Editor’s note • This story is part of a six-part series on the impact of Utah’s religious divide on neighborhoods. Read the previous installments on the divide’s effect on kids and on neighborhood gatherings.
On days when the snow falls thick and heavy in Heber City, the teenage boys from a Latter-day Saint congregation grab their shovels and, said resident Rylie Stone, clear sidewalks and driveways of homes around the neighborhood.
But not all the houses.
“They skip all of those who aren’t members,” said Stone, who used to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The result is a physical manifestation of the street’s religious divide — a clear delineation of the neighborhood’s in and out groups.
Tim Yanni, an Episcopal priest who has since moved to Arizona, described a similar phenomenon in the South Jordan neighborhood where he used to live. His household, he said, was the only non-Latter-day Saint one in the cul-de-sac.
On snowy days, a neighbor with a snowblower would clear the entire street, driveways and sidewalks included, stopping only when he got to Yanni’s property line.
The reverend emphasized that he has “many, many LDS friends” but that this was something that happened “every time it snowed.”
“Had it been just a few houses either direction, that wouldn’t…have been hurtful,” he said. “But this seemed to me to be a pretty clear statement.
Patrick Mason, a Latter-day Saint and the head of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, called this snowy scenario a “classic case of dueling perceptions.”
(Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune) Patrick Mason speaks while recording the 100th episode of the "Mormon Land" podcast in 2019. The Latter-day Saint and scholar of Mormonism doesn't believe any ill intent is meant behind the uneven treatment of snowy sidewalks and driveways in some Utah neighborhoods, but that doesn't mean the practice should continue.
Church members see the act as a kindness toward perhaps older members of the congregation and others who may be in need of extra help. Non-Latter-day Saints, meanwhile, take the gesture as a sign not simply of a group caring for its own but only its own.
“I’m convinced that no one is trying to snub or exclude,” Mason said. “...But what if those youth were sent out to help everyone, regardless of membership?”
Coming next • How a missionary-minded church’s push to proselytize can impact budding and longtime friendships — even when conversion isn’t a motive.
The Salt Lake Tribune wants to hear from you: How can we overcome Utah’s religious divide, which often separates Latter-day Saints from their neighbors and vice versa? Share your stories and ideas.
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