I converted to the Church at 18. While I enjoyed the Sacrament hymns, it went down from there. I found 97% of Sacrament talks boring and/or incomprehensible. I found Sunday School a "little" more interesting, but not much. At least we could ask question, and get the same people giving their own opinion. Priesthood meeting was the MOST BORING. Same questions. Same things said over and over again:

*Do you home teaching.
*Follow the Prophets.
*Be an example to your wife and children.
*Pay your tithing.
*Do all that and you'll be blessed.

Every talk. Every lesson. Same question. Same people answering in the same way.

How did YOU deal with it? Dd you space out and think of other things? How???

How I dealt with it was I stopped going! You couldn't bribe me into an adult class by the end!

I have many memories of sitting in Sac. Meeting watching the
clock and filling the time by calculating exactly what fraction
of the time was left. 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc.

That five minute countdown was exasperating when some long winded speaker decided to go over the time limit lol.

What? Some one else also did the mathematical countdown? I thought I was the only one!

I've always done math, to calm myself down, when I have PTSD flashbacks and anxiety attacks--but I never made the connection until now.

I guess I can deduce that church was doing something awful to me, for me to need to do math in my head.

TSCC has to be true - Satan would not make his Church so boring or did he?

What you saying Arnold?

If meetings last more than 4 hours see a doctor immediately.

Try sitting through meetings in a foreign language you cannot understand! Even speaking it passably, at church the topics and vocabulary and meaning of comments can go right over your head.

Same with me: all the meetings in my stake are in Spanish. I'm up to about a lower-intermediate level but much of what was discussed (especially in the priesthood meetings) was just incomprehensible.

You said you lived in Europe. Are you at liberty to say?

First in German-speaking Switzerland, now France.

What a lucky you. At least it ain't Albania.

Hell, yes!

Most of the new converts in our ward are from Albania, some fleeing the mafia.

There was no intelligent discourse at the grownup meetings. Asking a thought provoking question or comment is met with glazed over blank stares. It went beyond boring last time I went before stopping for good.

As a child if it was boring, perhaps that helps explain in part why I wasn't participating much by time I'd reached adolescence. I probably knew something was off but hadn't figured it out yet for myself, ie, the scam it all was.

I would stay for F/T meeting and bolt out the door before anyone could stop me, no lie!!! Just thinking about going to adult class and relief society after that would give me hives!!!

Not even so much the topics as the whole tone in which they are delivered, in the most monotonous and bland way possible. That contributes more than anything to the tedium of the whole affair.

They might just as well come out and say "no tithing, no temple for you!"

It's all quite unutterably tedious.

Like many others here, I was also bored with church. The same cliche's over and over; our loving Father in Heaven, bless those who can't be here this week will be here next week, my brothers and sisters, stand blameless before gawd, blessings poured out, pleasing to our Father in Heaven, blah blah blah.

About the only interesting talks were about the second coming when Jesus would return and all of this madness would end. Yeah, I wanted that to happen RIGHT FREAKING NOW. I wanted it to happen before tomorrow morning when I would have to go to work again. I wanted it to happen before the 15th when my house payment was due again. I oh so wanted Jesus to sound his horn as he rode his chariot of fire across the sky. I knew I would burn like stubble in the field, but I didn't care, just bring it Jesus!

Church was boring as hell, all of the meetings, especially priesthood meetings. The teacher was teaching because he was assigned to teach and hated being there as much as the rest of us. I would use my watch and see how long I could hold my breath.

I hated lugging around 15 pounds of scriptures that I rarely ever even looked at. But I had them because I was told to always have my scriptures with me. Jesus. And when the church updated their quad's I had to purchase the newer versions too. That meant more $$$ to Deseret Books.

About the only part I enjoyed was the prelude music and a few hymns. I learned to come early so I could claim the back bench, my favorite spot, and hopefully listen to the organ as it soothed the savage beast within. There was a chance however, with coming early, a bishoprick member will be looking for prayer givers and sometimes I had to abandon my seat to avoid him.

I pretty much hated every minute of it.

