October 188th SemiAnnual General Conference Broadcast Scheduale For Deaf Members of The LDS Church

Click on the photo below for a clearer view for when to best view General Conference in American Sign Language. 

Feeling Conflicted Over Elder Kearon's Talk About Refugees

Elder Patrick Kearon, of the quorum of the Seventy, gave a moving talk about the Church's call to help refugees during the Sunday afternoon session of the April 2016 General Conference. 

Many Mormons were clearly moved by his talk. However, there were many of Mormons who felt conflicted about his talk. I can see this conflict in debates among members of the Church after General Conference on social media sites.

Before I explain the conflict felt by many members in the Church, I want to make it clear at the beginning that we are all for helping refugees. We fully support the Church's efforts in mobilizing members to gather food, water, clothing, bedding, and bags full of sanitary items so that they can ship it to refugee camps in the Middle East and Europe. 

Elder Kearon's talk certainly pulled at our heartstrings. Elder Kearon raised the valid point that Christ himself, at one point in his life, was a refugee when his parents fled to Egypt when he was a little child. He talked about how Mormons were refugees when they were forced to flee from place to place by angry mobs and ultimately had to leave the United States to find peace beyond the western frontier of the United States by moving into what was then Mexican territory. We know that many in the Church were once refugees. We clearly heard the call to be compassionate and charitable towards refugees that are escaping war, famine, and economic uncertainty in their homelands. 

It was clear that Elder Utchdorf was moved by Elder Kearon's talk afterwards. Elder Uchtdorf talked about being a refugee prior to Elder Kearon's talk in General Conference.

However, many members couldn't help thinking about the ongoing political debate in America and in Europe about letting refugees into their homelands during his talk.  Many of us were thinking about how Europe suffered repeated terrorist attacks because they allowed people to come into their country without asking any questions about who was coming in. 

Elder Kearon didn't mention anything about opening the borders and letting as many refugees in as possible. His talk simply focused on the need for members of the Church to help the refugees. He explicitly stated in this talk that his desire was to focus on refugees themselves and not on immigration policy or the debates over the definition of a refugee. 

Yet, many members were torn between having compassion for these refugees and the desire for security against terrorism by refugees coming from certain parts of the world. Clearly, the hot topics of immigation, terrorism, and other issues came to mind to some people when they heard this talk even when Elder Kearon explicitly stated that he would be avoiding these issues.

Correctly or incorrectly, some people got the impression that we should sacrifice our desire for safety and security in the name of compassion. Many of us have a legitimate concern about sacrificing security for compassion by opening up our borders to people who wish to do us harm. The United States government, through both the FBI and DHS, have admitted that we have no way to verify who is coming into our country. Many members of the Church want to help the refugees, but they have a legitimate concern about their safety not being compromised while helping others.

We fully acknowledge that not every refugee is a terrorist bent on hurting as many as possible. Refugees do flee from all parts of the world to come to places of safety. Not all of refugees come from the Middle East. But some of the terrorists did come into Europe during the large wave of refugees who came from the Middle East last summer. And this fact certainly is still a presence in many people's minds.

Its clear that the recent events in Europe have affected some people's reception of Elder Kearon's talk. Under different circumstances or had the recent terror attacks not occurred, the response to his talk would have been more universally accepted. Instead, many people felt conflicted about his talk. Many debates erupted on social media sites about the issue of compassion versus security.

I don't know how to resolve the conflict between the call for compassion and the legitimate desire for personal safety while helping others. I don't know what the answer to that problem is. I felt this conflict while I listened to his talk. I confess to having participated in these online debates on various social media platforms.

I have been reflecting on this inner conflict and thinking about the points raised by both sides. I decided to write this post to ask the readers for solutions on this conflict. I don't want a debate. I want answers. I want to be Christlike but I also want to protect myself and others at the same time. 

How can members of the Church balance their desire for compassion and safety? Is such a balance possible? 

April 186th Annual General Conference Broadcast Schedule For Deaf Members of The LDS Church

General Conference is coming upon us again soon! As always, I am providing the broadcast schedule for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals who wish to watch Conference in an accessible format. See below for information on how to enjoy General Conference. 

If you have trouble viewing the infographic below, click on it and download it for better viewing. 

October 185th SemiAnnual General Conference Broadcast Scheduale For Deaf Members of The LDS Church

UPDATE: This has been updated to include more information about how to view General Conference in ASL.

UPDATE #2: We received word from many members trying to view the ASL interpretation for the General Women’s Session this past weekend that it was difficult to find the ASL interpretation on lds.org. We’ve done some research and it seems ASL and all other languages available through the language drop down menu have been removed from the main English broadcast page. All languages will now be shown on their individual language pages. This means that you need to go to lds.org/asl to find the ASL interpretation of General Conference. It will appear between “American Sign Language” and “Scriptures” on the page captured below. Sorry for this confusion. Please help us spread the word.

Some Memes On The Dissenting Votes During General Conference

After the a group of LDS members vocally made their dissent known during the afternoon session of The 185th Annual General Conference, things got heated on the Internet with members creating memes about the event. Almost all of the memes created were in support of Church leadership or expressed disapproval at the dissenters.

One meme was particularly powerful that generated a counter response from those who supported the dissenters. View both memes below: 

What do you think of these memes?

