Posted by:
jackjoseph
(
)
Date: April 29, 2013 01:41PM
Last week the in-laws came over to visit and watched our daughter and new baby so we could go to the store. (How nice! We haven't been out just the two of us in such a long time!)
But while we were at the store, my FIL snooped around the house and found a worksheet my wife did in marriage counseling. This was a deeply personal exercise where she was supposed to answer several questions and be completely honest, often saying the first thing that came to mind. I wasn't even supposed to (and didn't) read it, so she could be as candid as she'd like.
Well this pedantic, self-righteously pious CES director bishop doesn't think any rules apply to him because he's on a holy mission. So he read the whole thing. And told my MIL all about it. And then their caps blew.
A few evenings later I came home to find none other that my in-laws in my house, sitting on my couch, holding my children, demanding to talk. Here are some highlights:
FIL: What do you think about faith?
jackjoseph: I think faith is fine when there's no evidence either way, but --
MIL (arrogant and condescending): -- Oh, there's plenty of evidence! It just depends on where you look.
MIL: Let me explain. Imagine if YOUR daughter married somebody. And you THOUGHT he was a nice guy, but then he turned into somebody COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, and was dragging her down!
jackjoseph: [At this point I'd had it. I'm all about maintaining the peace in the family, but they had long since violated my boundaries.] Bringing her down? Mrs. jackjoseph is not 7 years old. You keep making her out to be a weak, spineless little girl that can't stand up for herself or think for herself or make her own decisions. This was just as much her decision as it was mine! It's something we came to together. I'm not forcing her to do anything.
FIL: Let me make this clear. I do not hate jackjoseph ... blah blah blah ... blah blah blah ... But you better do EVERYTHING you can to support her in going to church (any church). And if you don't then I will HATE YOU for the rest of my life. And if so, I hope you BURN IN HELL for it.
FIL: If she wants to go to church, don't you say "Oh, you want to go to that church where Joseph Smith fornicated with teenage girls!"
jackjoseph: I think Joseph Smith WAS a philanderer.
FIL: Don't say things you've said before, like "That church demeans women and I don't want it for my daughter."
jackjoseph: I do believe girls in the church grow up with a sense of inferiority, because blah blah blah. (I hadn't said that one to him previously, but TBM family gossip gets around fast ...)
jackjoseph: I've made up my mind that the church is false and I'm not going to change it.
And the rest is pretty obvious. They left with both sides angry and now visits are strained and awkward. So much for happy extended family relations ...
And it's all because of cult indoctrination. They can't accept that we're good, genuine people, much less that we're making good decisions for their grandchildren. To accept that would be to compromise the validity of the cult.