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Well, I got up today, and just couldn’t make it five straight weeks. Couldn’t do it. Last week was just too much…the HC spent 30 minutes talking about importance of getting married in the temple and all the negative consequences of making the poor choice of not getting married in the temple. Message…if you don’t get married in the temple, your life will be miserable and you have failed. It was sickening…especially considering half of the people sitting there DID NOT get married in the temple…and the only unmarried people besides the BP’s kids, were my three kids.
Oh yeah…also he compared the Mormons to horses in training…to be the few select to be the King’s horses. They are trained their entire lives to obey their master…and then the trainers will withhold food and water from them for a few days, until they lather with hunger and parchment, then release them…and as they go running for water, they will blow the whistle. Most of the horses will continue to the water…but the few who stop and come back to the trainer….will be the chosen few who are selected to be the King’s horses.
That is such bull…..
And sadly…I was probably the only person in the room who believes that it was crap. That is what makes me sad…they just sit there and take it, and do nothing and say nothing to fix the problems. How many times, how many wards, has that HC gave that very same talk? Sickening.
It was sickening to me. I don’t think I have heard such a cult-like teaching since Oct 2010 GC.
I don’t want any part of such “training”…and I’m embarrassed that such teachings are spoken from the pulpit in my church.
I know many of you comment that you have to just ignore many of the things said from the pulpit. I’m not good at it. I will take another break and maybe try again next month.
Cwald. This is the current dilemma with church. Seeing that certain talks have brought much harm to my family and some friends. It’s not unique to this church or even church’s. I do much better at it as do many Millennial Generation(I’m generation X). It helps that growing up in a age with constent advertisement that I learned to selectively filter thru it almost as a after thought. Which has helped me on my own to filter out all the bad talks and ideas in church. But it drops completely when someone I care about starts regurgitating it. I have Zero desire for hierarchy, I do not wish to be “the select few” . I have zero desire to command others. I just want to help people. Not rule over them. So this kind of talk disturbs me as well. Especially since given that analogy indicates to me animal abuse(that is how I see it) and that the end justifies the means(I don’t believe it). I didn’t receive that talk today. I received one by the SP who talked of a guy who spent his whole life trying to return a object of importance to his rightful owner. He spent his whole life night and day(quite his job and aren’t told how he made a living) went searching through city after city, country after country. Feeling completely exhausted he never gave up until near the end of his life he found the rightful owner before passing away from his long journey. I cringed inside to say the least after he said we all needed and had to be like this man to serve the church like unto this man and his journey, so that we could be found acceptable before god. Umm, I appreciate stories but this is too hardcore and unhealthy for me. I just filtered it out. Maybe it worked for a older generation, after reading history and seeing unhealthy teachings in the present I can’t not filter it out anymore because of the pain I watched it cause before. FYI just to help you laugh— during a Apple training seminar we were told we weren’t selling products. Noooo…. He told us “we were selling a better quality of life”. Lol. I filter out stu ff like that that I see as harmful.
I think it’s good that you all, and myself now, have stronger CNF’s (Church Nonsense Filters). How you recognized the nonsense you are hearing is good, in my view. This story of the horses, for me, is an example of what Ben Franklin said — trying to turn people into Good Mormons and missing that the object is really just to be good people.
Like you, I find this absolutely liberating tp have my own clock, as you alluded.
On the other hand, I also think that once acquiring your Church Nonsense Filter, there needs to be a Church Angst Controller (CAC). The CAC allows you to be at peace with the Nonsense now that you recognize it. I think Brian is pretty good at this based on comments he has made in the past. I’m getting there, although still definitely angst-ridden at times, and I think M&G has figured it out too.
So, in this case, it’s good to not only recognize the Nonsense, but also figure out how to be at peace inside and still respect the Nonsense-Givers. There are a few principles that I think help, and which I still strive to apply:
1. Recognize that often the Nonsense is the result of previous generations’ sharing of Nonsense.
2. That such Nonsense can be the result of over-commitment and an unbridled desire to be/do good.
3. That people sometimes see talks as opportunities to be heard, make and impact, and therefore, tend to tell extreme stories.
4. That in trying to move people, some speakers will intentionally preach well beyond the mean — trying to pull the people in the lower quartile up a notch by speaking in the top, upper quartile, which is often way too extreme.
I even think the idea of Nonsense is a bit too judgmental and not conducive to controlling angst, but I lack a better word at this point.
Some analogies are so wrong they never should be uttered. 😈 Can someone open a garage so we can take our CAC’s in for tune ups? Oh wait, Stay LDS is that place! 
CWald, I had the same reaction you did. And so did two other family members after they read it. I bet more people sitting there were thinking like you than not. But they were staying polite. As long as we know we are not living a gospel like that, we know we aren’t part of a cult. It was a gross misapplication of the movie.
