Similar to expediting church resignations, is there a legal person that has assisted individuals, mainly women, in getting a temple sealing cancellation, in the absence of church resignation?
Church resignation is a legal matter. The church was forced by the courts to allow people to resign. Prior to that the church refused to acknowledge a person's wishes to no longer be a member.
Sealings are an internal matter. As long as you are a church member you are subject to their policy.
The church often takes a "it will all be worked out in the millennium" stance.
Clarification: "Prior to that the church refused to acknowledge a person's wishes to no longer be a member."
Prior to the court decision that determined that church members have the right to resign their membership, LDS Inc (and a number of other churches) required that you request excommunication to terminate your membership. I never heard of LDS Inc denying a request for excommunication, so in that sense they did acknowledge a person's wish to no longer be a member.
The suit against that process was filed (and won) because excommunication carries the implication that you must have done something yucky to get excommunicated, when in fact you simply wanted to resign your membership.
The courts agreed, and you no longer had to ask the church to fire you. You could fire them. They could still fire you if they so chose, but not if you fired them first. :)
LDS Inc is very reluctant to cancel a sealing, especially for a woman, unless she is about to be sealed to some other "worthy male" (translation: fully paid up male church member)
You can't go to court to force LDS Inc to cancel the sealing, because the courts don't recognize the sealing in the first place. Similarly, the courts don't get involved with temple recommends, so if your bishop denies you one, your only recourse is the SP, and good luck with that.
An LDS sealing is like them giving you a pink unicorn to go with your normal legal marriage. Asking them to cancel the sealing is basically telling them they have to take their unicorn back. Problem is, as far as the courts are concerned, there is no unicorn, so the courts are staying the hell out of it.
BTW, they are absolutely correct. There is no unicorn. Of any color.
I received my cancellation. It was important to me for closure. After many years being told I could not,the Bishop began the process and from the first moment I walked in, to the letter in the mail took 4 months. But my ex had been married in the temple 3x after me. A friend of a friend had been divorced for a year and was denied. This was in DC where there is a lawyer on every corner. She went to a lawyer friend, had a letter drawn up threatening to sue and drag the church into court, and sent to SLC. Within 4 weeks she had the cancellation. The church does not fear God, they fear lawyers.
The church has plenty of their own lawyers. They don't necessarily fear lawyers. But they're terrified of public filings, and the negative publicity that is likely to go with it.
I figured that when I resigned, all the ordinances were voided. That included, I thought until today, the whole sealing thing. Anyone else think the same?
How we think can be wierd. DH is sealed to his first wife. He told me he could be sealed to me as well (if I wanted--not gonna happen). But she couldn't without a temple annulment. She told him if he remarried she wanted him to request a temple annulment, and he told her no. You know, in the afterlife this stuff will be sorted out.
What I think is wierd is, I believe mormonism is a cult, is bologna, is not true. Yet sometimes I think, Yeah, if it were true, then I could be the second wife in eternity? I don't think so!!!!!
So even if I believed, which I don't----but I think, not gonna be wife # 2, thank you very much. Oh my goodness, the thinks we can think!!!!
Heh...as if their "sealing" actually meant something.
It doesn't, you know. It's all made-up nonsense.
After my TBM mom and inactive dad divorced, mom found herself a TBM convert to re-marry to. But she wanted to be temple-sealed to him, not just married so they could shag. So after going through a bishop, an SP, and 2 GAs, she was told she couldn't get a "temple annulment" unless inactive dad was excommunicated, then it would be "automatic." Even though dad -- though inactive -- hadn't done anything to be excommunicated for.
So she asked him -- in front of us kids. I think she figured we'd all back her up, saying how wonderful it would be to be temple-sealed to a real TBM guy for mom and for us kids.
Dad said he didn't care, since none of it actually meant anything anyway, go ahead and have him excommunicated for "apostasy." Both of them asked us kids what we thought...
TBM older brother said he was sad about losing sealing to dad, but it was important to have the family sealed together for eternity, so he was all for it.
Younger sister (only 15, not really old enough to know what she believed) basically said whatever.
Me...I said what mom did was her choice, not mine. And I was with dad in that I didn't think it actually meant anything. Then I added that there was no way I would be "sealed" to new-TBM-hubby, even though I didn't think it had anything to do with "eternity," because I thought he was kind of a jerk, and I already have a dad.