Family Time

Admittedly, I didn't watch LDS General Conference this weekend. I did however follow along on the blogs on some who did watch and provided accounts of what was said as well as their reaction to it.

One of the first talks reportedly focused on time spent with family, and the fact that this should be our highest priority. Alright then... For all those who complain that I never say anything good about the LDS Church, I think they nailed this one! BRAVO!!!

Spending time with your family, particularly if you have children should be your number 1 priority.

Unfortunately, the speaker then brought up the notion that if the Church asks you to fill a position that you have to say yes. In so doing the speaker also insinuated that such requests come from God himself, which as I think I've said before is a load of BS. I could go into why, but I think that's a topic for another day...

Anyway, but I disagree highly with the notion that you should accept everything which is asked of you by leaders.

A couple of examples why I feel this way...

In our prior congregation back when I was a good Mormon, my sweet wife was in charge of the Primary, which is the organization for children aged 0-12 years old. She played the organ during the main services as well. I at the time was the Executive Secretary, which meant I was in meetings from 6:30am on a Sunday through about 4pm on Sunday afternoon, and then on Tuesday nights, and sometimes on Wednesdays. While this was going on, I was finished up my Bachelor's degree, as well as working a full time job, and starting my own business. And at the time we had 4 kids, all under the age of 8. It was very seldom that my wife and I spent time together at all, aside from 4 or 5 hours a night spent sleeping (and by sleeping, I mean actually sleeping, since we were so exhausted with life that there was no hanky panky going on at all - not helped either by the fact that I know at least I was in a state of perpetual stress and general grumpiness).

When I was a kid, my dad was always attending to Church Business, well that is, when he wasn't working. He worked really hard to support our family, and to support the Church, all in the name of blessings from God. I admire his dedication, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he wasn't around much when I was little, and when he was, he was so fatigued and cranky, that we almost wished he wasn't. I don't him, I blame the culture of the Church.

Finally, as I was serving as the Executive Secretary in our last congregation, a similar talk was giving at another General Conference. The following Tuesday night, the bishop led a very intense discussion... His concern was that members of the ward would have heard the talk and interpreted it to mean that family comes first, and would thus be turning down calls to serve. WTF!!

If you're going to make speeches about family being first, then for goodness sake, please actually practice what you preach.

If the LDS Church was truly family oriented, it would find ways to alleviate the burden on many of the members who are asked to serve. Meetings would be eliminated, responsibilities would be curtailed, and the focus actually would be on the family, not on promotion of the organization.

This could well dove-tail into a discussion on Prop 8, but perhaps I'll save that for another day!