Please tell me that IRL (in real life) Susan Kae Robinson, wife of apostle David Bednar has a normal demeanor, voice inflection, smile and sense of well being rather than that "so-sorry" portrayed here at the feet of her David "The Dickhead" Bednar, so-called eternal companion.

If you can't bear to watch the entire video at least witness Dickhead's segway from his wife's tearful story to "the NEXT QUESTION".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFp_kczV7ok

Thanks to Jonathan at Thinker of Thoughts who continuously nails down the lid on the LDS Cult.

I find Bednars body language after the sister missionary's question to be interesting: folding his arms, or as I see it, zipping himself up--a defensive "tell" that can't be taken separately, but still hard to ignore.

a spouse is no answer or example tahta a missionary can implement.

he's a soulless ass

Bednar appears like a finely calibrated Mo-bot G.A. The trance, voice inflection, body language, and demeanor are like in imploded Jim Jones. Bednar seems to dare you to enter his temple of gloom.

Holland is another plug and play but has a pseudo personable facade. Get these dudes behind a podium and push the button, come back in thirty minutes, hit the off switch, put away the steel folding chairs, turn out the light and call it good.

So glad to away from their spewings of G.A. gospel guano!

I read on (ahem) another exmo board that someone was toying with the idea of printing up "Free Susan Bednar" bumper stickers and distributing them to Utah exmo groups. I don't have an account over there so I didn't weigh in, but I thought it was a great idea.

Not just bumper stickers, but smaller ones that could go other places as well. Plaster 'em all over the state.

Capture Wendy Nelson, Free Susan Bednar!

Some women really enjoy their widowhood. Just sayin'.

Unfortunately Susan Bednar's demeanor is normal for a TBM wife. The voice, the sad expression, the need to appear humble - I know so many Mormon women like her. They dumb themselves down and look depressed. I think those woman equate humility with depression.

I'll never forget a talk in Sacrament meeting from a similar TBM woman married to the bishop. She was very intelligent and well read, but you'd never know it from her talk. Showing her intelligence might have been perceived as showing off, so instead of giving an intelligent well thought out talk, she read a an entire children's book about a choo-choo train in a voice similar to Susan Bednar's. Same exact voice and sad face. Same way of speaking to grown ups as if they were two year olds. It was so important for her to appear submissive and humble. Barf.

Is she getting what she paid for?

I wish my name was susan or karen, this woman is lucky that she has A nice first name, but her last name sucks.

I think Frankie is about the cutest name on Earth for a girl.

:)

This is the gender dynamics within Mormon conservative families. When a man is an alpha (one with lots of options, talents, and opportunities) women compete to get the catch. The most complimentary attractive women wins. She gets the chance to mate and supposedly obtain superior genes from her man. The spawn have the best chance for survival through mormon hyper-gammy. Then add on 40 years being a SAHM (and trophy wife) who's biggest worry was cooking for her husband each night and staying pretty. She was retired out of the big bad world of paid labor, suffering, toil, exhaustion, and could spend her days making chocolates watching Days of Our Lives. And her husband was a University president with prestidge. He gets to tell everyone what to do and even has a pretty secretary. In Short this is what we get.

The man is accomplished, educated, aggressive, and mature in character and resilience. The woman is obviously the weaker vessel and hasn't had the need to develop her backbone because she's protected. She's soft.

Am I wrong?

No, probably not. It all sounds like familiar turf.

Susan Bednar: a Bespoke Stepford Wife. Custom made for a GA.

Poor little woman.

"Next question?"

I come from a Mormon Royalty family with GA's temple presidents, mission presidents, stake presidents, and so on, so I have known a lot of women like this. When you know them, they are individuals, but, collectively, and especially when "on stage" in the cult, they really speak like clones, behave like clones, and look like clones. Sister Bednar (He is "president" but she is only "sister") has it down! She has the perfect little-girl voice, the hang-dog face, the turned-down mouth, the vacant eyes, the slumped-over posture, the figure that is as much like a little boy as she can have it without completely starving to death. I think those little pastel knit suits come only in petite sizes.

Humility? It came across to me as more like self-pity. She's a martyr. Poor little me. She struck me as unappreciative, negative, and, yes, depressed. She didn't mention to the audience (were they translating in Spanish?) about her cleaning service, her kitchen help for parties, her gardener, etc. All of the Mormon high-up wives have lots of household help, so they can have more free time to travel with their husband, go to all those meetings, keep beauty parlor appointments, have a picture-perfect house, entertain and schmooze. I also have friends who are married to CEO's, company-men, doctors and other executive-type men who put their career first. To me, there's no difference between those and the Mormon latter-day ladder-climbers. NO difference. They're doing it for money and power. Like someone else commented, the Bednars' life is NOT a life of "service."

