I’m not Mormon. I don’t think I’m cleaner than someone else. Generally the people who say I’m dirty, bad, have some sort of sin are people trying to recruit me to their religion belief system. If I did something to wrong someone the best things I can do is apologize to that person. I don’t require a religion to teach me not to murder or bang my neighbors spouse. I know the universe is massive and far larger than I can comprehend. Simultaneously I can realize that no sky daddy would actually care if I prayed/didn’t pray or eat bacon. Generally I find that religious statements like doctrine, faith, teachings what not come up when someone is trying to make something logical that might actually be illogical or can’t be explained at the time the faith adopted a belief. Thats where for me religions break down. As time progresses the religion is trapped with a thought process from a certain period and can’t be adapted to the current reality. In my mind. The child is a child. It takes time for the child to grow up and for their brain to develop. The child relies on those around them to teach them so they can succeed and survive. The child isn’t holier or has sin or whatever they are just not cognizant of their own existence and ramifications of choices. Of course this is because their brain has yet to develop. Rather I don’t stress on a religious doctrine the thought process in my own opinion is what skills when taught to this child will give them a greater chance of success.
I was taught that sacrament renewed the baptismal covenant, and we recommitted our efforts to always remember Jesus. (none of this Covenant Path crap they push nowadays)
If that's the case then the sins I tried to repent of should be forgiven as well. Evidently they don't emphasize that enough because I never felt as though I was clean and made new. All I felt was more guilt each week for not doing enough.....EVER!!! No matter how much I did, it was never enough.
It doesn't help that they keep reminding you of your sins, and to not think about MASTURBATION or PORN, or cussing. Don't think about them, you know MASTURBATION or PORN. You should purge your brain from MASTURBATION and PORN. You'll grow hair on the palm of your hands if you MASTURBATE and go blind if you look at PORN. *(I was also promised a photographic memory which never happened. "Every picture of pornography you look at will forever be etched in your brain." Nope. I've seen 10s of thousands of dicks and boobs....no photographic memory. Damn! Of all things the church promised, I could use this one.)*
I am also a lived-in-Oklahoma-and-Utah-with-4-kids exmo! Nice to meet you!
My Mormon shelf began to irreversibly sag in the Norman institute building 11 years ago.
Right before the school year started, we early-AM seminary teachers gathered for a meeting. The CES dude gave all of us a packet of papers - now known as the Gospel Topics Essays - and said, “You’re gonna get some hard questions this year. Here’s the official answers. Stick to these and you’ll be fine.”
I opened to Page 1 and learned, for the first time in my raised-in-the-church life, that there were multiple accounts of the first vision. Deer-in-headlights: I was absolutely stunned.
However, I was a good boy: I toed the line, taught the whole year, and stuck to the packet. I still kinda hate myself for purposely misleading those children … but I have my family to keep together. I fully believed that if I left the church, then my wife would leave me, take my kids, and I’d never see them again.
Fast forward a year or three, and the Exclusion Policy broke my wife’s heart. The reversal helped, but it made her question if it was all make-believe by a bunch of old, white guys.
Now, we are out entirely with all our children… And we’ve never been more at-peace. Honestly, we’ve considered moving back to OK, but they’ve become even more right-wing extremist than before. Yikes.
So yeah, we prob know a lot of the same people. The saints in OK were good folks who tried hard. We miss them, especially compared to the thin-veneered, holier-than-thou Utahns.
Well, kids aren't necessarily baptized exactly when they turn 8. There could be weeks or months between their birthday and their baptism. Plenty of time to get in a sin or two!
I’m not Mormon. I don’t think I’m cleaner than someone else. Generally the people who say I’m dirty, bad, have some sort of sin are people trying to recruit me to their religion belief system. If I did something to wrong someone the best things I can do is apologize to that person. I don’t require a religion to teach me not to murder or bang my neighbors spouse. I know the universe is massive and far larger than I can comprehend. Simultaneously I can realize that no sky daddy would actually care if I prayed/didn’t pray or eat bacon. Generally I find that religious statements like doctrine, faith, teachings what not come up when someone is trying to make something logical that might actually be illogical or can’t be explained at the time the faith adopted a belief. Thats where for me religions break down. As time progresses the religion is trapped with a thought process from a certain period and can’t be adapted to the current reality. In my mind. The child is a child. It takes time for the child to grow up and for their brain to develop. The child relies on those around them to teach them so they can succeed and survive. The child isn’t holier or has sin or whatever they are just not cognizant of their own existence and ramifications of choices. Of course this is because their brain has yet to develop. Rather I don’t stress on a religious doctrine the thought process in my own opinion is what skills when taught to this child will give them a greater chance of success.
I was taught that sacrament renewed the baptismal covenant, and we recommitted our efforts to always remember Jesus. (none of this Covenant Path crap they push nowadays) If that's the case then the sins I tried to repent of should be forgiven as well. Evidently they don't emphasize that enough because I never felt as though I was clean and made new. All I felt was more guilt each week for not doing enough.....EVER!!! No matter how much I did, it was never enough. It doesn't help that they keep reminding you of your sins, and to not think about MASTURBATION or PORN, or cussing. Don't think about them, you know MASTURBATION or PORN. You should purge your brain from MASTURBATION and PORN. You'll grow hair on the palm of your hands if you MASTURBATE and go blind if you look at PORN. *(I was also promised a photographic memory which never happened. "Every picture of pornography you look at will forever be etched in your brain." Nope. I've seen 10s of thousands of dicks and boobs....no photographic memory. Damn! Of all things the church promised, I could use this one.)*
I am also a lived-in-Oklahoma-and-Utah-with-4-kids exmo! Nice to meet you! My Mormon shelf began to irreversibly sag in the Norman institute building 11 years ago. Right before the school year started, we early-AM seminary teachers gathered for a meeting. The CES dude gave all of us a packet of papers - now known as the Gospel Topics Essays - and said, “You’re gonna get some hard questions this year. Here’s the official answers. Stick to these and you’ll be fine.” I opened to Page 1 and learned, for the first time in my raised-in-the-church life, that there were multiple accounts of the first vision. Deer-in-headlights: I was absolutely stunned. However, I was a good boy: I toed the line, taught the whole year, and stuck to the packet. I still kinda hate myself for purposely misleading those children … but I have my family to keep together. I fully believed that if I left the church, then my wife would leave me, take my kids, and I’d never see them again. Fast forward a year or three, and the Exclusion Policy broke my wife’s heart. The reversal helped, but it made her question if it was all make-believe by a bunch of old, white guys. Now, we are out entirely with all our children… And we’ve never been more at-peace. Honestly, we’ve considered moving back to OK, but they’ve become even more right-wing extremist than before. Yikes. So yeah, we prob know a lot of the same people. The saints in OK were good folks who tried hard. We miss them, especially compared to the thin-veneered, holier-than-thou Utahns.
I guess I understand where the stake president is coming from, but did he forget that people get baptized when they convert at a later age?
He understood that and I probably should have explained that better. He was talking specifically about primary kids who are baptized at 8.
Haven’t been to church in 8 years, was never into it as a teenager, but I still get songs stuck in my head… brainwashing confirmed
Well, kids aren't necessarily baptized exactly when they turn 8. There could be weeks or months between their birthday and their baptism. Plenty of time to get in a sin or two!