We do the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas Boxes project every year and pack a couple of dozen or more shoe boxes of holiday gifts to be sent overseas to poor countries. We have done this for five years.

We also contribute $100 a month to the FAST program in Independence, Kansas and $100. a month to the Genesis program in Coffeyville, Kansas. These two programs help with rent, utilities and food for families in need. We have done this for five years. The past two years we have also contributed $100. a month to help pay for medications for people who come to the Montgomery County Medical Clinic, a clinic providing low cost health care for people without insurance in both Coffeyville and Independence, Kansas.

Through Outreach International, we help support a school in the Dominican Republic. We have done this for twelve years though for the first ten years it was a Jamaican school.

We buy school supplies for the Caney, Kansas, elementary school every fall. We have done this for six years.

We keep a food basket in our foyer for needy families who need food.

One couple are active in the PINCH (People For Institutional and Community Harmony) organization, an organization that promotes racial justice and harmony in the community.

Our people participate in all sorts of community projects. One woman heads up a Relay for Life in Independence, Kansas, and serves on the board for the American Cancer Society. one serves on the board of the Montgomery County Medical Clinic. We have a couple who have been involved in the two community’s ministerial alliances for thirteen years. One of our members has served as president of the Independence, Kansas Ministerial Alliance and another has served as president of the Chanute, Kansas Ministerial Alliance. One member is the secretary-treasurer of the Coffeyville Ministerial Alliance.

The Independence Alliance and the Coffeyville Alliance cooperated during the massive 2007 flood in southeast Kansas and worked to bring together the communities to help those who lost everything in that flood. They worked to set up a store where people could get household goods and clothing to replace those they lost. Two members worked on committees as chaplains on that occasion. One couple serves on the board of directors for the senior center in Neodesha, Kansas and this same couple organized a parade and community dinner for that community for Veterans Day last year.

One woman is a Hospice Volunteer.

Our philosophy is that we may be small but we still want to make an impact on our communities. I believe we worry too much about things we cannot change and don’t worry enough about the ones we can.

The last number I saw was 39,000 in North America. But as mother Teresa often said, “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”

Joanna Brooks (Mormon Girl) put up a post over at Mormon Matters a few days ago where she linked to the daily Gallup tracking poll summary for all of 2009 (published on January 10, 2010. The link is “http://www.gallup.com/poll/125021/mormons-conservative-major-religious-group.aspx” if you’d like to read the whole Gallup piece on the religious/political party/political philosophy of various religious classifications.

It has some surprises about how the political spectrum breaks down by religions, but probably demonstrates much about why America is a center-right country.

I took the data in the first Gallup table and computed a “net conservative %” score by ignoring the self-identified moderates among the 7 religious classifications listed by Gallup. The results:

Mormons +41%
Protestants +30%
Catholics +20%
Islam -7%
Non-Abrahamic Faiths -19%
Non-Religious -21%
Jedaism -23%

American Chrisitianity is mainstream America, and American Christianity self-identifies as much more conservative than liberal.

Interestingly, American Jews are more liberal than any other faith groups, and Islam lies at the middle of the spectrum. Although Mormons are the most conservative major religion (i.e., large enough to show up even in the large Gallup aggregated data) they are more like the other Christians than the other Christians are like any non-Christian group.

I suppose it’s a matter of defining the label of Western conservatives, but I think that Western religious conservatives, with their notions of the afterlife, salvation, Christology, scripture, are far more aligned with the Community of Christ now, than when we were touting communal living, Book of Mormon, multi-tierd glories, etc.

As our theology becomes more “mainstream” I believe that mainstream reflects more of the Western conservative theology.

Your choice is certainly understandable to me. I would disagree only with the phrase “becoming” more aligned with Western conservatives. To me it seems less aligned with Western conservatives than at any point in its history, though perhaps more conservative when Western and third world conservatives are added together.

You’ve said things from time to time that suggest your early church experiences were outside America. Is that so? If so, you may be experiencing deep surprised at how conservative a country America actually is compared to Canada or Western Europe, for example.

Good or bad, Americans are majority-conservative.

And does God think that Christianity is the only important part of His community, when Christianity might be less than 1/3 of the planetary population (with a generous definition of being involved in Christianity)?

If we think God’s work centers in us, we ought to be able to give reasons. What does this denomination offer the planetary civilization that will become Zion? After all, we were formed from people who LEFT other denominations in the first place. Those denominations could (and probably DID) also argue that people should stay in the denominations despite their differences.

We need to constantly check ourselves to be sure we are focused on Christ, not denomination, in order to build the Kingdom.

I appreciate that unity in diversity is not that we all think the same. It is, as you say, valuing one another because of our difference, not in spite of them. I feel the Community of Christ is not a place where that occurs, at least not at the policy level where it counts. This is one of the basic tenants, for me, that drives me to seek out a faith community that does value diversity for diversity’s sake.