NOM

I have to vent or I am going to explode.

To keep the peace at my house I just attended the "wedding" of one of the YM that I was a leader over. The little speech part before the ceremony was horrible. Nothing about loving or respecting or cherishing, no advice on dealing with struggles of the new relationship or sacrificing for each other or anything of the kind.

It started out by paying homage to our Prophet and his constant stream of revelation and obeying him. Then went on to extol the virtues of weekly temple attendance. He said the key to a successful marriage was temple attendence?! WTF? What about love and respect being the key. Christ wasn't even mentioned. The premise was that without the temple a marriage won't last a week! how do never-mos ever have happy marriages? Then went on an on about how we can learn gospel principles from the endowment and initiatory. Then on to how the endowment has symbolism but that its not symbolic that the Temple really, literally is God's house, and he literally lives there, as in you would expect to bump into him in the elevator.

I seem to remember my wedding in the temple having a better pre-pep talk than that. Poor kids, i feel bad for them.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Sounds awful. I know I have been to better ceremonies in the temple, with more practical advice given. I wonder if the sealers are being told to do this, make it all about the church and not the couple. Seems consistent with other things the church controls. The F Whitney Clayton commencement speech comes to mind as something that should be about the graduates, but was all about church.

Hopefully the couple ignore his advice. Worst thing would be persistent effort to make bad advice work. I spent too much of my life in similar pursuit.

So he was basically saying, "Look how awesome I am!" It was cleverly disguised, but it was about him and his attempts to raise his own status and not the newly wed couple.

DPRoberts wrote: ↑Fri May 11, 2018 12:33 pm I wonder if the sealers are being told to do this, make it all about the church and not the couple. Seems consistent with other things the church controls.

I wondered this as well. I sure hope not, my son is planning on being married there in a couple of months.

GoodBoy wrote: ↑Fri May 11, 2018 2:39 pm it was about him and his attempts to raise his own status and not the newly wed couple

Yeah, there really wasn't a stitch said about the couple. The sealer is the first coun. in the temple presidency. I hope my disgust wasn't completely apparent on my face, I was trying hard not to roll my eyes or mouth the words "This is ridiculous!" I didn't want the bride or groom to think I was disapproving of them. I guess I can just say I had gas.

I was asking myself at what point am I just not going to be able to pretend anymore? I suppose I should just become more philosophical about it and not care, but right now it bugs the hell out of me that Mormons call that a "wedding"

Mormonism is a superorganism. It wasn't two people getting married, it was two tiny bits of Mormonism.

We were sealed by my wife's grandpa. It couldn't have been any better because it was personalized and he was a great man I respected.

My brother's was some random dude who happened to be on shift that day. He asked him where he served his mission before hand. Then spent the time during the ceremony telling my brothers bride she needs to spend time learning to speak Spanish so she too can serve The Lord when they are older.

To this day we all tease her because she hasn't learned Spanish yet.

I hate them. The first I attended was my own. I was glazed with all the chaos of the day. The oknky thing DW and I recall is that we are supposed to remember that we are each other's greatest asset.

I have been touched by a few others I attended before my FC. I attended one of my YM's about 18 months ago (my last time in the temple, despite having a valid TR) and it was so sterile, boring, and impersonal. What BS.

The following day I went to a gay wedding that was officiated by a pastor and personal friend of the happy couple. It was awesome, tender, and happy. Lots of love and laughs (maybe all the alcohol in the crowd helped with that).

Sad how the COJCOLDS holds families hostage over worthiness at celestial sealing ceremonies.