I am re-posting this message once given by Simon Southerton, probably about 2010 or so; I can no longer vouch for the date, but I re-posted it the first time back in 2011. It perfectly describes how the need by LDS leadership to assert and maintain control has taken on a life of its own, causing extreme pettiness. LDS leaders also don't seem to see what the long-term consequences are of this behaviour. Read and weep:

"I just had a call from a friend of mine, a former Bishop, whose last day at church was Easter Sunday. He didn’t need a motive to stop attending, because he already knew the church is a fraud. He just hadn’t picked a day to stop going. He decided on Easter Sunday that he had just attended church for the last time. This is what he witnessed in his last Sacrament Meeting.

An old lady nervously got up to talk and blue-tacked a picture appropriate to her talk to the front of the podium. She then commenced to give an excellent talk. Ten minutes into her address, a counselor in the Stake Presidency behind her who was visiting the ward stood up and removed the picture. He then took the microphone and announced that he had been prompted by the Spirit to remove the picture as it had been revealed that visual aids were not to be used in Sacrament Meetings.

"My friend’s wife stood up and walked out, closely followed by her husband. They were livid, and were soon joined by a dozen other members who had also walked out. It wasn’t long before the elderly lady walked out in tears and left the building. My friends ran after her to comfort her. She told them that it had been 5 years since she had given a talk and she had been worried that she would make a mistake. I am sure they reassured her.

"After the meeting my friends had words with the SP member and he defended his actions, explaining the church policy. My friends had a relative from England visiting them, who is extremely TBM. She told him to his face that in all her years in the church she had never witnessed anything as despicable as his behavior.

"I am still struggling to come to terms with the depravity of it all. How can someone be so ruthlessly callous, yet think they are doing exactly what God wants done. They can I guess because they belong to a cult. With people of this caliber in a Stake Presidency the cult must be in deep trouble.

"Next Sunday my friend will get up at the same time, stroll down the street and buy his first Sunday paper. After a relaxed breakfast of bacon and eggs he will sit down on his front porch and read it from cover to cover. And he will be the happiest man alive. "



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2017 09:30AM by cludgie.

cludgie Wrote:
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> How can someone be so
> ruthlessly callous, yet think they are doing
> exactly what God wants done. They can I guess
> because they belong to a cult.

Sure, because they belong to a cult.
Or not.

History is littered with millions and millions of callous, ruthless people fully believing they are doing what "god" wants done. They insult (like here) others needlessly. They pass laws to prevent anyone doing what they think "god" dislikes. They rampage and pillage and rape and murder and war because they think "god" hates the people they're doing those things to. And the people doing all that aren't just from "cults," unless you take the actual meaning of the word, where all religions are "cults."

When 12 year-olds are told they were given magical superpowers 'because they are special' (i.e., born with a penis) powers that come with an automatic authority that does not have to be earned, or sacrificed for - one of two things happen.

Many people doubt themselves and feel like frauds - a lot of them end up here.

But, a particular subset - believe they really have special powers and as such, never question the thoughts, impulses that come into their heads. That is translated into the 'promptings of the spirit' bullsh!t that you see here.

...and this is a good example of what is so f'ed up about the Mormon cult. They guilt people like this humble grandmother to give talks in front of a congregation, and then when they violate an unknown policy - they publicly humiliate and embarrass you. This reminds me of two events in my 40 years in that bottom feeding cult:

1) Xmas Sunday and the primary sang their hearts out after weeks of practice. The asshat bishop stood up and said for his closing remarks, "Brothers and sisters, I have enjoyed the program today by the primary, but I noticed there were some I the primary who were not reverent, and their teachers did not inspire them to correct their behavior. The program would have been better if we all would have been reverant throughout on this most sacred occasion." I and others sat there in utter disbelief. Our mouths just dropped wide open - it was unbelievable. Mormons know how to ruin happy times for perceived rule breaking. The problem is, besides the fact that asshats like this bishop who tend to ruin happy moments - is that there are so many rules AND IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO FOLLOW THEIR STUPID RULES.

