Here's my resignation letter, any changes I should make before sending it in?
To Whom It May Concern,
I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I withdraw my consent to being treated as a member and I withdraw my consent to being subject to church rules, policies, beliefs and discipline. I am aware that the church handbook says that my resignation "cancels the effects of baptism and confirmation, withdraws the priesthood held by a male member and revokes temple blessings". In fact, this is the main purpose of my resignation, to revoke the temple “blessing” of being sealed to my former spouse, XXXXXXXX. He is remarried and soon to be sealed in the temple to his new wife, and I have no desire to be connected to them in a spiritual polygamous relationship. I am also getting remarried to a non-member, which according to Church policies means that any future children I have in my new marriage will be born in the covenant under the sealing to my first husband. As of this moment, I revoke my temple sealing so that my future children will not be born under the covenant and will not belong to anyone but their natural parents. My previous marriage should be counted as a divorce in your official Church statistics, as the practice of not allowing sealing cancellations for divorced members and then counting it as a successful temple marriage is dishonest and disgraceful. Since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints refuses to cancel my temple sealing, I now withdraw my consent to be subject to your priesthood authority and hereby revoke all priesthood actions taken on my behalf, both past and future; in particular any rituals pertaining to the outrageous notion of spiritual polygamous marriage.
Sincerely,
sexismyreligion
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2011 01:22PM by sexismyreligion.
I have been wondering about this issue myself. My GF is in the same situation and I brought up what I found in the Handbook of Instruction (found it online) which states:
"If a woman who has been sealed to a former husband remarries, the children of her later marriage are born in the covenant of the first marriage unless they were born after the sealing was canceled or after it was revoked due to excommunication or name removal."
She then of course asked her bishop what the deal on that was and he came up with some BS about extra blessings, protections and stuff. I don't blame him. If the handbook said this I would say some BS to keep a member. I just don't get how females put up with this stuff and let the veil get pulled over their eyes because their church said.
The official line I got is that it doesn't matter who you are sealed to, it's just important that you still have the sealing "blessings", whatever those might be. The LDS church thinks it's better to be sealed to anyone than to no one. I disagree.
The trend I have seen is that it is more important to get married for sealing rather than love. Seems quite opposite to common sense. What is the point of sealing when "It all works out in the end"?
The words “I am being subjected to” suggest that you are a helpless victim of their self-aggrandizing little priesthood rituals. Instead, to keep the power on YOUR side and to state your case more powerfully, change the end of your last sentence as follows (changed words shown in capitals):
from: “...I am withdrawing my consent to be subject to your priesthood authority and thereby revoking all priesthood actions taken on my behalf, in particular this outrageous spiritual polygamous marriage I am being subjected to.”
to: “…I NOW WITHDRAW my consent to be subject to your priesthood authority and HEREBY REVOKE all priesthood actions taken on my behalf BOTH PAST AND FUTURE; in particular ANY RITUALS PERTAINING TO THE OUTRAGEOUS NOTION OF SPIRITUAL POLYGAMIST MARRIAGE.”