RELS 2400

Suzanne Jacobs

Pluralism Project
Nate Kelley, Julieann Yee, Dylan White

Objectiv
e
To look closely at and analyze the
religious diversity of our community and
compare it to the National Religious
Landscape. While also expanding our
own knowledge of some religious
communities that we look at for this
project. Helping us to better understand
our own personal biases and
assumptions of them.

Area We Explored

North End Avenue

State Street

1500 East

2100 South

Percentage of
Denominations

First Unitarian Church

569 S 1300 E Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Interviewee Rev. Tom Goldsmith, Senior Minister

1- First Unitarian Church has been part of the Utah landscape since
1891. We are about to celebrate our 125th anniversary. Historically,
Unitarianism began in the mid-16th century in Transylvania. (We even
had a Unitarian King at that time, King Jon).
I bet you know many Unitarians from the Transcendentalist era in our
country. They include: Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Melville, Longfellow
to name a few.
2- Our challenges here in Utah rests with the fact that we are a very
progressive faith. We believe in women's reproductive rights, same-sex
marriage, and helping undocumented immigrants achieve legal status.
Why? Because the main thrust of our beliefs focus on social justice
where a world is more fair for everyone. We also work very hard for a
sustainable earth.
3- Since Unitarianism has no dogma to dictate what one MUST believe,
we are open to all walks of life. We feel we learn from each other. We
encourage and support a diverse community.

St. John's Lutheran Church

1030 S 500 E
Beginning:

The first work of the Lutheran

Church in Utah dates back to 1893. Rev. William
H. Behrens came as a missionary to Salt Lake
City where he conducted services for fourteen
months. It wasn't until the year 1900 that a site
was purchased at 130 East 700 south for
$2,100.00. This was to give them a permanent
location, having only used rented areas before. A
school building was also built in later years, but
would close in 1918. During World War 1 the
school was instructed by the government to each
only in English, as opposed to their tradition of
teaching in German and English. The school was

Challenges Faced: The Pastor I spoke to said the

only challenges he feels the church really faces are
the same shared by many churches who are more
traditional and do their best to follow doctrine. With
regards to things as same sex marriage being
legalized, but they would continue to spread their
message and try to reach people removed from
Christ.
Thoughts on Pluralism: The same Pastor I spoke
to said that he doesn't believe churches should be
in a competition with each other to try and gain
followers. It's not a popularity contest, he only
hopes he does his best to reach the people far from
God.

Conclusion
Comparing our
findings to
pewform.org both had
Christian faiths with
the highest
percentage

In the area we analyzed

only 6% of the churches
were Non-Christian, that
was almost the same as
the national survey which
was 5.9%

Sources

Googlemaps.com
Churchfinder.com
Pewforum.org
Pinterest.com
www.nordgce.com
ww.zionlutheranavilla.org
http://stjohnslutheranslc.org/
http://www.slcuu.org/