Where any of you have trouble with tscc's promise that if you do everything right, your righteous desires will be fulfilled. No wonder there is a lot of depression among Mormons. The believe in the church, but when it claims things like this, it never delivers which is hard to accept.

I know several TBM still struggling along faithfully while looking round wondering where they are failing, or falling short, as they aren't getting their blessings as promised. We are talking about struggling along at borderline poverty, paying their 10%, wondering what else they can sacrifice to bring down the blessings of heaven.

It is one of the most evil aspects of mormonism.

If both people are living the gospel any marriage can work. The statement of the evil SWK.

Never mind the only thing the two have in common is the church and all of it's busy work.

You take the activities of the church out of the married couple's life and they have nothing in common.....it is so sad.
They blame themselves for not living right but they are not breaking the commandments, they're just trying to have a marriage like a fish and a bird; where can they build a home together?

You've touched on the reason I initially walked away, long before I knew of the historical inaccuracies they were presenting to the world.

It finally got through to me that they had destroyed my self-esteem and I wondered why I was doing that to myself.

Walking away was empowering and I immediately began the long process of healing.

It makes me so sad to see my most 'righteous' friends beating themselves up, struggling to understand why all of their promised blessings have not come to pass.

It's so confusing for them and yet they don't blame the Mormon God. They blame themselves.

Unless you're gay. Then you have to live a celibate life.

unless you have a chronic illness. Then you have to wait until the next life. In the meantime, it's only a test.

And if those desires never come to you, it's because they weren't righteous ones. What a great racket.

cause having everything work out in the end is so comforting - especially when it is said by someone who got married when they were a teenager and couldn't possibly understand lonlieness.

This is not a reasonable statement to a reasonable person

I've told this story before, but a church aquaintance was married in the temple to a RM at the same time I was married to a never mo. She became pregnant almost right away, and has gone on to have another child (this is four years ago now). My husband and I are infertile. She told a mutual friend that God had blessed her marriage wtih children because she was married in the temple, and that she thought my infertilty was a matter of faith. It was incredibly painful. No, the righteous desires of your heart are not always granted.

Caligrace, life has a way of catching up with people. Your temple-married friend will likely have her share of life's trials. She's just too young, naïve, and proud to know that yet.

I believe that this reflects purely on her. It is something e Mormon church provides to accept, but she chose to accept and also in a horrible decision present to you.

This may be someone who thinks they are a good person because they comply with the rules of Mormonism, but a good person would not believe or repeat such a thing.

Awful, awful culture NOMs and Jacks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2014 08:56AM by gentlestrength.

Heartless

None of my desires, thankfully were EVER righteous....and most came true anyway...because I worked for them....

Ron Burr

Neither I nor my desires were righteous. I worked hard and long hours in hot, noisy factories for decades and was frugal with my spending, purchasing only one small home and some beater cars. I retired early, which I think is beyond desirable. All my benefits were earned with blood sweat and tears.

If you vote for me all your wildest dreams will come true.

I guess it depends on whether your faithfulness is in line with what the brethren say should be your righteous desires. If your desire is to be the best HomeTeacher in the Ward, then your faithful monthly efforts will pay off. Remember, nothing is more important than the welfare of the church. If your only desire is to see it succeed, then your faithful magnifying of callings can accomplish it.

Even that's not true. The people you HT avoid you, or you realize your effort is just marking time. Or your kids all leave the church, and no amount of emotional punishing will bring them back. Or members just keep leaving and you can't do anything about it except continue to give excuses to yourself about conditions of these latter days. Or you've got to maintain a high standard of living in order to demonstrate your worthiness to others, but that creates inevitable life-balance conflicts among work, your family responsibilities, and endless church-work.

Stress and anxiety are a way of life for you too, but as a worthy PH you can push it down on your family, and they can't say, "Boo," back. So you're plagued with a depressed wife and rebellious kids. Both are actually the reflections of your own aggression, but, because the church doesn't teach anything practical about living as a real human being, you don't know that; so everyone simply continues to act out, be miserable, and be forced to fake blessings.

Even if your goals align exactly with TSCC, it still doesn't work--as so many formerly dutiful rats in the TSCC rat race on this Board can attest.

MCR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Even if your goals align exactly with TSCC, it
> still doesn't work--as so many formerly dutiful
> rats in the TSCC rat race on this Board can
> attest.

Here, here.

All very good and true points. I know, because I've punished my own self for the same reasons you've listed. But you make one mistake! You seem to be confusing what your desires are, and what the church says your desires and blessings are. Your only true and approved desire is to be the best T-crossing I-dotter so that Heavenly Father can love you. The only way to know that, is to receive a pat on the back after your interview with your Priesthood leader.

Right. But your PH leader is also vying for best T-crosser/I-dotter. You depend on him for affirmation. Is he an honest broker? What does he want from you?

The system couldn't possibly be designed worse.

This is right out of Napoleon Dynamite. Vote for Pedro and your wildest dreams will come true.

The catch here is "faithful." If you don't get what you want, either your desires weren't "righteous" or you weren't "faithful" enough. TSCC always finds a way to make it the member's fault. Since none of us are perfect, we're never going to be righteous "enough" and TSCC is off the hook.

Of course, this idea also contradicts the notion that we're here to learn to deal with opposition, problems, and NOT getting what we want (as a test or trial of our faith).

That's why IMO as a "religion" or spiritual practice, it's snake oil. It's like the Herbalife distributors who claim that their diet shakes treat cancer and diabetes, and will also make you wealthy. They promise utopia and funnel in plenty of vulnerable people.

In contrast, Buddhism starts with the premise that life is full of suffering and pain. The spiritual practice then concerns itself with: so what do we do about it? X'ity starts with the assumption that we are all imperfect. Similarly, it concerns itself with: so what do we do about it?

Ja, I thought all I had to do was vote for Pedro.

This view won't be real viable in twenty years or so. It's an artifact of the "Golden Age" of the 1950s and 1960s, when wages and standards of living were rising across the board, and most anybody could provide for themselves with some work, patience, thrift and training (somewhat related to Don Bagley's reflections earlier in the thread).

We seem to forget that a big part of this era's prosperity for the USA (and thus the Church) was due to most of the rest of the industrialized world being torn up, traumatized and broke from WWII, taking much of Europe over 30 years to catch up.Plentiful, accessible and inexpensive oil helped too. The Bretton Woods Agreement gave the US Dollar reserve currency status, allowing successive US governments to manipulate the dollar in relation to other currencies and eventually send spending off the charts.

I know of educated kids in their twenties today, in 2014 who would be absolutely thrilled to get any full time job, and have heard them talk like $30,000.00 a year is a king's ransom. It is a rapidly changing economy, which seems to be morphing into a race to the bottom.

There is going to have to be some type of subtle shift to some variation of "you are trully blessed in getting whatever you have as that is what you need to be challenged, develop faith, etc. I don't see how the "rah rah," MLM/Prosperity Gospel message will be taken seriously by many in the future. Just my .02 cents worth.