So I grew up LDS in Southern California in the 80's. I loved church basketball but that is where I started to see chinks in the armor. It wasn't so much in my same age group but when we'd play against the older men. Seeing that 'christ like love' handed out to a 15 year old by the 'leadership' of the stake was eye opening to say the least. I was never a true believer so it was easy to walk away after I was out of my parents house. I recently had kids and thought about going back to church but after seeing the 'truths' on the internet that is slim to none. I feel ashamed that 18 years of being a mormon (15 more inactive) I didn't know anything about the history. After learning the truth I will be washing my hands of this cult completely.

Good for you. Do they even have church sports any more?

Not sure, I haven't been to church in 15 years. I am curious if they do since it was such a cluster F back in the day.

vhainya Wrote:
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> Good for you. Do they even have church sports any
> more?


Most do. Most ward buildings have a basketball court doubling as a cultural hall.

Ron

even though our team was the "bad news bears" of the stake.

Church basketball is nothing more than a snare to suck children into the cult.

You must go along with all of their lies before they will let you play.

Don't know if they still have it. I'm somewhat tall, 6'2" we moved when I was in high school, and still a TBM. The boys in the new ward, which was in Utah, didn't like me because they thought I would dominate on the team and they would get less play time. Once they found out I hate basketball they liked me.

They still have it, and I always refused to participate. I joined the corporation when I was 14, and was an OK player just cause we used to have a hoop in our driveway, and DB & I would go at it all the time. On one of the first mutual nights I went to, there was nothing going on, so we just played hoops in the cultural hall. After I got 5 baskets in the first 10 minutes of playing, everyone figured out that i could shoot. Then the other team started double and triple teaming me. I didn't think that was cool, so after that night, I never played church ball again. These days, its a very rough physical game within the church walls, even more so than on the pro and college courts.

playing. He spent many hours in surgery, a week in the hospital, and never recovered the full use of his hands.

It was pretty rough back then too, but I don't doubt it is meaner today.

Oh yeah. One of my favorite memories is of our bishop getting kicked out of the gym for unsportsmanlike conduct. Good times.

Our stake once brought in a ringer who did not live in the stake in order to win a crucial game.

The wife of one of the opposing players figured out why our team one and let lose a barrage of obscenities on our bishop. Her parting shot was "none of you should be Mormons" LOL.

I was a kid back then and thought it was hilarious. BUt now I can see her pov.

Ah! Of all the TSCC's most sacred institutions!

All time favorite plays:

-The pregame prayer, asking for the spirit to abide with us.

-The bishop's van-cram, full of non-member high school players.

-The obligatory "if it is thy will" style priesthood blessing
to heal the kid who got a nasty foul.

-The swearing elder's quorum president (only on Saturdays).

-The broken drywall where said EQP punched holes through
3 times after losing.

-The overly competitive bishop, shouting obscenities at the
ref for calling a foul on his son.

-The has-been 40 something who red shirted for some
Utah community college (Narcissistic douche).

-The young guy clotheslining himself while trying to dunk
and impress the ladies.

-The overzealous ward mission leader hijacking the gym on
Wednesday nights, proclaiming special dominion over it.
Apparently b-ball is a missionary tool, and we were abusing
it. We went to the bishop to talk about it and he basically
played it safe; "If you cant work this out then NO ONE can
play ball here anymore" (inspired leadership).

God how I miss it. The church must be true,

In our small farm town church basketball was a pretty big thing.
We had a good team most of the time and I enjoyed playing. Several times we beat teams from bigger and fancier areas. This resulted in some real fights on and off the court. I think I enjoyed some of the fights and brawls as much as the games.

My Catholic husband played on the LDS Baseball and Basketball teams. He was the ringer.

I always loved how TBM's found it OK to treat people horribly doing the basketball games. Stupid hypocrites.

My dad played church bball back in the day...he always called it prison ball because they played by "prison rules" LOL...

Church basketball was great. A bunch of slow white guys who couldn't make the high school team and refs who were marginal at best. Nothing like being the Michael Jordan of church hoops. Good times!

"I went to a fist-fight and a church basketball game broke out."

Pretty well sums up my experience.

"Church League Softball Fist Fight"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UWwCftjR0s

too funny!

I love me some church b-ball, but not enough to stay active :)

About the ONLY thing I miss about church is having my own key to the building so I could play hoops whenever I wanted.

I used to always get a kick out of the pre-game meeting with both teams standing around center court. Usually before the prayer there were some rules to go over, the refs saying they would "do the best they could", blah blah blah... Of course one of the leaders would say "Remember guys, we are only out here to have a good time". I used to love to say "Then why are we keeping score?' <crickets chirping> Haaa haaa haaaa.

Oh man! I forgot about church ball. I swear everything I threw up there went in. Maybe some spirit was guiding the ball or something. Good times.

I hinted to my kids what I thought of the Church the other day when I told them "if it wasn't for Church Basketball, I probably wouldn't be mormon".

A little Cog Dis at a young age is a good thing.