Got an email from Church yesterday about ministering as a father. First, I said "what and some swear words." Since when did becoming a father require that we do ministering to our children? In all my years in Church and that is a lot I have never ever heard this termed used until Dusty Rusty and Bendy Wendy came on the scene.
Well I am a failure because as a dad. I am to sit down with my children and study scriptures with them.I do not do that, they are older and have their own families. I am to set an example of going to Church and doing all the Church requires.The list goes on. Bottom line is I am to set an example of how Christ was in His life.
So as I was enjoying brunch with my son and his family and as they were having wine and beer I mentioned this to him. He thought this was so evangelical. Now he served a mission and has left the fold so to speak. I thought it was great to sit there and have a ginger ale while he enjoyed a beer and then we went and played golf.I have a great relationship with my kids without talking Church or trying to set a Christlike example.
Anyone else get this email.
The problem is I do not see myself as a failure as a dad. My kids have great families. They have great kids. Kids get great grades at school. My kids have great jobs. They love their dad and grandpa. They know that there dad I will never tell them nor have I told them how to run their families. Now my ex did and that did not produce great results at times.
So I guess what I am asking is how does ministry tie into being a great dad other than give a dad something else to worry about.
I think this ministry thing and the Come Unto Christ is going to produce negative reactions more than positive reactions. As the Church places more emphasis on these two items they will get away from old doctrines that brought people in but the members will not know that the Church has done away with it as members are so busy with this new stuff. Quite a racket.
My bottom line is this. The Church is going after a shrinking share of the market called Christianity.There are only so many people out there that want this product and the Church is determined to get their share of the market. It has nothing to do with saving souls. It has nothing to do with making people better. It has to do with the Mormons trying to cut into the market and take away members from other Churches. You have to speak their language to do that.If I wanted to do ministering there is a great big Church done the road with a great gospel rock band, smoke, laser lights, etc production. They have ministering for everything. I think Dusty Rusty and Bendy Wendy are just getting started.

Can you type it out so we can all read it and say, "What the [swear], [swear], etc."?

I spent Father's day with two great dads -- my brother and his son (and his son's wife and toddler daughter, and my sister in law.) We had wine with brunch, a cold beer in the afternoon, and a little more wine with a most excellent dinner. We enjoyed each other's company and the ability to spend time with our loved ones. We had been discussing the recent commemorations of the D-Day landings, and as I was leaving, my brother was happily recounting our parents' contributions to the war effort. He was passing down stories that my nephew will also pass down one day.

Precious time with family, people who are generally good and decent because that's how they were raised, and no mention of religion.

I can't think of too many better ways to drive your children away than making them learn scripture with you. Hmmmm. Spend time with my Dad and talk about church stuff all day, or spend time with wife's folks and have a few beers while swimming and BBQing. Decisions, decisions.

Secular Priest Wrote:
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Since when did becoming a
> father require that we do ministering to our
> children?

LDS husbands and fathers have long been expected to be spiritual and temporal leaders in the household.

Secular Priest Wrote:
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> Got an email from Church yesterday about
> ministering as a father. First, I said "what and
> some swear words." Since when did becoming a
> father require that we do ministering to our
> children?

Why do you read these emails and further, why do these emails elicit an emotional response from you?

If you are confident in yourself, why do you read anything otherwise?

Why do you list 'great families', 'great jobs', 'great grades' as measure of your family members? That's more Mormon than any email from the Bishop.

Still doing the status thing?

So you all drink alcohol? Who cares?

What if your 'great' family members didn't have 'great jobs'? What if your 'great' grandkids didn't get 'great grades'?

And you feel the need to diss your ex and her mothering. She did not yield 'great' results. But of course, you did!

Same ol' tired Mormon crap.

It's a *human* desire to know that your children are generally successful, well-adjusted, and happy, whatever that means for them. The Mormon church thinks it has a lock on producing successful, well-adjusted, and happy people, but it doesn't.

That's the point of the comments.

Right, and how do you describe "success" to a bunch of people on a forum? You would use the same concrete parameters by which the majority of people measure success, right? On a forum of people who were raised Mormon, you would use previous Mormon measures, would you not?

The school system--a huge part of a child's world--uses grades.

With adults, the best people (usually, except for Utah nepotism) get the best jobs.

And he mentions love. No amount of obedience or merit badges or fake authority is more important than Love!

I use these same examples of success, too, when I talk or write about my children and grandchildren.

In the eyes of the society in which we live, and with our society's empirical judgments of giving grades and salaries and love as rewards--most people would agree that Secular Priest's children are doing great, and that he is a great father!

Except the Mormons, that is, who seriously condemn us all for drinking in front of our kids, and tell us that "No success can compensate for failure in the home"; that is, failure to enslave your children in the cult, force them into baptism, ordination into the arrogant priesthood, paying money for salvation, and trying to earn God's love, and going on a mission (no, a college scholarship does NOT take precedence over a mission) and marrying too young, and irresponsibly procreating when they are not ready and can not afford it.

Secular Priest is NOT overcompensating, at all. He wants us to know that he is being truthful, and as un-biased as possible, when he tells us his children are doing well.

Good grief! Give him that. He and his children have earned it.

Happy Father's Day (belated) Secular Priest!

The church sets ever changing standards and the guilts people to following them.

Before the "ministering" push you'd have been a great dad. This is simply their way of controlling things.

What a horrid father's day message to tell the men they're failures. Shame on the church.

You’re a total failure at selling your children into slavery.

Yes!

ministering as a father should be along the lines of giving wise synopsis of situations they may bring up or are interested in. Also Having a clear opinion on current events and expressing that.

Politics at the dinner table.

I rarely heard church leaders offer recognition or give praise to members. Maybe because the higher ups also don't praise the leaders and persons below them. They all take their cues from Mormon rock star apostles. And they never have anything good to say about the progress of the church and or its members.

All this pressure to become an ideal father and priesthood holder destroyed more of my testimony than any other issue.

I never felt I was "making it" at Church. One day a week (more if we followed their program) it was emphasized to me that I was "failing as a father."

What wasn't I doing? I had no interest in Scouts, etc. No, I won't camp or go on week long canoe trips or whatever else anybody dreamed up as the measure of manhood this month.

Sending my son home with visions of "hunting dancing in his head" didn't help. How sad that he can't go because his father is "negligent."

A meeting with the bishop explaining how our son will become a juvenile delinquent and never serve a mission because of my rebelliousness didn't help either. Of course, who is to blame when when our son eschewed a mission, got into drugs and crime?

The whole notion of enforced conformity showed me that I had no place in the Church. Our son was a special needs child. Expecting the same results from us wasn't reasonable, in retrospect. Any talk from a General Authority or Stake Presidency was useless because all their preaching was to do more of their programs when our family was unprogramable.

When the Church doesn't want you, leaving is easy.