Last night, my wife and I had a disagreement about something. At one point she referred to a recent letter from our stake president that said we are supposed "to put our spouse's needs above all else" as sort of a trump card that was supposed to resolve the issue. Then she added the dig "but I bet you didn't even read that."

She gets that habit from her mother, who is the worst at doing that. Whenever my MIL gets upset or wants something from someone, she starts pulling selective gospel topics that fit her agenda. She'll quote a scripture or bring up a general conference talk. Of course she conveniently ignores anything that doesn't support what she wants. A couple examples:

My father-in-law backed into our car and dented it. We were deciding if we should report it to our insurance company to get repaired. My mother-in-law got upset, because they don't have a ton of money (even less after all the tithing, fast offerings etc.). She quoted the scripture about "treasures in heaven" and not treasures on earth. Of course conveniently ignoring anything about taking responsibility and making amends.

A second example that comes to mind is one time she wanted us to stop by their house on a Saturday for some reason. We had signed up for a half-marathon that was going to be held the following week. We were just about to go out on our last training run, so we said we couldn't come over until later. She got mad and said we shouldn't worry about having "perfect bodies" in this life (far from it anyway), because they will be perfect in the next life. Then she said we were doing out of vanity, which is a sin. Of course she ignored all the gospel advice about taking care of our bodies. Then there's the whole "run without being weary" concept she ignored.

Anyone else's TBM family members fall into that pattern of trying to score "gospel points?"


P.S. Don't worry, we kissed and made up after our argument.

P.S. again -- Regarding the car. We didn't report it to the insurance company and drive around with a dent in the door because it would of have cost $1,300 to repair. They never did offer to fix it.

That happens with mormons, catholics, atheists, politicians, anarchists, and 13 year-olds; if it serves someone's purpose, black is black, or black is white.

That's part of the annoying practice of TBM's taking any disaster that happens to another TBM and say it's a "test of faith", but if the exact same disaster happens to an ex-, then it's because of a "lack of faith."

And so on...

It's particularly irritating when it's cloaked in an aura of religious correctness and infallibility. I call it my mother inature laws "darts of righteousness".