I know it just isn't me, so who else has noticed your LDS neighbors and fellow ward members are tattle tales? I am sure we all have experiences in which someone has tattled on us, or some one we know. And, it isn't that they tattle, they out of their way to find items to tattle about.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2014 10:52PM by tensolator.

Isn't that a symptom of disfunctionality? Makes you feel superior?

You think that is bad, visit BYUI. If one of your roommates knows you are doing something noteworthy to the bishop, they will go to him like flies swarm shit.

Byui is one of the worst places for tattling!

I have worked at home for YEARS doing medical transcription. In the early days (some 25 or so years ago), I had a "courier" drop off my work everyday. He was a young good-looking guy.

One day one of my neighbors said to me, 'Your brother stopped by my house to ask about the car we have for sale." I was like what???? She said, 'He was in the military for a while???" (I have a brother who had been in the military.) He stops by your house every day at about 10 a.m. Oh really . . . "THAT WOULD BE THE COURIER who brings my work."

Lots of people watching in mormon neighborhoods. Nowadays, I do things just to drive them nuts.

You slut! ;) I think it was anagrammy that posted about how her sons would visit her and she was tattled upon for having questionable men at her house staying the night. Mormons are nosey little busybodies. I hope I never hear what is said about me.

Oh, mercy, the memories...

I have been accused of having man-sized footprints in the snow outside my house at a time when they should have been covered with snow, thus proving I was having an affair. (One of my sons brushed the snow off my car)

I was once quizzed by a complete stranger in the grocery store line who asked why a blue car was in my driveway "last Tuesday."

And the one that made me know I really was no longer in Kansas:

I was in Smithfield at the hardware store, ten miles from my home in Richmond where several days previous I had asked someone where to dump leaves. Another complete stranger asked me if I had found the right place for my leaf bags!!!

No detail to small to yimmer-yammer about when it concerns "that California gal."


Anagrammy the gossip vortex

When I lived in Rexburg it was bad enough that I owned my own home and wasn't married. Of course I must be doing all sorts of unacceptable things in there. It was also a badge of shame that I had an unlisted phone number and wouldn't give it to the ward. LOL

The most outrageous thing happened when the whole ward knew I had moved out of my house and out of Rexburg. When I showed up at church the entire ward was stunned. What was I doing in Rexburg let alone back at church? It seems a friend who had a U-Haul attached to his truck stopped by to see me on his way to Boise. From that tidbit of information the ward had gotten me clean out of town and out of the ward. Wishful thinking?

My TBM daughter says we have them all confused. My nonmo boyfriend lived here with my ex, my son, and I for 6 months. Now I spend half my nights away from here.

But what I loved and got the biggest laughs out of is how many times people reported to me that the women in the ward were flirting with my husband. Then when he left, they and the girls from our old singles ward pretty much CHEERED. I got the last laugh.

I used to work evenings at the hospital before I worked at home and one of the neighbors was visiting me one day and happened to mention that she had stopped by several times to see my husband when I was at work. Then she said, 'I hope that doesn't bother you.' I got a laugh out of that one, too.

I experienced some people-watching weirdness when I was at BYU. I had roommates who used to comment on, for example, how many times a day I brushed my teeth. "Isn't that the third time today you brushed your teeth?" "What?" "You usually only brush your teeth twice." "Are you watching me?" "Well, I just noticed you brushed your teeth a third time."

It wasn't just that guy. I used to get that kind of thing a lot. I used to say "Are you watching me?" and there was never any guilt at all. It's like they felt entitled to watch everything you do and comment on it. ???

I think many LDS justify tattling and gossip because they've been taught to see themselves as their brother's keeper. In a twisted way, they actually see tattling as being helpful.

Besides that, Mormonism is all about where you are on the ladder of righteousness. It's a religion based on judgment of oneself and others. Every Mormon knows it's impossible to be righteous enough, so the next best thing is to feel more righteous than the other Mormons they know. "Ooo, I think I caught sister/brother so and so failing to be perfect! That moves me up a notch!"

Momons have no boundaries...wait...is that an original thought or did I read that here sometime before???

But, when someone's done something SERIOUSLY WRONG (not rumors, not innuendo)... and they're an insider... Hands Off!

I told this story on another thread about BYU Standards office several days ago but if anyone missed it, I had two frenemies from high school who decided to live together at BYU. Robin, who was cute and nice but had an unfortunate taste for stealing other girl's boyfriends and Susan who was a witch with a capital B and had a mother who was worse. Spiteful as Susan was, you'd think she'd watch out for a girl like Robin, not make her a roommate but oh well. When the inevitable happened and Robin ran off with Susan's boyfriend, Susan tattled to BYU Standards and tried to make it sound like they were doing all sorts of inappropriate things, trying to get Robin kicked out of BYU from sheer malice. Robin managed to convince the guy in the office that she was innocent (which she probably was) and that Susan was just a jealous b#:*h. But that tattling - and the lying - should have been my first clue about the real Mormon lifestyle.

A mormon girl who worked for me as a receptionist, looked up my address, found the stake president, and reported that I was addicted to porn and having an affair. I got called in for an interview 2 weeks later. I found out it was here at the church court.

We've said it before: In church courts it is not necessary to meet your accuser or know the particulars. You can lose your membership--and possibly lose your family--due to hearsay.

A mormon girl who worked for me as a receptionist, looked up my address, found the stake president, and reported that I was addicted to porn and having an affair. I got called in for an interview 2 weeks later. I found out it was her at the church court.

