#mormon things

[i-jpeg208]

How do I tell my dad I don't wanna go to college at byu-i and that I instead plan on galloping into the colorado art college sunset???

[mirasorastone]

So I’m applying for a school and it needs an endorsement from my religious leader about my character. (I am a closeted Queer Mormon planning on attending a BYU college.)

I messaged my local religious leader who redirected me to his secretary for scheduling. I reached out to said secretary.

And not even an hour later I get a text from some of my church missionaries.

Reader, I am inactive due to the current state of the union (aka because of the plague) alongside my queer background. My household is very vulnerable, what with my mother having had cancer, my dad and brother having several comorbidities that would make contracting the plague incredibly dangerous for them.

I agree to meet up with them virtually. They politely inquire about service opportunities they can do for our family. I politely decline because the only thing we could possibly need is food but we always get food items that we can’t eat due to dietary restrictions so it’s easier to just refuse outright.

Today is the day I virtually meet with them in the evening.

They message me “If you could prepare a few names of any nonmember friends to talk about”

My immediate internal response: ooough. Nope. I have some online friends who ain’t Mormon but that’s level 10 friendship information Elder. I’m already on edge that you want to talk to me. I am NOT bringing up someone for you to proselyte sorry.

My external (and sent) response: I don’t have any nonmember friends

Reader, for better context: I live in Utah. The cradle of Mormon culture so to speak. If a nonmember wanted to know more about our church, they could walk two blocks in any direction and find a building dedicated to our Sunday worship. If a nonmember wanted to, they would find the missionaries. We are not a secret in pecking Utah.

Most nonmembers in Utah are either former members by choice or so put off by our innate drive to procelyte to anyone who moves, breathes, or even thinks opposite to us that they refuse to have anything to do with missionaries from our faith at all because missionaries keep hounding them.

Just because I am inactive (because, dear reader, I must reiterate, of the plague and that I am a closeted Queer) doesn’t mean that I am gallivanting around town with nonmembers. I haven’t even left my house in weeks! I am an introvert by nature! Outings exhaust me!

If I didn’t need to make nice and get that endorsement from my religious leader, they wouldn’t have heard a peep from me.

This is one of the reasons, dear reader, that I don’t like talking to missionaries of my own faith. Because they always want someone to be referred to them. And I am very uncomfortable with that! It always feels extremely forced.

I have always operated under the decision that if my nonmember friends want to know more about my faith they can ask me. And if they want to know more, I can then refer them to the missionaries if they’re open to the idea.

Talking to someone about religion with the intent to convert is an ulterior motive and people can sense that. It’s why this method doesn’t work. Because people are not dumb. And I refuse to force my faith on anyone else, especially when I should be focused on fellowshiping and supporting my community no matter what their faith is. Giving aid and comfort should not be dependent on sharing the same ideology. Giving love and spending time with another person should not be dependent on if they will join my church services and be converted.

Now, a better question that could have been asked is “do you have any friends who you think would be open to talking to us?”

It turns an othering question into one that leads into something of a discussion and opportunity to learn, with no implied ‘us vs them’ language.

Currently, even with a revised question, my answer would be the same: ‘I don’t have any nonmember friends.’

At least, not in person.

You’d have to be a Level 10 friend to unlock that route, and besides. I think these missionaries aren’t called to an online proselyting mission anyways.

[marseny]

As the Boise Statehouse is deep in an anti-constitutional fever, the Mormon Church may be starting to hit the brakes

There was a time you could tell someone you were from Idaho and the only response it would elicit would be something about potatoes or...

Maybe this is why we've kept Oaks around

The Mormon church, one of the guardrails that have restrained Idahoans from their more bizarre political impulses (the other two being a knowledge of civics and what used to pass for a Republican Party), recently weighed in on this lunacy. It came in the form of a stern civics lesson from Dallin Oaks — a former U.S. Supreme Court clerk, Utah Supreme Court justice and dean of the Brigham Young University law school, now a constitutional scholar and general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the LDS general conference in Salt Lake City earlier this month, Oaks reminded that representative democracy is anchored by the U.S. Constitution, not by any man or any political party.

