Mormon Church must end children's sexual interviews, members say | Vital Football

Mormon Church must end children's sexual interviews, members say

HeathfieldRoad1874

HeathfieldRoad1874

Miserable Sod
Discuss.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44644130

In the Mormon Church - officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - sex outside of marriage, pornography and masturbation are banned.

The worthiness interviews, the church says, are designed to prepare children and teenagers spiritually and ensure they are obeying the commandments. They often start around a child's eighth birthday, when Mormon children are baptised, and then again at the age of 12.
 
The issue here, like so many things around the world, in variuous organisations, is the local interpretation/implemantation of church regulations/rules/standards and people who abuse their position. These interviews, for example, are not intended to be any form of interrogation, it's about individuals being encouraged to acknowledge before God any issues they may have regards Church standards, the questions are quite simple and go something along the lines of "do you keep the law of chastity?" and "is there anything in your life that would affect your worthiness?", not that I remember the exact wording but it's thay type of question. The purpose is to help people to maintain the standards of the Church that they are members of.

Sadly I have heard too many stories about local church leaders being heavey handed in carrying out such interviews, going beyond both the letter and the spirit of their instructions, I've even heard of local leaders being very specific in their questioning of married women about their sexual practices with their husbands. These are, at the very least, people who need more training, and at worst, individuals that should not be allowed in a position of authority and need to be removed.

You may get the impression that this is very common but in reality I've probably heard 20 stories or fewer in about 20 years of Church membership, even then, only one was substantiated and was regarding an individual that had already finished his time in a position of authority and did not have the health to be reinstated at any future time. If it was a case of any direct or habbitual form of abuse I would say that it should still be followed up but it was actually a case of inapropraite questions to a married woman who told him to mind his own business. So to clarify, "too many stories" could be just one as far as I'm concerned.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention:-

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Oi - don't mention the Tesla!!! Never mention the Tesla!! Those are the rules. HittingHittingHittingHitting

Good to hear an inside perspective, Ian. The article does say many of these interviewers are completely untrained. In the big scheme of things the numbers don't seem huge, but I do think it's a bit intrusive.

I was wondering if suppressing natural tendencies like this just leads to psychological harm in the long run, anyway? I think you came to this later in life, so maybe you just did what the rest of us did as a teenage boy. How do you think you would have coped, conforming to these rules?
 
Later in life? How very dare you, I was a mere slip of a lad at 26 :rofl:

Seriously though, I think too many come at this from a very different perspective than that which I believe is intended (this includes some of the people conducting the interviews) It's important to remember that the church has an open dooor policy, if you don't believe it or don't believe that the standards are from a divine source, there can be no compulsion.

When one has this perspective (which, I must admit, is easy for me as I converted to the faith) it becomes a natural conversation about helping people to achive all that they can in terms of their spiritual progression. Masturbation is certainly not looked at as being just slightly less serious than murder, any that have suggested such need to be reeducated or are just judgemental individuals, they type that exist in all walks of life, but even so, it's not really about the act of masturbation but about the development of a carnal nature, where people's carnal desires become their major motivating factor rather than a desire to improve personally, to put God and Jusus Christ central in their life and be a person who serves others. You could say it's about trying to become the best one can be and whilst a little beer, a little masturbation, the occational coffee, etc, etc, will not hurt, for some individuals it's a slippery slope and it's for the support of these individuals that the same standards are required of all BUT it has to be explained and followed through in a loving and caring manner, the way Jesus Christ himself would have handled it, not in the hell-fire, Old Testament way many seem to behave.
 
That sounds like Mormon lite, Ian. :grinning::grinning::grinning:

It certainly is different to that portrayed in the article. There seem to be extremists in every walk of life. If only we could stop them, we would have far fewer problems.

I think Christianity has ruined it for us all. Just imagine all those orgies we could have been part of if it had never existed.
 
I belive there are still swingers' parties Bob, if that's what floats your boat.

You actually raise an important point with the "Mormon lite" comment, it all gets a bit doctrinal but to put it simply, the development of the church, from the earliest days of Abraham and then later Moses, throught to today has a pattern of strict rules with little personal responsibility giving way to less structure and greater personal responsibility. I believe that this has to do with a concept of a people maturing. Think of the life of the church as being like a child growing up, with age comes greater development and therefore understanding, leading to fewer directives/less structure and greater personal responsibility/trust.

When I compair the early Mormon church to the time of the Jews, there were many similarities but even then a lessenning of regulation, as things have progressed and our understanding grows more "Christ-like" we are "allowed" more freedome but more is expected of us in terms of responsibility.

A good example of this being, for many years the Church has employed a minnistering program where pairs of men visit assigned families to help to take care of their spiritual and physical needs. Until fairly recently I was responsible for administrating this work in our parish area and my focus was always about trying to approach them as direct respresentatives of Jusus Christ, thus acting how he would act himself, the more traditional approach was a structured lesson from a Church magazine. Recent changes are employing an approach much the same as mine has been over the last 3 years with the addition of removing the need to report all visits and instead focusing on leadership interviews with the pairs assigned to the responsibility, aiding their development simultainiously identifying needs that might otherwise not be picked up on.
 
Would it be correct to say that some of the US Churches are a bit isolated, and that this could leas to to a closer adherence to the rules?

It is possible that things we find distasteful are just normal practice within some communities, and everyone there is happy with that. We are quick to impose our moral code of conduct on others, all around the World.

Now, I know Mike's not been on, by the looks of it, but I am disappointed that we've had no w*anking jokes, or horror at the lack of pornography. VV has let me down!!!
 
Sorry to take the debate to a slightly more intellectual level, but ... God gave us todgers to use, not to look at and deny ourselves in his honour!

As you know VOTN, I always struggle with all the man-made constraints and rules to organised religion, our creation (and so for those who are religious, the worship of the creator) should be a joyous thing, not a thing that causes such trials, such restraints and such lack of joy.

It's actually healthy for men to have sex (which includes masturbation obviously)

I don't understand why the man-made rules say you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do the other. If God created us in his image, if God created all the great things mankind can do, he'd not then have put restrictions on them.

Telling teenagers, just at the point where testosterone kicks in, that God frowns on masturbation (and indeed, at a suitable age sex) is so wrong in my opinion.

Religion and the worship of God should be a joyous thing, for so many religions it looks an utter trial. The Catholic church being one of the main restrictive ones in my humble.

Why can't man see that they can worship their God and still be able to do adult things? It isn't one or the other, they aren't mutually exclusive.
 
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