Years ago in seminary, (Tooele, UT late 90s) our seminary teacher told us of a woman who was so spiritual and so obedient to her temple covenants that she would shower with her garment top half off so the sacred garments never left her body. She would let it dangle from one arm, wash herself, then switch arms. I was TBM at the time, but thought it was extreme. How did she CHANGE into new ones? My guess was, new top and old bottoms, then new bottoms. Oh the craziness! Yet, we were supposed to be in awe of her righteousness. Insanity.

Only when my right arm was in a cast

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2014 07:52PM by csuprovograd.

Nevermind.

Oh! I wasn't even going there, didn't even think it! (Until your post. So many are going to play with this one).

The same seminary teacher pointed his finger at the class and very seriously said, "Your spouse is your ticket to the Celestial Kingdom." A popular phrase in the late 90s, as I heard this a few times in seminary lessons.

That my GGrandmother did that with the old one piecers. I always thought if it was such a great whoopdie doo thing why didn't my Grandmother do it? Illogical but it was a story often told. Who knows if it was really true.

So THAT'S who started it!

It's tough.

That was my business arm, so it doesn't count.

right arm was in a sling broken collar bone. Your seminary teacher needs a kick in the ass. that's stupid to tell kids about that. Kids will start to think that they are going to heaven if they wear underwear to take a shower, if you're nude in the shower, you won't make it to the CK.

I've showered with one arm, but it was because of a soft cast I was wearing after wrist surgery.

Insisting on keeping garments on part of the body while showering is just obsessive-compulsive scrupulosity. Might as well go back to Mosaic Law and only being able to take a certain number of steps on the Sabbath.

Not willingly -- only when my arm was in a cast. Doing things one-handed is hard!

Broke my left hand and arm, was in a cast for a few weeks.

Showering sucked. Tying my shoes sucked. Day-to-day activities were tough. There's no way I'd willingly subject myself to it.

A few years later, I took a tumble through a roof and damaged both ulnar nerves, rendering me unable to move anything beyond my elbows. Took about 4 days for the inflammation to subside enough for me to function again. During that time, I couldn't change my clothes, unzip my fly to go to the bathroom, or any other number of functions.

I don't understand the flagellation mentality. Whether it's garment-wearing in LDS context, or the Catholic wearing of hairshirts, or Orthodox Judaism tracking the number of steps on the Sabbath -- why intentionally make things harder on yourself? There's a line between purposefully keeping oneself disciplined and overboard adherence to rules.

I think it was fairly common in her day. She didn't have a shower just a footed tub.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2014 04:04AM by Susan I/S.

It was common among some of the LDS in decades past to bathe without taking the garment completely off.
Nobody had showers, usually just a tub brought in the house, filled with water, and boiling water from the stove added to keep it warm.
Usually more then one person used the same bath water.

It's not uncommon for people who wear some kind of religious clothing or article to have rituals about how to preserve it's sacredness. It's part of religious rituals throughout the history of humanity. Look into the Milveh Jewish washing rituals. It's still done today in some groups.

What we think may be strange and odd is often very sacred and important to others.