A Plea From Finland

A Plea From Finland

Marjukka Cowdery

Subject: A Plea from Finland (please distribute)

Message: FINLAND - A COUNTRY IN MORAL TURMOIL

This is an open letter from a Finnish non-Mormon living in the city of Vantaa, Finland. It is addressed to missionaries and the LDS Church.

A Plea for Exceptional Outreach Emphasis in Finland

Finland is a country in deep moral and ethical turmoil. In particular, parents and families have at present no trustworthy support and moral leadership in performing their duties as parents. Children are not provided with an adequate moral and civic upbringing, because many parents have themselves not been. This is in part due to the laissez-faire socialist experiments of the 1960's and 1970's which in part make up the welfare model found in the Nordic countries. For all of its benefits, there are som e very serious short-comings, one being the culture of permissive parenthood which is beginning to pose a major threat to our society.

I am not a Mormon. I am a Lutheran and a member of the Finnish state church. That church, perhaps because it is a state-run institution, has failed in its duty to provide moral leadership in this country when this was most badly needed. I believe that the LDS Church could fill that spiritual and moral vacuum in this country. I believe that the underlying culture and the lack of spiritual leadership would provide a fertile growing ground for the church.

However, with its current missionary programme and a seeming lack of visibility, the LDS church should not entertain hopes of making a difference in this country. Missionary, advertising, parental and problem family outreach as well as taking a stance on issues of ethics should be ten times more than what they are today. The LDS church should show that it dares to stand for or against various issues in Finland and that will clearly differentiate it from the spiritually defunct state churches!

The following are the keys to LDS success in becoming a major religion in Finland:

1) Address through constructive advertising, counseling, literature and internet content issues in Finland related to parenting, alchohol, drug missuse and attitude/personal improvement through scouting and volunteer work (I.e. moral ubringing, good health and helping others without waiting for the State to do it).

2) Leave out the contentious issues of church origin and foreign doctrine and show that whatever its originality, the church makes a difference in real people's lives in Finland and dares to do things the state religions will not do, including providing moral leadership in issues such as parental responsibility and ethics.

3) Put a tenfold increase in efforts for the next five years in speaking to Finnish parents and their children about wholesome values, parental responsibility, volunteering and scouting with particular emphasis on southern Finland up to and including Tampere.

What type of missionaries?

Finland is a well-educated and "cynical" culture. Do not sent children to speak to adults about complex affairs in a complex world! That is a waste of time and money!

Instead, send older couples (lots of them) and well-educated adults and keep them near the schools, the daycares, scouting and new volunteer programmes to teach people to get over their own problems by first helping OTHERS (a "Get over Yourself"-programme). These adults should help start student organizations and parent-teacher organizations in suburban areas such as Kauniainen and Hämeenkylä, Vantaa. Mormonism should be visible in Finland on TV, in the Newspapers and in bus and billboard ads directed to the problems of parenting and the lonelines of the elderly!

Please! Read through this letter and understand it. Do something about Finland and a growing lost generation. The Church of Finland has failed and is for all purposes now irrelevant. The LDS church has an important task to undertake in the middle of all of this moral wreckage! Please rise to the occasion and complete that task!

Refer: Source 6