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Hi NonTraditionalMom, Just want you to know that there are other people out there (me) who feel the same way you do about this “you should have known” mantra flowing around the church right now. For one, it is incredibly un-Christlike and judgemental. To even have the the “you should have known” view, you must erroneously either be so committed to the church that you can easily discount the bad that has been done, or you must be so embedded in your own life that you believe all people share your experience of knowing and are incapable of showing the level of empathy God wants us to develop. At any rate, in my view, it is a pitiful position to be in and after I get past the anger I feel when somebody expresses it, I feel sorry for the person. They simply do not understand and are unwilling to seriously look at what pain and betrayal a fellow human being is experiencing. Just sad.
As for how I deal with it, I would say it is VERY difficult at times – I, like you, have felt great betrayal due to the level of trust I put into the Church and the decisions they have encouraged me to make. While many of those decisions have been good ones and have put me on a path to an enjoyable, fulfilling life, when I ponder on my standing up against “anti-Mormon” material (which we would now call “history”), I still feel the sting of betrayal.
As for going forward, I will trust in myself and my personal prayers WAY more than following church policies or “prophets”. I try to follow the teachings of Christ as I read and understand them more than the way somebody else wants to interpret them for me. I will also always go to sources outside the Church to get their views on what the Brethren are doing. Honestly, it is a much more balanced approach and has made me happier. Maybe it will work for you too, but at least it might be worth a try.
I am committed to the church and attend weekly and love my ward. It’s a great place to serve and nothing, in my mind, can compare to a “ward family” (I’ve had very good experiences in all my wards). But I know longer will tow the party line and am guided by how the Spirit speaks to me personally instead of just following others.
My thoughts are with you as you come to some resolution with this.
My sister “liked” an article on Facebook about this same topic. My wife read it and wanted to share it with me. I almost never get on Facebook so DW resorted to pulling out her laptop computer and reading the article to me aloud. It was funny and made me laugh. I laughed even harder when I discovered that the article had been written by Ray’s BIL. 😮 😆 :clap: https://medium.com/@ungewissen/the-day-i-won-the-internet-dc236fb81723 That is FUNNY! Had me big time LOL’ing. I think my 2 favorite bloggers are Paul Malan and Hawkgrrrl. They can really think and they can write.
But I think Hawkgrrrl has an edge because she shows a bit of shoulder
😮 When Nibbler posts right after her, I swear his top eye is just staring at her uncovered right shoulder.
Wow. I knew he was talented, but that is hilarious! I loved this. I love how John Dehlin gets into the Facebook feed at the end when it’s clear Nephi is discontented. And how Boyd K Packer tries to get Nephi to call, but apparently Nephi doesn’t. Hilarious stuff. One thing, though, my understanding was that JS ran the stone over the plates and that’s how he was able to see a visionary translation. There may have been some stone in hat stuff but I’ve never head of that — other than seeing it in satirical avatars…
I have to admit, all we got in church all these years was that JS “translated the gold plates”. I love how the article exposes the fact that members who did not know this were asked to find a needle they didn’t know existed, in a haystack of correlated materials that SHOULD have been their source of knowledge.
By the way, was it someone official who said “you should have known?”
I agree it’s funny, especially the “text exchange.” SilentDawning wrote:Hilarious stuff. One thing, though, my understanding was that JS ran the stone over the plates and that’s how he was able to see a visionary translation. There may have been some stone in hat stuff but I’ve never head of that — other than seeing it in satirical avatars…
From the Book of Mormon translation essay:
Quote:Nevertheless, the scribes and others who observed the translation left numerous accounts that give insight into the process. Some accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates. Most of the accounts speak of Joseph’s use of the Urim and Thummim (either the interpreters or the seer stone), and many accounts refer to his use of a single stone. According to these accounts, Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument. The process as described brings to mind a passage from the Book of Mormon that speaks of God preparing “a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.”
The scribes who assisted with the translation unquestionably believed that Joseph translated by divine power. Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she “frequently wrote day after day” at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.” According to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.” …
Another scribe, Martin Harris sat across the table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences appeared. Joseph read those sentences aloud, and after penning the words, Harris would say, “Written.” An associate who interviewed Harris recorded him saying that Joseph “possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.”
Brilliant analogy. I’m bookmarking this thread for the day when my husband actually wants to understand why I feel the way that I do. Now to go back and read through all the comments. 🙂
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