April 185th Annual General Conference Broadcast Scheduale For Deaf Members of The LDS Church

Making The LDS Church Enjoyable For People With A Hearing Loss

Going to church isn't easy if you have a hearing loss. I know because I have a hearing loss myself. It is a challenge that most people aren't aware of unless you have a friend or a relative who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing or if you have served an Sign Language Mission for the LDS Church. 

For many people, hearing loss can keep someone from enjoying church or from being fully active. Why? It can be a challenge to enjoy what is being said during Sacrament meeting or to participate in Church activities. If a person with a hearing loss attends General Conference, they will have a hard time hearing the General Authorities speak unless they are sitting in an area reserved for Deaf and Hard of Hearing members. Even going to the Temple can be a challenge despite the fact that it is very peaceful and quiet inside.

People think that wearing hearing aids will help improve the person's ability to hear. Actually, hearing aids can only do so much because there are other factors that an affect a person's ability to hear. Such factors are sound quality, distance from the sound source and the person, ambient noise and reverberation, the quality of the hearing aids and the percentage of hearing loss are just some of the many factors that can affect a person who is wearing a hearing loss ability to hear. 

However, there is technology that eliminates all of these different factors that affect a deaf person's ability to hear. Its called hearing loops.

What Are Hearing Loops? 

A Hearing Loop, (also known as a T-Loop or Induction Loops), takes the desired speech or sound signal signal straight from the basic source (microphone, television set, music speakers) and broadcast directly to the listener’s hearing aids. The signal at the listener’s ears is free from distance issues, reverberation and ambient noise interference. Thus, it provides a person with a hearing loss with the ability to enjoy what is being said at Sacrament meeting or General Conference without any interference of any kind. 

How do Hearing Loops Work? 

How the LDS Church Would Benefit From This Technology?

Although many LDS meetinghouses offer Assisted Listening System devices, there are many drawbacks that hearing loops don't have. The LDS Church would benefit tremendously from installing T- Loops at LDS Chapels, Temples and the Conference Center. Interestingly enough, there are Mormon Churches in Europe that have been installed with Induction Loops. However, this technology is not common in LDS places of worship in the United States and other parts of the world.

The biggest benefit is that Church would become more enjoyable for people because they will get alot more out of Church meetings because they are able to understand what is being said. This will bring many members back to Church who have gone inactive due to their hearing loss or who have left the Church because they cannot hear. When other Churches have installed hearing loops, they see increase in membership both from inactive and new members. People have been known to drive miles to a different Church if they know it has hearing loops.

How Do I Get My LDS Meetinghouse Installed With A Hearing Loop?

If you wish to have your LDS Meetinghouse installed with a hearing loop, the best way to start is to send a letter to your Bishop and to request that your letter be sent up the chain of authority until it reaches Church Headquarters. Your Stake President should also contact the Area Facilities Management Department to make the request. If that is not successful, he could also go directly to the Facilities Management located at the Church Headquarters.

I also advise talking to other people within the Church about your hearing loss and talking about how you would enjoy Church more if only you could hear better at our meetings. Getting the word out about the challenges you face will help you find people who want to advocate on your behalf. They too, will want to write letters to their bishop and ask that it be passed along the proper channels or will want to talk to their Church leaders about why their friend or relative is having a hard time at Church because of their hearing loss. 

I suggest people with hearing loss find other people within your ward or stake who have a hearing loss. It is very common for people who have a hearing loss to be unaware that there are people with similar challenges. Once you find each other, you can then work together to share your concern with your Bishop or Stake President who will pass these concerns on to the proper authorities until it reaches back to Church Headquarters. 

Another idea is to share informative articles with other people.  For a handout on how to procure a hearing loop for your facility, read this article. If you want to learn more about the benefits of having hearing loops in a house of worship, I strongly suggest reading the an article in the May 2010 and September 2013 issue of Technologies for Worship Magazine.

There's also this short informative video that explains the benefit of installing hearing loops that you can share with friends, family members and Church leaders. Watch below: 

I also suggest using social media like Facebook and Twitter to initiate the conversation with other members that you know. Many wards and stakes now have Facebook pages.  LDS Church is on Twitter along with various General Authorities who now have a twitter account. I strongly encourage you to pass this blog article to others or share it on social media. 

How Do I Get The Conference Center Looped? 

The LDS Church might loop a certain section of the Conference Center. But they need to know if members would really want to have the Conference Center looped. The best way let the Church know about your desire is to send a letter to your Bishop and to request that your letter be sent up the chain of authority until it reaches Church Headquarters.

Conclusion

The various challenges that come with being a member of the Church with a hearing hearing loss can be easily remedied if induction loops become a standard feature in LDS Meetinghouses, Temples and the Conference Center.

However, in order for the LDS Church to begin making hearing loops a standard feature of Church buildings, there has to be a need for it. However, the Church won't install this technology unless they hear from a lot of members regarding this issue. Right now, there isn't enough awareness about Hearing Loops or a demand to justify installing the hearing loops. However, you can let the Church know about this issue by following the proper steps of making your Bishop or Branch President aware of this matter who will pass the request up the line of authority. The more people share their concerns, the more LDS meetinghouses will have hearing loops in the future.

If you would like to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to install a hearing loop at your local ward meeting house or at your favorite Temple or at the Conference Center, please politely share your thoughts and requests at the following email address: DeafSupport@ldschurch.org.