u/No-Information5504

Joseph Smith made promises to a number women when he propositioned them with polygamy that accepting the marriage would save her and all of her family.

Is there a single action that I can take in this day and age that will likewise save my entire family? It seems like this “family-sized salvation package” type-deal is no longer stocked by the Mormon church. Is it because it goes against the belief that we all need to work out our own salvation?

I feel like we are living in the least impressive part of the worst dispensation. With the exception of the “miracle of the lost keys” and the “miracle of the diagnosis by the off-the-cuff examination by the neighbor who is a doctor, but this isn’t really her specialty, and little Brixton made a full, miraculous recovery” we really don’t get anything impressive these days in the miracle department.

From time to time, I like to post my observations and commentary about my time at church as a PIMO. I think it’s important to share what is being said and taught in Zion; sometimes it lines up with the image being put out by the Church and sometimes it doesn’t. I’d like your thoughts, too.

Sacrament Meeting
Today it was open mic. Bishop started with his testimony and spoke about the characters in the Book of Mormon as if they were real people. This isn’t unexpected in a faithful congregation, but as a PIMO, it sounds like someone talking about when Dumbledore did this and that, like the Harry Potter books are based on real people.

After that, of the ten or so people who spoke, it was 3/4 children. A 10 year old literally called us all to repentance. Twice. Because his whole “testimony” was just a rambling stream of consciousness where he repeated himself a lot. In his defense, none of the adults were much better at delivering a coherent message, either.

I sat there thinking about what an odd thing we do- getting up to publicly declare that our beliefs are “true”. It seems to me that as a group, we are compensating by repeating a mantra we’ve been taught since childhood. Why do we feel the need to do this? Do Episcopalians do this sort of thing? What is religious truth?

Sundy School
Our new Sundy School president began by apologizing profusely for how bad of a job she was going to do in her new calling. Nothing like priming the pump for mediocrity. It’s the same with talks and lessons- please, tell me in great detail how bad the message you are about to impart will be. Nothing sets up an atmosphere for learning like extremely low expectations!

Things overheard during the lesson:

The instructor said that “he was not sure why entire cities of men, women, and children in the OT had to be slaughtered by the Israelites, but if God wanted it, it must have been okay.” I absolutely cannot get behind this way of thinking. Are you telling me that you truly believe that in all of these cities, even the children under the age of 8 were irredeemably evil? No man, no woman, no child was worthy of life? God’s big test was null and void for them? No repentance? Did they even have a chance to know of His son before they were murdered? Oh, right… Jesus wasn’t really a thing in ancient Israel until Jesus cane along. I think this “hey the Lord wanted it, so who am I to judge” mentality is offloading our morality onto someone else and it is a huge problem in how we treat other people who are alive right now. Most of them have done nothing more than be part of whatever group the Church is currently demonizing.

A class member talked about how, in some cases, we need to be willing to wait for a very long time for God to uphold his end of covenants, blessings, and so forth. This is very much in line with the current backtracking the Church has had to do in regards to people waking up to the fact that Mormon God is terrible at keeping the promises that he makes. So, the Brethren continue to move the goalposts- even to the afterlife if need be. But he will keep his promises!! The bishop corrected this person to say that we should certainly expect God to answer quickly as well. A little awkward.

The instructor brought out the ol’ “when the prophet speaks, the thinking has been done!” quote at one point. He then expressed his gratitude that we can know that when the prophet speaks, we don’t have to question it. We just have to obey.