Why does "suffering" make someone a better person? NOT! It makes one bitter and unhappy, and prone to spreading gloom and doom to others. Is Bednar spreading money around (like Bill Gates and others, but on a much smaller scale, but making a difference, and helping others)?

Humility requires gratitude. Those babies she bore--were they worth it? Did she appreciate a roof over her head? Obviously, it took more than the "simple things" to keep the Bednars satisfied.

What about being alone? Hell--I have known a lot of divorced single mothers in the LDS Singles, who were completely abandoned by their husband! All of those noble women (all have left the cult) never wavered in feeling that raising their children was the blessing of their life! They didn't whine. Honestly--they did not think of their children as "burdens" or a "sacrifice" or a "humbling experience" at all. Most got motivated, and fought back, and went out into the world, to feed their kids. These feisty women didn't think they could "do it", either, but they had no choice but to try. They had no husband and his salary to rely on, no health insurance sometimes, no fancy house. Humility is plugging away, and these mothers' and grandmothers' prayers were to keep from starving. They gave no thought to whether they could make a good impression with their fireside talk, or whether they could measure up as an arm-piece, or whether they could keep the household help in line. Humility is loving your children enough to think they are a success, when they are slinging hamburgers, or adjusting skis on Sundays, or doing some other "demeaning" job. Sister Bednar would have felt like an abject failure, if she were to have to live like these humble single mothers.

Mormons really have it down, to demonstrate "humility", and feel superior at the same time.

Don't misunderstand--I feel very sorry for Sister Bednar. She has a banquet of abundance, but something is keeping her from enjoying any of it. An abusive husband can be worse than a disease. Well, except that there's a cure, and Sister Bednar wouldn't dream of freeing herself from her life. If she got divorced, then she would REALLY be humble!

Two thumbs up, Anonymous female ex-Mo.

"Mormons really have it down, to demonstrate "humility", and feel superior at the same time."

It's their specialty. Practice makes perfect. Sister Bednar is virtuoso for sure.

Anonymous female ex-Mo Wrote:
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>
>
> What about being alone?

TBH, I would bet that the time "alone" is something the typical GA wife looks forward to and cherishes. Privacy. Quiet. Freedom. Going shopping at the City Creek Center or whatever.

But it's one of those things that it's socially acceptable to complain about in order to score sympathy points. "Pity me for I am so often left alone as I have to share my great husband with the world." That's what she says.

But when he leaves for a 5-day trip or whatever, she's probably fist pumping and shouting "Yes!" (or the Mormon equivalent) as soon as she hears the car pull away. Time to get some ice cream, call up a friend, get tickets to that show....

I knew Susan before her husband was an apostle. She was not happy that they had to move to Rexburg. It was a BIG come down from her husband's position at the University of Arkansas.She REALLY enjoyed his status there, the weather there, and the much better income he received. She wanted to retire there. She was particularly angry at the less than desirable medical benefits at Ricks College. When David was not around she could be quite vocal but when he was around she became a different and more subservient wife. In their home he came across like an unapproachable dictator. I never saw him help her with anything. She was like his servant. But without him there she opened up. I liked her. When they were in my home together he was polite and acted as if women deserved recognition and status but the minute he was back on his own turf (the campus and his home) he made sure everyone knew that women needed to stay in their place.

I don't think Dave could answer that missionary's question because he hasn't a clue how to be humble unless he is in the presence of someone in authority over him. Then he's a real boot licker.

If you ever get your hands on the textbook he wrote about Organizational Behavior, look for the reference on women in the workplace. You will see that he ignores that subject completely. He sees no place for women in the workplace other than as secretaries and receptionists. Those good paying jobs belong to men and most especially to priesthood holding men.

Bednar sounds like the typical sycophant. The boot lick their way up the ladder and are horrible to the people below them. He would fit in well working for the government.

I have trouble considering anything a big come down from the University of Arkansas.

You Too? Wrote:
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> I have trouble considering anything a big come
> down from the University of Arkansas.

Haha! Well now you know where BYU Idaho is in the scheme of things. So Bednar is nothing more than a hillbilly with an inferiority complex trying to prove himself.

Explains why he has a hard to being humble.

Aside from everything else, the way he made his wife answer the question was just WEIRD.

The question was addressed to him...or at least asked for an "example" from his life. I guess Sister Bednar was the "example" in his life.

