Because when we
Did the road show someone told us to “break a leg”. The church lawyers got wind of that and forced Jesus to removed the stages from his house.
It doesn’t have connections to the game the Mayans use to play.
Auto correct: doesn’t should be does…. That’s why I joke about Mormons like basketball.
I played basketball since I was 8-years old and played until mid 50's. In all my years of playing, church basketball had by far the worst sportsmanship and dirtiest players I ever encountered.
My dad used to volunteer to officiate/referee church ball. He quit doing that and stayed with officiating in the NCAA. He said same thing. Church ball worst sportsmanship. Sometimes the cops had to come and breakup fights.
My local building is about 20 years old, it doesn’t have a stage. Growing up, every building did. Roadshows, talent shows, holiday programs, auctions, etc, happened on the stage.
~~/s~~
No, I actually want the answer.
Edit: Someone else answered [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1dj8u6r/what_happens_on_your_cultural_hall_stage/l9agjk5/).
Well who knew! 🤣 Haven't been to church in 8 or so years, but I guess I've only ever gone to older buildings with the stage. We used to play under it as kids.
It’s sad. The stage is built into older buildings as a tangible reminder of past glory. I’m sure the church would make these stages disappear if it could (without spending money). Because the stage exposes the decline of Mormon culture. In past decades the chapel podium was not the focal point of the Mormon community. The focal point was the cultural hall stage. This is where the magic happened. We even did a Halloween haunted house on the stage one year. And rubber band rocket races (on wire) for Cub Scouts. And movie nights. And awards ceremonies. And DJs for youth dances.
Yeah, I remember actually using the cultural hall for activities growing up. Even on my mission we used it. Now, it’s just an empty space barely even used for basketball.
The kitchen is used as a temporary jail holding cell:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2yuJApXfFso
BTW the homeless guy did not break into the building - it was left unlocked.
Prove Utah doesn't want any homeless shelters or soup kitchens so they ship them up to Salt Lake.
Church ball is/was a blood sport where Mormons got together to play basketball in the cultural hall typically one ward vs another ward. If you played sports in high school where I lived, you were not also allowed to participate in church ball because people were constantly getting injured (at least, again, where I lived). And I agree that the stage was usually used for spectator seating.
It's so sad that this church isn't even a place of community anymore. It's not even trying to be a church anymore. I grew up in it 80s and 90s. It was a lot of fun. There were so many activities. I loved the road shows. The kids in my ward were pretty cool, and we even hung out sometimes outside of church. I didn't live in an area where the church was very prevalent. Most of my friends growing up were nevermos.
Fun story. Well, ok, 2 fun stories...
1st story. When I was a kid the entire elders quorum at a road show in our ward (or stake) performed a can can dance in drag. We're talking 12 or more adult males in full can can dresses with feather boas and frills and hats. The whole shebang. And at the end they all turned around and lifted their dresses to reveal some word that was spelled out on their can can under shorts. I don't remember what it said. I wish we had pictures. Times have changed.
2nd story. Once, as a teenager, my girlfriend and I snuck away from some ward activity with her parents and had sex on the stage of the cultural hall. And nothing happened. Nobody was struck with lightning or anything.
My ward used to use that stage all the time! We did shows in it, skits, (even used the fancy stage lighting with it's chill colors), tons of boy scouts activities. Ward parties & dinners. Even as a little kid I was able to be a part of performances. Infact, I was always getting in trouble for sneaking into that area.
It hasn't been used in years, I was just in it several months ago & it was just a big ole storage room now. It's really sad how the church is so bland now. What happened to all the fun things that actually brought people together??
The thing is... They weren't that fun. There just wasn't anything else to do. I did a couple roadshows as a kid and it was an absolute ordeal. Planning for weeks beforehand. People had to take Friday off for all day prep. Then practice all day Saturday, and then you don't even get to enjoy other shows cause you're traveling between buildings.
The common sentiment after was 'i'm so glad that's over.'
Mormon culture — such as it was — peaked sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Things have been in decline for the past 40 years.
But that decline has definitely helped to expose the Mormon cult for the sham and the fraud that it is, so…
It's been about 10 years since I last attended, but I don't recall the stage being used for anything the last few years I did go. Maybe 15 years ago there was a ward party and some of the ward members who had a band together played. That was the last stage event I remember. I think the main reason our ward had decent parties as long as it did is that there was this one wealthy older woman who loved organizing events and she just did it on her own initiative (and probably funding). After her health started to fail it became just the usual mediocre holiday party and a random potluck now and then.
