Is the admonishment of "loud laughter" still in the temple endowment? Hearing that in my first temple endowment (first of two) in 1973 starting me seriously questioning the truthfulness of the Mormon gospel. I aways placed a high value on humor and the thought of stifling my laughter was abhorrent to me. Is there a GA who is known for his/her humor and isn't allowed to share it in General Conference because of the tight rein on talk content and being serious (spiritual)?
Once somebody from the Stake presidency admonished the ward I was attending that there was too much chatter before the meetings and we were not being reverent.
After some little boy from Primary would be placed up front with a sign reading "Reverence" to remind us all to be quiet. Killing every sense of community and they wonder why they can't keep people around.
Northern_Lights Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Once somebody from the Stake presidency admonished > the ward I was attending that there was too much > chatter before the meetings and we were not being > reverent. > > After some little boy from Primary would be placed > up front with a sign reading "Reverence" to remind > us all to be quiet. Killing every sense of > community and they wonder why they can't keep > people around.
I remember this. It must have been a church wide directive. Around the same time, they used to make a BIG DEAL about the prelude music as they wanted ZERO talking inside the chapel. As I recall, members started doing all their chit-chatting outside the chapel. So they started assigning the Aaronic priesthood to stand in the foyers to remind people to shut up and move to the chapel.
Do you know that some school teachers have noise monitoring machines in their classrooms? It's like a stoplight system -- a yellow light means the noise level is rising, and red means it's too high.
I would just talk to my class when they got too loud. Some teachers have hand signals. Or if the kids are really bouncy, you play "the quiet game" or have the entire class take a 10-minute time out, with heads down on desks. Perhaps the Mormon church could use fome of these techniques? :p
The church already has something to calm members down, it's called the temple endowment. On my first time (which was awful because I didn't know about being naked and having my privates touched by a complete stranger) I was told to pay close attention during the "temple film". They turn off the lights and play their "in the beginning" movie with pulsating elevator music.
Surrounded by men 3 times my age, the bishop sitting on my left and my father sitting on my right immediately fell asleep. In a short time, the two rows in front of me were zonked out. I thought I was in the middle of a sawmill because so many men were sawing logs~ snoring away.
My dearly beloved dad loved to laugh...loudly. I miss hearing that laugh still...23 years after he died. He would have had an opinion on these BS orders from on high.