Frankly, it looks like it was a pre-scripted exchange. Everything from the way that he selected the particular questioner, to the way that he immediately thought to have his wife come up and give her spiel, to the way that the wife appeared to already be expecting to act out her part in the charade, with a prepared response...all point to this being a planted question. Bednar seems to like these kinds of staged "teaching moments".

If it had not already been planned in advance, I doubt that he would have just done something like that out of the blue. Not because of any great concern or thoughtfulness toward his wife, but because the risk of an embarrassing situation would be to high. What if she had been daydreaming and hadn't heard the question? What if at the moment, she did not really have any relevant thoughts or remarks coming to mind and could only hem and haw. It looked like she had already spent time preparing remarks based on that particular question.

The fact that such staged/planted questions are deceptive and manipulative doesn't seem to bother him. (Yes, I am assuming that it was indeed a staged Q&A.)

I thought the same... it all seemed very premeditated. I think Bednar was just waiting for someone in the audience to ask about being humble, which is the perfect ass kissing question. Since he knows he is not humble and can't even fake it, he had his wife talk about it. Her humility speech seemed very rehearsed - as if she'd given the same speech many times. Problem is that if a person talks too much about being humble they kind of loose their humility, which is why she seemed to be forcing it with her tired way of talking and the pained expression on her face.

Why do Mormons equate humility with looking sad and worn out? Can't a humble person be happy and energetic?

Just the other day I was talking to a friend of mine who was a councilor in the stake presidency. He said he was in a leadership meeting with Boyd K Packer. He said the meeting was really spiritual (this guy is still TBM) and really went well. At the end Elder Packer goes,"Do you guys think it's always like this? I can tell you even with the Quorum of the Twelve it's not always like this and sometimes we have real disagreements."

It kind of ended the meeting on a low note he said. I said look they make the senior apostle prophet to keep the apostles from fighting over who will run the church. Make no mistake. If that policy didn't exist those guys were be at each other's throats. Nothing has changed since Nauvoo.

So now we have Bednar who frankly gives me the creeps. He does not seem spiritual to me. He seems to have a huge ego and seems to lack humility and empathy. Wo knows. If Elder Packer admits the apostles are flawed and lack the spirit in meetings maybe Bednar will be the Judas of the bunch.

I found it interesting that when someone asked him how he has managed to have humility, he has his wife come up and explain how she is humble. After she is done, he's back at the microphone and instead of saying, Thank you for being a great example, or something to that effect, he just says: "next question."

Bednar is really creepy, SS Stormtrooper creepy. Mrs Bednar looks and sounds sad and worn out. She also doesn't answer the question (which is "how")... She just riffs on why they SHOULD be humble...

There is a wonderful American English word which I probably first discovered on this forum and have taken as my own:

humblebragging, anyone?

Tom in Paris

Bednar seriously looks like he could run Scientology.

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
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> Bednar seriously looks like he could run
> Scientology.
It seems there is at least one apostle who is the real big asshole. That used to be Boyd K Packer. Now it’s Bednar. He’s a lunatic for sure.

Oh well. I had an older member of the church tell me he thought Harold B Lee was a real asshole and a friend of his met President Lee shortly after he was made prophet and said that man will not be prophet long. He is completely full of himself. Well he was right. Harold B Lee took a dirt nap shortly after becoming prophet. So maybe there is a god after all. Haha!

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
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> Bednar seriously looks like he could run
> Scientology.

Geeze i LMAO at that reply... hahaha
Truth in all humor

in places.

Me: Elder Bednar, I don’t think the church is tr... (looks as if can’t breathe)

Bednar: Your lack of faith disturbs me.

Queue The Imperial March.

I skimmed through a bit but after 3 minutes I didn't really care to know any of the thoughts from either one.

He's a Rambler. He goes from topic to topic. I've listened to this guy speak several times. Every single time, he has something to say about Sister Bednar! Whether it's the number of years he's been married or how he met her, this dude is always talking about her.

Conversely, I've listened to other GAs-bags and they never mention their spouse. Hell, I've listened to Ashton to the point that I have no idea if the guy was widowed or even married. He just speaks on his assigned topic, unlike Bednar.

Sometime in my teens, I noticed that for many, many Mormon couples, it looked like the male was married to his mother. Most Mormon women quickly ended up looking similar to S. Bednar: haggard, tired, weak, and often weak-voiced. This is aside from and deeper than the (public) demeanor a 'good Mormon wife' was supposed to demonstrate: admiration, agreement, soft-voiced obedience, etc.

Many years later at a family wedding, I asked my never-mo (now ex-) husband to take a look at the Mormon couples and tell me if he noticed anything. Very soon he replied,'The women all look twenty years older.'

It's the cost of killing yourself one day at a time.