Plus this one: Why do Home Teachers have Home Teachers?
I'm under the impression because of something I read I don't know where, that as members of different wards, the Big 15 have Home Teachers. Could an organization be more anal?
Is it just that ghawd wants everyone in the church to be asked, once a month, "is there anything we can do for you?"
Well the official stance is that every new member needs three things:
1. A Friend 2. A Calling 3. Nurturing by the good word of god
My take is:
1. A Friend - we need to keep tabs on you (HT fits in this category)
2. A Calling - we need to keep you super busy so you don't have time for anything but the church in your life (HT also fits in this category)
3. Nurturing - constant conditioning to ensure you get into the habit of doing all the mental gymnastics required to keep believing this crap (HT also fits in this category)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2018 07:04PM by corallus.
I always thought that the theory was that if you have a calling, you're less likely to wake up on Sunday morning and say, "To Hell with it, I'm not putting myself through that crap today!"
Please don't be so cynical. These people are doing it for good reasons. They want everybody to feel involved and valued. The HT/VT can actually be a good thing, to give the members a friend on whom they may call if there is a serious need. I think most of the people at the ward level are sincerely trying to put the gospel into action in their daily lives.
Well excuse my cynicism (assuming your note was not tongue in cheek) but my experience has been a little different.
Asking for time each month you could see these families didn't want you there, but felt obligated to let you come by. Then when you did stop by you always felt like you were intruding where you weren't wanted. Then you exchange a few pleasantries, give a message and ask the obligatory "Is there anything we can do for you?" - the answer to which is almost universally "No".
Maybe if the visits were voluntary so you knew the members who wanted visits really did want visits, it might be different. But no....the leadership has to use the HT program like the freaking gestapo and insists on everyone getting visited every month.
It's also a really great way to make priesthood holders feel guilty for something else.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2018 07:36PM by corallus.
My parents’ home teachers in a Murray, Utah, ward visited them for several years. The HT couple were very well off and my retired blue collar parents were flattered and pleased that these wealthy, educated people cared enough to stop by each month.
Of course, the minute the couple was released, the visits stopped. My parents were both slipping into the beginning ravages and horrors of senility, and the end of the visits left them confused.
I, by contrast, was under no illusions whatsoever as to what happened.
Forced friendship ain’t no friendship at all. Both home teachers are dead now. I couldn’t care less.
slskipper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Please don't be so cynical. These people are doing > it for good reasons. They want everybody to feel > involved and valued. The HT/VT can actually be a > good thing, to give the members a friend on whom > they may call if there is a serious need. I think > most of the people at the ward level are sincerely > trying to put the gospel into action in their > daily lives.
This is EXACTLY what my TBM mother has said to me when trying to reactivate me.
My last calling as ward church magazine coordinator was simply to make sure I had a calling. The leaders knew it, I knew it. But, every ward member needed to have a calling to magnify.
So yes, I did push subscriptions to The Friend on the elderly and those feeble in mind.
We present Sister Sally Johnson to be the centerpiece coordinator for the Relief Society. All those who can sustain Sister Johnson in this calling please indicate by the upraised right hand.
Sister Sally, you will rise to your new calling. Sister Jane, who is home now from rehab, will take over your former calling as "hymn book coordinator."
Hymn book coordinator was a calling offered to me, when I was too sick to carry on as organist. The job was to check all the hymn books for graffiti, torn pages, broken spines, papers left inside etc, and to make repairs, if possible. Count the hymn books. Make sure they are evenly place in the holders around the chapel. I said I was too sick to haul books around.
I guess it was several steps above cleaning the toilets
Home Teachers are 2 men who, without warning, bang on your door after 9:30 at night, and keep banging until you finally have to yell through the door that you are not going to answer the door.
Visiting Teachers are 2 women who call you on the last day of every month to tell you that they are too busy and important to visit you, but want you to consider the condescending phone call as an official "visit."
I had a home teacher help me only once. He was a medical doctor. I was extremely sick, when he and his son dropped in, and I told him I was taking two antibiotics for an intestinal infection, and that I felt faint, and was having a hard time breathing. He and his son gave me a blessing, and told me I was fine, and left. I went into convulsions, and my son found me and took me to the ER. I was allergic to both of the antibiotics I was taking, plus the interaction between the two together.
Be wary of who you depend on.
The home teachers used to ask to use my phone, which was in the kitchen. They would inspect my kitchen while talking on the phone--looking for coffee or wine, or something? One asked to use my bathroom, and I could hear him going through my medicine cabinet and drawers. Nothing to see there. Not even birth control. I thought it was funny at the time, but I don't in retrospect.
Home teachers have home teachers because the position is not really intended to teach, it's an excuse to get into every member's home.
If the goal was only to teach that lesson then a home teacher wouldn't need a home teacher because they would already know the lesson if they learned it well enough to teach to others.
The HT position is there to keep tabs on everyone, including those whose duty it is to keep tabs on others.
Home teachers are men who hold the priesthood assigned to families. In many areas, it’s a father and son combo. They are to teach and provide priesthood support for the family. If something were to happen to the family, the priesthood would be there with them.
Visiting teachers are women assigned to women. They are to teach and provide support to “the sisters.” If something were to happen to the sister or her family, the visiting teachers would notify the priesthood.
In practice, both serve to make members toe the line. This never occurred to me until I explained my home teaching assignment to a nevermo aunt. She said to me, “Oh, that sounds like your checking on other members to make sure they don’t stray.” Exactly!
I sneaked by without a calling for a year or so when I was in law school. No time or desire. One day I ended up in the bishop's office--must have been for a recommend. He told me,"You can't be an active member of the church if you don't have a calling."
But then I had a wonderful vt whose husband had gone to night law school. She protected me for a couple of years. I loved her for that. Can't remember how she did it, but she did.
A mormon was pounding on my door today old dog and was yelling through the door telling me who he was. I didn't answer but mormons are scaring the sh#t out of me a little bit with their behavior. I did not even want to entertain a conversation. I feel like i am living in nazi germany with germans pounding on my door and yelling through the door. I can not deal with these programmed robots anymore that always ask "is there anything we can do for you?" can't take it anymore just glad sunday is almost over. Only on sunday do they want to see the badass it is like clock work. I just need to move so i can relax until they find me again of course. I have answered their question before with "yea you can help me get my money back since none of it went to the poor." of course their sincerity drops after that and they show they really do not want to help me.