A couple days ago I posted a link on FB to the Utah County story about domestic violence calls going up 75% during the pandemic, and commented that “this doesn’t bode well for ‘celestial marriage’!”

https://kutv.com/news/coronavirus/utah-county-sees-75-increase-in-domestic-violence-911-calls-during-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR3XxMoUKa7zMqNXSB53WT5aC6AoKsa3DV80vodqcseOS4qcmEpOHPjUiB8

The linked photo is bright and draws attention. It got quite a few likes and laughs.

So, the next day I get a friend request from a TBM @$$hole that I knew in high school. In FB, he’s a friend of dozens of friends, and we’ve been co-existing this way in FB for nearly a decade. I’ve never sent him a friend request, and he’s never sent one to me.

The coincidence is too great to be random (IMO). What do you bet that he wants to explain to me that I’m not correctly imagining the imaginary BS?

So this is the result of the new home based teaching, the new ministering (instead of HT/VT's), 2-hour block, home Sac meetings, etc. The prophet truly is inspired. Look at the fruit of these revelations. Truly amazing. 75% increase...wow.

Honestly though, these people are not used to spending so much time together, rather they're always in church or a church activity. As a Mormon couple, I rarely saw my spouse.

I was in a RS lesson some years ago and the teacher was teaching the difference between serving and escaping. One of the best lessons I have heard. I have been thinking about that during this "Stay at Home" order. There are many places to hide in the Mormon Church in which one would be praised as diligent and spiritual. HT and VT-I do not call it ministering, add more people, go to the temple more often, take all the callings given, do genealogy at the family history center and the list continues. Marriages that have been bad for years, due to letting hormones (the Holy Ghost) directing the marriage decision,are boiling over.
The directives to doubt your doubts, Kimball's(I think) story if you put 5 men and 5 women in a room w/temple recommends there will be 5 good marriages(I bought into that). Marry right after one's mission, etc. contributing to the rise in domestic violence is one of the fruits of their "inspired" advice.

As a young star-eyed girl thinking God was going to bring my one and only if only I was a good little mormon girl, I watched all my friends and family get married, having found their one and only that God picked for them, and I wondered why he wasn't sending me my one and only.

Most people here know who my one and only turned out to be. It took me a long time to realize that everyone getting married had nothing to do with God.

My "husband" and I used to lay in bed at night and talk about the fact that he and I got along a lot better than most of the couples in our ward. Maybe that is because he was gay. ha ha We still get along great. We didn't for many years because of how he treated us, but he figured it out and treats us all well now. But I get along better with him than most people I know. Here we are living together in our our situation and with the virus hanging over our heads (and he works at the hospital). Thankfully, Cache County, Utah, has had no deaths. Not sure how many cases they have. Last time I heard it was 33 I believe. Not sure.

Then you add the stress of providing for your larger-than-average family during a financial collapse.

If distance makes the heart grow fonder, what does propinquity do? Invasion of the personal space anyone?

Make you feel like you are under a microscope? Find out that coupling with beloved this much actually feels like you have a conjoined twin--who doesn't understand you? Finally understand the beauty of being an introvert?

Ted has it right in his post. Heavenly Father knows couples need time apart, a lot of time apart, and that is why he gave them callings. Lots of callings.

My father was always gone off bishoping, or high counseling or patriarching while my mother held down the fort and opened the Franco American spaghetti for lunch. They got along beautifully. Arguments were rare. Their bedroom door got locked every Sunday afternoon--which was Heavenly Father's way of giving us kids our alone time to do what we weren't supposed to do on Sundays.




If they'd just read their Book of Mormon more with the fullness of the gospel in it they'd be fine. Or,would that just inspire them to get out their chariots and go to battle with their steel swords.

*Solitary* confinement is starting to have some appeal.

ha! Right?

"THEY" are screwing it up. AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHOULD I ACCEPT THE FRIEND REQUEST?

I assume he’s only sent it because of my recent “anti” post.

Send the friend request. Yes.

Stir things up. The high road is boring. What's life without a little jabbing?

And you have the POWER TO UNFRIEND after delivering a searing monologue should the opportunity arise.

Plus you will possibly get more fun stories to tell us her cuz, like, I'm a little bored.

I guess most folks have been antagonized to death with stuff like this. I don't live in the Moridor, so it's unusual for me.