But teaching primary was worse than anything else I ever had to do on Sundays. Babysitting kids. I had my own kids to babysit all week. It was easier to just sit and think and ignore the lesson than it was to go to primary.

SO GLAD I don't have to do that anymore. It has been over 20 years since I was active.

As I contemplate going back to bed and watching something on TV that I want to watch, taking the dogs for a walk, and even working for 8 hours is preferable to the boredom of church.

It wasn't just us who were bored and zoned out. I distinctly remember a gospel doctrine teacher asking a question and not ONE person offered an answer. After an awkward silence, the teacher, clearly exasperated said "come on brothers and sisters, you know this. You're mormons". At that, we all burst out laughing.

with a little bit o' luck
with a little bit o' luck
You can suffer through
although you're bored!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2017 11:47AM by desertman.

The only bright spot on a Sunday morning was seeing my Mormon pals and planning our escape to go joy riding during SS.

The only thing I liked about church was the little bit of social interaction that took place between the meetings. I only stayed engaged when I was the one giving the lesson. One little boy told me that he stays well behaved in sacrament meeting by counting things like how many people have their eyes closed, or how many people are playing with their smart phones. You might try doing some census taking like that and report back to us.

If you ever want to go to a Church where people have a good time, go to a Black Pentecostal Church. People are jumping, dancing, shouting. Man...I've NEVER been so happy to jump around like that. They sure look happy. They remind me of a dog I used to have named Mr. Honey Bunch Bunzz. I'd say "You wanna go peepee poopoo?" (for a walk), and he'd back and jump and shout and run around...HAPPY as HAPPY can get. I could never get that happy about anything. If Taylor Swift told me she was going to marry me, I couldn't get THAT happy.

The Brethren would do WELL if they did the following:

1) Church 90 minutes per Sunday and NO MORE.
2) 30 minutes of that...Feast...people eating and socializing
3) NO MORE Sacrament talks. DONE with.
4) NO MORE Priesthood talks. You go to Priesthood, and a person asks "Ok, anybody need blessings? Anybody need help? We all good, okay, see you next week."

That way, I'm sure they'd have a much greater activity rate.

I get your point, but comparing the behavior of the black congregation to your dog's behavior is inappropriate. You should change this post by at least removing the word "black." I know that you didn't mean too, but it has racist undertones. Don't believe me? Ask any black person for their opinion.

No, I meant that. I would NEVER compare blacks to my sweet dog. I would compare blacks to blacks, but never to my gentle sweet dog.


Exmoron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I get your point, but comparing the behavior of
> the black congregation to your dog's behavior is
> inappropriate. You should change this post by at
> least removing the word "black." I know that you
> didn't mean too, but it has racist undertones.
> Don't believe me? Ask any black person for their
> opinion.

Not all black people fit into the same stereotype. I asked my black friend if he minded being called black and he said he did not mind at all. He thinks African American is silly since his ancestors have been in the U.S. longer than mine. I have a white friend who was born and raised in Africa and moved to the U.S. and became a U.S. citizen a few years ago. He thinks he should be called African American more than my black friend. So get off your high horse because my white friend truly treasures his African heritage and my black friend thinks of himself as 100% American. He resents being labeled African because of his skin tone.

There's always that one person to take offense... sigh

A bit thin skin heh? Black churches have usually the most fun,jumping around and more!
Since when was this website so
Sensitive? Sounds like TSCC we all are swapping unpleasantness
about constantly

Odds are that the morg would never do any of that....gotta keep it boring!!

I found the Mormon church to be one big hamster wheel. It's all about control. Most of my spiritual experiences never happened at church or had anything to do with the church.

To the point of counting pews or hymnbooks or reciting any rote lists or nonsense rhymes in my mind.

I think one of the first things that really startled me (and should have been a HUGE "lightbulb" moment) was when I realized that the people doing the talking were NOT trained, ordained ministers!

That was shocking! Not even the bishop had ecclesiastical training! How, then, could anyone consider anything he said to be worth hearing??

Would you take a university-level class from some untrained schmuck who doesn't know any more about the subject than you do? Of course not. You expect a professor with special training and experience.

