- Who said people have to wear suit and tie in the sacrament meeting? - Who said people have to grab the sacrament with their right hand? Throughout my life I have seen mothers beat up their children for not obeying this rule. - Who said people have to attend church EVERY Sunday, without exception? Who said they must not miss a single meeting be it about priesthood, or any other stupid thing?
Who declared that only one nursing mother will nurse at a time?
When our "new" (now it is about 12 years old) stake building was built, the Mother's lounge a 10 foot by 8 foot cubicle with a diaper change counter and sink and one small chair. I would sit in there, pondering that the Church commands breeding but does not support the brood mares. Generally the fattest woman got the chair and all the less fat women sat on the floor around the perimeter of the room. Inhaling and exhaling the diaper fumes. Ahhh, Mothers in Zion....
I hate, hate, HATE the mothers room! Every building I've been in has a tiny, stinky room for mothers to nurse in. I finally said "screw this!" and just stayed exactly where I was to nurse. I'm also one of those who just discreetly lifts up her shirt and nurses, instead of putting a huge blanket over the baby's head. I've gotten tons of dirty looks and comments about my "inappropriate actions". When I was TBM I would smile and tell them that when the church starts building nicer mothers rooms, I will use them.
Went to a mall once where they had awesome mothers lounges. Big reclining chairs, personal tv's by each chair and a play area for older kids. I think I'd rather go to church at the mall.
In my current ward, the "mothers room" is a cupboard. There is literally enough room for a single chair and a pulldown changing unit. It's smaller than the disabled toilet and doesn't even have a lockable door! There isn't enough room to get a buggy in.
And who said only mothers could have a room to change diapers? As an involved dad, I never had a convenient place to change diapers, so I had to find an empty classroom (which wasn't always available).
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2012 05:50PM by resipsaloquitur.
Where I grew up this was a HUGE unwritten law: information about you must be shared with the ward gossip, who then had the right to spread it all over the place.
The best gossip is the gossip that you're told EXISTS about you, but they won't tell you what the gossip is actually SAYING so you can confirm/deny it.
Anything you see or hear about other members must also be shared in ward council or with the leaders who attend ward council. Remember, the more you know about what's going on in people's life, the better you'll look, just like the missionaries who know everybody's business and have no reservation to share.
You must not read certain unspecified books. At least the Catholics made a list of forbidden books, so you'd know which ones to seek! I have had to guess and seek my forbidden books on my own.
About the use of the right hand only. It was in the Ensign several years ago and it was explained that the left hand was sinister - as from the Latin. I kid you not. Being left-handed, a took umbrage at this, though I have always, based on the Ensign statement that only the right hand is to be used, carefully used my right hand only with the sacrament. BTW several may be up to ten or so years.
The tie and jacket is now passe. It is only in a few places now. I noticed the tendency to only wear a white shirt and tie had taken over in Utah (or at least where I visited) over a decade ago. As Utahns come east they are bringing this new informality with them and the ward here, though mostly still wearing jackets, is changing.
Rebel that I have been my whole life, I felt that I could wear a tie and jacket but the color of the shirt should be optional. Nothing better than a pink shirt on occasion - and the comments from the women are favorable. Note that most mormon women also prefer something other than plain dark ties as well.
I'm left handed as well. Somewhere I read that in ancient times, the left hand was reserved to clean after defecation and for masturbation, so it was not to be used for eating. I think the Muslims still strongly ascribe to this. Of course today, we wash our hands or at least use hand sanitizer, luxuries unavailable back then.
Boy scouts have a left-handed symbolic handshake. Not sure what the signifigance of that is, one may ponder.
If you are shaking someone's right hand, then you know he is unarmed (since most weapons for hand-to-hand combat were designed to be wielded right-handed). Wielding a weapon with your left hand was considered dishonorable ("underhanded"). If you are shaking hands left handed, then you trust the other person not to stab you with something.
More re discrimination against the left-handed: 1. Sinister actually comes from the Latin "a sinistra" meaning to the left. 2. Cicero, in his address on the Catalinian conspiracy, accused those supporting Cataline of being left-handed. 3. Until very recent times children were not permitted to write with the left hand because it was sinister. 4. Left-handedness is especially common among people in the social sciences, arts, and politics. 5. As to weaponry, the Israelites used especially left-handed slingers. David was, I believe, most likely left-handed. 6. When will TSCC admit to being biased against the left-handed and having fallen for the discrimination of centuries?
If is were true that the "white shirt" is a symbol of priesthood, why weren't the priests in the Bible wearing white? Why did the high priest wear multi-colored vestments? I don't think many of the early members of TSCC even owned white shirts or even shirts close to white. Rather, it is another fetish of TSCC. I sure hope CK or its equivalent in the real heaven is full of color. All wearing the itentical clothing? Ugh. And must we all be white with light hair and blue eyes? I don't even think it would be perfect if every woman was 36-24-36.
Having never been consistent sacrament meeting attendees after our son was born, we always seem to be taking someone's seat when we did/do go, and it's really fun!
I confess to this fault. For decades. Perhaps it was bred in by ancestors centuries ago when families had assigned pews such as in the old churches in New England. Why, in Cambridge, Washington sat in the same pew every Sunday during the Battle of Boston. Governor Peabody, while serving, sat in the Washington pew on Sundays.
- You should only ask questions that's in the lesson manual. Real questions are rude. - Pretend ignorance every now and then even though the 'correct' answer to every question is always the same: pray, go to church, read scripture and pay thithes. - Pretend that mormonism have solved all your problems. - Spirituality means sobbing.
In the ward I lived in as a young teen, we (both in sacrament meeting and in our yw/ym classes) were given the what for, so to speak, from the bishopric about how emotions and testimonies are not the same. They made it clear that having and sharing a testimony is very important, but that we needed to make sure it was actually a testimony of something rather than letting our emotions run away with us. It was a very thorough and nice chiding for the "oh look at me, I'm so spiritual I cry!" set.
I sat through one priesthood meeting where half the time was spent arguing over the type of oil that had to be used during blessings. Some were saying it had to be Virgin Olive Oil. Others were saying, no, it had to be Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Brethren,adieu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > saying it had to be Virgin Olive Oil. Others were > saying, no, it had to be Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
I wonder if they realize that the more "virgin" olive oil is, the less pure it is.
Horrors! Just think if someone used the wrong oil. The whole blessing would be null and void. The oil, of course, doesn't heal; or at least not usually. Oh well, at least it was something one could argue about without having it reported that you were losing your testimony and disagreeing with a doctrine. Think about it. Arguing over the oil allowed the members the rare opportunity of exercising the right of free speech!
If someone argued over whether or not death existed before the fall, they would face a hearing and be tsk tsked about for months. Oh, the fear of being out of tune with the doctrine.