I live and work in a town where a high percentage of people work for "The Church". Their livelihoods depend on 2 things: being able to teach (and be able to teach with the spirit, regardless of the topic) and "have a temple recommend". If they lose their recommends they lose their jobs.

So I am thinking that there are a fairly high percentage of dudes and dudettes that work for this institution that keep a lot of their "inappropriate" behaviors under hat.

Can you imagine the next job interview?

"Please tell us how you lost your last job?"

"I told my bishop I masterbate like a wild banshee?"

"Pardon?"


Losing your means of supporting your family for watching porn? That is Christ like love.

It seems to me it would almost promote dishonesty.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2011 10:11PM by tensolator.

"Please tell us how you lost your last job."

"I drink coffee alone and with my spouse as well."







N E X T!!!!

recommend interview. After missing my cousin's wedding I wasn't about to miss my good friend's wedding and lied my ass off to get a new recommend. I felt bad for about 3 mins.

I resent it to this day.

When my son and his fiancee announced that they were getting married in the temple, I thought about various family members and decided, for reasons I won't go into, that I was the only one who had a shot at getting a recommend, despite the fact that I no longer believed.

So for several months, I attended my meetings faithfully, paid every penny of my tithing (resentfully) and managed to lie my way through the TR interviews. So much for priesthood discernment.

I got my TR, attended my son's wedding (the only member from our family to do so) and ran the recommend through the shredder as soon as I got home.

You shouldn't have to lie to attend the weddings of your children!!!

Just for future reference, you do not have to pay tithing. If you are lying about everything else, just tell them you send it straight to Salt Lake because what you make is no ones business.

Your bishop can't do anything but say OK.

All this lying makes me wonder about the real amount of "discernment" the Bish and Stake Pres have as the mantle of authority is placed upon them.

It's all superstitious non-sense in the heads of the arrogant annointed.

My wife was called to the keeper of a table cloth they used in Relief Society. I guess it must have been magic or something. When she was called the Bishop assured her that "we have prayed about this and the Lord has called you."

It made my wife feel bad - not good - no Holy Ghost here - just Holy _ _ _ _

From what I'm learning a large number of the members are lying to keep their recommends. I have learned over the last few years that just about everyone of my friends lied about M* when they were single and many are still lying about it now after they are married.

about social white lies or about lying to bureaucrats to get things done.

I'm pretty sure I learned it by practicing with priesthood leaders.

If you ask me something that is none of your business, I'll lie if that's easier than making a scene. Funny how that seldom happens since I left.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2011 01:09AM by Heresy.

I know of a number of couples who weren't exactly obeying the law of chastity when t hey got married in the temple. I also know and older couple who are temple workers. Both are extremely addicted to Oxycotin to the point of losing their home. I guess that is okay because it isn't specifically mentioned in the WofW.

Who the Hell wants to go to the temple anyway? Why lie about it? To get in? Like I said, why would anyone want to go in? To see the "secret rituals"? Yes you can hum the twilight zone theme music here. The upside down star on the outside is enough to keep me out forever, thanks anyway!

No one wants to see that crap. What sucks is when your best friend/child/niece/whatever, is getting married there and they will be heartbroken if you can't attend.

That's why I lied. And played the game. I confused belief with obsession with social life. I really wanted to see it.

Do I feel stupid now? Why, yes. I do.

I'm uncomfortable with lying and I am horrible at it to boot. But I was raised in a home with practically no rules - get good grades and call if you won't be coming home. So I never had to lie about anything really.

My Mormon friends, OMG,they had lying down pat. They lied to their parents, they lied to their leaders. They lied about stuff I didn't feel like someone would even need to lie about.

So yeah, I think in a religion where your worthiness is always on display and
especially if your job is on the line, I think that's a breeding ground for lying.

Gordon B Hinkley's temple recommend interview with his Bishop:

'So, Gordon, erm I mean President, are you honest in all your dealings with your fellow man'

'Yes Bishop'

'Come on Gordo, erm I mean Prophet, what about that whole God was once a man thing?'

'I don't know that I said that, I don't know that I emphasised that...But I do have a paid employment position for you in the C.O.B...'

'Good enough for me El Presidente'


<signs recommend>

And they force others to lie for them.

A young man I know was raised in a home with a physically abusive father who picked on this boy in particular. When the older sister left home, she reported the abuse to the bishop who called the young man in for an interview. He prefaced the interview with: "If I find out that your sister's allegations are true, then I will have to take away your father's TR and he will lose his job at BYU. What do you have to tell me?"

What did he expect a fifteen year old kid to say? Of course, he lied to protect his mom and siblings from economic destitution he thought would result if he didn't.

When the new barcoded temple recommends were coming out we all had to get them replaced.

By this time, my Bishop and I had had discussions about the chruch for about 4 months and he knew that I had a broken testimony, and I had already passed up a calling for High Priest Group Leader because of it. We had been the rounds.

Well, the interview was weirtd. He asked me if I hads a test monkey of the restoration and I faltered and so he rewrded it to ask if I believed that God was working through men, or something. anyway, he specifically asked prophet and sustaining and restoration questions in such a way that I could say yes.

Most of me wanted to just say no, I don't need one anymore, but my wife did not know about my loss of faith so I went along. And I know that the goal of the Bishop was to get me back on my feet by giving me the ultimate show of trust, and at that time I still wanted the church to be true. I appreciated his effort.

BUT because of this, when I went to the Stake President a month later and I say in his office and we chatted for a few minutes I could tell that he had no clue. I lied through my teeth and answered all of the questions to his satisfaction, just as was expected of me. Again, my wife was sitting in the next room waiting and would not find out for another two months.

I never did use it, but when the Stake President didn't even suspect that he was interviewng a person who was at the point of madness and only weeks away from apostasy, I lost all respect for him. And I didn't really feel bad for lying to him. In fact, it was kinda funny.

No doubt about it, the temple recommend process promotes fudging. I learned that lesson as a youth. I had some friends who were better liars than me. They lied about having sex with their girlfriends and went on missions. I admitted to much less minor things and the SP gave me a hard time. I learned that it is better to lie in the church than go through all the effort and hassle to repent and keep to an impossible standard.

I was not as lucky as you. I didn't learn about all the lying until just a few years ago, and I went through hell always confessing everything and being told I wasn't worthy or I didn't deserve to be dating the women in the Church. Come to find out years later everyone of my friends was lying. Also, many of the guys in the MTC were lying, and the singles ward was no different.

I was raised by an angry and violent father. I remember him slapping me one time because he saw me crying when he left my brother's room (where he'd been slamming him into walls). I was practically a pathological liar. It didn't matter whether it would get me in trouble or not, my instinct was to lie. It took me years after I turned 18 to break that habit and I'm just glad I was able to realize it was a habit that needed breaking. Sounds like the Mormon Church is a lot like my father.

Other religions accept that some members of the congregation believe less of it than others, and that's okay. But everyone in Mormonism is expected to believe 100%. Anyone who openly says otherwise is a pariah contaminating the pool of righteousness, who needs to be fixed or avoided. So there are a lot of Mormons faking it every day, in small ways and large, maintaining the facade.

I sometimes look at the people in my ward and think that everyone must be good Mormons, but then I find out that we have like a 20% Visiting Teaching ratio and I'm like "...anyone else want out like me too?"