Oaks' message was neither remarkable nor radical to anyone who understands basic constitutional concepts like the separation of powers or the relationship of the federal and state governments. What made it remarkable and radical is that it came when it did, with the full weight of the institutional church behind it, at a time when IFF, ALEC and their Statehouse enablers are ramping up authoritarianism and threatening the Constitution's inspired principles. Church skeptics will disagree, but I think Oaks' exhortation could be as significant a development in Mormon country as the church's backing away from the John Birch Society in the 1960s or its 1890s campaign to divide every ward house into equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans so Utah could achieve statehood. It should be required reading for every Idaho legislator who thinks the Mormon faithful will always have his or her back.

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 2048

i have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow. i'm just glad joel will be at the school tomorrow and that i have a week off next week to catch up on work. it's been busy and my brain hasn't wanted to function.

and yknow how sometimes a fic really gets to you?

well.

i found a fic that's a star wars rey/ben singles ward au and it's just killing me. like, the girl who wrote it is a member. and it's accurate, of course. and it resonates with me as i'm drowning in existing. but therein lie my problems, because even though these things are pinging my heart and bringing tears to my eyes, my life is so far off from what it used to be. part of why i stopped everything is because i didn't feel welcome. part is because i was tired of the overall discrimination and church policy against my community. part is because i was tired of being disappointed in myself for not doing something i didn't want to do in the first place. and they build on each other, too, so it's generally not fun. and i don't really want to go back. and besides, i have joel. i love joel. he's so kind and he loves me so much and i just want to give him the world. but the world is not what's taught in the faith i've been a part of since my birth. it's eternity, and things of a spiritual nature. but having that ingrained in me makes it a little sad when i think about it and see that couldn't happen unless someone else took the work to the temple after we died. but anyway, this is a lot. one last thing though: i can't comprehend a life after this, or existence outside of this, because i'm so fuckin done with this existence as it is, never mind needing to exist for literally forever. i don't even want to survive the day, never mind millions and billions and trillions of years and an entire existence of a universe and then some. i wish i could just die and be totally done. past, poof, gone. for good. but no,for some reason i'm stuck hating the fact that eternity is a thing and i have to deal with it one way or another and i want absolutely nothing to do with anything more than tomorrow. it's awful and i just want to eliminate it all.

anyway, that was a lot.

but i'm glad today was tuesday because i got to get joel and we went and five guys and cuddled and watched the office after that. we're at the end of season 3 rn. he's ahead, but we're watching it together.

anyway.

[burnt-kloverfield]

Hey, LDS folk, is it just me, or do stories in mainstream media about demons and angels and heaven and hell and all that just feel like stories? Like they don’t seem particularly blasphemous. I don’t really know what words I’m looking for. Like, I’m a step removed from them? Like they’re religious stories, but like...not mine?

Like in particular I’ve been watching Good Omens and absolutely enjoying it, but like, watching it, I’m realizing that this version of heaven and hell and perception of an “ineffable plan” and the end times and the Antichrist and all the good stuff, like they’re things that aren’t inherently in our theology. So I’m watching it, and I hear people irl are getting all up in arms about it, and I’m over here going “uh yeah, this isn’t treading on my beliefs at all?” Like it just feels like a really good story.

And like The Good Place has a similar feel.

Like they’re both comedies and all. Commentary on the human condition and behavior and all that.

But like, our theology isn’t like these sort of stories. Our theology isn’t about how things are wrong? Like it feels in both that Heaven is this really stuffy unjust thing? And Hell is, well, Hell.

And like, it is just a really interesting juxtaposition between modern day society’s view on mainstream Christianity versus the whole Plan of Salvation.

I don’t know, like I really enjoy these kinds of media, but I always feel so detached from them? Like they’re good stories coming from a different perspective? Like how do you guys feel about different shows talking about heaven hell and angels and demons and such?

[pagesofkenna]

todays hot ‘crying at church’ take: i think its probably more important that we foster our own spiritual growth, and a closeness with god, than it is to foster the community and organization of ‘The Church’

[trintysantos]

Today, I met up with the Sister missionaries. After last night, I felt like I needed it. I'm so glad I did. We met up at a place called Freddy's and shared fries. They helped me a lot with calming me down and making me feel like I'm not worthless. They listened to me and offered advice, shared scriptures and were just so kind to me. We're now planning to meet as regularly as we can so that I have someone to talk to. It'll be nice to have it to look forward to.

[i-jpeg208]

Oh hell yeah

I don't know who's given this talk, but I'm idly listening, and the guy is addressing the racism in the US and is calling us out and saying we should be better than this and I dunno it's great

Listening some more, and he's said something along the lines of "we shouldn't have to choose a nationality over our culture"