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I just wanted to get this out as well. I know virtually nothing about Mormonism, so I'm not writing this as a condemnation, accusation, but merely typing MY PERSONAL experience with Mormons and the Mormon Church. Please take this in that context as it is meant in no other okay? Thank you.
Just a short story to get to my experience...
One day, a woman fell in love with a man (an elder in the Mormon Church). This man was married to another woman.
This man had been married to the same woman for over 30 years. They had many children, most grown. His wife and he had no romantic love for each other and had only co-existed for over ten years under the same roof, while having separate bedrooms. They had the love and respect of each other and wanted to be free to find happiness with someone else, but their Mormon faith did not allow them to divorce. The subject was taboo and NOT an option.
Then the Mormon man fell in love with the non-Mormon woman and in a weak moment they conceived a child. This man was devastated that he had "sinned", gone against his church's teachings, and against God. He loved this woman, and his child she was carrying. He carried a heavy burden he brought on himself.
He went to the Mormon church.. he confessed his sin and asked the "councils??" punishment.
He was Ex-communicated from the Mormon Church for a period of FIVE years, AND he had to pay $50,000 a year to the church for each of the years he couldn't even step in their doors to worship!
This story was a retelling of my brothers conception and the hardships my mother went through. Regardless of her actions.. I just found it disgustingly distasteful to hear that they could pass judgement on him to not even be able to WORSHIP the LORD in the church, but HIS MONEY wasn't stained enough with his SIN to enter their open cauffers!????????
Call me nearsighted in the big scheme of things.... but from that day on... I have personally never WANTED to find out anything about Mormonism as a religion.
Just one negative experience, told by an affected bystander to religious justice?
Whew.. I feel better now.. Sorry if this offensive saga offends anyone. It certainly offended me and my family when it happened. I went for many many years as a child having an aversion to church's of any kind due to this negative experience shaping my young mind. I'm glad to hear many many people have positive experiences with Mormonism. To each their own.
I just wanted to get this out as well. I know virtually nothing about Mormonism, so I'm not writing this as a condemnation, accusation, but merely typing MY PERSONAL experience with Mormons and the Mormon Church. Please take this in that context as it is meant in no other okay? Thank you.
Just a short story to get to my experience...
One day, a woman fell in love with a man (an elder in the Mormon Church). This man was married to another woman.
This man had been married to the same woman for over 30 years. They had many children, most grown. His wife and he had no romantic love for each other and had only co-existed for over ten years under the same roof, while having separate bedrooms. They had the love and respect of each other and wanted to be free to find happiness with someone else, but their Mormon faith did not allow them to divorce. The subject was taboo and NOT an option.
Then the Mormon man fell in love with the non-Mormon woman and in a weak moment they conceived a child. This man was devastated that he had "sinned", gone against his church's teachings, and against God. He loved this woman, and his child she was carrying. He carried a heavy burden he brought on himself.
He went to the Mormon church.. he confessed his sin and asked the "councils??" punishment.
He was Ex-communicated from the Mormon Church for a period of FIVE years, AND he had to pay $50,000 a year to the church for each of the years he couldn't even step in their doors to worship!
This story was a retelling of my brothers conception and the hardships my mother went through. Regardless of her actions.. I just found it disgustingly distasteful to hear that they could pass judgement on him to not even be able to WORSHIP the LORD in the church, but HIS MONEY wasn't stained enough with his SIN to enter their open cauffers!????????
Call me nearsighted in the big scheme of things.... but from that day on... I have personally never WANTED to find out anything about Mormonism as a religion.
Just one negative experience, told by an affected bystander to religious justice?
Whew.. I feel better now.. Sorry if this offensive saga offends anyone. It certainly offended me and my family when it happened. I went for many many years as a child having an aversion to church's of any kind due to this negative experience shaping my young mind. I'm glad to hear many many people have positive experiences with Mormonism. To each their own.
God Bless
Desiree—I believe the man was excommunicated; however, I don't care what you were told; the Church did NOT demand, ask, or even accept 50K a year from him. Next, the time period a person is excommunicated is not fixed; it has much to do with the individual and how he or she progresses through the repentance process, so if he was out of the Church for five years, it was primarily his doing. You should also know that excommunicated members are encouraged to continue attending church; it is part of the repentance process. Staying away from Church is NOT part of the process. Finally, excommunicated members are NOT allowed to pay tithing or any other offerings; thus, this claim that the Church took money from him is false, false, false, and false again. Did I mention it was false?
