- When I asked if it wasn't a bit conceited of Jesus to be all, "I am the light and the truth and totally God's favorite and the absolute coolest cat in all of creation" all the time.

- When I asked "So, wait, Alma baptized himself as he was baptizing Helam? How does that work?" and also "How could Joseph Smith baptize Oliver if he hadn't been baptized yet? How can he be given priesthood authority before being baptized? Why didn't John the Baptist dunk him before giving him the priesthood?"

- When I said "Ugh, I would NEVER get married in the Salt Lake temple. I don't want to feel like I'm on an assembly line on my wedding day."

- When someone else in class said, "I used justify watching some R-rated movies, like Schindler's List, because it's historically important. But I don't feel good after watching it, which is the spirit telling me I shouldn't be disobeying the prophet," and I responded with, "A movie about millions of people being brutally murdered isn't supposed to make you feel good. It has nothing to do with the spirit. The movie makes you feel disgusted, outraged, and sad ON PURPOSE."

- When I said, "I don't want eternal life. It would be so pointless. Tell me we'll live in the CK for 999,999,999 years, and I'm totally in. But FOREVER? Why bother?"

- When (as a teenager) I asked my teacher what Adam-God was.

- When I turned down an "invitation" to say the opening prayer because I was having a horrible day (had received news of a death in the family that morning) and didn't want to get emotional in public.

- When I referred to the bishop as Mike.

- And finally, I still can't figure out why I got in trouble for this one: When we were supposed to name which temple we wanted to get married in and I said Johannesburg, just because everyone else was saying SLC or Jordan River and I didn't want to be boring. I guess my individuality was showing.

Lol, I wish I had been in Sunday school with you. Sounds like fun! Hahahahahaha

LOL!!!! Oh man! I wish had been a fly on the wall in your SS!

- When I asked for details about the "Church of the Devil". The teacher looked highly annoyed...no doubt because I made the spirit leave the room.

- While the teacher (a stick in the mud serious as a heart attack grump) was baring his testimony, my friend made a funny face and referenced a joke he told in priesthood earlier. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The teacher glared at me and asked in a hate-filled tone, "Do you find this funny?"

Individuality is a sin.

moronistrombone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Individuality is a sin.


That probably sums it up. I'm never-mo, but I must admit that my favorite Sunday school story is one Martha Beck tells on herself. They were supposed to be making gingerbread houses, and she made a mead hall -- complete with Grendel's arm over the fireplace. She got in trouble.

surely it had to be entertaining and maybe I'd have had the courage to openly question sooner.

Dido. I would question like that but internally as to not get into trouble.
I like your spunk judyblue

Thanks, but I was never TRYING to get in trouble. It wasn't like I was being rebellious or anything - I just kept asking questions and making comments and it took me a really long time to figure out why the teachers would get so pissed off!

But that's the thing. You were open about those things. You just did it naturally.
I was too scared to do that.
It always seemed to me that when someone questioned things (no matter if it was a child, a youth or an adult) they always seemed to get in trouble.
It was even to the point that when I was in school (very non-tbm school, no tbms apart from me) I naturally was afraid of raising my hand and ask questions.

Now that I've gone back to school it is completely different.
I'm so involved in the sharing of ideas and asking questions and I love it.

I had a very similar experience. Wish I could remember all the particulars like you have!!

I just remember a lot of '...hmmm... I don't know, I'll have to get back to you.' and they never did.

Questions I witnessed over the past 20+ years:

* so are we really supposed to believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale or large fish and was inside its stomach for 3 days? (Answer: yes, because it was referenced in the NT as a type of Christ's burial & resurrection). NOM friend and nature lover leans over to me and whispers if I have any idea how deep whales dive and the water pressure at such depths!

* teacher asks class for examples of the prophet's revelations in the last 5 to 10 years.....silence all around so teacher gives testimony of prophets and rather embarrassingly moves on with the lesson.

* on a lesson on word of wisdom, someone asks why we never follow the bit about meat? Teacher is stumped and quickly moves on.

* in a lesson on eternal progression I ask if we still believe we can become Gods. Teacher says yes and then I quote Pres Hinckley's 'I don't know that we teach it..." Lots of cog dis and scratching of heads. Class decide that he was choosing not to cast pearls before swine, but I could tell some members were disturbed by GBH's remark.

* lesson on obedience - very smart NOM guy (now exmo) asks teacher whether any member should blindly follow local PH leaders just because they wear a white shirt? Because in his experience he's been given very poor direction from PH leaders and things have worked out better when he's done the opposite.

* old man - "I'm fed up of all the American focus in this church. Is Jesus American? Does he speak with an American accent now?"

* sister is bearing testimony about how God answered her young daughter's prayers to help her get to a school club meeting on time despite challenging traffic problems. Someone else in class takes exception to this and say "so what are we to think of all the mothers in Africa who's prayers to save their starving children went unanswered today?"

I was a teenager in the 70's sitting in Sunday School and we were discussing what it means to be morally clean and to save ourselves for our future wife/husband, blah blah blah.