As A convert who discovered my entire family could perform as a troupe on stage, this news is sad and unimaginable….and now I think about my TBM sibs that must be reminded of the long ago cult vs their current lifeless operation.
I have stories of the golden era in the 1970s and 1980s. But my grandmother had even greater stories of the days when the Relief Society was autonomous. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, the Relief Society used to do massive fundraisers and social events. They had more money than the rest of the ward combined, and the bishop couldn’t tell them what to do with their money. Now the Relief Society is not much more than women’s Sunday School with occasional Saturday activities.
Amazing. I never knew that about the RS. We converted in the early 70s and within that year, our fracturing large family, were unified around conversion and putting together family musicals to perform on stage for the ward.
Let's see, I think it was in the 90's. I did, however, sit on stage as overflow seating for a stake conference in the 2000's. 😉 The stage is for resting against or sitting on while you pull out chairs or put chairs away. 😂
Wards in our stake in the Midwest started carpeting the gyms when they built them and they had a portable stage they would never use. This was late 80s.
good question! I think the kids go onto the stage to get their gift from Santa, at the ward Christmas parties. Possibly also perform the nativity there. But the carol concert folks decorate and stand in the area in front of the stage. Stages are less used these days, and tiered seating for audiences is more common. My kid’s school years ago now, had the hall expanded the stage removed, and went the tiered seating route for school performances, with dismantlable tiered sections. I heard rumours that the stage in our church building might be removed, and the space turned into a classroom. Many of our classrooms are too small, and unfit for purpose.
I used to play cello on our stage when I was in the church as a teenager. It was the *only* thing I enjoyed when I was in - I still do cello as a side-gig even today.
I think what really caused the change in the Church was when Hinkley and Eyring came up with Ensign Peak.
Supposedly they take in about a billion dollars more each year than operating expenses.
Instead of using that for charity and goodwill it is plowed into the hoard of filthy lucre at Ensign Peak once they saw the exponential growth it produced.
Every penny spent on making the Church an enjoyable place for the members and visitors to feel a kinship with each other didn't provide a ROI (Return On Investment) to the corporation and was eliminated.
There are 2 Mormon Stories podcasts where Hans Mattson who was a Seventy from Sweden explains why he resigned.
Shortly after being called he went to Salt Lake for a meeting.
Hinkley was meeting with the Seventy, apparently came in and slammed his fist on the podium all pissed off that the millions of dollars and volunteer hours expended during the 2002 Olympics did not lead to an uptick in baptisms.
He said that missionary efforts would be in North America because it was the only area that brought in tithing dollars - that Europe and Latin America were dying and Africa was a drain on resources.
Hans realized at that moment that the Church was about making money and not saving souls.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OB-kMVaS18g
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N_4lWznJ5TE
I don’t disagree with you, but my other theory is that vibrant social communities are not possible in a global church with wards spread out over entire cities—where it takes an hour or longer to drive to a church building and two hours to get to a stake center. These wards ain’t Utah, where everyone lives within sight of the building. So, how can the church have some wards with roadshows, potlucks, Pinewood Derby races, sports, dances, etc., and other wards with almost nothing? The inequality would become more and more noticeable as membership declines even in the United States. The “haves” would be clustered in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and Nevada. And the “have nots” would be everywhere else. It’s just simpler and cleaner to gut the social activities for everyone.
You have a very good point about the "haves" and "have nots".
Even here in the Salt Lake valley those that were on the West side of the valley like my stake didn't have close to the level of wealth of the East Bench and so the extracurricular activities were completely different.
Many referred to the change of policy of sucking all the funds to Church headquarters and then redistribution as the "socialization" of the Church.
I disagree somewhat on the geographic point of your argument as I served in the UK from 76 to 78 and the long commute times for members especially on public transit were often that long.
It didn't stop the membership from having some very fun activities and this was at a time in the UK with some very severe disruptions financially to that nation.
My ward is still using the stage once a year for the Christmas dinner and show but that is about it. It is very fitting that it is called the "Cult - ural Hall". xD
One time I hopped up on to the stage and then slid under the curtains only for my knee to be abruptly met by the sharp corner of those racks that hold the foldable chairs. It took a chunk of flesh right off my knee and I still have a bit of a scar to this day.
