
For many, their faith is “24/7,” Lee said, not just on Sundays.
“Igniting that spark” for the two-thirds of the congregation who do not regularly attend church, is the challenge.
Some of the church’s strict dictates seem terribly outdated, Lee admitted.
Teenagers abstaining from dating until they are 16 and avoiding sex, he said, “may not seem so important to society today, but it is to our Father in Heaven.”
By waiting until they are more mature, youth can better understand the consequence of bad decisions, he said.
“These are the expectations that go with being a good Christian,” he said. “We perceive the importance that the body is a temple, and must be kept clean.”
That includes proper dress, Lee said. “All of the churches should be trying to raise the standards of appropriate dress and behavior.”
Only those who are “spiritually clean,” — who are physically, morally and spiritually upright — may enter a Mormon Temple and are interviewed by their bishop to determine their worthiness, he said.
Fasting one Sunday a month is also viewed as a cleansing practice, Lee said. Going without food or drink for 24 hours shows “the physical subjection of the physical body to the spiritual,” Lee said.
The money that would have been spent on food is donated to the ward and used to help the needy.
All these things are perhaps a turnoff to today’s youth, Lee said. “There’s a falling off from late teens to early 20s,” of the congregation. But he maintains that if this demographic “understands the standards of the church,” it helps make “the transition easier” and if they don’t stay with the church, they at least may one day return.
BUT WHAT about the real world? Divorce, for example.
“We see it as a last resort. We do everything to help a family survive,” including being a haven of safety in instances of physical or verbal abuse.
An individual or family in financial straits is helped a number of ways. The women’s Relief Society is geared for such emergencies and sees that a household’s food stocks are adequate if in doubt.
Another tenet of the church is to have enough food, water, medicine, fuel and money to last one year. A grocery warehouse in Olathe provides church members with bulk foodstuff at discount prices.
Lee said the principles of the Mormon faith help keep individuals less dependent on government subsidies.
Self-sufficiency is encouraged. If needs arise, members are encouraged to approach extended family members, “spiritually, as well as temporally.” The church also can be a source of assistance. In his role as bishop Lee does financial counseling. He recalled a recent instance where the church helped a single mother enroll in training to become a certified professional. The church paid for her education and whatever else she could not afford in order for her eventually to qualify for a job that paid a living wage.
THOUGH THE Lees did not have any of their four sons participate, a practice of the Church of Latter-day Saints is to have its men, 19 and older, serve for two years as missionaries.
“We didn’t truly understand its importance,” Lee said when their sons were of age. They have had three grandsons, however, participate. Worldwide, there are 65,000 Mormon missionaries at any given time.
