A tale of a church court.

[_why me]

And you think the way to help people who aren't balanced is by ex'ing them, rather than trying to get them professional help?

By the way, why aren't the brethren more careful about who the allow to be baptised in the first place? Is it because they are thinking, "ah, we can use the person to get our stats inflated and if s/he ever really does cause a problem, kick to the curb later."

Of course I have no idea what is happening here. I would suppose that she is saying all sorts of things in meetings. Is she unbalanced? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, her behavior of getting wordy responses from Christ, jotting them down and sharing them, seems a little problematic. But then, we basically know nothing about her. But my guess is: she is quite a handful in meetings with her spiritualisms etc.

[_mercyngrace]

I wager social skills explain everything. People with a lot of life bagage may have a hard time fitting into any group, and in the Church, that can just end up getting interpreted as apostasy, and from there it's easy to rid the group of someone who has a hard time socializing.

I had the same thoughts as I read her blog posts.

I had a YW leader when I was 15-16 who had been abused by her father and gave birth to his child, whom she continued to raise with her own husband and their children. It was a horrible past that generated, naturally, serious baggage. She spoke of abuse in a time when it was unmentionable at church. She tried to form a support group but her efforts were largely ignored because no one was comfortable listening to the graphic details of her trauma and no one had any kind of professional experience to help her unpack her childhood. I will say that she was well treated and loved in spite of the fact that she wasn't fully understood by the rest of us at that time and in that place. She spoke a language born of experiences most of us couldn't even fathom and had a perspective that seemed so foreign.

[_beefcalf]

...she is having personal conversations with Christ and jotting down his replies to her. [...] Now could it be happening? Yes. But in this case I highly doubt it. [...]

Something is not right here...

Joseph Smith claimed to have a personal conversation with Christ. He even jotted it down. Now could it be happening? Yes. But in his case, I highly doubt it. Something is not right here.

It's nice to see how much we are in harmony on these things, why me.

[_MrStakhanovite]

I think this is a case where LDS Leadership lacking an sort of training in pastoral counseling becomes a hindrance. Accepting and integrating people into a community who suffer from mental illness is no easy task. It is a sad irony that most often the people most in need of psychiatric care are those who avoid it and to complicate matters, they don’t like to be patronized and condescended to either.

[Guest]

I think this is a case where LDS Leadership lacking an sort of training in pastoral counseling becomes a hindrance. Accepting and integrating people into a community who suffer from mental illness is no easy task. It is a sad irony that most often the people most in need of psychiatric care are those who avoid it and to complicate matters, they don’t like to be patronized and condescended to either.

Ditto. But the same goes with social skills as well as mental issues. I would wager that many of the people we encounter struggle with mental illness or social awkwardness at one time or another in life. In the LDS Church this can get complicated when the problem manifests itself in a way that involves spiritual expression. I don't see that this woman is mentally ill. To say such is to run the risk of calling all similar spiritual experience as expression mental illness. Otherwise the judgment would be entirely arbitrary.

Unfortunately, what tends to happen in an LDS context is that authority is the blunt tool for settling the issue. If someone says something that sounds the wrong note, then whoever is "in authority" determines the legitimate position. Gladys the homemaker has no standing to say that the City Creek project was problematic given what we know of Book of Mormon ideals regarding a Christian obligation to the poor. All the leaders need to know in order to settle her hash is to say "prophet: right; Sister Nobody: wrong."

Of course, it is important to note that we actually don't know what has happened here. But it seems that something has gone awry, and, at the very least, her needs have not been well met by being disfellowshipped. Granted, that is less harsh than excommunication, but I doubt there will be much of a process in place to meet her actual needs here. She will just cool her heels and they will reassess her submissiveness at the end of her time. Likely she will either be exactly where she is now, or she will be more disaffected.

I could be wrong, but those are my predictions.

[_mercyngrace]

Unfortunately, what tends to happen in an LDS context is that authority is the blunt tool for settling the issue.

This.

Whether intentionally or incidentally.

[_why me]

I think this is a case where LDS Leadership lacking an sort of training in pastoral counseling becomes a hindrance. Accepting and integrating people into a community who suffer from mental illness is no easy task. It is a sad irony that most often the people most in need of psychiatric care are those who avoid it and to complicate matters, they don’t like to be patronized and condescended to either.

First one must be confirmed mentally ill. In this case it was not done. And the blogger considers herself sane. That being so, there was no alternative but a disfellowshipment. One cannot have a member reporting a conversation with Christ in direct speech, especially in church. My guess is she was talking about this and other spiritualisms during meetings, disrupting these meetings. But what do I know....I just have her blog.

[_beefcalf]

First one must be confirmed mentally ill. In this case it was not done. And the blogger considers herself sane. That being so, there was no alternative but a disfellowshipment. One cannot have a member reporting a conversation with Christ in direct speech, especially in church. My guess is she was talking about this and other spiritualisms during meetings, disrupting these meetings. But what do I know....I just have her blog.

Holy crap... isn't this exactly what Joseph Smith reported? Why is it believable to you that Smith had a conversation with Christ, but it is unbelievable to you that this woman had a conversation with Christ?

You keep endlessly whining about the bias of exmos... good grief, man, all the reasons you find this woman's story unbelievable apply directly to the claims of Joseph Smith. Talk about bias...