attending weddings?

It's ironic that that the Mormon Church has a reputation for being family oriented yet does this.

I never heard of it before I learned about Mormonism. My own nevermo family would consider it unacceptable and unbearably rude to be excluded from a loved one's wedding due to matters of faith. And I would never dream of inflicting that on them.

Most Mormons don't know that the origin of only allowing "worthy" members into the temple is that the Church was keeping plural marriage secret. The secret part stayed after plural marriage was stopped, and it actually became a great way to keep the tithing rolling in.

No Tithing = No Temple

And as I pointed out recently, people you wouldn't want at your wedding can seat themselves in your sealing room to watch... How weird is that?

nailed it !

Never. If anything, you want the fresh meat to come to the wedding so you can sell them on your particular brand of 'love' via the religion.

Can I get a witness?

Can I get an amen up in here?

The beautiful ceremony and wonderful speaking from the pastor/priest/whomever testifies to the superiority of that particular brand of 'love' via religion.

It's a great marketing tool and the LDS church is amiss not use it to their every advantage.

Unless the ceremony is an absolute bummer of all bummers. Then you want to create the hype that it is 'sacred' and too special for plebians and unwashed masses.

Amen! :)

Now it is time to lip sync for your liiiiifffeee!

Catholics aren't supposed to attend weddings in certain circumstances (they have more rules than mormons!), one of which is a same-sex wedding. Another is if you know one (or both) of the people being married was married previously (and divorced, which officially doesn't exist in Catholicism, only annulments).

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/to-attend-or-not-to-attend

An evangelical sect known as "The Exclusive Brethren" has wedding rules similar to mormonism (but without temples):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/exclusivebrethren_1.shtml

Judaism prohibits rabbis from attending ANY "interfaith marriage" (between a Jew and a non-Jew), even if it's a family member (though only "conservative" groups do so):

https://forward.com/opinion/130676/rescind-the-ban-on-attending-interfaith-weddings/

While Hinduism doesn't explicitly forbid attendance, many Hindu families will boycott any marriage between a Hindu relative and a non-Hindu (interestingly, many seem to think it IS officially forbidden, when it's not -- and most of the same people have no problem attending a reception. More odd religious "rules").

There are more, but the bottom line is that yes, mormons are weirder than most -- but not that weird, and many religions have similar (even if not identical) rules about weddings.

ificouldhietokolob: few of those examples are comparable.

"you're not worthy so on that basis alone you're excluded" is pretty unusual.

Hie, even the website that you mention in regard to Catholicism states, "The Church does not explicitly forbid Catholics from attending presumptively invalid marriages." By invalid, they are referring to marriages that are not in conformity with Catholic church law.

My entire family attended my cousin's wedding in a Protestant church. She was divorced and didn't seek a Catholic annulment.

Beyond that, my experience is that trying to tell Catholics what to do is like trying to herd cats. Good luck with that.

(in reply to both)

Yes, it's interesting that most other religion wedding restrictions seem to be based on the un-worthiness of the people getting married, rather than the un-worthiness of the attendees (as in mormonism).

I didn't claim other religions' rules were the same as mormonism. Just pointing out that marriage attendance "rules" are very common in religions, mormons aren't the only ones who have them.

No.

I do know some families that would rather not have certain members attend, and usually they have their reasons :)

But seriously: I don't know a church that forbids family members from attending a wedding.

Scientology, perhaps. Maybe some other cults.

When our oldest daughter was married in temple, our beloved relatives who had flown in from California couldn't be in the sealing room because they were non-members, so they, as well as our other children waited outside in the shade for us. In the meantime, the bishoprick and their wives were in that sealing room to witness the sealing. At the time, I despised those men as well as their wives because of how they had treated my family, but there was pressure that they must be invited to the ceremony.I felt angry and at the same time, I was trying to feel positive because it was our daughter's wedding.

Here's the sad part.

There is NOTHING about the sealing ceremony that is special, customized for bride/groom or memorable.

It is a generic ritual that is forgettable. No flowers, music or recordable memories. No pictures-videos.

