As I hinted, but never really bore out in the post, I definitely think these saints’ physical circumstances have affected worship (by extension, identity and theology). But, I definitely need more information. I’m hoping to spend at least a month (maybe two) next summer living down there with my family and really digging in to these issues. But this is why I want to keep bringing these issues up in a preliminary way here at the JI based on what I came up with in May, so that I can be better prepared to go back.

Big, as i’ve hinted to in a previous post, is legal status. Also language, and space. These “on the street” aspects of the lives of S. Texas saints have definitely had an effect on how they’ve experienced and shaped their Mormonism.

Thanks again for the comments!

I’m intrigued by the local members there adopting the “Moses in the wilderness” identity, and wonder how that has affected their collective identity. Does that metaphor, for example, crop up in their Sunday services as they discuss how a lesson relates to their own lives? Has the metaphor led them to (perhaps unintentionally) claim a special relationship with Moses and his followers? I imagine you probably don’t have answers to these questions, but they’re interesting to consider. I’m thinking of this in the way that Robert Orsi argues that the religious lives of Catholic immigrants in Italian Harlem was directly affected by their locality, and the traditions that formed constituted a “theology of the streets.”

Mex, I do, he’s a good man and a good friend. When he first came to the area he was my young men’s president. I was, naturally, suspicious of this new guy, but he played it cool and won me over quickly–President Mata.

Your work to document the history in this area will serve scholars and the Church for generations.