Adults vs Children
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:59 pm
Adults in the mormon church are kept childlike. They are pressured into not making real decisions, but to follow the decisions made by church leaders. The local leaders, both official and unofficial, simply encourage everyone else to follow along too; they don't make any real decisions. Those people are ideal for the church.
It's like a class of children where you have some kids who follow the rules and encourage the other kids to follow them too. The kids that tell their friends not to watch the Fortnite video on youtube because the teacher said it's not appropriate for school. As a teacher these kids are wonderful to have around and they help the class go smoothly. But that doesn't help the kid in an adult situation when they have to make a decision about what is right to do. The church doesn't want people making decisions about what is right, they want people ceding that authority to them.
I did this for many years. It was really frustrating when I was ceding my moral authority to the church, then when I would ask what was right in a specific situation I was told that I should be able to make those decisions myself.
(I was talking to my sister recently and shared a story where I felt like I was really adulting well. I'm in my mid-30s, so I should have that figured out by now, but I'm still learning. Later, I found myself having a discussion with her in my head about how adults in the church aren't really allowed to be adults, and I thought of this story to illustrate my point.)
It's like a class of children where you have some kids who follow the rules and encourage the other kids to follow them too. The kids that tell their friends not to watch the Fortnite video on youtube because the teacher said it's not appropriate for school. As a teacher these kids are wonderful to have around and they help the class go smoothly. But that doesn't help the kid in an adult situation when they have to make a decision about what is right to do. The church doesn't want people making decisions about what is right, they want people ceding that authority to them.
I did this for many years. It was really frustrating when I was ceding my moral authority to the church, then when I would ask what was right in a specific situation I was told that I should be able to make those decisions myself.
(I was talking to my sister recently and shared a story where I felt like I was really adulting well. I'm in my mid-30s, so I should have that figured out by now, but I'm still learning. Later, I found myself having a discussion with her in my head about how adults in the church aren't really allowed to be adults, and I thought of this story to illustrate my point.)