Better to have a great wedding in a beautiful setting, with food and music that EVERYBODY can attend.

messygoop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here's the sad part.
>
> There is NOTHING about the sealing ceremony that
> is special, customized for bride/groom or
> memorable.
>
> It is a generic ritual that is forgettable. No
> flowers, music or recordable memories. No
> pictures-videos.
>
> Better to have a great wedding in a beautiful
> setting, with food and music that EVERYBODY can
> attend.

I have never been part of one, but I dont think its supposed to be for entertainment.

logan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have never been part of one, but I dont think
> its supposed to be for entertainment.

The long history of a couple joining together has been a celebration -- not a somber occasion. It's a joyous celebration -- a new family! It's a celebration that involves all the extended family of each of the pair, since each "side" is gaining a new member. It's an anticipatory celebration of potential new offspring that may come to that family later. It's all about extending both families with new members and continuing the family lines and joining the resources of two families and love and joy and more.

None of that is in the mormon temple ceremony. Not one single bit. For a church that supposedly celebrates "families are forever," their "wedding" cuts out all of the family celebration that's in every other culture's marriages. Entertaining or not.

I so agree with this! The ceremony is for the families!

and I agree with messygoop.

Pretty ???? And you can only invite so many people as the rooms aren't all that big. We had the biggest room. I was in a bad frame of mind because of the circumstances when I invited the few I was able to invite and the people I really wanted to be there, even with TRs, could not be there.

The reception was nice. Oh, and getting ready in the bride's room was horrible. The ladies were bitches until my mom walked in. My mom is pretty nondescript in that she is very much antisocial having been raised by 2 deaf parents and she, herself, didn't hear very well. The ladies were being horrible to me and because an adult walked in, then they started treating me better. It was NOT special. Taking pictures outside was much more eventful.

How many "weddings" does a typical temple have? From what I've read it's a mill, where you get scooted in and out and have to take your pictures in front of the temple carefully because of the other wedding parties trying to do the same thing.

The typical Catholic church *might* schedule two on a Saturday, but then again, their parishes are all over the place.

I find it exceedingly rude, but of course am not surprised. My sister-in-law's family was very disappointed and embarrassed when they arrived by car from Calif for the wedding (years ago, in SLC) and were told to wait outside.

But here is my SIL, decades later, following on in the tradition! We are "invited" to participate in the rush to online gift registries, but no mention of attending any ceremony. Oh, registries is plural? Yes, this post is in reference to three offspring being married this summer, not just one.

I think one of the offspring is offering a punch and cookies ring ceremony, but I think we will give it a pass.

I never heard of any other church barring non-member relatives from a wedding. I know the Catholics have liberalized quite a lot, but when I was a kid, they were not allowed to participate in any way in a wedding that was in a non-Catholic church, even if the bride or groom was a close relative, and if you were the bride (or groom), all your wedding party had to be Catholic, too. So when my aunt converted to Catholicism to marry my Uncle John, she couldn't have any of her sisters in her wedding party, although they were welcome to come to the wedding. If she had not converted, and Uncle John had married her anyway, in, say, a Methodist church, none of his relatives could be in the wedding party, and if they went to the wedding, they could not participate in any "ritual." Like--if the minister indicated that all should stand for the entrance of the bride, they would have to remain seated. If there happened to be a place in the ceremony where the minister said something like, "Let us pray," they were not allowed to join in. They could go to the wedding, but not be in any way a part of it. But that has changed--I just don't know how long ago. But even the RCs were never so mean as to bar family from being in attendance when a daughter or son was married. I feel for all y'all who had to stand outside when a loved one was being married. Hugs to you. :(

>>I know the Catholics have liberalized quite a lot, but when I was a kid, they were not allowed to participate in any way in a wedding that was in a non-Catholic church...

As I explained above, my Catholic cousin married in a Lutheran church when she didn't care to go through a Catholic annulment for her previous marriage. The entire family attended this wedding. It would have been in the 1960s.

A Catholic priest could have potentially denied her communion after this, but my experience is that few do.

My Episcopalian father married my Catholic mother in a Catholic church back in the 1940s. He never converted. I believe that he had to promise to raise any children in the Catholic church, however.

Yep, nothing they do or say ever made sense to me. It's all a doubletalk, doublebind, double mindscrew.