Hi Ladybug, I'm in Northern Ca. just outside Sacramento.

I hope I don't sound too mean spirited and judgemental in relating what happened,but I was about through with TSCC and just starting to see how ridiculous it all was.

The Posse:
Also about five youngish couples who had moved to the area to attend McGeorge Law School. They were from Utah (and I think Idaho) and openly looked down on "California Mormons".They were from connected families and felt very comfortable in telling us how things should be done. They felt superior to the McFamilies who only had money, not connections. They were in their late twenties, but felt comfortable talking down to people twice their age.

The Dazed and confused.

This was the majority of the original ward members who refused to move with the times and couldn't wait for things to get back to normal. They also were confused by the newbies behavior. Very very few of them ever flaunted their wealth and rarely, if at all acted superior.
This group also included oldie families with little money but who had always had a secure place in the ward.

The rest of us:
Had been in the orginal ward less than 10 yrs. We were welcomed and included but still not really part of the old guard. Not yet sure what role we were to play in the new ward. We were Sweden. Neutural, innocous, non-starters. J and I were in this faction.

The ward went from "gosh darn it, let's get have a root-beer float" to "what Gym do you belong to" and overt attempts to determine pedigree.

It took about 3 months for the open seething, boasting, and sneering to settle down. The Stake Pres virtual aged 10 yrs in that time frame.

The McFamilies started hiring the ward young women (YW) to babysit, and the first major brouhaha began. One of the McF sisters was overheard saying they wanted to take a baysitter with them on their Spring-Break trip to Hawaii. Many of the YW were from large D&C families and had never been out of the the county let alone State, and were whipped into an excited frenzy. It was really horrible to see basically sweet young women vie for what must have seemed like the opportunity of a life time. Sister McF was sought out by the YW's parents who were eager to tell what an amazing yW their daughter was. Jealousy reared it's ugly head as rumors of who had been selected leaked out. It was common to see yw crying in the halls, and the "chosen one" was ostracized upon her return.

I have many examples of ugly behavior but lets get to the implosion. It began with the McFs. They were a self contained little cess pool. They socialized exclusively, received most of the major ward callings, flaunted their wealth and interacted with the rest of the ward members only when absolutely necessary. They were clearly now running the ward. (OK, one more example of their bourish behavior). One McF sister was speaking in Sac meeting, and feigning humility told of how educated she was but choose not to work outside of her home because she valued her children more than money. I'm sure you can imagine the implications. If I had to guess I'd say the Posse was the most incensed. The Posse sisters were either working to put their DHs through school or running daycare in their home to earn money. How dare anyone look down on them. Didn't you recognize their family Name?

I'm not sure exactly why, but for some activity the YM were making hats out of construction paper for their leaders and someone made a penis shaped hat for a Mcf leader and wrote dick head on it. Sorry for the language. J and I laughed for days over that one and could never see that Brother again without imagining the hat. This seemed to be the first clue the McFs had that the rest of the ward didn't share in their high opinion of themselves. They demanded to know who the culprit was and ran an investigation that would have impressed the District Attorney's Office. Get over yourselves. I don't know if they ever found out who made the hat, but I seem to remember hearing it was actually one of the YM's Dad.

There was jockeying for position within the McF faction and it came to a showdown betweem two families. There are several versions of this event (hey, kinda like the first vision) but essentially the sister of one family rolled up her car window while Brother Hat was lecturing her about something. Brother Hat called Brother window and demanded Sister window apologized. Hell to the Nah. Brother Hat rallied the McF troops and froze "the windows out". They bore it well at first, sitting in quiet indignation waiting for it to blow over. It didn't. O.K. I knew the church wasn't true at that point but I wasn't missing this.

The Windows now sat separetly from the rest of the McFs and Sis W was beginning to crack under the pressure. She no longer had a social network and the Posse sisters smelled blood in the water. They didn't want her either but wanted details (so did I). She confided in them and they spread the information around the ward. Even engaging the D&Cs in conversation. The fact that Sis W was pleading her case infuriated Bro Hat and he did something that affected Bro W financially. Sis W now tried to apolgize but Bro Hat wasn't having it

Bro W. took up about 2/3 of the next F&T meeting mostly saying Christ wants us all to get along and treat each other with respect. Really? Was this something new? Bro hat then got up and basically said Brethern, excerise dominion over your wife.
The Posse working women then essentially said "Bite me". The mcF sisters countered with "God likes us better because we stay home with our children". F&T meeting ran way long but no one seemed to care . It was the best F&T meeting I've ever attended. No mention of JS or BOM, Just ridiculous people using scripture to zing others.

I left the ward shortly after that, but I suspect it went down hill from there.

OMG I am so glad to be out!!

Thanks for the details. Truth is always in the details and this says more about daily life as a Mormon than a thousand quotes from the BoM and Bible.

I vouch for the validity of the Days of Our Ward soap opera. Looking forward to another episode! Like a war movie--so glad it's over.

Anagrammy

This is too funny. Even those of us who were in more sedate wards can imagine this happening!

Wow....quite a story. I am wondering if the LDS women who work and those that don't battle in each ward and if this may be the thing that brings most women to either imbed themselves more into Mormonism or GET the HECK out of such a controlling organization. They just can't stay out of each other's business can they - the SAHM's?

Seems likely. Outside the Morridor women who stay home tend to be taken less seriously. They have to defend their decision to be a housewife instead of making a career for themselves, and it's considered admirable for a woman to pursue an education and her own means of success. For women who choose not to work in the Morridor, it's a rare and exciting chance to be the ones looking down on everyone else. Oh, GOD WANTS ME TO be a mother. That's what he designed me for. I'm a better person for not having a job. Blah blah blah.