Once I realized that these untrained, garden-variety weepers and snifflers onstage had very little to offer in the way of enlightenment, I started getting restless.

And then I found RfM.

Ever since I realized they were teaching the same things over and over and over... I was a teenager. Then correlation took effect and they started teaching less and less about the same old things. The first time I went to the Gospel Doctrine class, I saw that the adults were totally bored, too. I thought, "Wow, it doesn't get any better."

Boredom and church are synonymous in my lexicon.

Once I learned enough of the church material, it became extremely boring and repetitious. I noticed it never seemed to move forward in the way that other subjects do in school - as if you were expected to attend kindergarten for 70 years straight and condemned if you were dissatisfied.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Brethren "see" the Members as retarded children, and that's how they "teach" us.


Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Once I learned enough of the church material, it
> became extremely boring and repetitious. I noticed
> it never seemed to move forward in the way that
> other subjects do in school - as if you were
> expected to attend kindergarten for 70 years
> straight and condemned if you were dissatisfied.

Over the years, I've visited Sacrament Meetings from time to time. One time, I went to a Sacrament Meeting where there were a pair of Elders I was acquainted with, and they'd brought an investigator with them who was attending his first Mormon service. This was a Ward that was known for being more "liberal" than most, and one of the talks was by a young man who spent his whole talk speaking about his doubts about the Church and its teachings. Afterwards, I spoke with one of the Elders and said to him, "Well, I guess that's not exactly what you hoped your investigator would hear today!"

Yep, bored to death every single week since early childhood. I kinda thought sacrament meeting was the worst because of all the lame talks. Of course F&T was the very worst, with all the sob stories and tiny kids spouting off their rehearsed lines... My parents weren't with me so I could zone out more in Sunday School and Priesthood meetings.

I remember begging my parents to go to church without me as early as 5 or 6 years old. I told them all the time how boring I thought it was. But of course they never listened; they just thought I was being "difficult."

The repetition of order in the meetings is boring. I sat on the stand for years directing music. I had a birds eye view of what everyone was doing to stay awake: knitting, sewing, reading, giving the "eye" to the kids acting up, feeding babies, kids dropping stuff, crawling under pews, people going out and back in several times, teenagers leaving and not coming back, and on and on.And those that were nodding off.

The first time I went to Mormon church I was astounded at how awfully behaved the children are. At a Church of England service, everyone is quiet and respectful except for when we sang hymns, which were by no means as cool and funky as a black pentecostal church's tunes, but were a DAMN sight better than those funeral dirges played in Mormon churches.

THAT IS WHY we're ex-Mormons.

We're people who bore too easy.

Well listening to people constantly lie to you is tedious!

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/01/how-the-brain-responds-to-hearing-lies.html

I am always BORED at "church"

SHORT ANSWER (based on my own observations): Yes, most LDS members are bored with the tedium of their faith system. However, they are so conditioned that their salvation lies in Mormonism that they don’t/won’t/can’t address the issue. They are stuck. I feel empathy for them because Mormonism can’t be a source of inner light and joy as it is taught today.

LONG ANSWER: I joined the LDS church in 1970 when I was 14--no one else in my family joined. I was fortunate to be in an East Coast ward that had some great leaders and an excellent youth program. I was spiritually nourished there as I developed knowledge of LDS teachings.
I did the whole LDS journey: Mutual —> BYU—> Mission —> BYU.

While at BYU the first time, I was very active and enthused about the church. I took some of George W. Pace's classes at BYU and with his approach, I came to the highest level of conversion that I ever had. Pace's approach to the LDS gospel encouraged the individual to come to know Christ in a very real and personal way. In traditional Protestant terminology, Pace encouraged you to "become saved"—in effect, to seek a real spiritual conversion that is entirely distinct from LDS “conversion” based on emotionalism, groupthink, and emphasis on ordinances. What I had was very real and remains a very precious memory.

SIDE NOTE: Pace was on to something very important. Had Bruce McConkie not put the kibosh on Pace and his teachings in 1982, the LDS church would be in a very different—and much stronger—position today. He was on the path of changing how an entire generation of LDS youth would view their relationship with God. They would have gone on to infuse the church with a true spirituality.

