I still seem to be on the stake/ward leaders email distribution list and so it's amusing to read some of the communication that flies backwards & forwards.

What I've noticed more recently are a couple of trends:

1) Stake Auxilliary leaders / High Council members and Bishops increasingly show off by expressing some sentiment on an email and then very purposefully copy everyone else in.

For example. One Bishop just wants to share with the SP that they had some success catching up with a less active member on a reach out night. Fine - just email SP and be done with it, but no, everyone on the email list has to read about this success and recognise how wonderful they and their ward are.

Next you get another Bishop or HPGL postiviely responding to the original email and congratulating the initial Bishop....but then adding in some of their own recent success, which is of course more compelling and even grander than the original one. And so on and so forth.

It's like ward F&T meeting sometimes when you have the SP or even a GA visiting the ward. Invariably you get the brown nosers wanting to appear the most spiritual, earnest and blessed.

2) It's also becoming increasingly common in the emails that I see (most particularly from High Councillors) to use gushing spiritual language and even testimony in their communication, when a simple point could be made. For example I was copied on an email today from a young HC responsible for family history. He simply wanted to flag the importance of youth getting involved in researching names for the temple. But he finished his email with the following:

"I know that if we can help all members have a focus and a reason to go to the Temple they will be worthy and become stronger spiritually and be a great strength to the Lord and His work."


Sorry for the vomit-inducing words but has anyone else noticed this trend? I think even when I was a TBM I would have found this increasing one-upmanship and spiritual competitivess over emails nauseating.

Sounds like business as usual to me. I still get the occasional mass email, too, and it's pretty much the same junk. I think it's always been that way and we just didn't notice when we were "in" because we thought and spoke that way, too. Amazing how weird and culty it looks from a little distance, isn't it?

On mine, I can see the email addresses of all the other recipients. One of these days, I'll reply to all and teach them a lesson about information security. And by that I mean I'll bear my un-testimony. Pretty sure that'll get me off the list, at least. You could try it, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2014 01:57PM by Vote for Pedro.

If they realised I was still on the email distribution list I would no doubt be removed instantly. I've left myself on since it's useful to get the scoop on what's going on in the stake, plus I get copied on all the Area Presidency & First Presidency letters.

I do not get emails from the church, but I noticed the Christmas cards over the years started to get Christmas letters in them.

It used to be, our family would get a nice card signed by the Bishopric with a nice Merry Christmas greeting with a manger scene or an angel, or maybe even a temple.


Since about 2004, we get letters with all kinds of over the top rhetoric about how God's true church blesses us, how the Gospel will help us in the new year, how they know this is true, how blessed we are to have the TSCC...etc. It will go on for a whole page, single space, in font 9.

So it doesn't surprise me that the emails would be over the top "spiritual" too.

gawd, I'm glad I'm out.