Honestly, I tried to keep quiet but I couldn't help myself. I raised my head and said that I didn't understand why, if you love a person, it was wrong to have sex with that person without that little piece of paper that said you were married.

You could have heard a pin drop in that room.

No, what REALLY got ME in trouble was telling the Seminary teacher that "Jesus Christ Superstar" was "A cool movie that really got me thinking things about Christ that I had never thought of before"

BIG MISTAKE!!! Spent the next 2 hours in the "session of sin" discussion... :(

(Don't tell anyone, but I still think it has some really great ROCK & ROLL!!!)

I agree - saw this live recently and it got me thinking.

I like god spell too.

Not Sunday school but close enough.

Not allowing the member of the bishopric bully me into giving a Sacrament meeting talk. After that, the teacher got up and gave us a 45 minute lesson on the old "When the brethren have spoken, the thinking has been done" and how we have to have perfect obedience to the brethren at all times.

He never said my name but it was crystal clear who he was talking about.

That's all stuff I have thought to myself but never would have had the guts to say aloud. Good for you Judy! I wish I would have spoken up when I had the chance.

Johannesburg Temple? Isn't it obvious? To be married there you'd have to marry an African!

Of course you'd be in trouble in N. Utah!

Charlize Theron is from South Africa and is "African."

"- And finally, I still can't figure out why I got in trouble for this one: When we were supposed to name which temple we wanted to get married in and I said Johannesburg, just because everyone else was saying SLC or Jordan River and I didn't want to be boring. I guess my individuality was showing."

Well I can understand why they got mad at you for the other things, but why would they when you wanted to get married in God's house overseas?

They said I wasn't "taking it seriously." I said "Any man who is willing to take me halfway around the world to be sealed to me forever is a man worth marrying."

The next week when they surprised us with presents - 4x6 prints of whichever temple we had said - they gave me SLC and told me "they don't make pictures of the Johannesburg temple."

:D

judyblue Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They said I wasn't "taking it seriously." I said
> "Any man who is willing to take me halfway around
> the world to be sealed to me forever is a man
> worth marrying."
>
> The next week when they surprised us with presents
> - 4x6 prints of whichever temple we had said -
> they gave me SLC and told me "they don't make
> pictures of the Johannesburg temple."
>
> :D


Of COURSE they don't!!

}eye roll{

judyblue Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They said I wasn't "taking it seriously." I said
> "Any man who is willing to take me halfway around
> the world to be sealed to me forever is a man
> worth marrying."
>
> The next week when they surprised us with presents
> - 4x6 prints of whichever temple we had said -
> they gave me SLC and told me "they don't make
> pictures of the Johannesburg temple."
>
> :D

Of course they don't. ;-> http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/johannesburg/

Just in case you still want one. :-)

I skipped classes. By the time you're six you've learned all they have to tell you. From then on it's repetition all the way to the temple. Obedience, tithing, praying, paying et al.

I asked my adult Sunday School class why, exactly, it was okay to deny the priesthood to black men (nevermind those pesky wimens!) until 1978. The teacher finally stopped the crazy comments and shamed me for asking.

DH was 14. His SS teacher was hammering on staying morally clean week after week after week. DH started hanging out in the hall rather than attend class. The teacher called him out for it. When he asked why, DH stated, "Lack of interest." Turns out the scum-bag SS teacher was molesting boys--at least seven of them. He spent many years at Point of the Mountain (Utah prison).

As a young girl, my bff and I would sing the hymns loud--but we would sing different verses than the ones the rest of the congregation were singing. We thought that was really funny.

Hope my daughter has some outspoken women in her class like you to make her wise up and think "Yes, WHY????" Those were great!

Congratulations JudyBlue!!! Me thinks that you have made an Art Form out of being a royal pain in the arse.

When I asked "where does god live?
The answer was on the planet Kolob.
Next question then he doesn't live on earth?
Answer No.
Question: Then doesn't that make him an extraterrestrial?
END OF DISCUSSION

Are you serious? What state was that....Utah?

I got into trouble for side talking. I had questions like you but asked the person next to me because I didn't want to ask the teacher.

I got into trouble in Sunday School for:
1. Refusing to read out loud from the BoM.
2. Asking questions.
3. Not agreeing with the "book" answer and leading others in such questioning.
4. Others would come up and tell me they agreed with and thanked me for bringing up the issues but they were afraid to themselves.
5. In HP I stated I did not believe something and everyone tried to cover up what I said - in the hope no-one would inform the bish what I said. One time it was something obvious like whether there was life and death in the Garden of Eden. TSCC has an absurd answer.

Addition:
I was so tired of SS that I went to the GE class. I got to answer questions of investigators. Oops. The bish called and told me I was not allowed there. Guess it interrupted the brain-washing. I was only giving the answers to what the newbies wanted to know. Too close to meat. I think all the new converts then left (because it was uninteresting and questions never answered). The class had gotten up to 15-20 in it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2013 03:17PM by rhgc.