This week Magic Cicero asks: What Does It Mean to Recover from Mormonism? And he comes to the same conclusion as so many of us here on Main Street Plaza:
But there’s a lot of who I am that can’t be disconnected from that Mormon past. For better or worse, Mormonism is part of me.
Naturally, we hope to be seeing more of Mr. Cicero around these parts. 😉 But let’s rewind to clock a bit to the beginning of our Mormon story: baptism. Aerin says eight is not enough. Just to keep the discussion lively, I’ll note that Blog Segullah provides a contrary opinion, saying that eight is a great time to be making covenants with the Lord. And Saganist gives a example of critical thinking in a six-year-old.
In other family news, Sterkwerks’s daughter stumbles upon the evidence that her mom was once an accidental model. And what are life events without the perfect dress? (If I had that dress, I’d wear it to every wedding for ten years too. 😉 — Jana, you look great!). MoHoHawaii gives us the follow-up on his family Utah Christmas with Tobi (and how eternal gender roles have affected his family relationships). But if gender is eternal, where does this cardinal fit in the plan?
Now where does the church fit in this time? Runtu explains the double whammy: “You’re better than the world, but you’re not good enough.” Speaking of a double whammy, Andee reports that the church has an interesting and elaborate file on Chad Hardy — which they won’t show him in entirety — in addition to the fact that they still won’t give him his BYU transcripts. Well, it’s a small consolation, but at least we can have some fun playing with the Atheist bus font.
This edition brought to you by something beneficial to young and old, at least back in the good old days. 😉
Thanks chanson – and thanks for the link to segullah. It’s just hard to say – I know how I feel and felt – and my hopes and dreams for my children. Other people have other hopes and dreams for their children – and that’s ok.
I find I have lots of thoughts about this but do not want to get into a discussion where offense is given/taken. I am just not sure that an eight year old can be considered independent, and make fully independent decisions. It’s possible that a person who is older (18 -20) can also not make fully informed/independent decisions, but it’s much more likely.
And by my criticizing eight as an age, I feel like I’m tearing down what is a special event for many people and some families.
I just become uncomfortable about parts of this discussion – specifically the nature of a lifetime commitment at 8 (which I mentioned in my post).
Aerin — I know exactly what you mean.
Personally, I don’t think it’s ethical for an adult to expect an eight-year-old child to make a lifelong “covenant”. People can’t legally be bound to contracts they signed as minors, and there’s good reason for that. I always think of that when people tell me that as an exmo I’ve broken my “covenants” — I was eight years old when people I trusted told me to make a covenant that I didn’t have the maturity to understand. Accusing me of going back on my word in this instance is really a case of adding insult to injury…
But at the same time, I don’t think it’s all that big a deal, and I’m sure there are plenty of faithful Mormons out there who would criticize my parenting of my kids. I think this sort of thing falls under the parents’ jurisdiction of how they’d like to raise their kids.