She said she was annoyed at us, because she knew we were mocking everyone, as they folded their arms, and bowed their heads to pray. Both me and my brother folded our arms, but neither of us closed our eyes, nor made a sound during the prayer. We refrained from mocking the prayer out of respect, but as adults, neither one of us felt compelled to close our eyes and bowl our heads to an imaginary being we did not believe in.

She claims we were making gestures mocking God, while this prayer was going on, which is surprising, since she had her eyes closed, and could not have seen us, even if we had been doing so. It doesn't matter, she is fully convinced that instead of silently being respectful, we were mocking her silly little religious exercise. Now I wish I had been mocking them.

You can't win for loosing with Mormons.

"The Spirit" told her you were mocking the prayer. She just felt it deeply so it MUST be true, right?

"You really are terrible at mind-reading. Don't quit your day job."

or

"Well thank you, now that you've unjustly accused me I will make sure to actually commit the offense for which you are angry. Wouldn't want to waste all those negative emotions on a non-event, would we?"

Love it.

Wha?? Huh???

3 weeks later.. huh???

She must have known you were mocking her in your heart.

I would have, but Mom is an ex-Mormon now too, and she said that she really didn't want to spend the day at a cookout that had no alcohol. She had dinner with my other apostate brother and his family.

forbiddencokedrinker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would have, but Mom is an ex-Mormon now too, and
> she said that she really didn't want to spend the
> day at a cookout that had no alcohol. She had
> dinner with my other apostate brother and his
> family.


See? You were there with your family, whom you obviously love, and with whom you wanted to share a fun holiday. Your sister is the one with the problem. Your mom sounds like the bomb, too.

That's like when little Johnny is finked on by little Tommy for not closing his eyes during the prayer, and little Johnny gets a big fat whipping by Dad. Only later, while rubbing his sore little fanny, does Johnny realize, hey, how did Tommy know it unless his eyes were open, too?

So, 3 weeks later. Hmmm, that's telling. Sounds like she's having a problem and deciding to take you along as emotional hostage. The Ayatollah's tactics have nothing on this kind of behavior. Sorry your sis is being a jerk. You are forever and always my fave word smith ("the short bus of spiritual beings"), and I love reading your funny and thought-provoking posts. You've helped me a great deal in my journey just by being plain fun, too, as I'm sure you've done the same for others.

edit-sorry Raptor, I didn't see your post. Great minds and all that stuff.... : )



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2012 01:43AM by ducky333.

"Grow up"

During family gatherings I usually get up and leave the room when someone announces that it is time to pray. I wouldn't mind the prayers if there was more diversity of belief in my family, but they're all Mormons. I doubt they would like it if I prayed to Heavenly Mother or asked God to fix His messed up church, so this is my quiet protest. My family knows the deal by now, if they don't like it they certainly don't have to invite me over. I generally try to be very polite and certainly wouldn't do this as a guest in someone else's home, but my family is well aware of why I feel so strongly about this.

I quit going to church years ago and was pretty ambivalent about it all until Prop 8. As a gay man living in CA, I frankly became rather bitter about Mormonism. I was subjected to tens of millions of dollars of deceitful anti-gay propaganda that was endorsed by the church. I became rather depressed when my family never said anything supportive to me during this time.

Anyway, tell your sister you were respectful of her beliefs and ask if she would prefer if you stepped outside for a few minutes during prayer. Make sure she understands that no one has the right to coerce another person into worshiping if they don't want to. It isn't too much of her to ask that you remain quiet and generally still during the prayer, but make sure you tell her it is unreasonable of her to exprect you to do the whole Mormon routine-- head bowed, arms folded and eyes closed. She's not a primary teacher trying to "correct" an irreverent child.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2012 02:03AM by califkorihorfan.

califkorihorfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyway, tell your sister you were respectful of
> her beliefs and ask if she would prefer if you
> stepped outside for a few minutes during prayer.
> Make sure she understands that no one has the
> right to coerce another person into worshiping if
> they don't want to. It isn't too much of her to
> ask that you remain quiet and generally still
> during the prayer, but make sure you tell her it
> is unreasonable of her to exprect you to do the
> whole Mormon routine-- head bowed, arms folded and
> eyes closed. She's not a primary teacher trying
> to "correct" an irreverent child.


Wow, that's a great suggestion. He was, after all, respectful enough to stay quiet during the prayer. That doesn't smack of "mocking" to any rational person.

I would ask her specifically what you were doing that was so mocking of her beliefs.

Don't defend yourself against her stupid accusation.

She's either a little paranoid (maybe she felt stupid praying in front of you), or she's trying to yank you around emotionally.

Don't engage.

She saw you with her spiritual eyes.

I am pretty big on not going back for more abuse. :)

Ditto....


+2

She should be happy you both wanted to come to her dinner instead of the one with alcohol.

It was a matter of logistics. The one with alcohol was over 600 miles away.

Ah. Well in that case, you still could have chose not to attend at all.

I would have hosted my own fourth party, but I was working that day, when suddenly, due to an unexpected storm, I got the day off.

Gotta love the unexpected days off :)

i sell Maria's Fresh seafood in Pensacola: 77 shrimp city in PCB
Destin Ice and bait in Destin...I got your seafood needs covered!! :)
thunderstorms and rain can kill the restaurant business in Florida!

Shoot, I should have partied with you.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say to close your eyes or fold your arms when you pray so the real God must not care about outward posturing. He also doesn't care if alcohol is served.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2012 11:11AM by suckafoo.

"Both me and my brother folded our arms, but neither of us closed our eyes, nor made a sound during the prayer. We refrained from mocking the prayer out of respect, but as adults, neither one of us felt compelled to close our eyes and bowl our heads to an imaginary being we did not believe in."

Soooo...if SHE had her eyes closed as she is suppose to...HOW did she know that you and your brother had your eyes open?????

(You know, she knows she would mock if she were at a Catholic prayer -- if only in her heart -- so she's sure her brother and sister did.)

Again, I am a male. It was her two brothers. Why do people keep making this mistake?

Sorry! :)

Perhaps a little reverse accusations would shut her up. Let her know that out of respect you didn't just leave the area until they were done. That you feel she is disrespectful to your beliefs. Mormons are such assholes sometimes.