I'll never get why people like Eliza Dushku say they are pleased/grateful for their Mormon upbringing. She says she even has an LDS themed tatto (cough, gag) I find that a bit bizarre and quite frankly, hypocritical.

If someone found their Mormon upbringing so valuable, they would have remained actively involved in Mormonism and never left it.

My life has been worse for my parents having raised me in a cultish- fake church. It created so many problems for me and my family, I would have given anything if my parents had not been suckered into it. It has taken advantage of them and through them, created all kinds of psychological problems.

See http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/58379865-200/dushku-curtis-judy-mormon.html.csp

...She must've had extremely liberal Mormon parents, or never believed in it wholeheartedly.

She did not experience Mormonism like you did.

Raise my children in Mormonism but I was not a rule follower, not did I find myself willing to resort to some parenting tactics that other Mormon family used.

Isnt her mom a woman's studies professor at like Harvard? She is at least a high level professor at an ivy league school anyway. I suspect ELiza's upbringing was lightyears away from that of your standard young woman living in the heart of Utah. Her mom certainly didn't do the whole get married at 19, drop out of school and have lots of kids and never have a career thing that the church teaches young women is their calling.

My guess is the mormonsim practiced in her home was at best vaguely related to how it was practiced in my home growing up in Utah.

An upbringing away from the Morridor is totally different from an upbringing within it. Being brought up in England as the only Mormons within our family, in our village, within all the schools I attended and my place of work, I have read the stories of Utah Mormons on this site with absolute horror. TSCC has much less power over its members (at least it did in my day).

My family and most of my friends were of necessity non Mormon and a lot of my socialising was done outside of the church (although I still obeyed church rules and fortunately my real friends accepted me for who I was, although I must admit I never tried to convert them). In general girls could not get married so young because of the lack of eligible, or any kind, of men.

Although I left the church 35 years ago as I no longer believe I do still have some happy memories from my childhood and teens in our very small branch in County Durham (but perhaps that was because they were still Geordies as well as Mormons!).

Judith Dushku offered a memorable summation of Mitt Romney:


<quote>
"He's not a man who has anything like a moral core," she says. "He's very loyal to the Mormon church, pays his tithing, is faithful to his wife, and so on, but he doesn't have a set of core values you can count on. I've known him for nearly 40 years. He may have a different suit on, but he hasn't changed. His experience hasn't changed. His performance was very consistent with the Mitt I knew back then. He can't relate to average working women--teachers and nurses and care givers. He's still coming from a place of privilege and entitlement."
<endquote>

Judith Dushku quoted in

"Mitt Romney's Pregnancy Problem" by Geoffrey Dunn in Metro Silicon Valley newspaper:

http://www.metroactive.com/features/Mitt-Romney-Mormon-pregnancy-counselor.html

The quoted material is on page 3, near the bottom. If you're not familiar with the story, read the entire article to learn about Judith's relationship with her bishop/SP, Mitt Romney.

I knew Eliza as a youth in the Boston area. Her mom is a complete feminist, so Eliza grew up with a much different view of the church than the average member. She was never particularly active, but we enjoyed girls camp and youth activities. I think she says the things she does because she doesn't have any ill-will toward the church, so she tries to keep things positive. Same with Katherine Heigl.