Does this word bother anyone besides me? Brethren just makes me cringe of phony male crap.
TBM men are supposed to be so manly.... give me a break. The brethren are a bunch of pussies. They can control women who let themselves be controlled due to being conditioned for it since they were in diapers. It really sucks.

There is nothing manly or macho about white long sleeved shirts with garmies under them. I'd rather see a man in a full dress ensemble [drag queen style] then see him in the TBM uniform. At least a drag queen has the GUTS to not dress like every other cookie cutter guy in the EVIL CULT.

The the penises are BRETHREN, what are the women, SISTREN?
Cistern is the closest but it is a container to hold water. Women are so lowly on the rungs of the EVIL CULT, they don't even have a collective name. Nothing like BRETHREN for the women.

I think TBM females who refuse to quit the EVIL CULT should at least call themselves FREE-OF-MALES. When someone mentions that the "BRETHREN HAVE SPOKEN," the Free-of males can simply say "Who gives a crap?"

When I was going through some major shit with the sp, I wrote a letter the the "brethren". In that letter I addressed them as "Dear Sirs". My thinking being that I had no clue who or what was going to be reading my letter.

Naturally the letter got sent back to the sp. He went off the deep end by actually raising his voice to me and telling me I was being DISRESPECTFUL! Oh no, buddy, I wasn't going to take that.

I asked him if he'd ever went to college. "NO". Had he ever taken any classes in how to write a business letter? "NO".

Well then Mr. sp, why do you assume you can tell me the proper way to write a letter to a group of men i've never met???

Crickets.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2016 02:08AM by madalice.

Good conversation. Glad you educated your SP on writing protocol. Mormons repeat what they hear and most of the time it's opinion or bad information. Off the topic of brethren, but on topic of "respect", it bothers me that Mormons think 'thee' and 'thou' is giving respect to God/Heavenly Father. Thee/thou is familiar and shows that you are speaking to a close friend or in this case your dad. It has nothing to do with respect and I had always thought so (as taught in my church meetings) until I learned differently in a language class in college.

to me that there was a screw loose up there somewhere.

As a multiple-language/linguistics major at university, I understood very well about how multiple forms of the word for "you" indicate either closeness (family, friends) or formality and respect (superiors at work, people you have just met.)

And I knew that "thee" and "thou" were in the same category as the Spanish "tú" or the German "Du."

So when my mishies tried to tell me that "thee and thou" were meant to show respect, especially in prayer, I asked, "Did either of you ever study a foreign language in school?" They hadn't. So I decided to spare them a linguistics lesson . If they had not been taught to use different forms of "you" in everyday conversation, none of this would really mean anything to them.

In the following years, when I asked the same questions of adults who had served missions in countries where there are two distinct forms of "you," and they understood the difference, they knew perfectly well that I was right, but always fell back on "Well, the church teaches that. . ." And there went the argument.

As I was tumbling into apostasy, I began teasing people by referring to "the brethren and the cistern," with a perfectly straight face. Most of them didn't react at all. A few, who clearly knew that I was being irreverent, would give me sharp looks, but nobody said anything.

They've been told not to question, and like good little sheeple, they don't. How very sad. They only use their brains to fill their cranial cavities.

Dave ta - thanks for the great laugh! Great cartoon...just what I needed to see tonight.....

I can always count on the people on here to cheer me up, make me feel better and provide a lol experience. Thanks

When I say the word, brethren, it is used as a pejorative. And, I can't stand being called brother--I've been known to snap, "I am not your brother!"

Okay, you've got me started! How about calling 18 year olds, elder? And patriarch, pull---eeze!! But my favorite of all times is "ye elders of Israel!" The elderly sister's secret Boner.

Me too!! TBM's have no answer to the "You're not my brother" rant.

RB

I always hated the term "brotheren", and "brother".
The real skin crawler was when one of the "brotheren" would come up alongside me and put his wrinkley old hand on my shoulder and squeeze, while asking how I was doing. Ugh!!! I hated that.
I always considered that a condescending gesture, or at least it felt that way to me.

I always HATED being called Brother Burr. Luckily I quit attending church a month or two after being ordained an elder. My Catholic wife was called Sister Burr once and she came close to having a nuclear meltdown!

RB

All of my kid's friends called my husband and I "brother sunny" or "sister sunny". We figured they didn't know any better - it was just how you addressed adults (fortunately, their parents never called us by anything other than our actual names). I did get a chuckle one day when one of my daughter's friends was really "sistering" me to death. I told her "That's sister Mary Sunny to you!!" (We're Catholic).

She didn't say anything at all for about a half hour while she tried to work that one out.

Hell yes and I won't use it except in jest or slight.

Once you leave the cult "The Brethren" just sounds wrong. It's like hearing "Praise to the Man." Can't sing it. Can't stand to hear it sung.

I like the word "brother" and use it with people I am close to (whether they be LDS or not), but "brother and sister so-and so" also sounds bizarre now.

I think that a documentary similar to "Going Clear" needs to be made about Mormonism. The best title:

"THE BRETHREN"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2016 08:55AM by Doubting Thomas.

Yep, it surely does bother me.

However. when I think of the term I imagine that the l5 elite really don't like this name, certain that it does not capture the awe they deserve, and would rather people call them by a name that REALLY declares who they are.....

Such as: YOUR MARVELOUS LEADERS

(and then, standing up, raise your hand straight up in the air briskly saluting)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2016 04:52PM by presleynfactsrock.

No. Although the thought that some women are turned on by a picture of Elder Bednar kinda freaks me out.

Sound like another coraling term?

If you're not 'brother so-and-so', you must be 'sister so-and-so'.

Brethren is just another term Mormonism is/ has/ is trying to misappropriate, hijack or co-opt.

It is to confuse the men, as much as the women, and the unsuspecting public, media, (sleepy) "investigators", etc.

"Sistern:"

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/what-is-the-female-equivalent-of-brethren

I use it at my Baptist church in prayer and general discourse. Nobody has objected or misunderstood, and people have responded positively.

Spelling it correctly helps me to deal with it.

BreathUrine, much more correct in reference to MORmON leadership