Interview with Boyd Jensen: Former Mormon (LDS) Bishop in Riverside, California
Boyd is no longer a Bishop so he was answering my questios as a neighbor and providing me with insight for which I am extremely grateful.
There are normally five responsibilities of a Bishop. The first one is to be a leader. The second one is to look after the welfare of the members. The third one is looking after the tithes and the offering. The fourth one is working with the adults both Mormon men and women and the fifth one is to be responsible for worthiness. The young men have priesthood opportunities and the women go to Temple or go on missions or work with the Bishop on worthiness issues. If someone has broken a serious commandment and they need to come in and confess the Bishop is there to hear confessions and help them out. It is kind of a worthiness responsibility to help members to keep their worthiness. Those are the five duties that are essentially are assigned to an LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) Bishop. If someone asked that question that would be the typical answer.
At the moment I work with the missionaries who are young men preparing to go on missions. I try to help them prepare so that they can go out and be honorable and successful as missionaries. What is the duty of a missionary? The missionary’s duty consists basically of three things. One of the duties is to proselytize in the area where they go and whatever the laws allow. They can knock on doors and go on street cars and stand on the corner. In England they can go into parks and preach there so that is one responsibility. The next one is service. Each week they do service and the third is personal development. They study the scriptures and they try and develop their r language skills if they are in a foreign country and how to be courteous. Personal improvement.
How do I prepare them? I have a limited role in this at the present time but when I was a Bishop the missionaries through the Church organization come prepared. Anybody who reads the Bible learns to be a missionary because you perform service and the church becomes a spiritual corner of your life. Pretty much everything the Bishop does influences young people. A Bishop holds that position for possibly five years though it can be less or more. A young person can go from junior high and high school and be ready to go on a mission. There are many different ways a Bishop can help them on their journey before they go on a mission. When a male becomes 19 and wants to go the Bishop interviews him to determine that he is worthy and he has desires and is willing to serve and has prepared himself and by his testimony has read the scriptures and things like that.
When I say, “The Bible” I am referring to the Bible. The LDS Church is adherent in English to the King James Version of the Bible. We believe the Bible to be the word of God. In Germany it is Martin Luther’s translation in German and I’m not sure what the versions are in different languages but the Bible is central to LDS. The Book of Mormon is significant too and it is great and you have to have read it before you go on a mission but most people outside of the Church don’t know about the Book of Mormon so they should become familiar with it so they can converse about it intelligently but the best stories in my opinion are in the New Testament.
How do LDS members regard Adam and Eve? Just two people. Nothing more and nothing less. They were just people. There is some symbolic significance to them being kicked out of the Garden of Eden but I don’t know if there is any geographic or physiologic or biologic or some other change other than Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. That’s what we are told and that’s what we believe. If there are more details than that no one really knows what they are. LDS members don’t believe in original sin but what they do believe is that transgression of Adam and Eve was overcome. We have what are articles of faith and we believe that man will be punished for his own sins not for Adam’s transgressions. That is sort of a basic tenant.
Some religions are based around sin and damnation but I personally don’t get that message. I think that the savior message is about forward progress so that if someone makes a mistake he wants them to move forward and yes we feel guilt but it doesn’t do any good. Again this is just my opinion but forward progress is the point. We do believe that Christ’s death guarantees everybody’s salvation. What that means is that whatever happened to Adam and Eve and if they were at one time an innocent couple and then became corruptible that was overcome by Christ. Everything about the Church is about the savior and the Mormons think Christ is God period. It is at that level of significance. That is what I believe and what I think is true. I think most people don’t understand and don’t appreciate the Bible. The Bible is Christ’s doctrine and what he taught is the only way that I think we survive as a civilization. It is just that simple. I’ve got a copy of the Koran and I’ve got a Talmud both sitting on my shelf and I’ve read them. I’ve also read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and the Declaration of Independence but I am telling you the only way that we are going to survive as the human race is understanding and appreciating the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So what are some of the things the Mormon’s do towards helping people? That is a pretty big category. I think the missionaries of the LDS Church are one of the most important armies of goodness on the planet. There are 60,000 young people who pay their own way and go around the world and they do service and they are humble. They may not be perfect but they don’t force themselves on anyone or force their religion on anyone, they just want to serve. What they are teaching is the gospel of Christ. They teach kindness and turn the other cheek. Yes there is a Mormon spin to it. You don’t smoke or drink or have pre-marital sex which is the Mormon part of it. It is wonderful what they do. The Church has a welfare program and in Africa the Church does many many things. The Church does things all over the World. They have schools and they send doctors. They build buildings and they help with agriculture. The vast majority of Latter Day Saints are not paid but instead do what one is supposed to do which is helping your neighbor whether they are Mormon or not. You should try to be a good example. The Church tries to do that. I think the Church’s standards are excellent and the services of young people out there are excellent. I think us old people try to serve and that is hopefully good for the people we try to serve.
What kinds of services do the missionaries provide in the countries where they are at? There are many different kinds of missions. There are the proselytizing missions and those are mostly done by the young people. There are adult missionaries and there are hosts at historical sites or they work with the disadvantaged people like the Riverside branch. A couple recently went back to Montana who were working with the deaf and some people help the Spanish and some go into areas of New York City and Los Angeles and other impoverished area called service missionaries. These are usually adults who can help people with more serious problems that a 19 year old isn’t perhaps the best equipped to handle.
As for the appellation Mormon I’m not sure where that came from. I refer to myself as a Christian. That is really what we are. Everyone on the planet refers to us as Mormon’s so we sort of just cave in and go along but I am kind of precise so I prefer to use the term LDS.
All in All it was an excellent interview and it is always interesting to talk to someone new. In two weeks I am invited to an open mike service where people can go up and testify about whatever they wish. I am sure it will be interesting because it will be about people and that is what every religion is about. It is about the people and what and why they believe.
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