Madison54 wrote:cwald wrote:Let me guess, they grilled you about the first four temple recommend questions?
Yeah. I was grilled by church leaders for two hours the first time I got called in for and accused of "apostasy."
I hope MT will stand firm in its mission to educate and provide accurate facts about the Mormon faith.
18 months ago I was threatened with church discipline for my involvement with the John Dehlin "movement." I cowarded like a dog and ran with my tail between my legs. I so so regret doing so today. I let the church bully me into silence.
That will not happen again. I have a family of bishops, stake president and HCs... I was told "not to call home" if I spoke with the Washington Post reporter.
I did the interview. Haven't seen my family in a year.
Good luck.
Truth.
Peace.
cwald,
I well remember all that you went through and how awful that was for you. Such betrayal from your family members. I understand why you reacted like you did and I don't think you should regret it even though you'd do things differently today. At the time, you did what you felt was right to protect your family.
This is what angers me the most.....how the church uses our tender feelings for those we love the most to silence us from speaking the truth. This is the very truth that we'd love for our family members to hear and understand. Yet the church preaches "Families Can Be Together Forever" from the rooftops and to investigators.
I am completely out to my family members and they know I no longer attend. Yet out of respect for them I would also not allow myself to become the face of the one who publicly takes a stand. So, I understand where Dianne and others are coming from. What a horrible decision to have to make. Stand up for what's right and hurt their families? Or cower and allow the church to threaten, control and silence? It's all very sickening.
Thanks Madison. It was a pretty crappy time of life.
You make a good point. I need to be careful about judging...when family is involved, it is just crappy.
I also would suspect that this is just a local SP. Or regional. My problems came from Cache Valley, where John Dehlin currently resides and is a big name and seemingly threat to the church. I have heard since, that there other folks, some were acquaintances, who got called in in Cache Valley and pretty well went through the same ordeal as happened with my SP...the SP's were all using the same playbook. A lot of interrogation about the first four temple recommend questions, a lot of fear and mistrust, wolves in sheep clothing rhetoric...couple with threats of church discipline for being involved in the "John Dehlin middle way movement"...all rolled in a nice neat package of "we love you and are concerned about your current online activities and path you are following..."
This was a regional incident... local SP's had been trained how to deal with John Dehliners and New Order Mormons. I suspect the same with this MT incident.
BUT, I really don't think the church can continue in this path forever. They will either have to deal with JD and those who espouse the middle way, or they will either intentionally or unintentionally validate his work and ideals. That is just my opinion.