Some scriptures that touch on the points I think you are trying to make:

Proverbs 28:20

Alma 1:27-32

Both of those tend to favor the traditional understanding of righteousness leading to wealth- along with warnings against seeking after riches, but there is also another passage later in the Book of Mormon that I can not find but I remember very clearly because it expressed an opposite outcome. The righteous were poorer because they shared their wealth among themselves, while the wicked became wealthier. I’ve always remembered that because it’s so different from the normal depictions of the Pride Cycle.

In Gramsci’s words, “Pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.” I think it is important to focus on the little change that we can make as individuals and groups. Though sometimes the change may be small…it can still matter.

He was known for the quality of his prophecies.

Nibley felt strongly the same way.

I don’t think it’s a Mormon thing. It might be a religious thing, but it’s certainly not unique to Mormons. and The issues that the SLC valley is grappling with are endemic to *all* urban centers. It is not a “Mormon thing”, it is an urban-dynamic-thing.

Of course it is a human thing, which is why he is writing about it, in the context of how it affects us and the Church.

I’m looking forward to the next in this series.

Thank you for detailing this and drawing some forseeable options for the future. Though dire and somewhat bleak, I fear the same.

Also, I agree that it isn’t a bad thing to want to protect yourself and family from these negative influences whether in your neighborhood or your school.

Mike, I am a leftist if you mean I voted for Bush, voted for Romney in the primaries and considered voting for Ron Paul. I’ll agrue anyone under the sun about the benefits of supply-side economics as a macro-fiscal governmental policy. Taxes are anthema to me. That being said, I don’t believe that capitalism is the Lord’s way. I believe in the economic system outined in the D&C, consecration of surplus and the maximization of sufficiency, not utility.

(17) Y”ou put this huge negative spin on this like Mormons are doing bad to (a) leave areas of higher crime (b) want places their kids can play safely outside. Surely why this happens is quite understandable, isn’t it?

Could you avoid this without having a centralized theo-centric decision about who lives where? And is it reasonable to expect that central control?”

Sure, I’m advocating personal responsibility and a sense of community, sufficiency, making do, and zoning and city ordinances that don’t punish the poor. People just need to behave like they have pledges themselves in the temple to do. There is no need for the bishop to plan residences.

And as far as the crime thing goes, if we didn’t expect quid pro quo of a convert baptism when we hold neighborhood barbeques, if we integrated ourselves more with our existing communities, we would attract the kind of people that generally shun crime in our existing neighborhoods. As a last resort you have to put your family’s security first. But I’m asking, how did it get this way? It got that way from neglect. How many of us attend or city planning or council meetings?

When I was a young boy, my neighborhood in Kearns was 80% LDS. It had the largest primary in the Church, and a very stable and inviting neighborhood. In the 1990′s greed and Jonesmanlike behavior saw many of the LDS in our ward move out in droves. Instead of maintaining and fixing up their homes and making do as their parents did, they just threw them away and went after the stucco. It wasn’t an issue of crime, it was an issue of pride.

Mormon families are migratory in Utah and have crept towards the exterior southern and western boundaries of the county. They search out new developments that are cheap and offer the Utah ideal of a single family home with green lawns. They shun diversity and select areas with tight, well-structured wards with people that think and act exactly as they do. Even gated communities are making inroads. I believe modern Mormonism may have invented urban sprawl. If they are in an area where blight creeps in, they creep out, or the ones that can afford it, leaving the few poorer families behind to run a ward that is essentially in every way, the same as wards in other poverty-stricken areas of the country. This means that the greater concentration of Priesthood is in areas where they aren’t needed, and that the lesser concentration is in areas where the need is desperate.

You put this huge negative spin on this like Mormons are doing bad to (a) leave areas of higher crime (b) want places their kids can play safely outside. Surely why this happens is quite understandable, isn’t it?

Could you avoid this without having a centralized theo-centric decision about who lives where? And is it reasonable to expect that central control?

You come off like an economic leftist with an axe to grind.

Geroge, I have done the same thing. I have left Kearns, although my parents haven’t and can’t afford to. I’ll never move back. You can’t go backwards and its hard to unslum a slum, although we as a Mormon people could choose to move back downtown and rescue it from the cultural barbarians, elitists, and nare-do-wells. As we look forward, we should set up cities that incorporate affordable housing into the mix and try to spread it out. If I am a stake looking at ward boundaries, I would integrate.

I also had a very unhappy experience at Jefferson Jr. I witnessed a kid take a gun out in school and then chase the vice principle. The school was in lockdown. I was then bussed to Churchill Jr on the WAY other side in Olympus Cove, President Hickley’s and Faust’s old stomping grounds. I may as well moved from Cincinatti to Hartord. I was not accepted in either location.

(3) David, yes, that was my point partially. We struggle from the same human tendencies that other righteous societies have. I was partly trying to disarm those that are dissaffected because of socioeconomic reasons, and partly trying to challenge the saints to be more consecrated with their personal economics.

(6) Andrew, thanks for bringing that up. I think there is a struggle to relate prosperity to righteousness because it is doctrinally accurate, but often misinterpreted. What I’m concerned is the automatic indication or the causality inherent in Calvinism that has bled over from our Methodist and Presbyterian roots–the idea that being rich automatically justifies a person in the eyes of God, and being poor does not, as a presdestinative factor. I think the doctrine of prosper is that you will have sufficient for your needs, not opulance. Opulance is indicative of pride. I also think that there are cases where one is righteous but their trial is to live in poverty. Joseph Smith wasn’t particularly a wealthy man–he was in debt up to his ears. But as a general rule, the righteous do prosper.

(7) Bruce, I have a couple of suggestions. Don’t support zoning laws that group all affordable housing in one part of the neighborhood. I think it’s best if affordable housing is spead around. You learn to accept what is sufficient for your needs and find ways to consecrate your surplus to the poor. You learn to live a modest, not opulant life. Live within your means. It’s better to be house poor and cash flow rich. If you are a business owner, you follow fair labor laws and open up positions to all applicants, not just those in your family and ward. Don’t be afraid to live in wards where things are different of where Priesthood is needed, or where there is some diversity-even in Utah. Those are just a few ideas.

(9) Nate, this was anecdotal. If you’re expecting a demographic market study, you’re mistaken. You can take it or leave if for the voice in which it was offered. This was my experience and the experience of many that I know who live in different subcultures along the Wasatch. Let me also state that when I am presenting Mormon culture in this post, it is Utah (specifically SL County Mormonism that I am talking about). Blame the editing. I have a little experience with other Mormon cultures (Sacramento, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, BYU, Provo, and now Southern Utah which is a whole new ball of wax), but I have ALOT of experience with Salt Lake County, so thats my context. Being Mormon in an area where our demographics run 40%-70%, I’m concerned that we are suffering the same problems endemic of other urban areas. We should be a cut above, as Joseph and Brigham would want us to be.

(8) Cory, I as well went to BYU on grants. BYU was very accommodating to socioeconomic blending. I had friends from the Marriott family as well as from Palestine and the inner city of Los Angeles. There are ways to bridge the divide, but I never experience it in high school. Maybe it was that I was a Kearns kid at Skyline, who knows. Maybe you were the exception to the rule. I tend to think that socioeconomics don’t mix as well as your experience may suggest.

The purpose of this post is stated my my response to David (#3)

That’s not to say we shouldn’t be better, but white-flight and racial/socioeconomic divisions in cities are as old as, I don’t know, cities themselves, maybe? In any event, they predate Salt Lake City, and Mormonism itself.