Then the rules become more important than the philosophy.

Tolerance is preached by many churches and religions but tends to get waylaid.

Religions also, unfortunately, practice excommunication and disenfranchisement. Disconnection in the Scientology church. None of which endear people to that religion. Religion is supposed to bring families together, not split them apart. When it does this it has failed.

I don’t know this person. I’m just speaking from my personal experiences and experiences others have expressed to me. Yours might be (and sounds to be) completely different.

You still don’t get it. I don’t care if he goes to church or not. That’s his business. What I care about is that he doesn’t love me or want much, if anything to do with me. ‘Crippled spiritually’ has nothing at all to do with this situation. But you are proving a point that non-members, inactive members feel the suffering is more on THEIR side and are unwilling to accept that they can have a good tolerant relationship with members who DO NOT HASSLE them. Does it make sense now???

Whereas on the other side of the other side of the coin… Many members see anyone who does not believe in the church, in their eyes, to be crippled spiritually.

You would have to understand him and why he thinks this way. It isn’t a matter of “live and let live” on his side of it. He can’t see why anyone could believe in the church and anyone who does, in his eyes, is inferior intellectually.

~or “if you love us (as parents) or your H.F. you would ensure that your children get to seminary and go on missions, because that is where they need to be.”

~or by asking those that do come around what there calling is in the church, or what ward they are in, when they know full well that they are not attending church.

~or when there is a church discussion, not respecting the comments made by those that are not active, because of course it is out of “bitterness”

~by saying that it hurts their feelings, everything hurts their feelings….but what about other’s feelings? ( oh right, couldn’t possibly have feelings but anger, or bitterness )

~by bearing testimony and having a battle of faiths….( because someone who may have other beliefs has a hardened heart and just isn’t praying hard enough, or getting the right feeling when they do pray )

Now…talk about it being uncomfortable at family functions. I have family members who of course refuse to come around, and I really don’t blame them one bit. When you are constantly being looked down upon, and not given any credit for being intelligent for coming to any conclusions. It is always emotions….unhappiness, bitterness, hardheartedness.

It is so ironical to hear…it is only because we love them. If you love someone you respect them, and don’t judge them…no matter what.

Now we watch them with their children and see them do things that totally drove them around the bend growing up, things they swore they would never do to their children, things that somehow with their maturity growth , has come to mean something more special.We also watch them take what they learned from us and make it better, we have seen them take some cycles and stopped them, taking the good and making it better and taking the bad out with the recycling on garbage day.

Each generation in our family gets better then the last, and no matter what anyone else thinks of us, I know without a single shadow of a doubt that our children love us very much and that our grandchildren think we are the King and Queen of the world. What more could one mere mortal ask for? THAT to me means unconditional love.

…do I even need to say it, Sally?
Ok, one more time.
Judgmental.
Ok done.