One of the good parts of my folk tradition is the notion of agency and accountability. Mormon kids (whether they are raised in the LDS or Community of Christ faiths, or one of the smaller spinoffs) are never baptized at birth. This is a round metaphysical rebuke of Catholicism, which I think is valid.
There is a difference between a toddler and a grown-up. We know this intuitively. Western legal traditions usually recognize the differences by setting an arbitrary age of adulthood. Most contracts, in the USA, are only considered valid if they were entered into by someone at least eighteen years old, for example.
And so it is very strange for me to converse with my Mormon relatives, who bend over backwards to excuse Mormon women for truly evil deeds, with the idea that these women, of age to enter into the Mormon baptismal, endowment and marriage covenants, are somehow not responsible for making proper moral choices. A good example recently erupted over on Dalrock, given by our brother Swanny. Let’s see what my man has to say:
So, there is a Mormon woman at Swanny’s place of business, who is encouraging other women to have children out of wedlock. Mormons will understand, immediately, that the Mormon woman in question is encouraging this misbehavior in non-Mormon colleagues. Mormon women do not tolerate this behavior in other Mormons, but they like to encourage it in outsiders. Mormons hold two sets of standards (as many people do). Setting aside the fact that there are general problems with the way Mormons treat outsiders (I’ve written about that at length) we will now get specific, and analyze this (extremely fucked up) behavior in microcosm.
It is a mistake for Mormon men (and I know some of you mofos read this blog) to continue to tolerate this sort of behavior in Mormon women. Whenever I make this statement, I’m given a plethora of excuses, which usually boil down to the evildoer being capricious, childish, or not understanding the well-defined and easily foreseeable consequences of her actions. In other words, Mormon men will treat Mormon women as children, whenever they are doing something that’s obviously evil. Of course, Mormon men will simultaneously assert their moral superiority over other peoples, based upon the fact that we recognize the difference between adults and children. This is an internal contradiction in contemporary Mormon ideology which is equal parts stupid and dangerous.
To my Mormon brothers, I have a couple of questions.
1. Is Mormonism good for the world, or only good for Mormons?
If Mormonism isn’t good for everyone, then we really ought to abandon it and assimilate. Of course, any Mormon I ask this to will immediately swear up and down that Mormonism is a great blessing for the entire planet, including non-Mormons. Which leads me to my second question.
2. Would it be cool with Elohim if I paid someone to rob for me, or to murder for me?
If it is a sin for me to rob and murder, then why is it less of a sin for me to cause robbery and murder by proxy?
Mormon scripture says it is sinful to have sex out of wedlock, and this has constantly been upheld by the prophets. It is also a sin to give birth to bastard kids. Yet, Mormon women are commonly cheerleading others to do exactly this. Why are they less accountable than those women who do such things themselves?
Mormon women are not merely having a good time at the expense of foreigners. They are intentionally inflicting foreseeable harm. Mormon women are not children. A child’s bad behavior is forgivable. We recognize that children need guidance, and children are usually responsive to it. Mormon women, in contrast are completely resistant to any form of correction, and their behavior is intolerable.
Sorry for my unclear writing. The Mormon is a married man, who often says Happy Wife, Happy Life. Talk is just about emotion now, especially at work, so they mean and think nothing by congratulating, helping, and fawning over her. One of the two Christians is a woman, and of course I didn’t expect her to display tough love. I have a teenage girls voice in mind when I say this,”mean is so mean!” Go to church on Sunday to confess for making an impact and living for Jesus every day, then go to work and be saccharine in your interactions. I don’t understand the process. Do they really think saying disagreeable truth is sinful, or do they really think a meaningful impact can be accomplished by being one of the agreeable crowd? Maybe they think a living faith is saccharine and therefore see their work chitchat as impactful.
I didn’t think this could possibly get funnier, but it just did. I hope it’s OK that I riff off this tomorrow. I’m at work right now, but I’d love to explore the motivation of Mormon men like this.
ALSO: If there’s a way to safely and anonymously point this faggot to my blog, it’d probably be humorous. I don’t know if you can do that without giving your own identity away, at this point; but, it’s a funny thing to think about.
Swanny can sneak into his cubicle and pull up your blog on this dude’s computer when no one is looking…(Title would have to be amazingly Joseph Smithy though!) – I grew up next to a family of mormons in NM, best friend’s dad was Stake/State President and everything!
I call him a cross-dresser sometimes, bit I don’t have the stones to send him here. He is thinking about the cross-dressing concept, but he is in his mid-50s and hopelessly stuck in his “equal” relationship thinking. That word equal, has deep and magical power over him. I am sure he can’t even conceive of the traits of being a true leader. If I could extract the junk from his head, I am confident that his operating definition of a husband is exactly equal to that of a figureheadship.
Ayyyy….I’ll get to this later when I’m not so tired.
I mean, what can I say? Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way.
One thing I’ve noticed in LDS circles, especially dudes, is that they have a general suspicion that feminism is an enemy, but can’t create a defensible argument to that effect, or can’t suggest an alternative, etc. They largely rely on cultural norms to do the heavy lifting, which is good where your culture is strong, and bad where your culture is bad. And like all tradcons, they cave too early and too easily, and often find themselves defending the sins of 30 years ago as traditions.
Best thing dudes can do is gain an understanding, I think. Untangling the gold from the dross is non-trivial. We could certainly try harder, but it’s never as easy as “Just…”
As I think about it, a lot of LDS girls are less shy about downing on feminism than gsexual revolution with some random dude in EQuys. Part of it, I think, is that they’re forced to face the issue earlier than boys, but are much richer in the role model department than their secular sisters, and see examples of good men in authority.
But another part is just that they’re less likely to face pushback. A girl who wants to grow up to be a wife and mother will generally meet with approval, while a boy who wants his wife to be a wife, and voices it, ends up having to refight the 60’s with some guy from Elder’s Quorum.
As I project into the future, I get a little weirded out. The world may very well end up more sexist than our ancestors.