This, according to Gerritt Gong from LDS GC April, 2021, is the state of more than half of the church population, consisting of unmarrieds, single and divorced.

Gong then continues and states the following, and I quote, "Our standing before the Lord in this church is not a matter of our marital status but of our becoming faithful and valiant diciples of Jesus Christ".

These thoughts were discussed by a commentor who called them "revolutionary" because of the impact they could have on a church where there the only way traditionally to the highest spot in the celestial kingdom to dwell with gawd and your family was by being sealed in the Holy Temple in marriage. Here you pledge your very life, promising to following the extremely sacred covenants "bestowed" upon you.

Kind of interesting.....any thoughts?

Are the perhaps doing C Y A ?

I am a widdower and since becoming one 4 years ago I have not been invited to speak.
No that it reqally matters

It probably reflects on their leadership shortage. Possibly paves the way for allowing widowed men (and, after a time, divorced men) to be called in the future as bishops, or not being released if already in the office. Because right now, of course, standing in the church is all about marital status.

Then the church will have yet another issue to gaslight.

If you want to present a Solid Gold exterior to the Gentile world, you can't allow tawdry single men or divorced men to be visible in leadership roles.

After all, there are no single men in the Members-Only section of the Celestial Kingdom!

I'm surprised that there are no mormon scriptures condemning 'professional' Single Men!

Yes, "...tawdry single men or divorced men...visible in leadership roles," do not meet the criteria for upstanding mormon men and, of course, good Gawd, not women either as their leadership in said church is ONLY allowed in LDS homes.

Makes me wonder if this lesser apostle's talk just slipped through the censorship snares, falling through the cracks with whose head rolling after? I mean daring to say that the members "standing before the Lord in His church is not a matter of our marital status but of our becoming faithful and valiant..."!!!

Single and divorced men in the LDS church, however, are far better off than single and/or divorced women, who have it very rough. At a local level, many such women are considered problematic, and told they are to blame.

YES and YES the women do indeed have it rough and so carry the blame. Treated with this stigma, both subtly and overtly, it virtually makes them outliers in their own religion and then fills them with shame, guilt and self-loathing, plus no self-understanding or compassion which they desperately need and deserve.

My mom is an example of this....she was born in 1910, a member of the LDS church, married a man 18 years older than herself who had two daughters from his first wife who died of cancer, and then went on to have six other children. Her journey ahead, I'm sure, she would never have guessed or chosen. Alcoholism ravaged my dad while my mom's life was ravaged with co-dependency.

She was forced by her two brothers to face reality, to leave the alcoholic and attempt to survive as a single, uneducated mom. She never did the big no-no of the time, DIVORCE the man.

Also, what she did was stoically bottle-up any feelings she had about the whole situation in stone silence for the remainder of her life. She "put her shoulder to the wheel", as I think she learned in LDS Primary, pushing and pulling forward and onward, smiling very little, filled with shame, guilt, very low self-esteem and, I know, anger which she would never voice or even dare allude to.

After leaving her husband and relocating, she never even set foot into her church because, I think, she knew what her standing would be and, I also think, she could not bear the stigma.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2021 05:06PM by presleynfactsrock.

I am now single
I intend to stay that way
If I meet a woman and enjoy cunnubial bliss with her that is nobody's business but ours.