GA's past double standards

[deacon blues]

I was reading a 1976 "Dialogue" on Mormon sexuality, and it made me think that GA's often say things they don't really mean.
When I was a married student at Ricks College, and BYU in the 70's and early 80's any discussion in class (Church or Campus) about birth control would revert to GA statements saying essentially birth control was wrong. Yet there were whispers that some couples had gone to some bishops and/or faculty for advice and were told that birth control was OK, at least while they were going to school. In my 1970's RM/TBM mindset I was inclined to think that these married students and/or their advisors were making up stories and/or policies that went against Church doctrine as stated in General conference and other places.
My years from 22 to 30 (My first 7 years of marriage) were a learning experience and around age of thirty my former wife and I decided I should get a vasectomy.
This was awkward for me, especially since my doctor was my Stake Patriarch. I thought he might even discourage me from getting the vasectomy because of the Church's position on birth control. He didn't. The Church position on birth control never came up.
Then today I turn to the 1976 "Dialogue Article" and read of some students going to GA's for private counsel in the 1970s were told that it WAS OK to use birth control while getting an education. These were individual students who in at least one situation were related to the (unnamed) GA. (granddaughter)
So, while the general authorities were discouraging birth control in the 1970s in public, at least a few of them were telling people in private that it was OK.
I'm not as confused about all this now as I would have been back in the 1970s, if I had known then what I know now. Currently, it should not surprise well informed people that the GA's send out mixed messages, but they hid it better in the 1970s.
Oh well, live and learn. Anyone else notice stuff like this?

[Palerider]

Wasn't there a discussion here awhile back talking about someone who knew the Thomas Monson family and used to see numerous cases of Pepsi or CocaCola stacked in his garage? Apparently he was addicted to the stuff.

Anyone really trying to live a healthy life, which is the supposed reason for the WoW, would know that drinking that much pop is just plain bad for you, regardless of the caffeine.

[alas]

When I was in college, there was a professor of socialism who had done studies of Mormonism. I couldn’t take his class and still graduate, but I bought his unpublished textbook. He had studied exactly what you are talking about, the GAs don’t practice what they preach about birth control, and never did. He compared the year of marriage and year of first child for the GAs, compared to average members. The GAs had their first child 7-10 years after marriage, while Mormon average is closer to one year. Their wives worked to help pay for their college.

[deacon blues]

It's well known, or it should be, that Joseph Smith did not always follow the Word of Wisdom. Then there is polygamy, which is the most blatant double standard: It was OK for the chosen, but not the Mormon peasantry. At least not at first.
The Milk before meat card and the secret not sacred card get played when necessary. God's ways are not man's ways is another excuse. These handy little precepts cover that large unincorporated area in Mormonism that could be called the Land of Hypocrisy.

The gem that we need to remember is the parable of the mote and beam.

[Just This Guy]

When I was in college, there was a professor of socialism ...

I think you mean sociology. Socialism is something completely different.

[Advocate]

When I was in college, there was a professor of socialism ...

I think you mean sociology. Socialism is something completely different.

It could be socialism. Maybe the professor's book included chapters on the united order!

[Jeffret]

Back in the 90's someone computed the average number of children the GAs had. Those leaders were still preaching the benefits of big families and that you shouldn't limit the number of kids that God wants to send you. I have a relative who followed that counsel through that time period to have 9 kids. Basically the higher up in the hierarchy, the fewer kids any of the leaders actually had. The 70 had a higher number than the national average but notably less than the Mormon average. The 15 had small families, typically about two kids. Their family sizes were pretty much in line with national averages. Given their ages, born when large families were more common, their family sizes were probably lower than average for their generation.

Basically, in order to achieve the level of worldly and religious institution success necessary to reach those high levels of church executive position you need to 1) be a man, 2) have small families for reduced family commitment and expense, and 3) have a wife who covered most of the home and family responsibilities. And then you got to preach to everyone else about how they should live their lives differently than yours, but yet still devote all their time to the church, for the enrichment of their position.

[1smartdodog]

It is inherent when men claim to speak for god on your behalf, they believe any notion that comes into their head. They don’t have to live it just peach it

All their advice is really about benefiting the church and themselves to some degree. Not necessarily about the individual member.

If you think about it what do they really say that has real value. Its a bunch of nonsense that has less and less value in todays world.


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[jfro18]

All their advice is really about benefiting the church and themselves to some degree. Not necessarily about the individual member.

If you think about it what do they really say that has real value. Its a bunch of nonsense that has less and less value in todays world.

This is really what it boils down to and Wendy Nelson herself admitted just that. The leaders bring the ideas they've always wanted to do but lacked the power before and then the implement them in the name of God.

Whether or not they practice what they preach is irrelevant if they can cement their ideas that they hope will last long beyond their time as leaders.