This weekend I was trapped in a cabin with MIL, and all of her descendants. They were celebrating kid #6's mission call to Tulsa OK.

At one point, we did an activity where we were given a 3x5 card & were supposed to write down our favorite scripture, and then just something that might be helpful to #6 on his mission.

I normally would have left them alone, but they were actively attempting to force a known atheist to write schpiritual things.

So I put Jacob2 & D&C132 --lessons of David & Solomon

Maybe it was all the taxidermied animals lining the walls, or my own feeling of being trapped there for 3 days with them, but on the back of the 3x5 card I wrote something like this:

"I know the church to be false. I've discovered a great truth, but infuriatingly I am not allowed to share it with anyone. My frustration is exacerbated by the fact that mormons share their beliefs constantly, but refuse to have a discussion about mine. Any attempts to open anyone's eyes is met with hostility. It's like you are a wild animal, caught in a poachers trap. Every time I reach to release the trap, you snarl and bite. It's so sad that none of you will let me help you see the church for what it is: a cult."

If #6 is like me, he probably wont ever read those 3x5 cards. But if he does, there will either be fallout or an awakening.


P.S. I did discover a new skill though: crowd sourcing my anti-mormonism. So I brought up the topic of City Creek Mall, and just let them talk about it. One SIL discovered from her TBM siblings that CCM was a church project, and that the church didn't report on its finances fully. She said, "I kind of have a problem with that. Why on earth is our church making a mall at all?"
It was great to have my point made for me, and to have it actually have an impact because it wasn't voiced by the anti-mormon, but by her TBM relatives.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2013 11:16AM by justrob.

Cabins, lots of taxidermed animals? Maybe we're related.

Probably not, but I loved your simile. I am so glad you wrote what you did on the card. One small step for mankind....

If you have any relatives from Wyoming or eastern Idaho (especially the Driggs area) then we are definitely related.

This cabin, though, belonged to one of MIL's church leaders. Since she is a widow, they go out of their way to do nice things for her. I was surprised how nice the cabin was. I can't say I'd just let some acquaintance stay in my vacation home unsupervised for 3 days.

I liked that! You're brave. I did like how you were able to bring up CCM. I try to do that at our family reunions too but I'm not very good at it. I have a couple of siblings that will take the ball and run with it and nobody bats an eye, if I say something it is considered harsh criticism. Maybe it's because I don't actually go and they still do.

Trapped in a cabin with TBM inlaws, dead animals mounted to the walls, forced preaching, in the dead of winter...all you needed was a cannibalistic ax murderer and you'd have yourself a classic horror movie.

Seriously, though, good on ya for expressing your beliefs in the only way you could without being thrown out into the snow. And I love the picture of the TBMs debating the City Creek Mall amongst themselves.

(Also, I have loads of relatives in Teton and Ririe.)

I was worried that ax murder was gonna be me. I tolerate my in-laws ok, but it's no picnic.

I have lots of family origins in Teton, but I think they've all moved out since.

Orrin Bates was my grandpa, and he lived in Teton for a while. But Driggs is the main place for that side of the family.

The part of your story that strikes me as funny is "mission call to Tulsa, OK."

Seriously, that part of the country is already fully saturated with every type of christian church under the sun. Oral Roberts U is in Tulsa. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, etc. rank very high in % of regular church-goers. The methodist and baptist missionaries have 100+ years head start on the mormons. Just seems very unnecessary and futile.

I certainly don't envy my BIL.
He's 21, and was getting serious with a TBM girl, and realized that it was never gonna go anywhere unless he was an RM.

...but he realizes he's trapped between a rock and a hard place. If he doesn't go, she's gonna dump him, and if he does go, he know she will be married by the time he gets back.

He's also the liberal one in his family. He's experimented with alcohol, and non-TBM things... but it's just reinforced the church to him (because he knows he wouldn't have the self control to do things like that without becoming an addict).

I dunno if he'll make it the full 2 years. Hopefully he'll get some sort of honorable early discharge for medical reasons & he wont have to do the full 2 years in order to get the RM badge that he wants.