I don't watch, I get Cliff Notes from FB or here. This time around was the church's opportunity to either soften up or to crack down. They chose the latter, by all accounts.
Morbid curiosity caused me to tune in this afternoon whilst I was channel surfing and noticed that it was right there.
While it was on, I surfed RFM and it was on in the background. That was when I noticed that nothing had changed in all those years. The same talks. At one point I realized I was hearing verbatim the same exact, I mean verbatim words!!!! Then I realized that the guy was quoting mormon scripture, so of course it would be verbatim.
Anyway, I listened to Mr. Holland's OldPuss and then remembered that I had nice fresh batteries in the remote and watched something way more useful. Martha Stewart has a new show called "cooking school" and she was kind enough to teach me how to boil an egg.
I watched about 3 minutes of Monsoon and that's all. The reason was several folks on this board mentioned that Monsoon would talk abuot building more temples and sure enough it was the first thing out of his mouth. When you're right you're right. LOL
The only way I could tell is if I went to the grocery store on the night of the priesthood session.
Then my daughter went back to the lds church and her way of trying to re-convert me was to come to my house at conference and listen to it on my TV. I know--I'm a pushover. I was privileged to hear the "Women Who Know" talk and also one about anything other than temple marriage being invalid or something--by Russell Nelson.
I knew I'd finally made strides this year when my daughter chose to stay at her apartment and listen to conference before coming out here to have dinner.
I like advanced warning about what I am up against. Raptor Jesus' thread about YM in Priesthood session being encouraged to reactivate the "lost" is a good example. Now I'll have a head's up that they may be trying to come after my teenage son and he will be on the lookout for any friends that start being extra friendly. Most of his friends are nicer than that though. But since Bishop Jackwagon went right into the stake YM office, I think it's important to stay informed.
Also, it's nice to catch Mormons saying ridiculous things in conference because when Mormons come after you with their faith-building rumors, you can debunk them. It's all about self-defense. In all fairness though, I don't actually watch - I just listen to the reviews on RfM by people who are in family situations where they can't avoid watching. I was lucky my kids didn't even know it was conference weekend.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2013 10:32AM by CA girl.
My TBM husband watches it. Believe me it grates on my nerves to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Chior but it drifts through several rooms. So if I need to talk to him I will get bits and pieces.
First time that I haven't watched a single session in my life. Felt great. I felt no guilt about it either. Rather, my time was spent far more productively and I was uplifted far more in other ways.
Yet, I still find myself curious. Hard for me to completely ignore. This time, I specifically wondered...did they let a woman pray? What were the growth numbers like? Are they continuing to slow? What did they decide to crack down on this time? Did Utah get yet another temple? stuff like that. And where most of the talks still standard boiler plates rehashes of the same things making me glad I didn;t listen. I have been LDS far too long to just turn off that curiosity. It may yet still be a while before I truly just don't care anymore.
The only way I ever know when GC is even happening is because people here post about it. I was wondering the same thing myself. How is it just "on" in your house? Hell, on Sunday mornings, I don't even turn the TV on at all... because there's nothing but religious programming until about noon.
Anyway, years ago, there was a radio station in my area that played "Sunday Blues" -- all blues, all morning, every Sunday morning. For some reason, blues + Sunday mornings just go together like peanut butter and chocolate.
So if I'm even in the house on Sundays, I'm listening to the blues while I'm doing my weekend chores. Lately though, I've been going to brunch with a friend every Sunday and that is usually followed by a movie.
I don't really understand the fascination with keeping up with the cult either. For me, recovery means I don't give the church nor its indoctrination sessions one second of thought nor one shred of my energy. Keeping closer to your enemy doesn't sound like recovery to me. It sounds like hate. And hate is not the opposite of love; hate implies passion and some sense of emotional connection, even if the emotions are negative. Indifference is the opposite of love and that's what I strive to practice toward the cult: indifference.