This is why I love my neighborhood in UT...quite a few LDS people, but they aren't nosing into our business. I can walk up the street coffee in hand and not worry :)

Yes, I noticed this even when I was a mormon. It's annoying. Like sometimes they'll use shifty methods to get your address or phone number, then they'll give them to the Bishop, then the Bishop will give the details to anyone who asks. It's a nightmare. :(

The worst LDS tattling I ever encountered was the wives of ward and stake leaders.

A female relative of mine was married to a bishop in a small Utah town. Once her husband ascended to his fake authority she put the bug in his ear about all the women/families in the ward she hated--who she thought was fudging on their tithing, who she thought neglected their callings, who she thought let their children see PG-13 movies, who supported marriage equality. Her bishop husband acted on all this crap, frequently hauling people into his office for interrogation. I cut off contact with these relatives after about a year of hearing about this.

Two years in, the self-righteous bishop was arrested, convicted of a major crime, and put in prison. People had grown to loathe him and his wife for their vindictive gossiping. The sad part is that they have five young children who are taking the brunt of the community's anger at the parents.

Oh Gawd YES! Can you even imagine how much TSCC would improve if people worried about themselves and their own shortcomings as much as they are interested in and worried about others'.

There was a lady in a new ward I had just moved into who had the nasty habit of sleeping with the husbands of the other women. It was a well known fact, and the women of the ward gave her the cold shoulder, and rightfully so. This person kept trying to befriend me. I didn't trust her, but I was nice to her. She hadn't done me any harm and I felt like what she had done was none of my business.

She started telling me about a guy that she had the hots for. True to form, he was the husband of another lady in the ward. I told her I thought she was crazy and to stop telling me the details. I told her I didn't want to know anything so when she got hauled into a love court I wouldn't have anything to say. Apparently the affair got hot and heavy.

The ward gossip monger (also the rsp) went 30 miles out of her way to drop by my house one day. She told me that I owed it to the ward to tell her everything that was going on with those two. I was shocked that she was so bold about it. I told her I didn't know anything, and if she wanted to know anything about my friends life, she'd have to go ask her. I refused to get in the middle of that. The rsp was mad as a wet hen. I would say she was in a rage by the way she slammed her car door and peeled out of my drive way. I was blacklisted in the ward after that.

I did tell my friend that they were tracking her. She broke off the affair, but not before the entire ward had divided down the middle and was in a war of words. It was crazy. I'd never seen anything like the insanity in that ward.

I so agree with Stray Mutt that the Ladder of Righteousness in Mormonism invites tattling big time. There is so much pressure to be a success in gawd's army which will make you shine in the field of monetary success, the social arena, and family success. This driving competition brings out jealousy, tattling, meanness, and even evil.

I wonder how many are BYU graduates?

When I was at Utah State University a girl who had just been kicked out of Rick's (1986). Told me that she had gone to a grocery store in Rexburg to buy some beer. The cashier saw her student Id in her purse and knew she was a Rick student so she called the standards office and turned her in. The girl was over 21 and could legally buy beer. The cashier simply felt it her duty to turn her in.

tattling is the LDS National Sport!

I bought beer while I was at Ricks, I rinsed my hair with it!

(where did that "good for hair" rumor start, ha ha?)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2014 04:26PM by guynoirprivateeye.

I've noticed that tattling seems to be a sport in LDS culture, as my TBM ex was nervous when he was waiting for his mom to get done with her tithing settlement, and he happened to be drinking some herbal infusion. He was worried that the ward gossips would see the string and tag hanging out of his mug and think he was drinking real tea, then tattle on him to the bishop. It didn't matter that the herbal stuff was part of the RS gift basket his mom got, he was that worried about being tattled on.

I also saw that when we all had a nasty cold and decided to skip church to keep others from getting what we had. As expected, the ward spies, I mean HT's stopped by to find out why we weren't at church. After some mumbled comment that my ex heard and thought they were going to tattle to the bishop, my ex put on his church uniform and went to talk to the bishop himself to show that he was too sick to show up.

I did things myself like when I drank coffee on the university campus, I made sure it wasn't near the food court of the student union where my ex-husband's former roommate worked, as he would have tattled on me to my ex, and possibly the bishop. This former roommate was so devout that he destroyed some porn my ex left out by mistake, so there's no doubt that he would have tattled on me drinking coffee. The last thing I heard was that the former roommate moved to Utah to be closer to his family.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2014 04:07PM by adoylelb.

This was in Florida. I had a friend come over to look at some water damage after a pipe broke. He went to his car and it would not start. I drove him home and he left it at my house. Finally he had the time to come back and get it running (4 days).
Fast forward to a TR Review about 2 months later. Bishop asked me 3 times if I lived the Law of Chastity. I kept saying yes and he stated he did not believe me because he heard a man had stayed at my house for 4 nights. At first I did not put it together, but then as I was sitting there I remembered. I told him what happened and maybe this person needed a few more callings. Turned out to be my VT, and I let her verbally have it.

When you tattle, you're telling a tale. And the tale is that you're a tattler.

As the ward's token single parent, I was an object of never-ending spying, tattling, and gossip. One neighbor used to peer out her window at night, waiting to note what time I got home, and then report to the bishop that I was staying out until all hours partying and fornicating. (In reality, I had a part-time evening job that lasted until midnight).

The gossip reached a crescendo when bishop pulled my recommend and placed me on probation based on tattling and gossip he'd heard. None of it was true and I didn't even get the chance to defend myself. I was pretty mad.

I enlisted a well-built guy friend to come over and fix my car at a time when I knew the nosy neighbor would be strolling by on her evening reconnaissance mission through the neighborhood. Right on cue, my friend cranked up his boom box, stripped off his greasy t-shirt, and did a little dance in his very tight jeans, next to my car.

The look on her face was priceless!