So little story from a friend.

Her husband came down with a disease that works a lot like alzheimers. It was a slow degradation of mental faculty, mixed with OCD, loss of memory and even childish tempertantrums.

Unfortunately, the guy that came down with this disease was the bishop of a rural ward. The ward didn't have enough people willing to run it. These farmers would get up early in the morning and work all day, they showed up to church, but that was about it. These same people would also get hit hard financially, so there was always a lot of charity work, and coordinating help amongst the community, etc.

He managed as best he could, but he started missing meetings, He started forgetting to make calls. he started to forget people's names. He started forgetting his family's names.


You'd think they would call someone else. No one was willing. He had been in this position for ten years and everyone was just fine with that.

So what ended up happening is his wife started helping him out. Reminding him to make calls, getting him ready for meetings, driving him to the church because he forgot the way..

Eventually this turned into calls just going to her. Her sitting in on meetings with him and talking while he stared at the walls. She coordinated the charity, she looked over the paperwork before having her husband sign. She often helped him sign as he started to forget how to write.

A few things wrong with this.
1. Leave the poor man alone. His brain is shriveling up like a raisin and he was still forced to go to meetings.

2. A !!!FEMALE!!! showed that she could run the ward. But, she was never given a calling. Its just weird that this group was willing to use her, but no one questioned the irony of a non-priesthood holding woman acting as the most powerful put together person in the ward. Lots of wasted resources evident, but the church as a whole doesn't want to tap into that.

3. Everyone was fine with this abuse of a disabled person. He was stressed by his inability to do things. But, they still all played like he was still responsible. Just seems wrong.

You are aware of Ezra Taft Benson's signing machine and being propped up in meetings and basically most of the things you described?

I've heard very little, no details.

I can't find some of his excellent assessments of his grandfather being used as a puppet but here is something for you to read.

http://www.lds-mormon.com/benson1.shtml

Sounds like what happened with Edith Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson's wife. Of course, she had the Executive Branch to help out was a very powerful aid, Joseph Tumulty.

Many wives have stepped in to run the show. Margaret Chase Smith succeeded her husband into the Senate (first female Senator). I hear Elijah Cummings' widow is planning on running for his seat.

Too bad about this saintly bishop. Hope things work out for the ward.

admire this woman. Stand by your man.

I have a cousin who served as bishop three times for a total of nearly 20 years, My mom held this up as proof he was such a spiritual giant. I always figured there was no one else in the ward willing and able to take the job.

A woman can actually do the job. Excellent point you made! LDS Inc is failing to use half of its talent pool, except in back-door situations like this. This is costing them dearly.

Bishop is a volunteer job. If the powers that be won't release him, he can resign the position. That takes courage, and there could be a substantial social cost, but all positions in the church are volunteer. You are within your legal rights to just walk away.

[GAs and some employees may be under contractual obligations and can't just quit without legal consequences, but everyone else can just walk.]

Just think how a stay at home mom could help out running things. People who have flexibility with their time are unimaginably useful and those who don't want them to lead are unimaginably stupid.

Nothing new - women have controlled the church forever.

Ideal situation - call the shots, tell husband what to do, without bearing the responsibility or taking blame.

Just like my wife making me drive, but telling me where to go, and she avoids risk of an accident and the blame.

If men were really running the church, we'd be holding it in strip clubs, and going to ball games or golfing or fishing on Sundays.

As for wasting talent, actually all talent is wasted in the church, because it is fake, and mostly busy work. Why anyone aspires to positions of control is beyond me.

Free Man Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If men were really running the church, we'd be
> holding it in strip clubs, and going to ball games
> or golfing or fishing on Sundays.


I love it when people simplify things for their limited understandings of a situation and use sweeping generalization to prove them true.

So much truth I'm just bowled over by it, STRIKE!

The sacred 'Scratching of the Balls' as an ordinance... Yeah!!

Well, he is probably thinking of the sacred ordinance of sex collaring where women control men like robots with their complete dominance of the male's sex life.

Are you sure he was a Mormon bishop, and not a Mormon church president?

I wonder how many meetings Wendy attends now, and how many she will attend when Rus starts to lose his faculties?

She could certainly lord over Eyring. Maybe Oaks too, depending on how much the staff will let her pull the strings...

See also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JTtI3D6lqk

RG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 05:54PM by reinventinggrace.