Dogzilla, I'm a big fan of your posts and have been for a long time, but I think you might be slightly off the rails on this one...or maybe it's just me missing some nuance of your point.
I do not have TBM's in my house who just "happen to have conference on," so I'm not forced to hear the droning of TheBrethren for an entire weekend either. Lucky me. Doesn't mean that everybody else is in that situation.
"Know thy enemy" is a completely legitimate reason for being informed of the marching orders TheBrethren are giving their minions. It minimizes the chances that exMo's with TBM family members can blindside them. It gives ExMo's a chance to prepare for tactics their TBM's might use on them next. Just because you and I don't have to deal with it, doesn't mean others are so lucky, yet you accuse them of "hate" for preparing themselves for what the Morgbots will pull on them next. IMO, accusing them of hate is just another form of shaming.
You wrote: "I don't really understand the fascination with keeping up with the cult either. For me, recovery means I don't give the church nor its indoctrination sessions one second of thought nor one shred of my energy."
Maybe I'm missing your point, but isn't continuing to post on multiple exMormon sites giving it more than a second of thought and more than a shred of energy?
I haven't watched any of it, and won't. It makes me sick to watch it.
I come here to get others take on what's said. I do this because they're still holding my siblings, nieces, nephews, their children, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and their children as hostages.
I'm looking and hoping for the lock to be broken and for them to come through the opening in the prison walls. I'll be there for them when they get out.
I called my parents on Saturday and I could hear it in the background on the T.V. It was annoying because I could tell they wanted to get off the phone so they could get back to conference ASAP
While languishing in my 15 years of inactivity, it was easy to "imagine" that the church was actually a good institution and that it might have some truth to it. After all, members tend to be really nice people, so my thinking would run along the lines of "look at the nice people, maybe I made a mistake."
I was indoctrinated in my youth, and I still want to believe. But nothing puts that belief in check like listening and studying the words of the leaders. If I'm inattentive I may fall back into bad habits.
I've blocked BYU channel from my cable lineup. So no, I'm not obsessed about what the cult is up to.
But...I do have to keep tabs on it because my psycho ex-wife drags our 11yo daughter to cult meetings weekly, so I need to know what kind of crzy shi# she's being exposed to.
Because of having all TBM extended family and a NOM husband so family often gets together and talks church - and I only watched a tiny bit to see if they would be so magnanimous as to let a woman pray. Since we get pounded by comments of how spiritual Talk X was by family, I like to find out about it so I can say something snarky. Usually I surf the boards so I don't have to listen to that Mormon voice. There is also a kind of morbid curiosity as to how far down the rabbit hole they will go, and knowing once again that no matter what is said the TBM's get high from getting a hit of those horrible voices. e.g. Facebook quote "Elder Boyd K. Packard was right on when he said any virtue exaggerated transforms itself into vice. I cannot think of a single virtue, and that includes love, kindness, honesty, patience and especially tolerance, that this is not true of." - gag
I watched Monson speak to see if he was getting senile. I was curious, given several comments that have been made about him loosing it.
He looked as sharp as ever to me. He never was a scholar or a deep thinker, but he remains a very effective story teller which is all I have ever seen from him.
Sadly, I don't think Boyd KKK is going to get the chance to destroy the Church. Boyd looks like he's in bad shape and Tom looks like he's going strong.
This is my first post here, been lurking a while. :)
And this doesn't answer the question, but I just realized that I always felt a sense of guilt after watching conference. I watched it on Saturday - felt guilty. Attended a wonderful Episcopal church the same day and felt loved and accepted by the people and by God. Go figure.
Watching conference as an exMo is a much different experience than watching it as a member. It exposes that manipulative, thought-controlling tactics of church leadership and lays bare the bigotry inherent in Mormonism.
I will be posting chunks of talks to share with my exMormon and non-Mormon friends, particularly when the Brethren allude to the dangers of tolerance and political correctness. The world should know how misogynistic and homophobic the church really is.