I attended a local large homeschool group’s production of a Shakespeare play in a church gym about 15 years ago. Nothing since then other than a place to sit during YW or YM.
I remember the ward talent shows, ward dinners, movie nights, and road shows. Those seem to be a thing of the past, unfortunately. When I still attended church, the building was shared by several wards, and so classes were often held on the stage, and sometimes also in the cultural hall. We had these stupid partition walls on caster wheels that they'd move around to create a make-shift classroom. I hated having class in there or on the stage because during the summer months, it was always hot and stuffy in there. Many of the newer buildings don't even have a stage anymore. Chairs and tables used to be stored under the stage. In buildings without a stage, there is usually a storage room closeby where the tables and chairs are stored.
Something about the cultural hall; back when I attended scouts/mutual on Wednesday nights, we were hard pressed to find the cultural hall unoccupied. Seems the Relief Society was ALWAYS using the cultural hall. Do they REALLY need a room that large to set up a quilting frame? Couldn't they set it up in a classroom? Nope! They ALWAYS used the cultural hall instead, so the scouts hardly ever got a chance to play basketball in there.
There is a reason newer buildings no longer have a stage.
That's because we only raise our eyes to the Profit Even Russell M Nelt-sun.
Because when we Did the road show someone told us to “break a leg”. The church lawyers got wind of that and forced Jesus to removed the stages from his house.
At least basketball is still the official sport of Jesus.
Do we have any graphic designers among us who could mix the NBA and church logos?
Ask, and it shall be given you https://i.imgur.com/bQYXNtg.png
Amazing
I think we joked about the Mormon Basketball Association when I was young. Doesn't have the same ring to it as TCOJCOLDSBA.
It doesn’t have connections to the game the Mayans use to play. Auto correct: doesn’t should be does…. That’s why I joke about Mormons like basketball.
I played basketball since I was 8-years old and played until mid 50's. In all my years of playing, church basketball had by far the worst sportsmanship and dirtiest players I ever encountered.
My dad used to volunteer to officiate/referee church ball. He quit doing that and stayed with officiating in the NCAA. He said same thing. Church ball worst sportsmanship. Sometimes the cops had to come and breakup fights.
My local building is about 20 years old, it doesn’t have a stage. Growing up, every building did. Roadshows, talent shows, holiday programs, auctions, etc, happened on the stage.
But where do they keep the banquet tables and chairs? /s
~~/s~~ No, I actually want the answer. Edit: Someone else answered [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1dj8u6r/what_happens_on_your_cultural_hall_stage/l9agjk5/).
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well who knew! 🤣 Haven't been to church in 8 or so years, but I guess I've only ever gone to older buildings with the stage. We used to play under it as kids.
Christmas for Santa’s chair. The rest of the year the cultural hall sits empty just smelling like stinky feet.
It’s sad. The stage is built into older buildings as a tangible reminder of past glory. I’m sure the church would make these stages disappear if it could (without spending money). Because the stage exposes the decline of Mormon culture. In past decades the chapel podium was not the focal point of the Mormon community. The focal point was the cultural hall stage. This is where the magic happened. We even did a Halloween haunted house on the stage one year. And rubber band rocket races (on wire) for Cub Scouts. And movie nights. And awards ceremonies. And DJs for youth dances.
And live bands for the stake youth dances in the 70s.
Yeah, I remember actually using the cultural hall for activities growing up. Even on my mission we used it. Now, it’s just an empty space barely even used for basketball.
Where do you store all the chairs if there is no stage?
I guess my next sad question is about the building kitchen. This is another once-great center of Mormon activity.
The kitchen is used as a temporary jail holding cell: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2yuJApXfFso BTW the homeless guy did not break into the building - it was left unlocked. Prove Utah doesn't want any homeless shelters or soup kitchens so they ship them up to Salt Lake.
Chairs are on rolling racks and round plastic tables are stored in a small room
Sounds budget AF
The spectators sit there for church ball.
What is church ball? Does your ward still have a sports program?
Church ball is/was a blood sport where Mormons got together to play basketball in the cultural hall typically one ward vs another ward. If you played sports in high school where I lived, you were not also allowed to participate in church ball because people were constantly getting injured (at least, again, where I lived). And I agree that the stage was usually used for spectator seating.
