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I use my real name here and around the Bloggernacle. I feel like it keeps me honest. My bishop did specifically say that FMH is not an anti-Mormon website. (I asked because that’s what my husband always says about it.) I didn’t mention StayLDS. But let’s say I get called into the bishop’s office and asked, “Why are you posting on Stay LDS, which is a noted anti-Mormon website?” That’s when I widen my eyes real big and say, ” Why bishop, what were
youdoing on a site like that?” :angel: gospeltangents wrote:
Greg Prince is on the Board of Governors at Methodist Seminary in the D.C. area. He gave our Old Testament manual to one of the theologians there. The theologian said he had seen bad manuals before, but the LDS was the worst one he had ever seen.
That’s probably because there is little to no actual theology in our manuals. We’re still stuck in the milk phase of ‘meat before milk’ – and we keep watering down the milk.
I’m really concerned that your bishop pulled you out of class for a drive-by tithing settlement. That seems like a pretty major overstepping of boundaries to me. Also, the harder a leader pushes, the more it makes me feel like SLC just sees us commoners as dollar signs, not as children of God.
Paying tithing hasn’t prevented any of the bad things we’re dealing with (5x job loss, special needs children, major depression, etc.) Since I haven’t seen any actual blessings from tithing, I really don’t care any more. I still pay it (DH requires I hold a temple recommend as condition of marriage) but I pay on net and – gasp – usually round down to the nearest dollar!
You know what I realized? DHO is going to be prophet someday, and while I know he talks about other things besides SSM, for me and a lot of people that’s what we’ll remember him for. Wouldn’t you rather be remembered for how uplifting your talks always are? I mean even if you oppose SSM, do you actually feel the Spirit during talks like these, or just a self-satisfied sense of confirmation bias? (Also, it’s going to be really embarrassing when the church eventually changes its stance, and they have to release an anonymous essay distancing itself/disavowing all of DHO’s many, many talks on the subject. But that won’t happen while he’s alive.)
I came home from dropping DD off for swim practice and Oaks is giving his usual. So I’m hiding in the basement for the duration. See, there’s two problems with using the FamProc to prove that gay marriage is wrong:
1) the FamProc doesn’t say anything about gay marriage, only that hetero marriage makes God happy; and
2) the FamProc doesn’t bear the signatures of any prophets, seers, and revelators and has never been canonized as scripture.
I think it’s OK – not great but OK – to use checklists to govern your own behavior. I think it crosses the line when your checklist involved governing other people’s behavior. My wife and daughters WILL watch the women’s session of conference. My son WILL serve a mission. My kids WILL be endowed and temple married. Sorry, but that’s not okay.
Interesting that J Reuben Clark makes it a head of household (ie. male) responsibility. My husband has never participated in food storage, and in fact has frequently criticized me for not doing it the way his mother does. So I stopped. Not worth the strain it was causing in our marriage. Good because I’ve been using Rough Stone Rolling all year with my 9 year olds. I also use Wikipedia a lot (like when we were talking about Western NY being the “burned over district”). Oh and I’ve used Google images to show them pictures of Martin Luther, the Gutenberg Press, stuff like that. I’m wildly uncorrelated (because the manual is crap) and I haven’t had any complaints.
It’s pretty disheartening to hear that line of reasoning from a bishop. Wonder what ward welfare meetings are like when he’s around. (Short, I’m guessing.) Our bishop has basically disregarded the handbook in giving assistance to our family while DH is unemployed – the way it’s supposed to work is you use up your savings, then you ask your family for help, THEN the church will help you. He said ‘the heck with all that’ and allowed us to receive storehouse food and other things BEFORE we drained our savings. It changed my opinion of this bishop – in a good way.
That’s such a weird patriarchal blessing. Just weird. I know members aren’t supposed to compare PB’s with other members, but it might be worth finding out if that particular patriarch said the same thing to other young women, especially after the age change. (I didn’t realize how much patriarchs reused certain things until I listened to a Bill Reel podcast about that very thing.)
I didn’t think it was possible, but the situation actually got worse. On the way into church yesterday, Son said “I don’t think I should pass the sacrament today.” He had to repeat himself several times before Husband heard him. Husband immediately pulled Son into an empty classroom and I don’t know what he said but when we went into the chapel, Son looked unhappy but went to the front with the other deacons.
Son had done the same “route” the last few weeks but by the time we got there yesterday, one of the other boys had taken it. (Husband’s suggestion is that Son needs to learn how to advocate for himself. Not sure how he’s going to learn that when his father keeps SHOOTING HIM DOWN EVERY TIME HE TRIES.) So, literally as soon as the bishop had had the bread and the deacons scattered, Son got lost. Within thirty seconds, he was red faced and exasperated. Within a minute, he was crying.
“Go and help him,” I mouthed to my husband. After all, as a woman it’s not my place to interfere with a priesthood ordinance. Husband was already wearing a white shirt and tie; it wouldn’t have looked out of place for him to walk alongside Son at least until he got un-lost again.
Husband: “No. He’s fine.”
Me: “Does he LOOK fine? Go. And. Help. Him.”
Husband: “No.”
So I got up and left. I hadn’t had the sacrament yet, but I refuse to be a party to this. My son was humiliated in front of the whole ward (I’m told that his tray of bread ended up getting spilled), he was upset and then got upset with himself for BEING upset, and he is 0/3 for having GOOD experiences with the priesthood.
As I was hiding out in the YW room, I thought, is this what Heavenly Mother goes through? She wants to help, but isn’t allowed, married to someone who CAN help but refuses? Because I will NOT spend my eternity like that.
Divorce isn’t on the table right now. (Not like we could even afford it.) But in ten or fifteen years? One or more of the children is going to leave the church, and DH will have to divorce me as punishment for my failure. And I did try to work on my depression. I really did try. I was seeing a (non LDS) therapist but God took away my husband’s job as punishment. So now I fear what He will do if I don’t learn my lesson and try and fix myself, in some future day when I have the money and time. Will He give me cancer? Will He target my kids? I’d rather not find out.
My question about leaving the church was largely hypothetical. It’s not just the Mormon God I have a problem with. I mean, all of Christianity has to grapple with the sexist, genocidal tyrant of the Old Testament. And they all largely try and explain it away using the same logic. “Sure, it looks bad but God is not a jerk!” I don’t buy that anymore. If I’m going to be a misotheist/dystheist, it really doesn’t matter what church I do it in.
However… Just to throw a wrench into the whole thing: The last time I was at the temple (which was years ago and that’s by design) I got a very strong impression, “You have to leave the church.” Now obviously that impression didn’t come from God but who DID it come from? How did Satan sneak into the temple to whisper falsehoods into my ear?
:wtf:
