The Mormons

The 2007 PBS special on The Mormons was on Mon and Tues nights. It was good to watch it again.

We let Elizabeth watch it with us. She had a few questions.... and as she gets older will prolly have more on the topic. But for now, she just watched and listened. Then we went over her questions afterwards and answered them for her.

One thing I really struggled with were the "Ex Mormons" the ones who had not just LEFT the church, but had been excommunicated.

The reason I struggled with listening to them is not because they had negative things to say about the Church. It was actually because they didn't really. They spoke of how unfair it was that they were excommunicated for exercising their free agency. They were bitterly sad about the loss of their Church Membership.

The thing is that in every case, they had been warned previously by Church Leaders that if they continued their current behavior, that disciplinary action would be necessary. And they continued to behave the way they had been.

I GET that they felt their behavior was acceptable, and therefore didn't need to be changed. That is their prerogative. However, they should not then be surprised when as promised, disciplinary action was taken.

I have to say that I understand the reasoning behind excommunication much better now that I am a Parent.

Excommunication, just like other types of discipline walks a very fine line in my mind. It can be misused and abused just like any other action taken by those in power.

But let me say this. One of the reasons behind excommiunication is to damage control. As a parent, I can see exactly why this can sometimes be necessary. For example, when I see Elizabeth breaking the rules, I am sad, and need to address it. However this is nothing compared to when I see her teaching her Sisters to mirror her behavior. Sometimes the only way to damage control is to remove her from the situation, activity, or environment while I try and teach them to NOT copy her behavior as well as teach her not to continue with it. Keeping her in the situation is like keeping a door open to another room during a fire. It allows for the possibility of that fire spreading rather than being contained.

It is one thing for a Member of any Family, congragation, or unit to feel or act contrary to how they have been taught or asked to behave. Completely different when they are teaching others in the unit to act against the "rules" of that organization.

To let yourself be led away is never good. But often the person who begins it, knows the consequences, and dangers of their choices....in other words they are making at least a SOMEWHAT informed decision. But those who follow them , usually do so blindly and without being fully informed of what their choices can mean.