My Objections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
1. All “worthy” young men age 12 and up can have the priesthood power bestowed upon them. No female ever can. The arguments for this sound suspiciously similar to those once used to justify women not having the vote: women share in their fathers’ and husbands’ power, they have hidden influence on the men that runs deep, it is simply not their sphere, etc.
2. They made me fear and hate my romantic feelings towards women.
3. They made me fear and hate my budding sexuality towards everyone in general.
4. The Book of Mormon states that the Lamanite people, a supposed lost tribe of Israel, were cursed with dark skin because of their sinfulness. ‘Nuff said.
5. For several decades men of African descent were not permitted to be ordained with the priesthood. No explanation or apology was made after this policy was altered.
6. The church authorities commanded the masses to support and campaign for Proposition 8, overturning legal same-sex marriage in California.
7. The older I got, the more and more my female role models om in the Church started to resemble Stepford wives.
8. This quote: “Of course it’s important for a woman to be educated. You never know what might happen to your husband!”
9. This quote: “The Prophet has instructed women not to delay marriage and family for the sake of education.”
10. This quote: “Oh, don’t worry about your mother being a Buddhist. She’s sure to convert one day.”
11. Though polygamy is banned, a widower may be “eternally married” to multiple women if only one of them is alive. A widow must be “eternally married” to only one husband, living or dead.
12. I was taught to rely on a “still, small voice” in my mind to confirm that things were true. The voice was no stiller and no stronger than the voices that criticized me, that mocked me, that hurt me, that proved to be symptoms of my mental illness. I tugged on the thread and the whole thing unraveled.
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-As I am not of this church, I'd like to note that I mean no disrespect to anyone's beliefs by commenting.-
ReplyDeleteAnyway,
To most of them- yes, I see very much what you mean. Ideas in common- race and gender and sex and religious tolerance- I think.
A very large 'yes' to #1, and I think that applies to quite a lot of policy differences by gender.
My Death-of-the-Author interpretive-self gives me a version of #9 I do agree with, though I'd apply to it everyone. Because I think it's important to recognize that it's not an 'either-or' thing, you can have a family *and* be educated, and I think that when people believe that they absolutely have to sacrifice some parts of their lives to advance others, this can lead to both problems and unhappiness. If someone genuinely isn't interested in a relationship or family, that's fine, but if they are but feel that their other choices make it something they can't have, that's a problem. (This, by the way, is not at all criticism of your point- I see what you're saying, and I agree. It's one of those 'oh, and this makes me think of...' things).
To ten- again, no offense meant to anyone, but attitudes like that make me shudder.
And to 12 (again, no disrespect meant to your or what you went through)- I think this is a general problem. Because the thing is, it's true that you (the general you, not you-you) need a way to tell what is true, and it's also true that no matter what people use as this way, it will at least sometimes lead at least some people wrong. I'm not really sure how to deal with that.
Anyway, again, thank you for sharing.