I noticed in hindsite that the stay at home Moms were very selective. There were a lot of stay at home Moms who got together in my wards as I was staying home raising my family..... but I was never welcome in their get togethers.

I saw in hindsite they had money.
They also had husbands who had positions in the ward.
Their husbands were home every night.

Mine was the ward financial clerk.
He was only home on weekends as his job required him to work away from home.
I had no family in the ward to 'help', no aunts, grand mothers, or mothers to watch the kids for a couple of hours. Especially if I wanted to go anywhere with my husband.

It didn't matter that I had a testimony.
It didn't matter that I lived the gospel.
It didn't matter that I had a current temple recommend.

All of the above that we are told over the pulpit that assure you of a place in God's true church and kingdom is simply not so.

It is the same ten families in the ward.
It is the people with money.
It is the people with connections.

TBMs are the most snobbish bunch of people you'll ever meet.
They smile in your face and exclude you constantly while claiming to be your friend.....but over the years it is what they DO that shows what they are!!!

This reminds me of the parable game we used to play. This is when we spend drunken evenings making up imaginary biblical parables (and occasionally even referencing real ones) for as much of our conversation as possible. We just do it for fun (we also tend to bump the Christian "look how cool we are" rock station on these evenings) but I've gotta admit that there is a lot of biblical reference that can be used to passive aggressively smite thine enemies. Kinda makes me want to attend a FnT meeting just to hone my skills.

The parable game does sound fun. I don't think that I could stomach the christian rock. If I ever hear "Our God is an Awesome, God" again I am going to kill a kitten.

Anyway, I need to come down sometime and we can be crazy and stupid.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2011 02:15PM by dthenonreligious.

Oh there's no "Our god is an awesome god" on the "We're so hip and with it" Christian station. There's Christian rap and Christian metal (god I want to see a Christian metal band throw the horns) and Christian punk and even Christian house music. That last one is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.

Hmmm...I would like to see a Christian Metal Band yell, "Hail Satan." A couple buddies of mine do this when they are up on stage. It is hiliarious, in the three part harmony.

Christian Punk, interesting. I will have to look this one up.

sounds like Elk Grove

or maybe Lincoln

This story gives me insight into why so many bishops push anti-depressants on kolobian women. He probably gets to the point where he just wants everybody to chill the f**k out.

I might have been tempted to slip tranquilizers into the sacrament water! (Had I wanted to miss the drama)

One telling detail was the financial revenge taken by one wealthy guy on another wealthy guy.

It shows what punishment they think is most hurtful. Hit the guy where he's most sensitive, in the wallet.

It could be worse if an entire mormon community decides to take the financial route to revenge. Without even an overt agreement, they could really hurt someone's local business.

And obviously, the best possible category to which one should belong is that of mormon aristocracy with a fine Utah/Idaho name with a long history in the cult *plus* lots of ill-gotten gains one can flaunt as blessings from God.

I think I missed part 1. Would you mind providing a link?

OnceMore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think I missed part 1. Would you mind providing
> a link?


+1

"Well, that's JUST (sister) (brother) so-and-so; s/he's a little off-center, just know that when you have to deal with him/her... Otherwise, everyone's O.K...."

Yup; nearly everyone INSIDE ChurchCo is allowed (if not encouraged) to have their idiosyncrasies!

Those Outside ChurchCo: NOT!

Not to throw a wrench in this most entertaining saga, but I have to admit the name Stormy comes to mind.

The drama so-described is just par for the course in a few of the Mormon wards I've been in. Annony isn't describing anything out of the ordinary. I won't think "stormy" until a bunch of 'new' posters (i.e. sock-puppets) claim to have been in the same ward.

wait, what's this about stormy? i've been out for a couple weeks..

I did a search. I'm glad she got found out because that story didn't make any kind of sense.

I don't know, big red...

That could almost be the good old second ward here in the appalachians. Maybe the events were not in the same order as anonny, but over the years, I saw most of that kind of behavior here (except we didn't have the law school - we had western know it alls doing their med school residency here).

Same thing, I guess...

...though we did have a lady attempt to cast demons out of her soon-to-be ex husband in F&T meeting once...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2011 03:45PM by Hillbilly Heathen.

Details, please?

I've lived in a dozen or more wards over the years and I've never seen nor heard of anything this over the top. There are always the same groups - the McF's the Posse, The sahm's the top ten and so on, but I have just never seen there become an outright war like this. I can tell you that my little sis, when she was in YW, hated her leader. She and her BFF got caught giving the YW leader a bag of coal for Christmas. Next thing I know (mind you this happened the first day I brought my BF home to meet my fam) the YW leader screeches to a halt in my parents driveway and starts screaming at my sis. Then my dad proceeds to - no shit - spank her with a belt in front of us. I was mortified - but the dude married me anyway and we had a good long run of it - 29 years. Ah yes, those were the days!

If US converts have any characteristic in common, it is that they typically don't have an upper-middle class suburban life. Imagine them trying to fit into this ward shark pool! Little money, no pioneer pedigree, and no clue of the internal dynamics.

Of course they run screaming for the exits.

Sounds like the usual tripe that goes on in the church. Glad I don't participate. But you know, in the New Testament that stuff was going on with the Jews and Gentiles. Even Peter was chastised by Paul for being a part of it. Of course if the church members actually read the Bible they would know the story.

I suggest not falling for this. Order your fiction from Amazon. LOL