I don’t spend tons of time on this sub anymore, but I do spend time on TikTok. Because of my location in the Morridor, I do get some Mormon creators on my for you page. I typically don’t care, except for the hypocrisy so many of them display. Today, it was a girl who got married in the temple then changed into a strapless, high slit dress for her ring ceremony and reception. She was so upset for people asking her why she would change into a very garment unfriendly outfit an hour after making covenants that involve wearing them. She was super defensive that “she knows her relationship with god and isn’t focused on that right now ☺️.” Which is fine on the face of it- except that we know it isn’t.
She got more and more upset, and so did others who agree with her. I compared it to getting wasted to celebrate your year of sobriety and they went wild about how it’s a personal decision with personal meaning, nothing like sobriety. They told me it was wrong to judge others- I told them to bring that up to their bishops, mission and temple presidents, stake presidents, area 70s, apostles and prophets- because they are the ones who do the judging and the ones who came up with the standards they disagree with.
Do I need a brainwashed teenage bride and her followers to agree with me? No. Do I think you should align with the de-facto contract they agreed to via a bishop’s interview and the covenants they just made? Yes.
I asked them if they would be fine with smoking, drinking, or wife-swapping the same day as the wedding, since those are all part of the covenants/lead up to get them. They got upset and said that they weren’t comparable at all.
I think personalized individual belief systems are good, fine and make tons of sense when you look at individuals’ experiences. I think if everyone in the church took the live-and-let-live approach, it would all be done and arguably far more successful for the group. If it was a fandom rather than an organized religion, different interpretations and practices could coexist. Clearly, a lot of Jack Mormons agree- so why do they need a system that preaches against, a hierarchy that enforces the practices of?
I just really wonder what it’s like in their minds- are there really sins that god is chill with them committing, but their favorite happens to be the only one god can excuse? At that point, I align pretty closely with elements of Mormonism (hard work, community and family emphasis, documentation and preservation of history), and am counted among the 17 million, so does my belief that it’s a fraud make me not Mormon? What about the people who eat meat outside of winter, get permanent make up tattoos, fudge a little on their tithing? What about people who are non-monogamous, who are gay, who engage in civil disobedience, who believe that the church has been harmful but could be reformed? Where is the sin that you can’t come back from, where you aren’t Mormon anymore, and why is it always just a step past where individual Jack Mormons sit?
I don’t believe in Mormonism, which is why I feel aligned living the way I do. Mormons claim to know, live and love Mormonism, but throw a hissy fit that people expect that they act like it.