Checking out my stats the other day I had a little chuckle at my top 10 search keywords –
fmh 11
temple garments 9
bikini wives 8
plural wives hair 8
bare chested babes 7
joseph smith wives 4
mormon garments 4
my black bikini 3
wives of joseph smith 3
“douglas wilson” 2
Hehehe, someone was looking for barechestedbabes and instead found my drivel, awesome! I wonder if they stuck around? and whether they found Josephs’ antics to be as titillating as the boobs they were hoping for?
I bet the ones searching mormon stuff werent impressed :P
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make a guess that the only one of those keyword sets an actual TBM might have typed in would be fmh. The rest are things an ex/post/non or questioning Mo' would type. So probably not too much shock going on. Mormons aren't supposed to go searching for info about their religion online. All the answers they need can be found in the scriptures, lesson manuals or through prayer. Everything else is anti-Mormon propaganda, not to be trusted or even read. At least that was the line fed to me when I was a TBM. I got in 'trouble' for using inspirational quotes in my Young Womens lessons that came from non-Mormons!!! Apparently I was supposed to only teach from approved sources. Even beginningsnew.blogspot.com (a feminist Mormon blog that updates the Young Womens lessons so that we're not teaching with racist/sexist quotes/stories as per the church manuals, seriously stories from the 1970s are NOT going to be helpful when teaching a group of teens living in the 2010s) even this resource was poo-poo'd when I mentioned that I used it. Not approved, so NOT allowed. Um, well I just stopped talking about the site but used it anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a few bullies in your ward. That is most unfortunate. I'm always surprised when grown-up adults let themselves be bullied by such exercisers of unrighteous dominion. I doubt one could get through any entire general conference without hearing a number of quotations from inspirational non-mormons. I know President Monson quoted Aldous Huxley in the last conference.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I would have to include the Bishop in this list of 'bullies'. I had never thought of him as a bully at all until now. He is the sweetest man, I enjoyed talking to him and I thought that he was pretty good at listening to us when we left. However, a TBM friend of mine showed me the John Delhin powerpoint for me to share w/my TBM family and friends in the hope that it would help my TBM family and friends to understand why I had left. Instead word got to bishop that my friend had showed it to me and he (bishop) called my friend in and told him that he shouldn't have done that. He also told my frind that he could no longer use any teaching material in his lessons other than the manual and the resources specified in the manual. And now that you point it out I agree, he was being a bully.
ReplyDeleteAs for myself, I try not to be too hard on myself with that. I grew up in the church and so I believe that I was raised to accept this type of bullying as normal. God was in charge afterall and who was I to argue. My dad was overbearing so I had that to deal with at home as well. In the last few years (as the haze of sleep deprivation began to wear off with the aging of my children) I started to speak up if I thought something was not right but now that I am out I see how much further I could have gone with that. Some people there were REALLY out of line and I was not yet grown up enough to tell them to back off.
I know the GAs etc quote non-Mormons and I suppose an odd quote here and there from non-Mo's in my lessons would not have been picked on. I just really couldn't understand why we were teaching from manuals written in the 70s with the most horrid of stories in them. Ugh! I hope more and more liberal members will turn to fMh and beginningsnew.blogspot.com for updated material. For people who still have faith I hope change will start to come faster w/the internet. The church could really do w/some updating ;)
I didn't mean to be hard on you either. As for your bishop, it's possible to be the sweetest man and have some blind spots of unfortunate rigidity. It sounds like you felt he loved you and listened to you, that's worth a lot in my book.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly some wacky ideas that get taught and would be better avoided by sticking to the manuals. The story of Korihor is not a lesson about the evils of tolerance, to pick an example I've personally heard. Of course we are also supposed to look for object lessons in everyday life and tailor lessons to the needs of each individual in out class, so it can be a tricky balance. As with most of Mormonism, there isn't a hard and fast rule and we have to use our agency to do good.
Oh yeah, he was doing the best he could based on what he knew, my bishop that is. When you leave the church though those "blind spots of unfortunate rigidity" are hard to ignore. I feel as though the Church's stance on a number of things also qualify as unfortunate blind spots. I still have not heard a decent answer when I ask TBMs why it is ok to tell a gay person that they must either remain celibate or marry someone they are not attracted to. I think that believing members have to have blind spots to be able to believe.
ReplyDeleteI agree w/you on the wacky lessons! We've probably all sat through some doosies. It just really stinks of indoctrination and brainwashing when the only materials sanctioned are written by Mormons.
Agency is a funny thing. I used to think I understood it. I won't say much here as you have also mentioned it on the other post which I'll get to in a minute. For me, when I left the church and realised (IMO) that there was no such thing as 'free agency' the way that the church describes it and that I suddenly actually was free to make ALL of my own choices without any fear of judgement/guilt/shame, the feeling was amazing. The feeling that no matter what choices I make in life there will be no omnipotent figure weighing in on those choices, well this was just an amazing feeling too. All of a sudden there was no right and wrong. Choosing to drink, have sex whatever, these all became choices that were perfectly up to me to make... and they wouldn't determine my worth. I heard a great analogy the other day. Scrumple up a $5 note, stamp on it, spit on it, whatever, it is still a $5 note. Our worth is not tied up in what we do or what happens in our lives. We are all of equal value, always.
some more goodies -
ReplyDelete'lucky kid watching boobs at the beach'
'bouncy mormon boobs'
'why are so many mormon weddings black and green'