wenglund wrote:Inconceivable wrote:I don't like what the leaders are attempting to teach my TBM teenagers.
What lesson are you supposing the leaders are attempting to teach your teenagers (not to be confused with the stated lessons you have learned from the handcart experience)?
..Are you concerned that your teenagers will view things the same way you do, in spite of the leaders intents to the contrary?
I mentioned before. Bottom line, they want to bring home that handcarters gave all. We are required to do just a little: Full tithe payer, full time mission, temple recommend (which means full tithe payer), etc. Make the church grow, it makes it just that more true.
My oldest son attended when I was TBM. I had already read about how BY commanded the "saints" to remain in Nauvoo to prepare for the journey rather than chase his advance party down ill-equipted. They didn't listen to him and they died - many of them.
Now, my son learned this by attending without being aware of the above story.
He was put with a "ma'" and "pa" where she was fat and decided that she wouldn't walk. She brought a heavy mattress, extra clothes & all kinds of crap - including her complaining self to be packed onto the cart. She broke all the rules to the burden of her "family". The "pa" was an overzealous taskmaster that expected his little team to keep up with the others. Running with a handcart was a red flag to me. So was the water rationing. This was thoughtless stupidity doing this to my son.
On the third day, my son "ran away" and was adopted by another family and completed the trek. Since that time, you must sign a commitment that you will remain with your assigned family for the duration.
My son is an Eagle scout, I attended nearly every monthly hike/campout because I was in leadership (and I loved being with my quorem kids). We're pretty rugged when we need to be. We live in the desert and we're outdoor people. Small mistakes are big here. And yes, we've done some pretty stupid stuff. The difference is that we have learned not to repeat them.
The church would rather worship ancestors rewriting history and capitalizing on their stupidity (or at least their blind obedience and short sightedness) than teach lessons of true temporal preparedness. At least in this lame case.