The apparent sins of loud laughter and lightmindeness were denounced often in the ward I attended. Coincidently (perhaps - or not?) there was a sister missionary present at the time who had the loudest laugh I have ever heard, before or since. Every time she threw her head back, chortling, guffawing and snorting, people would stare at her aghast: What a sinner! It seemed as if the message was directed at her. It could get embarrassing at times. How sad to repress such high spirits that could spread happiness if only it were permissible. I'm glad she just kept on laughing - loudly!

On Done & Done’s current thread “Coffee, Tea and Me”, Eric K says:

[The Mormon Church is] "a joyless entity".

A most excellent and succinct summary, sir.

I was a short term so-called convert. I got baptized at the strong encouragement of Mormon friends, who surrounded me with apparently friendly missionaries, but I never believed in JS and didn’t have deep knowledge of his doctrine before or after getting dunked – more fool me. I never found that there was any fun to be had within Mormonism. Eric’s description resonates deeply with me and likely with many others, perhaps even some who are still members. The Mormon Church is Just. No. Fun.

Doubtless some members, especially leaders, would say it’s not supposed to be fun or that lack thereof shouldn’t put you off if you really love God or that you shouldn't be so shallow, etc etc. But it’s not wrong to wish for and welcome fun in life and to hope to derive some of it within one’s religious belief system. You’d think.

Otherwise, why would God give us a funny bone? :)


D&D’s thread is here:

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2326639

This is a key to why I was always a bit of a bad Mormon.

I do not empathize with this. The sad thing about my realization that it all was a sham and a cult, was that I had genuine fun with friends in the church. I loved and laughed and there was an innocent wholesomeness to our recreation.

It's not an excuse to stay and doesn't justify the deception of churchco. But for me, there was fun and delight with the folks I knew. I can feel my lack of faith and assess the harmfulness of oppressive church policy that has been based on smoke and mirrors without looking unkindly on the experiences of joy I had while there.

I can understand your perspective, thegoodman. I'm glad you have good memories.

Likely the experience of a short term convert like me is vastly different to that of many BICs. I found it exceptionally difficult to fit in and not easy to make true friends. All the emphasis was on first getting baptized ASAP and secondly getting with the program, which I did not find easy. My memories of Mormonism are in the miserable category.

But. Previously I was a JW and I can say the same about those years and the friends I had in that group as what you've said about your Mormon friends and memories. I still think kindly of the folks I knew and don't hold it against them that they were/are part of an isolationist group that brings misery to countless people and doesn't contribute much to the world as they take no part in it, as a major tenet of their faith. I dated a JW I remained very fond of afterwards, although we couldn't be together as I did not remain "faithful". I have memories of fun and friends but a good dollop of pain is mixed in too.

I appreciate this. To be fair, I do enjoy the occasional drink now and again and my inactive family have a very irreverent sense of humor that is freeing. My greatest joy now is to not get so caught up or concerned with the movies I watch, the books I read, or the stories I write. So, the creative freedom isn't necessarily the fun and loud laughter you're speaking of, but I went inactive specifically because of the inability to explore these things.

In the temple ceremony, along with no “light-mindedness” and no “evil speaking of the Lord’s anointed,” is the promise to avoid loud laughter. Ironically, the very thought of that makes me laugh now!

I figure by the time many people finished the ceremony they couldn't stop laughing hysterically at how ridiculous it all was with the silly dress and pantomime and so that final clause had to be added. This is sacred brothers and sisters. REally! Stop laughing. Now!


No loud laughter. Really makes the CK enticing. No?

Attending an endowment session for the first time, I just couldn't stop laughing too loud.

About 10 years after I left the church, I was invited to my nephew's non-temple wedding. We all went to lunch as a family the day before. Someone said something funny, and I laughed. My mother looked at me disappointingly and said something to the effect that my laugh had changed. It was too loud now. Yeah, good times.

I made fun of every stuffed suit I saw. It was constant work.

If mormonism eschews loud laughter and especially loud laughter at the Lord's anointed, they should choose choir directors more carefully.

when he starts summoning bears like Elisha of old.

Your move, Rusty.

As I distanced myself from ChurchCo “The No Fun Zone”, I first mingled among Catholics. They seemed well into whimsy and good times, until I fell in with Jews. Now there’s a bunch of people with naturally occurring humor. Their humor tends to be dark and self-deprecating, but funny as hell. A fun bunch to mingle with!

Mormons get the life they deserve in all it’s dour solemnity.

Mormons have an odd notion of humor.

I told the following joke to a group of people who knew nothing about Mormons. They were still laughing and chuckling two or three minutes later.
I told the same joke to a group of Mormons and after the punchline they just sat and stared at me.

