My time in my Ward in Hell gave me enough fodder for writing projects
if I never think of a new idea. I prefer that method (fiction) to
revealing the dark underbelly I've seen because I get to add stuff to
what really happened and no one is really offended. That technique
allows me to conflate the deviance of several people into one really
wicked antagonist.
Thom
On 1/1/07, Clark Goble <clark@???> wrote:
>
> Celia M. Malm wrote:
>
> > that the authors who have "escaped" their culture tend to blame the
> > *culture* for whatever happened to them. But a quick look at
> > reality reveals that the same kinds of things happen to all kinds
> > of people, regardless of the culture they live in.
>
> This is so true.
>
> I really feel for kids who grow up in dysfunctional families. It
> often seems like those least able to care for kids are producing the
> bulk of them. But at the same time there are simply poor parents and
> folks with emotional issues everywhere. I don't deny that religion
> (of whatever sort) will color how these people act. But to blame
> religion rather than the underlying root causes seems misplaced.
>
> That's not to say there aren't cultural issues that deserve to be
> critiqued. But often these cultural problems (such as being in
> denial about horrible dysfunction within families) are characteristic
> of many cultures.
>
> > And I confess that the quirks of "Utah Mormon culture" are one of
> > the reasons that I and my husband (who, thankfully, grew up
> > elsewhere) have chosen not move back to Utah.
>
> I used to be horribly critical of "Utah Valley Culture" and swore up
> and down I'd never live here. Yet here I am more than 13 years after
> graduation from BYU and I'm still here. There are still plenty of
> things about the culture I dislike, but frankly there were things
> about the culture I've disliked everywhere I've lived. And frankly I
> prefer here to many places I live. Also, I just find that as
> annoying as some things are you don't *have* to really deal with them
> in your day to day life if you don't want to. I've found life is
> much more what you make of it than what you find yourself in, as I
> get older. I used to get depressed about how life wasn't what I
> wanted and then I found life could be what you make it.
>
>
> Thom Duncan wrote:
>
> > For that, I don't need as much evidence, because I've seen similar
> > "Hear no
> > Evil: Bishops in my life.
>
> As, I suspect, have we all. But the issue isn't whether some Bishops
> don't listen to others and prefer to live as ostriches with their
> heads in the sand. The issue is how Beck presents it with the Bishop
> putting his fingers in his ear and chanting like a 3 year old. Once
> again there is often (although not always) a kernel of truth behind
> what Beck says. The problem is that it is so dressed up in hyperbole
> and rhetorical creation that it comes to bear little resemblance to
> whatever truth prompted it. That kind of exaggeration is what bugs
> me. Had she stuck to the very valid points of criticism she could
> have made I don't think most of us would have had a problem.
> Although perhaps, as Celia pointed out, we might suggest Beck is
> naive to see this as a Mormon problem rather than a human problem.
>
> You suggest later having been in a "ward from hell." I've been in a
> few myself and generally just went to Church and ignored the rest of
> what was going on - seeing how quickly I could leave the boundaries.
> But while I have a slew of stories I could tell the whole fingers in
> ear bit seems well beyond anything I've seen. Now I have seen folks
> clearly with mental problems go up and bear testimony in a horribly
> embarrassing way. I'd hardly think that is appropriate to present as
> characteristic of the Mormon experience. Although given rates of
> mental illness among Americans one ought expect it at a reasonable
> rate. The question is how one presents such experiences: the
> context. Beck really twists things there.
>
> Clark
>
>
>
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--
Thom Duncan