I took a peek at his page, and at first had hope: his hair is shaggy and he's got a thick goatee. But...

His timeline is pumped full of endless TBM propaganda.

I think I'll accept, just to see what happens. I can always unfriend him again if it becomes a nuisance. Now that I think about it, all the propaganda will be a nuisance, but I think I can turn that off (unfollow?).

"All Mormon All the Time" seems to be the M.O. Rude and on par with those who only talk about themselves ad nauseam--while a good conversationalist enjoys any subject or at least asks questions regarding whatever comes up.


I used to make a list of things to spark conversation when I went to family reunions as I could not bear the Mormonosity. Any topic I brought up fell flat. They either fell to dead silence, or would be evaluated in Mormon terms and then discarded as if they had been dealt with by the Lord Himself.


I very much appreciate the one BIL I have who switches to normal when I am around and can talk on a variety of fascinating topics without inflecting them with Mormonism. I would say this is that his vocation requires him to interact with many people from many countries and none of his clients are Mormon. He is the sole exception in my life full of TBMs.

Hope this guy can be more like my BIL.

Yes, you can put him on unfollow if you need to.

Sometimes I think people get tired of seeing others pop up on the list of suggested friends. One day FB wears you down, and you say to yourself, why not? Or, they really just need one, good catch-up conversation.

As many who have said...the cure should not be worse than the cause...

Dr. Phil expressed this sentiment re: mental health with people on continued lock down

Ok, so I accepted the friend request, and first thing the next morning there was a message: "why are you attacking the church."

I said, "What are you talking about?"

He said, "You know very well what I'm talking about." Of course, I did, but no need to be honest and direct when he's not gonna be.

I said, "No, I'm afraid I don't. Can you be more specific?"

He said, "your post about celestial marriage."

I said, "what about it?"

He said, "Your attacking the church."

I said, "Celestial marriage is not a church. It's a theological concept ascribed to by multiple churches that fall under the umbrella of Mormonism."

He said, "We prefer to be called Latter Day Saints."

I said, "I didn't call you anything. I'm referring to part of the 'theology' ascribed to by numerous groups and churches that basically fall under the Book of Mormon."

He said, "it's not Mormonism."

I said, "Here's an LDS website that describes reaching out to people who want to learn about 'Mormonism' (https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/blog/using-the-term-mormon-). If they use 'Mormonism,' why can't I? BTW, the same page says it's ok to refer to members as 'Mormons'. And that's your church. But I wasn't even talking about your church, or any church. I was talking about a specific concept believed by multiple churches that fall under the umbrella of Mormonism."

He said, "Why can't you just be respectful of what other people want."

I said, "What people? I'm not talking about your church or its people. But, for the record, your church hosts a website that says it's ok to call its members Mormons, and refers to the theology as Mormonism. If that's not right, then they should change it. My experience is that most Mormons don't even know what's 'right' or 'official,' they just parrot what they hear other people saying. I made a joke about an individual theological concept practiced by multiple churches. It isn't an attack on your particular church."

He said, "Your a jerk."

I said, "In my experience, when a Mormon can't win a debate, they'll resort to an ad hominem attack."

And, with that, he unfriended me. Our FB friendship didn't last the weekend. Ironically, I got a friend request from his brother.

That’s because of cult thinking. The cult is so wrapped up in their identity that any attack on the church is an attack on them. Pointing out the obvious problems with Nelson’s policy changes is an attack because the prophet is automatically right.

When Nelson says “Simon says scratch your butt and hop on one foot”, you have to scratch your butt and hop on one foot. It doesn’t occur to them that he might be a nut case. Oh I’m sorry, he’s not crazy. Not with that kind of money. He’s eccentric.

Haha. Couldn't have gone more text book.

Dodged all your points and tried to guilt you about not respecting him. Haha. Typical.

I am so over the "respect" thing. I don't even like the song. All I know is that people who deserve respect never have to ask for it or demand it because they respect themselves and that is all that matters.

So he took his ball and went home! Mormons can't handle the big leagues.

Well put! Some Mormons can’t handle anything and seem to go to pieces if you dare defy them, whilst simultaneously lacking the basic intelligence to recognise the irony when it’s blatantly obvious. I found out recently that the main issue in my family boils down to when I lost my temper a few years ago over how bad I see ‘the’ church. My SIL is adamant that my words were “just unforgivable”: Yet she is offended at my criticising an organisation that falsely advertises itself as Christian - the very essence of which is Forgiveness.