"Old Heber Johnson had lived a good life but was now near the end. He lay in his upstairs bedroom where the doctor had given him only hours to live. As Heber slipped in and out of consciousness, he smelled the most wonderful thing! His wife Vonda was downstairs baking chocolate chip cookies. Heber decides that before he dies he's going to have one of those cookies. He rolls out of bed and slowly, ever so slowly he crawls down the stairs. He crawls across the kitchen floor and reaches up for a warm cookie. Just as he almost touches the cookie, Vonda sees him and slaps the back of his hand saying, "Heber! Leave the cookies alone. Those are for the luncheon after the funeral'."

Funny Shinehah isn't it that some folks - and certainly all fools - find natural spontaneity so hard to come by.

When on guard, with their guard up, folks tend to be guarded.

So much for FREE AGENCY. Being in the moment. Being alive! Normal. Natural. Free.

Shinehah loved it!

Yes I shared lots of perfectly clean jokes with mormons and the same vapid unresponsiveness. Yet if they heard the same joke in general conference there would be nervous chuckling for sure.

I guess to become fully converted in mormonism is to Go Clear from natural emotions. This why they always need some artificial signal that it's ok to laugh or love.

So thankful my dad loved to laugh. I never heard the deal about the evils of loud laughter in my ward.

Maybe the injunction against laughter is a new LDS invention LR.

Glad you got to enjoy your dad's good humour.


Here are just a few KJV scriptures that mention laughter in a favourable light:


Proverbs 17:22 - A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Job 8:21 - Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.

Psalms 126:2 - Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 - A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Luke 6:21 - Blessed [are ye] that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed [are ye] that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

James 5:13 - Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:121.. "Revelation" given through Joseph Smith...Dec.. 1832...
...Therefore cease from all your light speeches, from all laughter....

I made a conscious decision as a youth to never read any of the scriptures. Always figured none of what is written in them applied to me anyway.

By maintaining that the scriptures do not apply to you, you have passed the first test of qualification for the Presidency of the LDS Church. Please answer the following:

Are you at least 87 years old?

Can you prevaricate an on-the-spot response to questions about your mission experience or, if you did not enjoy the blessing of serving a mission, reasons for not going?

Can you pretend that your utter failure to grasp any aspect of modern culture is somehow endearing?

Does your wife wear the pants in your relationship?

I asked questions in church and didn't get answers.

The things expected of me were usually task oriented. Memorize & Repeat junk, lies & B'S'.

Joy was essentially non-existent. Smiles were Frowned upon. Happiness was superstitious, even suspicious, as extasy and ecstatic states weren't options [while they are supposed to be the center of religious freedom], or at best, were not considered acceptable. Love was always a step away.

I, seeking joy, as a boy, jumped into the fast moving current of love, life, and laughter, with all it's possibilities, consequences, and potential experiences.

Mormonism HAS NO PLACE in a Happy Person's Life.

I Can Laugh
LOUDLY, eternally

I am Living Life
Funny! & FREE-

Me

They say Boyd Packers greatest fear was that someone, somewhere, was having a good time.....and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

That's likely true about Packer but like most things he said I don't find it to be useful;)

If God is so pissy about people laughing loudly, ol' Alpha and Omega should get himself a different job.

if you're into control.

A fearful population is a controllable population.

LDS Inc. is about controlling people. Masses of people.
Keep these fearful, and they control themselves, giving their lives and paying their dues out of mortal fear, "enduring to the end."

Really, if you're The Bretheren, you want long sad sorry faces everywhere.
Can you imagine how hard it is to control an un-serious people?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lc86JUAwwg

What is wrong with loud laughter? Our family have/had great senses of humor, really dry humor. My dad was one of the biggest practical jokers I knew of. I loved hearing my mother laugh.

Done & Done, yes, we all should have been laughing hysterically after being in the temple, but I was just so glad to have it over with as I had built it up to be orgies or something. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't tell me what happened in the temple. I should have FORCED my future husband to tell me. I got my sister to tell me about the washing and anointing several years before I went as I was ready to leave the church over what I'd heard.

I made it back to the temple 4 or 5 times and then just couldn't go again after doing sealings to some odd guy who was acting like I really was his wife. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I had 40 minutes to wait in the foyer for my husband and time to "meditate" for the first time in the temple and I never went back. I still have that TR. That was in 1990.

The temple was the most laughable thing I've ever been through. Too bad it is a sad thing that our family members convince themselves it is not. My daughter had issues with the temple that she told her dad about. She can't tell me negative things, yet she was going with her husband once a week. She's trying to prove she can do it. I tried that, too. It is wonderful that she has had a break from going to the temple!!!

Loud laughter is the gateway drug to apostasy.

Just sayin.....

Tyrants hate humor, for that which evokes laughter loses prestige and becomes vulnerable. Usually the little boy who criticizes the emperor's nudity gets imprisoned or executed.

That's the theme of The Name of the Rose, right? The hidden book, the evil book, was Aristotle's Poetics, with its praise of humor and by extension sarcasm and ridicule. Irony and humor are tools to use against dictators and those who aspire to dictatorship.

The Temple merely teaches what all tyrants have taught: loud laughter at the anointed ones should be punished condignly because it is "evil."