Apparently they will be emailing every week so that parents know what is being taught in their class. I appreciate this because I can deprogram my child much easier knowing the details of what was taught. But the content of the first week just made me feel like vomiting. Especially the 9/11 stuff. We live 20 min from the Pentagon...it's a sore spot for me that these leaders would use 9/11 survivors as a brainwashing tool.
"We discussed our relationship to him--how he has provided all for us: our bodies, this earth, our spirits, our agency, even the opposition required for our growth. We discussed how all that is good can be traced back to him, yet through the use of agency all that happens on this earth is not directly according to his will. We discussed the ways in which he blesses us: through feelings and promptings, physical miracles, acts of others--even blessing us to avoid a particular trial or challenge, or more often to strengthen us to push through one. We reviewed Elder Bednar's talk "The Tender Mercies of the Lord". He had some specific guidance on what these "tender mercies" are and how to notice them. We discussed this, how we must be obedient, exercise faith, then listen to the Spirit and pay attention to the timing. I shared a few recent stories from my life and the tender mercies I have received. I also shared an article with several stories of 9/11 survivors who I felt experienced tender mercies as a slight, unexpected change in their routine caused them to miss their flight or come in to work late.

I've challenged the class to pay attention this week. To exercise faith and to look for those tender mercies. To think back and remember those they have received and to come prepared to share a bit about their experience next week.

Perhaps you could chat with them this week and help them see some of the Lord's tender mercies at work in your family and in their life.

Your youth are great!"

"I also shared an article with several stories of 9/11 survivors who I felt experienced tender mercies as a slight, unexpected change in their routine caused them to miss their flight or come in to work late."

This. This concept alone, makes my blood boil. Mormons (and many other extreme religious people) love to share these 'faith promoting' stories to 'prove' that God did miracles for those who were most faithful. It is so terribly myopic and insensitive to the THOUSANDS of people who still feel the pain of loss from that day. So, their loved ones that died were less entitled to God's mercy. Give me a break!

Why am I so wonderful that I get to be born into the one true religion? Why do I belong to the majority ethnic group in the richest and most stable country in the world? Why will I never know hunger? Or true poverty? Or mental illness? Why am I so blessed when other people were dealt such a terrible hand? The answer is dumb luck. I won life's lottery. Any other explanation is what I feel is truly immoral.

Besides just constantly sharing the faith promoting stories, isn't it amazing how they can turn ANYTHING AT ALL into a faith promoting story----at the expense of someone, like the 9/11 survivors.

"I also shared an article with several stories of 9/11 survivors who I felt experienced tender mercies as a slight, unexpected change in their routine caused them to miss their flight or come in to work late."

When will they stop this nonsense? It just adds another layer of heartbreak for those who lost loves ones on that horrific day.

On the morning of 9/11, I was in the west side subway somewhere downtown while the buildings were collapsing. I later read that, had the 100-year-old rail tunnels in the basement of the WTC not held when the weight of the buildings collapsed on them, the Hudson River would immediately have flooded the entire west side subway and everyone in the subway would have drowned.

So, am I more worthy than my colleague's brother, who suffered and died that day, trapped on the 98th Floor of One WTC? Am I more worthy than his lovely wife and children who miss him terribly to this day?

Am I more worthy than work colleagues who were attending a breakfast meeting at Windows on the World Restaurant that morning and could not get to the roof and any chance of rescue because all doors to the roof were locked and they could not break down locked steel doors?

Am I more worthy than a work colleague who, after the first plane hit and chaos ensued, left his downtown office to start walking home only to be hit and killed by falling debris when the second plane hit?

I am so tired of hearing that worthy people are saved and unworthy people are not. And yet, when a religious person suffers the loss of a loved one, there is no blame assigned to God. No, it's always something like, "it was the Lord's will" or "this person was so good that the Lord wanted him home," or "the Lord has great need of his excellent missionary skills in the next world," etc.

Speaking of who is worthy and who isn't, I have a gay friend who was scheduled to fly on one of the planes that crashed into the WTC that day. He changed his plans last minute. Was that a "tender mercy?" Is a gay person who is not celibate entitled to a "tender mercy" in this woman's view of the world?

Enough already. Life is random. Stuff happens.

The mere phrase "tender mercies" makes me nauseous.

+1

Just to be clear The teacher is male... And the content makes me wonder if they were on the other side of the country when this happened. I can't imagine if he had been here at the time 9/11 happened he would be using it in a lesson. Honestly I have no idea if he was here or not either way it's wrong and makes me sick. I saw the same types of Lds "messages" being shared after the Boston bombings.... How can these people be so heartless and ignorant?

NYC is basically another country as far as Utah is concerned. No, they have no idea what they're talking about.

isnt the word "tender" another name for money? makes sense now huh?

It's just life. Their are no "tender Mercies" It's just life.
Good things happen and bad things happen. Always has, always will. Life just happens.

The phrase Tender Mercies = ten thousand fingernails on ten thousand chalk boards and a wedgie afterwards. The only thing worse than reading that was for some reason in my mind I could hear it all in a testimony voice. Disgusting.

I remember hearing those stories, another stopped for coffee, another over slept, another went back into their house to answer the phone making them late.

Those kind of stories make me "crazy". So God decides to let those who were on time die and provide a tender mercy for those who were late for work. Now had the Towers not been hit would the boss of those that were late show tender mercy?

I can hear me now if I was one of those "kids" being told that, [and I wasn't a Mormon "kid"] I'd have said, "But they shouldn't have been late for work should they?"



freckles Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also shared an article with several stories of
> 9/11 survivors who I felt experienced tender
> mercies as a slight, unexpected change in their
> routine caused them to miss their flight or come
> in to work late.

I was inactive at the time that Bednar gave this talk. I heard about it on Facebook. It spread like wildfire and still is a popular Mormon "saying". I see both sides. I do agree what has been brought up on the forum- feel good nonsence, questioning if others' fate is not as good, and it just can't be proven. However, it's one of the few things that a church leader has said that I personally resonate with and one of the few things that I would not have a problem with my children learning about in Sunday School.