"Why Do You Guys Keep Talking About a Program?"

Good question. Why do we keep talking about the same thing, after all? Well, my answer is that the LDS Singles Program is a necessary entity for LDS singles to get married. In other words, it has a funtion. Suppose the previous statement is wrong, and we really don't need the Singles Program. Do we then also not need any other program (or meeting) in the Church but Sacrament Meeting...since that is where the sacrement is passed and is considered the center of our religion?

We all know better. I mean, don't all of the programs in the Church about fill a certain actual need? Let's list some: Relief Society, Priesthood, Choir, Sunday School, Gospel Doctrine, Gospel Essentials, Young Men/Women, Young Single Adults, Scouts, Compassionate Service, Home Teaching, Visiting Teaching, Missionary Work, FHE, Firesides, Basketball, Daddy-Daughter Camp-outs...I know that there are more, at least on paper.

Do these organizations, classes, and callings exist because we don't really need them? Or do they fill a necessary niche that was discovered long ago and has continued to serve us in some real capacity? Why is it that whenever a group of people begin to complain about the Single Adult Program, eventually somebody says, "Well, it's not the Church's responsibility to get you married." (Who said it was?) Or they say, "You could always go start your own program." Something to that effect. I ask you, would that ever be said of the Scouting Program, or Relief Society?

Then there are those that will tell you that the Singles Program is not a dating service. My response is then to ask them "Then what is it?" I find it very interesting how singles in the Program talk of how we can get members of the opposite sex together, blah, blah... "but it is NOT a dating service." To me this is like saying that Sunday School is NOT a class. Or Relief Society is NOT a women's organization. Choir is NOT about the music.

The next question may be why the Singles Program is not seen as what it assuredly is and was designed to be: a dating service. Is it because of its bad track record? Or is it that some of us have forgotten that we are really trying to find a spouse and not just another collection of friends (nothing against friendship. I am a big supporter of it. Love that friendship.)

Or is because it has become the latest example of "The Emperor's New Clothes?"



In any case, we know we have a long way to go when people who bring up the many disfunctions of the Singles Program get smacked on the hand for it. (But mind you, if we ever did get it fixed those same hand smackers would be the same folks who would then say, "Oh yeah, we've always known that there was a problem. It's about time that program was fixed!") Such is the way of the world sometimes. But as for you singles on the side-lines who do have a problem with your fellow singles who are trying to make the Program better; you should ask yourself whose side are you on, and why do you insist upon working against your own self-interest? Think about it. While you are at it, you might spend a few moments considering what a functional program would look like, and why Singles should (along with the other many responsibilities in their lives) be forced to add the arduous job of forming their own personal "program" (in addition to the official Singles Program) in order to get married in this lifetime. Should they build another Home/Visiting Teaching Organization while they are are at it? Missionary work?
One more thought. Is it the Church's responsibility to get us married? No. But it is the same organization that informs us that in order to get to Heaven we must live a high code of ethics and morals. Married or not. All things being equal, it is a good thing that the Singles Program exists if only to help singles live up to their covenants and testimonies.

Thus on to fixing the program. And to eternal progression. "The honest and faithful will go."