Long Conversations

[Emower]

I had a long conversation with my brother the other day. He wanted to get the story about where I stand with the church. It felt nice to finally have someone ask instead of just murmuring behind my back about my sinful ways. We differed on some key things (priesthood authority, Joseph's divine call), but we agreed on a surprising amount. Another thing that came out of the conversation was that he does not want the social consequences of standing up for things that are not true or misconstrued. I'm not even standing up for something per se, I'm just not supporting it anymore for crying out loud.
I also had a conversation with my wife about wanting her to at least understand my beliefs on a deep level, or even change her beliefs. I expressed the thought that I did not want portions of our lives to be separate. There is a range of things I would like to experience with her, not without her. And I made a plug for the hot phoenix summers being much better without the mandated underwear. Anyway, she has reservations about talking about the issues any deeper than we already have. What came out of that conversation was two things. Number 1 was the typical thought of letting satan in to your mind, but the bigger concern to her was also the social consequences. Being Mormon is all she has, and as crappy as that social structure is, it is still a community.
It makes me depressed that at the heart of people's continued activity in the church lies some obvious cult conditioning and everyone ignores it completely.

[Brent]

I think the church is a lot like living in Vichy France, our don't like it and don't dare say anything but the resistance runs deeper than we dare believe.

[MalcolmVillager]

Emower you are a good person! I am glad you had these conversations. They feel great, don't they?!

It really does come down to the social/family. After all that is how the good lord will build the eternities. Who needs atoms or even legos when you can use the family unit as the eternal building block?!

Good luck this summer. Hopefully DW will give you some leeway on the hottest of days!

[Emower]

Emower you are a good person! I am glad you had these conversations. They feel great, don't they?!

It really does come down to the social/family. After all that is how the good lord will build the eternities. Who needs atoms or even legos when you can use the family unit as the eternal building block?!

Good luck this summer. Hopefully DW will give you some leeway on the hottest of days!

They do feel good, until she tells you that she just can't think about it. Then it feels pretty awful. But definitely better than not having the conversation.

[MalcolmVillager]

Yeah Emower. We are mostly in a not talk about it phase.

Sucks!