Singing So Softly That You Love Me Too

Today is Mother’s Day. In Mormonism, Mother’s Day is one of the most important holidays, or at least one of the least neglected. (Holy week differs from the regular routine only because we sing “That Easter Morn” once and schedule the Sunday School lesson to be on resurrection.)

Perhaps this is because motherhood is something at which Mormons excel, at least quantitatively. Of Americans identifying themselves as Mormons, 49% reported having children at home. (That edges Hindus at 48%, but squashes the national average of 35%.) Mormon fecundity shines even more in the results for three or more children at home: 21% for Mormons, Muslims in a distant second with 15%, and the national average languishes at 9%. (1)

In my congregation, the lineup included three speakers all talking about motherhood and a children chorus singing two Mother’s Day songs (one with ASL signs included). However, the greatest tribute to the dedication of mothers came from the daughter of two of the speakers. This four year-old girl responded to her parents prompting to go up and sing in the children’s choir by diving under a pew and from that entrenched position screaming loudly how she did not want to sing. She then commenced with a tantrum unrivalled in volume and duration by anything in our congregation’s noisy history. An embarrassed father carried her out of the sanctuary, and closed the doors to give the children’s choir a fighting chance against the louder screams of his daughter. To fully muffle the rant he probably needed to cross the river with her. He might have wished he had when his daughter, still incensed, escaped back inside the sanctuary during the next song. She eventually calmed down, but the message was clear: mothers work hard.


(1) Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

New Staff

My sister invited me to join the staff here at Temiandu Kuera. The two of us have much in common: parents (for starters), but also an upbringing in a Midwest college town, middle school Science Olympiad fame, a world view gleaned from early Dilbert strips, a propensity to sunburn instantly, and admission to social science doctorial programs at large state universities. Therefore, look for more of the same familiar wit. She will retain editorial control, and I shall try not to annoy.