Hilarious.

Since then they seem deeply concerned over every minor thing I do.

I sit back and enjoy their self imposed discomfort.

These people are immature AF.

to throw scripture back in their face. I find that this enrages TBMs, and it's quite entertaining. In your case, the verse about forgiving "seven times seventy" (Matt. 18:22) would have worked well.

Before my mission, I got in a huge argument with my father about whether I should go or not. In the midst of his shouting I quietly began quoting 3 Nephi 11:29, "He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me...." he told me I could go to hell and stormed out. Our relationship has never recovered.

Done & Done Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All I know is that people who
> deserve respect never have to ask for it or demand
> it

Exactly!

Honestly, I would have blocked him immediately after his first message. Or maybe just responded, "I see that you are *still* an asshole." Then blocked. He was never interested in being a friend to you.

I would have I unfriended him for not knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re.”

Me two!

Hehehe. I noticed that too. Surprisingly, he graduated from UVU, not BYU.

That was interesting. I’m guessing it went down exactly as you thought it would. Mormons are predictable aren’t they? It’s fascinating that he’d send a friend request just to say that to you. What did he think the outcome could be? That you’d apologise and ask for his forgiveness? The mind boggles...
This pandemic does generally have people being more friendly than usual though. I’ve linked up with a few people who I otherwise wouldn’t have.

But with mormons it seems it’s never genuine, there’s another agenda. My best friend is mormon, and she’s pretty much the only person who is, who I can have a normal relationship with. She knows my brother but her and my SIL have coexisted on Fb for a decade without linking up. My TBM SIL (who doesn’t like me) found out about how close we are. Next day: she sent my best friend a Facebook friend request.

Interesting, no?

I think mormons don’t like stuff being out of their control. And eventually they will throw a tantrum.

Yeah, went about like I expected. But, yeah, he didn’t need to friend me at all: I post the stuff to “friends of friends,” specifically so that my TBM family members can see it. So he could too, obviously, but he could’ve also posted in it. But he may not want other nevermos seeing his commentary, especially if he loses his cool or ends up looking stupid. But, even then, you don’t have to be friends to send private messages either.

Ironically, he has sent me another friend request. I’ll be ignoring this one.

Your post on the online conversation with your erstwhile FB friend is suitable for framing. That guy is suffering from Koolade toxicity.

Chapter two...

I mentioned above that the brother of the TBM who unfriended me sent me a friend request. I accepted it. Things have been quiet. I even made a FB post about the creepy BYU prof who was charged with sexually abusing the foreign student. No comments from him, the unfriended brother or any other TBM friend or friend of friends.

So, today I get this private message from him:

Hi [Gordon], I am writing to ask if you have heard of melaleuca.
It is a health and wellness company that I use to keep my house
chemical free and enhance my training with peak performance.
Send me your email address and I can send you an about melaleuca
link.
Thanks.... [TBM guy]


So, obviously I'm not a "friend". Just a sales lead. These guys never change.
Uh, thanks but no thanks.

This is rich. Friend me again so I can continue to be offended! The thinking that they can control others cracks me up. Don't like what I post, stay off my page. It just ain't that hard. The melaleuca thing was to be expected though. Any name they can find.

Somebody also needs to tell him all products everywhere consist 100% of chemicals.

Oh no! Yeah, go ahead and unfriend him.

that what is really needed here is an "enemy request" function. These people clearly don't want to be friends, or even the sort of superficial "friends" that abound on Facebook.

I would "enemy request" MANY of the TBMs I grew up around.

It shouldn't be a big secret why ChurchCo marriages fail, it's bc so many mormons have a 'no-compromise' attitude. When people make changes as they mature, develop different needs other than sex & church 'service', or when "doubts" show up, BINGO!




ChurchCo has always been skilled & effective-efficient of substituting / distracting members away from the core essentials of Christ-Like (or others worthy of copying) lives.

I think the U.S. was in kind of a 'religion & leadership vacuum' when Joe came along, his timing was his greatest asset in that regard, add 'charisma' (?) and his leadership & ascendancy happened like falling off of a log.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2020 10:08PM by GNPE.

I have had three FB friends do posts in the last week that are just sales pitches for the Church.