I say chosen, because things like being in a North Korean labor camp would be worse (though debatable).

I Was thinking about a former missionary companion today. He is a full time seminary teacher in Utah. So for 8 hours a day x 5 days a week, he's basically teaching Sunday school to a bunch of teenagers. Most of whom are only there to please their parents.

Then on top of that, he got called into a Bishopric. So 2-3 nights a week, I'm sure he's busy with that.

Then of course there are the Saturday obligations like officiating at baptisms or helping out with primary activities. Of course Sunday he's basically working a full workday for free for the Church with all the meetings and obligations.

On the home front, I'm sure he is super regular with Family Home Evening, scripture reading, prayers etc.

So basically, the majority of his waking hours are spent in white shirt and tie, dealing with Church stuff.

Because of his profession, I'm sure he gets paid peanuts, and then donates 10% back to his employer. He wouldn't dare not to, because then he would lose his temple recommend and then job.

I can't think of a lifestyle I would choose that would be worse.

I'm sure the life of a cloistered nun is far worse.

No money.
No control over your own life.
Bossed around by priests.
Possibly unable to leave the facility.
Not even the possibility of sex or children.
Required to live in spartan circumstances performing mind-numbing rituals.

Yes, there are things worse than the life of a Mormon seminary teacher.

Sound of Music didn't look so bad.

"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

"Climb Every Mountain!"

No control over your own life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp#Marriage

Reality is not like the movies.

East Coast Exmo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Reality is not like the movies.

Darn.

But I do remember my favorite things and don't feel so bad.

Love attending Sing along Sound of Music in The Castro, SF!

Sorry, paulk to derail your thread. I agree with you: that guy's life is hell. A cage of his own making but still.

Hell on Earth.

It all sounds positively miserable to me.

However, people are funny. Only he could answer the question of whether he is miserable or content.

In any case, he did choose this path, and whether he recognizes it or not, he could choose a different path. That path may or may not also be miserable.

But he's gonna have his own *planet*! Eternal progression!

Then he gets to present his own spirit kids with *his* plan for their advancement… oh wait, it's the same effing plan everywhere. What imagination!

And it gets better! He has to toss a third of his kids into the street because they don't like the plan.

Wait, there's more! He punishes the fence-sitters (with, oh… black skin?) because that's what's been done on other worlds, and even god has to follow the prescribed program.

Never mind. Yeah, miserable.

If he's waiting on inheritance, that's all the motivation I need to know. I've known many Mormons like that, some in my own family. They can't let go of the money. Trained monkeys acting obedient for bananas.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2017 10:17PM by donbagley.

I dated a guy at Ricks college whose goal was to be a seminary teacher. He also wanted to have lots of kids. It sounded like a lifetime of scrimping, saving, living paycheck to paycheck, and me, the poor wife, having a lifetime of childrearing on a shoestring budget without anything left over for anything nice. Sounded like hell to me and I ditched him.

I know people who love "serving" in the church. I think they orgasm at the thought of spending their time in endless church meetings and wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they stopped going to church. Their world would come to an end.

Swiss miss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I know people who love "serving" in the church. I
> think they orgasm at the thought of spending their
> time in endless church meetings and wouldn't know
> what to do with themselves if they stopped going
> to church.


Quote of the day! LOL!

I thought about the nun lifestyle. Yes that would and could be more awful. But I bet a seminary teacher has a more stressful life. They have to have 4-6 kids on very little money, plus be gone doing church stuff all the time.

Plus you can't tell those little darlings to sit down and shut up or mommy n daddy will work themselves into a snit!

When they moved in, they were inactive. It was after I went inactive, that they returned to church. He went to school and started teaching seminary. He had worked a factory job before that. Then he was called to be bishop. Now he is on stake high council.

We live in a lower middle class income neighborhood--not like they have a big house or anything, but they just remodeled it completely, top to bottom. They went to pick up their daughter from her mission. They just went to the mission where their son returned from a year ago. Now their youngest daughter is leaving on a mission.

I live in an interesting neighborhood in that there are not a lot of extreme fake TBMs. There are those few. Most of the bishops I have liked and if I tell them to leave me alone, they do.

I really don't get, though, how the above family can change so much after being inactive when they moved in.

How do you know his life is miserable?

Aren't you projecting your thoughts and feelings onto him?

I doubt he'd volunteer to spend a lifetime being miserable. He does have a choice, same as others, to exit if things are so bad.

Likewise, how do you know he's not happy?

I have two TBM brothers who'd be lost without the church. It's their compass and security blanket rolled into one. They'd be miserable if they left.

They believe themselves to be happy, and know of no other way they could get that outside the cult. To them it's not a cult but the everlasting only truth upon the earth, and they're prepping to be gods doncha know? What other church gives that 'assurance?'

Good point, de-clawed cats can't be released into the wild.

Obviously TBMs get something out of it, even though they're being used. They even buy into Brigham's twisted logic about exploitation being necessary for salvation. I think people want to do good. That's why exmos are so angry, because when they thought they were doing good, they were doing anything but.

Service is actually a good thing. TSCC sucks at it, though. The modern world is too complex for a lay clergy. It's pretty easy to find an organization that can use your time and talents more effectively than TSCC. That goes double for Briggy's busy work.

"Aren't you projecting your thoughts and feelings onto him?"

And he also enjoys running a cheese grater over his testicles. Who am I to argue?

New Guinean life
- Women cut off their clitoris' and
- Cannabalism that later leads to neuro-degenerative diseases.