2) I was a new bishopric member. I had a list of 10 or 12 callings that I had to read out for a sustaining or opposing vote. I believe I forgot to ask for the opposing vote on one of them. A high councilman in the audience stood up, walked to the pulmit, placed his hand over the mic, and proudly proclaimed that he felt inspired by the spirit to correct me, "The church has a set way of doing things...it may seem minor, but the spirit has asked me to ask for an opposing vote for calling number 8..so and so...I apologize if I have embarrassed this good brother, but the Lords church is a house of order. I left the church a few months later.

Mormonism is it's own worst enemy.


2)

Or anyone else who let's them get away with it.

The phrase "prompted by the spirit" is the way Mormons justify their inappropriate and offensive actions. Saying, "God made me do it," means the same thing. Flip Wilson was more believable when he said, "The Devil made me do it."

Being "prompted" is also a way to not take any responsibility for you behavior. A bishop could give you the absolute worst directive, but no matter how badly following his counsel turns out, he is off the hook because it wasn't him, it was the "spirit."

"Promptings" given "by the Lord" to a bishop in the Annapolis Stake once cause a husband and wife to separate, then divorce. To keep the ex-wife active, they had to move the ex-husband out of the ward, where he became one of my high priests. The bishop never had to take any responsibility, because "promptings."

We were 17, and our YM/YW activity had just ended. The chapel was empty, and the grand piano was just sitting there, begging to be played. My friends asked me to play and I played the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, because it was legato, and I played it quietly, drifting into a reverie. I had worked long hours on that piece.

Suddenly, the keyboard cover came crashing down onto my hands. Luckily, I pulled my fingers away in time. It was the bishop's counselor, yelling at us that we were in "The House of The Lord," and we were "being disrespectful to God" and "making a racket." We were stunned. I stood up, gave him a cold stare, and said, "This is BEETHOVEN."

I should have known what it was going to be like, being a ward organist and pianist for years and years. When the cult proclaimed that only Mormon hymns and Mormon-composed music be played in church, the music died. I quit my callings, and left the cult shortly after that, for other reasons.

To me, (...and I know that there will be some who disagree,) the essence of Jesus's teachings, and therefore the essence of Christianity, is found in the qualities of kindness, forgiveness, humility, tolerance, and charity. In the end, this is why people follow Jesus. His teachings represent the best of humanity.

I think that everything in Christianity can be measured by these standards. Humiliating an old woman in front of her ward fails these fundamental Christian standards miserably.

This reminds me what happened to my 18 year old son when he was 12 (a deacon) and Sacrament meeting was about to start. He was sitting, with a tie on and full suit, with the other deacons waiting for the meeting to start. He had spiked his bangs with gel, as kids often do at that age. The bishop got up from his seat, walked down to my son, and informed that he could not pass the sacrament with his hair like that. He came running back to where we were seated in tears and extremely upset. He said to his mom that the bishop made him feel unworthy to pass the sacrament despite the fact that he was wearing a full suit and tie. Needless to say, he discontinued attending church his junior year of HS and has told us that he does not believe in the church.

Unbelievable.

At this point I think you should send the bishop a note reminding him of the incident and thank him for getting your son out of the church?

When I became a Teacher, I did what many of us did, which was to not wear a tie so we couldn't be asked to pass Sacrament. But one time I was asked anyway, maybe they were really short on people or the person asking didn't realize I had no tie or didn't care.

Partway through passing, an older kid tapped me on the shoulder and said his father had told him to relieve me since I wasn't wearing a tie. I slunk back to my seat, utterly mortified and spent the rest of the meeting wishing I could disappear.

Well of course, because failure to adhere to arbitrary, based on 17th century fashion trends about what to wear around your neck clearly make you a horrible, unworthy person.

Not.