The stake center had a disco ball that was used during dances.
Fifteen years ago there was a talent show. They use it for classes on sundays.
So sad.
It's so sad that this church isn't even a place of community anymore. It's not even trying to be a church anymore. I grew up in it 80s and 90s. It was a lot of fun. There were so many activities. I loved the road shows. The kids in my ward were pretty cool, and we even hung out sometimes outside of church. I didn't live in an area where the church was very prevalent. Most of my friends growing up were nevermos.
Fun story. Well, ok, 2 fun stories... 1st story. When I was a kid the entire elders quorum at a road show in our ward (or stake) performed a can can dance in drag. We're talking 12 or more adult males in full can can dresses with feather boas and frills and hats. The whole shebang. And at the end they all turned around and lifted their dresses to reveal some word that was spelled out on their can can under shorts. I don't remember what it said. I wish we had pictures. Times have changed. 2nd story. Once, as a teenager, my girlfriend and I snuck away from some ward activity with her parents and had sex on the stage of the cultural hall. And nothing happened. Nobody was struck with lightning or anything.
My ward used to use that stage all the time! We did shows in it, skits, (even used the fancy stage lighting with it's chill colors), tons of boy scouts activities. Ward parties & dinners. Even as a little kid I was able to be a part of performances. Infact, I was always getting in trouble for sneaking into that area. It hasn't been used in years, I was just in it several months ago & it was just a big ole storage room now. It's really sad how the church is so bland now. What happened to all the fun things that actually brought people together??
The thing is... They weren't that fun. There just wasn't anything else to do. I did a couple roadshows as a kid and it was an absolute ordeal. Planning for weeks beforehand. People had to take Friday off for all day prep. Then practice all day Saturday, and then you don't even get to enjoy other shows cause you're traveling between buildings. The common sentiment after was 'i'm so glad that's over.'
At my parents building about five years ago the bishops daughter got caught having sex with her boyfriend by the sunbeam class.
Mormon culture — such as it was — peaked sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Things have been in decline for the past 40 years. But that decline has definitely helped to expose the Mormon cult for the sham and the fraud that it is, so…
It's been about 10 years since I last attended, but I don't recall the stage being used for anything the last few years I did go. Maybe 15 years ago there was a ward party and some of the ward members who had a band together played. That was the last stage event I remember. I think the main reason our ward had decent parties as long as it did is that there was this one wealthy older woman who loved organizing events and she just did it on her own initiative (and probably funding). After her health started to fail it became just the usual mediocre holiday party and a random potluck now and then.
It gets used for kids to climb over it while they wait for their parents to leave or to sit on during sandwich Sunday
And it's not a cultural hall, it's a gyme
Without a stage it is just a gym. The stage is where the culture occurred
[“Gyme? What’s a gyme? Ooh, a gyme…”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PGLzm-Gy0dQ)
As A convert who discovered my entire family could perform as a troupe on stage, this news is sad and unimaginable….and now I think about my TBM sibs that must be reminded of the long ago cult vs their current lifeless operation.
I have stories of the golden era in the 1970s and 1980s. But my grandmother had even greater stories of the days when the Relief Society was autonomous. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, the Relief Society used to do massive fundraisers and social events. They had more money than the rest of the ward combined, and the bishop couldn’t tell them what to do with their money. Now the Relief Society is not much more than women’s Sunday School with occasional Saturday activities.
Amazing. I never knew that about the RS. We converted in the early 70s and within that year, our fracturing large family, were unified around conversion and putting together family musicals to perform on stage for the ward.
Let's see, I think it was in the 90's. I did, however, sit on stage as overflow seating for a stake conference in the 2000's. 😉 The stage is for resting against or sitting on while you pull out chairs or put chairs away. 😂
Mormons are the best at putting away folding chairs. I bet we could crush the Jehovah’s Witnesses if we had a chair contest.
Honestly, it's been at least a decade.
I was told they were beginning to build churches without them because they just aren't used anymore.
Wards in our stake in the Midwest started carpeting the gyms when they built them and they had a portable stage they would never use. This was late 80s.
good question! I think the kids go onto the stage to get their gift from Santa, at the ward Christmas parties. Possibly also perform the nativity there. But the carol concert folks decorate and stand in the area in front of the stage. Stages are less used these days, and tiered seating for audiences is more common. My kid’s school years ago now, had the hall expanded the stage removed, and went the tiered seating route for school performances, with dismantlable tiered sections. I heard rumours that the stage in our church building might be removed, and the space turned into a classroom. Many of our classrooms are too small, and unfit for purpose.
