My family says the dumbest things. One brother in law was expressing his displeasure towards the SLC Mayor.
His first and biggest problem was that the mayor was a lesbian. I kid you not. So the way you like your bedmates changes how well you are at governing. What an idiot. His second reason was that she started firing the career politicians. Another stupid reason, but to not discuss politics I will leave it at that.

I really want to punch them when they say stupid things. But then I feel bad. Because it would be like hurting a special needs person for not knowing any better.

scaredhusband Wrote:
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> Because it would be
> like hurting a special needs person for not
> knowing any better.

They and you were conditioned to see demons. Maybe not physical apparitions but the fruits of Satan's labors manifest in "men."

How can one reconcile this with reality?

I was taught that I could possibly see actual angels just like Joseph Smith.

Around the time I was going to exit Mormonism I was in a Sunday School Class. A woman claimed to have seen and interacted with an actual angel. It was a huge wakeup call for me.

Most everyone including the teacher thought she was crazy. She didn't say anything crazier than Joseph Smith did. She sounded crazy to me until I wondered to myself what I would do.

For a church started with angels this was a huge cognitive disconnect in my mind. I couldn't believe the woman but I could Joseph Smith?

I don't think your family is special needs. That is insulting to people who have actual mental limitations. Your family is self handicapping. The difference is stark once realized. You don't have Celestial feel goods much anymore. It is like coming down off drugs. I know. I've done it.

That is the most frustrating kind of handicap. The self inflicted. I find that my wife isn't interested in growth or learning. Most of my family are complacent and apathetic to knowledge and learning. It is really sad, and frustrating to me. I thought life was for becoming a better person. Growth. but what do I know?

scaredhusband Wrote:
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> I thought life was for becoming a better
> person. Growth. but what do I know?

As a Mormon I thought life was about passing the big test and getting onto Celestial things. Endure to the end and all that...

I hear you scaredhusband.

In discussing the afterlife with my wife, she proudly proclaimed that the entire point of Mormon eternity was to learn, and grow, to become Gods. (Or part of a Gods harem).

Yet learning here isn't interesting, or is worthless. Every time I suggest learning. Knit, sail, ski, dive, unicycle, fly, pottery, gardening, fish; it's not worth learning. I am left baffled and shaking my head.

Here's an example of where bedmates made a difference in how someone governed.

Nancy Regan's devotion to astrology had significant influence on Ronald Regan.

see this link: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/04/us/white-house-confirms-reagans-follow-astrology-up-to-a-point.html

FYI: That doesn't mean I disagree with you about your brother-in-law. I'd want to punch him too.

Unless someone is ACTUALLY mentally incompetent, I don't think they deserve to express unchallenged bigotry. It's time to make people like that uncomfortable, instead of letting them make everybody else squirm, or worse yet, let them make someone else's life a living hell.

One of my siblings once said: "I only came here (Earth) to get a body and have children."

That kind of ambition worries me.

Like a member of a pyramid scheme saying their purpose in life is to just get new members nothing more.

It is the mentality of things that overproduce and under perform mindlessly.

I know people like your brother-in-law and-trust me-the mayor being a lesbian was numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 as to why he doesn't like her.

When he talked of the mayor firing career politicians as to why he doesn't like her, please see reasons 1 through 4.

How can someone's sexual orientation be more than one reason?

Elder Berry Wrote:
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> How can someone's sexual orientation be more than
> one reason?

When someone is raised a bigot, a person's sexuality is all you need to dislike him or her. Case in point: if the mayor kept the old guard intact, instead of firing them, the person in the original post would chide the mayor for being "business as usual" when it comes to her policies.

I guess that can even go as far as someone's choice in marriage. Dislike people because they married inter-racially even though they claim not to be racists.