On my mission, the lack of spiritual feeding in ward meetings just drained me. It was rare that a speaker said anything new, enlightening, or spiritual. The speakers gave trite, formulaic talks. As my two years in the mission experience progressed, the tedium of sitting through meetings that didn’t nourish became almost unbearable. I heard the same stuff over, and over, and over, and over—ad nauseum. And let’s not even discuss how embarrassing it was when we would have investigators come to church and see for themselves how little the church offered in the way of spiritual growth!

After my mission, I returned to BYU hoping to regain what I had lost, but it was over. I became inactive while at BYU. The first to go was Fast and Testimony meeting. It was truly unbearable to watch the monthly displays of emotionalism (BYU coeds cried A LOT in those days). I gradually began to miss more meetings. Ultimately, I attended about every third Sunday. I started the year with a calling to teach Gospel Doctrine, but I asked to be released after a few months. I was going to the Provo Temple frequently at first, but the repetitiveness of the Endowment Ceremony also became tedious.

The Branch President noticed my inactivity, and assigned a new home teacher to me. I guess they felt I needed some “big guns,” because the new home teacher was one of Boyd Packer’s sons. He was a sincere and very loving person who came to see me numerous times each month—often without his home teaching companion. He demonstrated genuine concern for me.

However, the message I received from him, and others who knew what I was going through, was: “We all experience this. It’s the way it works. We come to a point in the gospel where we are called to be leaders and to teach others. You’ve passed from the period where you find joy in church. Your calling from here on is to serve by helping and strengthening others.”

This made no sense to me. I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my church life with no spiritual nourishment. And I couldn’t imagine trying to lead others when I had no inner spiritual growth going on.

I left BYU after that year, transferring to a university on the East Coast. I made an occasional attempt to regain activity, but the tedium and lack of spiritual nourishment was everywhere and killed each attempt at becoming active again. I finally gave up entirely in about 1982. (Someday, in another post, I will describe the ecclesiastical abuse that I was subjected to during this phase.)

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about what happened to the LDS church and me. It boils down to two things. One was a church-wide phenomenon, and the other was personal.

1. PRIESTHOOD CORRELATION: I joined the church before priesthood correlation was fully implemented. Correlation has been a potent force in stifling spirituality. It has reduced variety, spontaneity, and creativity. As correlation progressed, the interest, fun, and joy of being in the LDS church was extinguished. It has been replaced by a simplistic 4-part message: 1. Obey, 2. Obey, 3. Obey, and 4. Don’t ask questions. To my mind, the boredom that afflicts Mormonism today is rooted in priesthood correlation that fully took force beginning in 1967 and extending into the mid-1970’s.

2. FOWLER FAITH STAGES: I realize now that I was personally moving through the Fowler Faith Stages. At this point, I was transitioning from Stage 3 (Synthetic-Conventional) to Stage 4 (Individuative-Reflective). Mormonism just doesn’t have room for anyone who moves beyond Stage 3. Over the years, I have moved on to Stage 5 (Conjunctive Faith) and I am very comfortable with my current relationship with God. ( http://www.psychologycharts.com/james-fowler-stages-of-faith.html )

It seems unlikely that I will ever fully “recover” from Mormonism--I was in it for on about 14 years. I am out of it 35 years, and I am now 60 years old. Yet, for some reason, Mormonism still impacts my life every day. I'm not really optimistic about a complete recovery! Oh, well. I can live with that.

But, I’m happy and content. Each person’s faith journey is entirely personal, and follows a unique path. I gained some important life lessons from the LDS church. I met some wonderful people who influenced my life in a positive way. I grew up on my mission and gained some self-discipline and other habits that contributed in their own way to whatever professional success I have achieved.

But...Mormonism did not offer a lifelong path for me. Tedium in church is NOT a way to gain “further light and knowledge.”

I'm a no-mo and I genuinely enjoy the 3-hour LDS church services. I especially enjoy asking provocative questions (politely, of course) every now and then in gospel principles and institute.