I suspect this story was told by a man with a very guilty conscience and was tweaked to make the Church look like the bad guy. This is EXTREMELY common with excommunicated members. It’s much akin to the fact that nobody ever gets a ticket they deserve; it’s always the cops fault.
I also want to talk about divorce. It is NOT taboo in the LDS faith and is in fact an option.
I have no way of proving to you what happened. I honestly don't know. I know I cannot ask this man, as he has since passed away (God bless him). HE never told me this story, and I have no idea if what I "remember" was a faulty memory of a child, or not. I truly HOPE what you say was as true then, as it was now.
You must remember this took place in Salt Lake City, Utah back in 1974. If the LDS church sanctioned divorces back then, then I guess my brothers dad was a liar. I just don't know. I DO know however that he felt divorce was out of the question with his faith.. maybe I confused HIS interpretation of divorce with his particular CHURCH'S teachings at the time.. I don't know. I was 5 years old and heard the retelling of this over several years into teenagehood. Maybe the story was swelled, exaggerated, embellished? I don't know. Like I said.. I certainly HOPE so. It makes me happy to hear that this thing doesn't happen in your church, but it still makes me wonder. The LDS church might have changed a bit, like the rest of the world since 1974? Isn't that a remote possibility? Was someone in charge back then that did their "own" form of justice, even if it wasn't a widely sanctioned practice? I just don't know. I DO know that he paid the church $50,000 a year for 5 years... now whether he did so, as a silent, "unknown donator" of his own accord? Who knows. He loved God, he loved his faith, and he certainly loved and respected his Mormon church, so this seems a huge possibility. I know I personally witnessed the man crying over his sins, so it really doesn't do anyone any good to try and convince me he was a "sinner who was blaming anyone", other than himself. He was not that type of person. He didn't wear crosses on any jewelry (because he said that was celibrating Christ's death - and this was wrong - this one still baffles me today!), he didn't drink coffee or tea because of "caffeine being considered a drug", etc.
I certainly know I can never get the answers for what happened back then, no one knows but God and my brothers father.
I was merely posting to a thread asking what non-LDS Christians thought about the Mormon church. I told my only experience with it.
Desiree, actually, the thread was specifically about the Book of Mormon, not the Mormon church in general.
To be honest, your story is so off on so many levels, that I have trouble believing it. I don't doubt that you are reporting the truth as you understand it, but given that you heard this as a child and have no way to clarify any details of it with the man involved, I don't believe you have an accurate picture of what really happened. I would have to have more direct evidence.
This is not, in fact, your personal experience with the Mormon church. It is a thirdhand account of someone else's experience. (You said you never heard the man tell the story.)
And just to clarify, I'm an ex-Mormon, so it's not like I cringe from criticism of the church.
Okay- this brings up another question I have, in regards to divorce. Sgt., you write that divorce is an option for LDS members. If the people in question are sealed to each other, then is there a ceremony to become "un-sealed"? Also, if husbands are sealed to wives, and parents are sealed to children, generation after generation, then eventually isn't everyone sealed to each other? Just one more- if a couple is sealed, then one dies and the survivor re-marries, are they sealed to 2 spouses? Or do you "un-seal" from the dead spouse?
Sgt., you write that divorce is an option for LDS members. If the people in question are sealed to each other, then is there a ceremony to become "un-sealed"?
It's not a ceremony, but there is a way to get a temple sealing dissolved. It does not happen automatically when they get divorced. So, it is possible to be divorced but still sealed.
Also, if husbands are sealed to wives, and parents are sealed to children, generation after generation, then eventually isn't everyone sealed to each other?
Yep.
Just one more- if a couple is sealed, then one dies and the survivor re-marries, are they sealed to 2 spouses? Or do you "un-seal" from the dead spouse?
Men can be sealed to multiple (these days, consecutive) wives. So, if the surviving spouse is a man, he can remarry and be sealed to the new spouse and still be sealed to his deceased spouse.