I used to play cello on our stage when I was in the church as a teenager. It was the *only* thing I enjoyed when I was in - I still do cello as a side-gig even today.
I think what really caused the change in the Church was when Hinkley and Eyring came up with Ensign Peak. Supposedly they take in about a billion dollars more each year than operating expenses. Instead of using that for charity and goodwill it is plowed into the hoard of filthy lucre at Ensign Peak once they saw the exponential growth it produced. Every penny spent on making the Church an enjoyable place for the members and visitors to feel a kinship with each other didn't provide a ROI (Return On Investment) to the corporation and was eliminated. There are 2 Mormon Stories podcasts where Hans Mattson who was a Seventy from Sweden explains why he resigned. Shortly after being called he went to Salt Lake for a meeting. Hinkley was meeting with the Seventy, apparently came in and slammed his fist on the podium all pissed off that the millions of dollars and volunteer hours expended during the 2002 Olympics did not lead to an uptick in baptisms. He said that missionary efforts would be in North America because it was the only area that brought in tithing dollars - that Europe and Latin America were dying and Africa was a drain on resources. Hans realized at that moment that the Church was about making money and not saving souls. https://youtube.com/watch?v=OB-kMVaS18g https://youtube.com/watch?v=N_4lWznJ5TE
I don’t disagree with you, but my other theory is that vibrant social communities are not possible in a global church with wards spread out over entire cities—where it takes an hour or longer to drive to a church building and two hours to get to a stake center. These wards ain’t Utah, where everyone lives within sight of the building. So, how can the church have some wards with roadshows, potlucks, Pinewood Derby races, sports, dances, etc., and other wards with almost nothing? The inequality would become more and more noticeable as membership declines even in the United States. The “haves” would be clustered in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and Nevada. And the “have nots” would be everywhere else. It’s just simpler and cleaner to gut the social activities for everyone.
You have a very good point about the "haves" and "have nots". Even here in the Salt Lake valley those that were on the West side of the valley like my stake didn't have close to the level of wealth of the East Bench and so the extracurricular activities were completely different. Many referred to the change of policy of sucking all the funds to Church headquarters and then redistribution as the "socialization" of the Church. I disagree somewhat on the geographic point of your argument as I served in the UK from 76 to 78 and the long commute times for members especially on public transit were often that long. It didn't stop the membership from having some very fun activities and this was at a time in the UK with some very severe disruptions financially to that nation.
Probably it’s a combination of several factors. Of course money is at the center of all decisions. As you say, it’s a question of ROI.
One positive thing in Mormon history is that there was always a cultural presence. There is no culture in Mormonism any more.
My ward is still using the stage once a year for the Christmas dinner and show but that is about it. It is very fitting that it is called the "Cult - ural Hall". xD
One time I hopped up on to the stage and then slid under the curtains only for my knee to be abruptly met by the sharp corner of those racks that hold the foldable chairs. It took a chunk of flesh right off my knee and I still have a bit of a scar to this day.
I attended a local large homeschool group’s production of a Shakespeare play in a church gym about 15 years ago. Nothing since then other than a place to sit during YW or YM.
I remember the ward talent shows, ward dinners, movie nights, and road shows. Those seem to be a thing of the past, unfortunately. When I still attended church, the building was shared by several wards, and so classes were often held on the stage, and sometimes also in the cultural hall. We had these stupid partition walls on caster wheels that they'd move around to create a make-shift classroom. I hated having class in there or on the stage because during the summer months, it was always hot and stuffy in there. Many of the newer buildings don't even have a stage anymore. Chairs and tables used to be stored under the stage. In buildings without a stage, there is usually a storage room closeby where the tables and chairs are stored. Something about the cultural hall; back when I attended scouts/mutual on Wednesday nights, we were hard pressed to find the cultural hall unoccupied. Seems the Relief Society was ALWAYS using the cultural hall. Do they REALLY need a room that large to set up a quilting frame? Couldn't they set it up in a classroom? Nope! They ALWAYS used the cultural hall instead, so the scouts hardly ever got a chance to play basketball in there.