Artist's Rendition of the Proposed Stake Boundaries |
Salt Lake City, UT—Mormon Church leadership has rejected proposed
ward boundaries in the new South Essex Stake in Essex Massachusetts. The Mormon
Tabernacle Enquirer has learned that the boundaries have been rejected because
of what one source calls “obvious, blatant gerrymandering.”
Among the many irregularities discovered were ward boundaries that actually cut through several homes. When asked to
explain why some ward boundaries cut through individual residences, Church
leaders were told that “well, sometimes one ward needs the Priesthood holder because he is
the center for the ward’s basketball team but the other ward needs the kids for
the youth program.”
Even more unusual was the discovery of a ward boundary
that cuts right through the bedroom of an apartment. Local leaders explained
that “yah, a lovely retired couple lives there, so one ward got the sister
because she makes homemade sacrament bread and the other ward got the husband
because he’s been in the scouting program for 47 years.” While denying the
accusation of “horse-trading” among ward leaders, one source who wants to remain anonymous admitted that “warm,
fresh sacrament bread is a fair swap for a descent scout master.”
Church leaders found that another ward had
several pockets of ward members inside other wards. When asked to explain that situation,
local leaders clarified that “the former stake president has kids throughout the
stake, you know, they are a large, established LDS family here in Massachusetts.” They added that the former leader is “afraid either his wife or his children will stop
going to church if the whole family can’t go together.” The former stake
president’s wife, in a note attached to the boundary documentation, commented that “it is
just easier for everyone to come over every Sunday for dinner if we all have church
together.”
This is not the first time ward boundaries have been
rejected amid allegations of gerrymandering. One source told the Mormon
Tabernacle Enquirer of a stake that tried to make a ward that packed together “all
of the most out-of-control Primary children” with leadership taken from the stake’s various
psychological and criminology experts. Salt Lake explained that “the Lord
wants those little bundles-of-energy and opportunities-for-adults-to-learn-patience
spread more or less evenly throughout Zion.”
No comments:
Post a Comment