...well-off, good-looking, have-it-all-together families we all knew when we were kids; everything went perfectly with the possible exception of a few Brady Bunch type worries. A search of their medicine cabinet wouldn't even turn up a bottle of aspirin.

Were they so super valiant in the pre-existence that Heavenly Father basically let them skate? Maybe even let the kids "get some" on Friday nights with no repercussions?

I had enough trauma in my youth to have this super valiancy in the pre-existence thrown in, too. While I loved the idea of the mormon heaven and a promise of life eternal this other thing grated at me. One of my friends was a wealthy mormon gal with expensive clothes, huge beautiful home, the right mormon church family members, elocution and piano lessons, always asked to do this and that at church, you name it, she had it.

Gawd, it seemed so unfair. I mean, I just could not be that far down the worthiness scale from her. Could I???

And, then to have no idea WHAT THE HELL I HAD DONE that was so bad, now that was an extremely mean trick for a god to play on any thirteen year old.

I first encountered that while at BYU. The girls that were wealthy, dressed beautifully, had certain family names that I recognized in Mormon history, had the "prestigious" jobs at church, and of course handsome RM boyfriends. It was the first time I sort of recognized that there was Mormon "royalty" - uh, and that I was just a serf. But I suppose that could happen in any school environment, not just among Mormons. But yeah, they definitely seemed to be seen as more worthy and righteous. Their wealth was sort of a proof of worthiness.

There are money trust fund babies. And in the church there are spiritual trust fund babies.

Don't you see? Those people were put on earth to test and humble the faithful. "Gee, I'm living the gospel with perfect obedience and I'm still struggling through life. What's wrong with me?" Because Elohim is a jerk who does things like that.