You’re already probably a step ahead of me on this, but if you are able to muster the interest to attend in the future you may just want to plan to skip high council Sunday as a rule. My experience is the high council talks tend be be the most arrogant and self-righteous. (Sometimes they are also excellent.) Perhaps not being part of the ward has something to do with it? Ugh…. [shakes head sadly] That would be hard to sit there quietly and filter out. Like Ray already said, some metaphors are best used by not even starting with them: comparing us to animals being trained through abuse for war or the whims of a king?
😥 There’s almost nothing redeeming about that story. What’s the point? A contest to see who can take the most abuse for The Lord???!!!I thought it was kind of cool you were doing an experiment to see what it was like going back for a while. If you have to take a break again, you do what needs to be done. I think it’s really cool you keep an open mind.
cwald wrote:Oh yeah…also he compared the Mormons to horses in training…to be the few select to be the King’s horses. They are trained their entire lives to obey their master…and then the trainers will withhold food and water from them for a few days, until they lather with hunger and parchment, then release them…and as they go running for water, they will blow the whistle. Most of the horses will continue to the water…but the few who stop and come back to the trainer….will be the chosen few who are selected to be the King’s horses.
I don’t want any part of such “training”…and I’m embarrassed that such teachings are spoken from the pulpit in my church.
I know many of you comment that you have to just ignore many of the things said from the pulpit. I’m not good at it. I will take another break and maybe try again next month.
that is such crap. i would go home and teach my children that the “kings horses” are those kiss-ups who will do anything to get ahead, and given that the trainers are “horses a$$es”, wo are willing to starve you to test our “loyalty”, do you really want to be subject to such jerks?enjoy your time off… i am.
What a ridiculous metaphor for discipleship. That said, I’ve had the blessing/curse of being almost a non-stop speaker, teacher, instructor in the church and I’ve probably said and taught more ridiculous things than anyone. So I try to listen to the speaker’s talk more for insight into the speaker’s journey than for an articulation of absolute truths. More than anything, this helps me feel love for the speaker and a sense of communion with other flawed but well-intentioned followers of Christ.
It’s funny you had such a rough day yesterday, cwald, because here on the opposite coast I found myself thinking “How hard would it be to go inactive? Just, you know, for a little while….” I have a testimony of the gospel and I love my local church community. Sometimes, though, I’m just tired. As fate would have it, I was scheduled to teach two different classes yesterday so there was no way to duck out unnoticed.
This week, I have a talk and a lesson to prepare plus scouts.
I guess I’m just one of those horses who can’t resist the whistle, not because I’m a kiss-up, but because it’s my tribe. I feel a responsibility to contribute and know it’s the only way to make a difference for others like me, even when I’m feeling parched.
Not to derail your support thread but I’ve found myself struggling for the last two weeks with some institutional issues. Then, a week ago, I encountered a sister in my ward whose is going through a painful and difficult situation with her family and I was moved with compassion for her. I can’t take a sabbatical now, I want to help her bear this burden. As exhausted as I feel, I can’t walk away from her when she is in need of support, love, and a listening ear.
So maybe I am a stupid horse. The waters of a few consecutive lazy Sundays would taste great right about now but there’s that call I can’t seem to refuse – to be of service – and so, I turn around, head back into the meeting and sit beside a woman whose struggle may be largely unnoticed by others in the room. I put my arm around her and tell her that there is hope and affirm that God is, in my experience, much more merciful than we often imagine. And I go about the King’s business.
Maybe the metaphor isn’t so ridiculous after all.
Or maybe it isn’t about the brutality of the training so much as the horse’s willingness to deny himself on behalf of another.
I am grateful there are some horses that go back to the King, so I can go get my water and not have to deal with that kind of stuff. :silent: Who will obey the master when the crap hits the fan? I think that’s all that horse simile is saying. Heber13 wrote:I am grateful there are some horses that go back to the King, so I can go get my water and not have to deal with that kind of stuff.
:silent: 😈 I don’t mind going back for people I care about when the “whistle” is blown. What I mind is jumping through hoops for arbitrary seeming nonsense. I think that’s what makes me tired.
mercyngrace wrote:Heber13 wrote:I am grateful there are some horses that go back to the King, so I can go get my water and not have to deal with that kind of stuff.
:silent: 😈 I don’t mind going back for people I care about when the “whistle” is blown. What I mind is jumping through hoops for arbitrary seeming nonsense. I think that’s what makes me tired.
I want to echo what mercyngrace said. I actually love going back for people that need help or care about. But I learned in my teenage years that people like to do unimportant test, nonsense type things that can make us tired or exhausted by the time the real need comes and render us unable to help at the moment it’s needed most. I am no more reserved so I have something left for when ever it is really needed.
I appreciate your positive attitudes…that is why I stick around. I long for the day when I’ll have the charity to not let this kind of stuff harm my relationship with the gods.
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Quote:I can’t take a sabbatical now, I want to help her bear this burden. As exhausted as I feel, I can’t walk away from her when she is in need of support, love, and a listening ear.
After a tough couple of weeks, that is what I go to church for too. I pick and choose what speakers and teachers to listen to, and focus on the people there who need love. It has made church a more positive experience.
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