If the surviving spouse is a woman, she can remarry, but she will not be sealed to the new spouse. It will be a "for time only" marriage. She remains sealed to her previous husband.
Desiree, actually, the thread was specifically about the Book of Mormon, not the Mormon church in general.
To be honest, your story is so off on so many levels, that I have trouble believing it. I don't doubt that you are reporting the truth as you understand it, but given that you heard this as a child and have no way to clarify any details of it with the man involved, I don't believe you have an accurate picture of what really happened. I would have to have more direct evidence.
This is not, in fact, your personal experience with the Mormon church. It is a thirdhand account of someone else's experience. (You said you never heard the man tell the story.)
And just to clarify, I'm an ex-Mormon, so it's not like I cringe from criticism of the church.
Okay.. well without trying to sound too rude...
I'm so glad you've felt the need to clarify for me my TRUE experience, and that you feel the creation of my brother and what we as a family went through at that time was not "IN FACT, MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE", but merely a "THIRDHAND account of someone else's experience".
This PERSONAL story was definitely not put on this board to be JUDGED and CRITICIZED by anyone, whether they believed me OR NOT.
Lastly, and I quote, "Desiree, actually, the thread was specifically about the Book of Mormon, not the Mormon church in general." Please accept a thousand pardons for not sticking to the thread topic.. So I'll address the thread specifically for you..
"I" as a non-LDS Christian think of the Book of Mormon as an unnecessary additive to the Bible that was not needed in order for ME to find my path to God. Furthermore, although I know this will be offensive to LDS members and I truly don't want to be, but it just makes me wonder if Joseph Smith was one of those false prophets that would lead people astray from the path of God, that the Bible warns us about? Just a thought.
I have no way of proving to you what happened. I honestly don't know. I know I cannot ask this man, as he has since passed away (God bless him). HE never told me this story, and I have no idea if what I "remember" was a faulty memory of a child, or not. I truly HOPE what you say was as true then, as it was now.
You must remember this took place in Salt Lake City, Utah back in 1974. If the LDS church sanctioned divorces back then, then I guess my brothers dad was a liar. I just don't know. I DO know however that he felt divorce was out of the question with his faith.. maybe I confused HIS interpretation of divorce with his particular CHURCH'S teachings at the time.. I don't know. I was 5 years old and heard the retelling of this over several years into teenagehood. Maybe the story was swelled, exaggerated, embellished? I don't know. Like I said.. I certainly HOPE so. It makes me happy to hear that this thing doesn't happen in your church, but it still makes me wonder. The LDS church might have changed a bit, like the rest of the world since 1974? Isn't that a remote possibility? Was someone in charge back then that did their "own" form of justice, even if it wasn't a widely sanctioned practice? I just don't know. I DO know that he paid the church $50,000 a year for 5 years... now whether he did so, as a silent, "unknown donator" of his own accord? Who knows. He loved God, he loved his faith, and he certainly loved and respected his Mormon church, so this seems a huge possibility. I know I personally witnessed the man crying over his sins, so it really doesn't do anyone any good to try and convince me he was a "sinner who was blaming anyone", other than himself. He was not that type of person. He didn't wear crosses on any jewelry (because he said that was celibrating Christ's death - and this was wrong - this one still baffles me today!), he didn't drink coffee or tea because of "caffeine being considered a drug", etc.
I certainly know I can never get the answers for what happened back then, no one knows but God and my brothers father.
I was merely posting to a thread asking what non-LDS Christians thought about the Mormon church. I told my only experience with it.
The policies regarding the topic at hand have not changed. If either party had wanted a divorce, such would have been their right. Finally, third and fourth hand accounts coupled with age and time will distort facts, and I can assure you the facts in this case have been twisted significantly.
The policies regarding the topic at hand have not changed. If either party had wanted a divorce, such would have been their right. Finally, third and fourth hand accounts coupled with age and time will distort facts, and I can assure you the facts in this case have been twisted significantly.
You are 100% right SergeantL. That was MY misconception or misinformation that I've lived with for many decades. I am truly glad that my experience in this matter was NOT the way the LDS church believes is a proper way. That is why I decided to post the story.. without realizing it, I wanted someone to tell me it wasn't so.. you know? I am truly glad to hear it and can at least lay some of my anguish in that part of my past, to rest. Thank you!
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