Comments on: Inoculating the Saints

By: Hellmut

Hellmut — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:20:17 +0000

Hi E.F.,
Good to meet you. Wasn’t that a classic beam in the eye moment? I am sure you didn’t find it funny at the time but it is laughable how some busy body considers it his or her business to tell other parents how to raise their children without any awareness that his or her own behavior is out of bounds.

Seriously, there are a lot of kind children in the Mormon corridor but manners are not a strong point of Morridor culture. The affected people are probably not aware of it but corridor culture induces children to treat women and non-Mormons with disrespect.

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By: E.F.

E.F. — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 04:37:39 +0000

Like SML, I married a nevermo and I can relate to this post. I feel like my marriage and my children are under constant scrutiny. My own family is guilty of this and a member of my family has gone so far as to tell me that my children aren’t being “raised right” because we don’t attend church.
Thank gawd I don’t take my children to church!! I can’t imagine a teacher telling them that they wouldn’t be part of an eternal family because Mommy & Daddy haven’t been sealed in the temple.
Reading this brought tears to my eyes. I’m sorry that you and your children had to endure this; It’s just disgusting.
mwah. Love ya Sis.
E.F.

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By: Wayne

Wayne — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:28:24 +0000

When I was LDS i just accepted the fact that if you sinned you could not take the sacrament.

Now I think about this ritual in a different context; it is odd that if you have sinned you do not get to do the one sacred ritual that is supposed to make one mindful of Christs sacrifice.

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By: dietdrpepper

dietdrpepper — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:51:19 +0000

I cried when I read this because that is exactly how I always felt at church being married to a nonmember. Like my family, my marriage wasn’t as good as anyone else’s because my dh didn’t take me to the temple. It didn’t matter that he is a good husband and father or a good provider or a brilliant man or just a plain old good person. I dreaded those temple marriage lessons like I dreaded root canals.
I’m so sorry they made you feel so bad about yourself. I am so sorry you had to hear your son ask you the heart wrenching question of what would happen to his family in the afterlife.
You are wonderful SML!

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By: hm-uk

hm-uk — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:22:44 +0000

I’m so glad that you realized it was the institution that was flawed and not your family. Life is hard enough without having someone else constantly tell you that you’re doing it all wrong.
I’m so happy that you’re in the land of the free…aka Outer Blogness.

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By: Green Oasis » Shaking Hands With The Bishop

Green Oasis » Shaking Hands With The Bishop — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:22:56 +0000

[...] there’s Sister Mary Lisa with her painful, touching story of being pregnant out of wedlock and later married to a non-Mormon. She speaks of the pain and humiliation she endured for 13 years. A couple months later, I realized [...]

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By: CWC

CWC — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:52:22 +0000

Well…just heart you, SML.

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By: chanson

chanson — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:30:23 +0000

Wow, this is an amazingly powerful story.

I keep trying to come up with a comment, but I hardly know what to say. It’s beyond horrible that they would think it’s reasonable to expect you to cheerfully play the role of miserable-failure-don’t-be-like-me…

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By: Eric Robeck

Eric Robeck — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:41:18 +0000

Thank you for sharing your story, SML. It is hard to fathom the degree of suffering that is inflicted on innocent members by leaders (and parents) with myopic moral vision.

It seems to me that the church has painted itself into a corner. Despite the world of good it would do to be more honest about the past and the fallibility of revelation, the current leadership has too much to lose. And the leadership selection process practically guarantees that no freethinking Mormon is going to make it to the top anytime soon.

It is really very depressing.

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By: Hellmut

Hellmut — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:12:04 +0000

You might have a point, Mel. Although when I was a teenager, we held the notion that our religion was superior because we did believed in a revealed rather than a mysterious God.

More to the point, we have a choice today. Joseph Smith’s might make it more difficult to change but ultimately we have to take responsibility for our choices. We do have a choice to change. We have the choice to leave. And John Dehlin is right in one sense, the brethren have the choice to change the church.

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