General Conference Word Cloud

For starters, a definition of “General Conference” for our non-Mormon readers. General Conference occurs once in April and once in November–and it’s a series of meetings that occur on Saturday and Sunday in lieu of our regular local church services.   The meetings take place in Salt Lake City, but are transmitted via satellite in real time and then translated into other languages for Mormons around the world. On Saturday, two two-hour meetings take place for the general church membership (from 10:00-12:00 and from 2:00-4:00) and then on Saturday night, there’s a meeting only for the men-folk. The women stay home and take care of the babes, as we rightly should (JK!). And then on Sunday, there are two more two-hour meetings (again, from 10:00-12:00 and from 2:00-4:00). In case you’re wondering why the women don’t get their own special meeting, we do–it happens just once yearly, in September. Don’t ask why; there’s no rational explanation for it.

Mormons in Utah can actually attend the conference (although there are limited seats) or they can watch it on TV. Mormons outside of Utah can either watch it on TV (if they have DirectTV) or go to their local church building and sit in the dark sanctuary and watch the satellite broadcast. It’s weird, I know–and it’s mind numbingly boring for the kids.

Jokes aside, General Conference is serious business for Mormons because it’s a chance for us to hear what the leaders of our church think is important.   Therefore, I was fascinated by this word cloud that I saw on Facebook. I actually tried to find the source and couldn’t, but found numerous other word clouds of past General Conferences.

The caption next to the image said, “Through data mining, these were the 100 most frequently used words during general conference. The emphasis these words receive in the text through repetition is mirrored in the design by assigning them a font size proportional to their incidence.” The picture title is “The Most Important Words.”

So, wise Doves & Serpents readers, what do you think of this word cloud that represents the most important messages Mormon leaders shared with their congregants in a twice-yearly conference? If you’re Mormon, do you like what you see?

I’ll take a stab at a response. I like that God, Jesus, Christ, and Lord are big. I mean, Mormonism is a Christian church (despite suggestions by evangelical preachers in the news lately). But I wish Father and Priesthood weren’t so big. And Church is the focus of the whole thing. Surprisingly, Mother didn’t even make the list (which makes me wonder whether the September women-only meeting was included in the data pool). Daughter got a mention, but it’s quite small.

I can think of some words I wish were there–equality, social justice, liberty, difference, patience, understanding. I wish love, respect, and service were smack dab in the middle of the image–in 72-pt. font.

And if you’re not Mormon, what do you think? Do any of the word sizes (which represent frequency) surprise you?   Are there any you might expect to see that aren’t there (and please don’t say “polygamy” . . .) )?

If someone were to make a similar word cloud from meetings/sermons at your church, what would be the biggest words? Would you like the resulting image?

And if you didn’t, what then?

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Edited to add:   see additional word clouds contributed by geoffsn here:   General Conference World Clouds 2.0