Humorous Anecdote

[peter_mary]

I was visiting my never-Mormon brother and his former-Mormon wife this past weekend, and my brother told me the following story which I thought you all might enjoy in a sick, twisted sort of way. :)

Seems a year or so ago, my Sister-in-law's family were gathering at her parent's house in St. George for an 80th Birthday bash for a grandparent. Most of the families planned on spending a week or so, which meant that they would be there for Sunday. Since my brother and his family were not Mormons, they had no plans to attend Church with everyone else that day, and decided instead to drive over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

So on Sunday morning, my two nephews come bounding out of their bedroom dressed in shorts, sandals, T-shirts and sunglasses, ready for the day's adventure. Their cousins came out dressed in their dresses and suits. One of the little girls looked at my brother's children and said, "Hey! How come they don't have to get dressed up for Church?"

To which their mother replied, "Oh! Guess what!? YOU get to Primary today! They are just going to go look at a stupid hole in the ground."

As you can imagine, THAT made my brother want to invite the missionaries right over... :Puking

Paul

[nikki]

Now I ask you


after looking at this site which would you take, north rim, or primary?

Hope they were not planning on being back at nightfall!

http://www.looktours.com/grand-canyon-north-rim-atv.html

people alway will always demean or dehumanize when wanting to put down, or to take advantage, it justifies what they are doing.


Primary ----- grand canyon

Primary ----grand canyon

boy, what a hard decission!

[silverfox]

I was visiting my never-Mormon brother and his former-Mormon wife this past weekend, and my brother told me the following story which I thought you all might enjoy in a sick, twisted sort of way. :)

Seems a year or so ago, my Sister-in-law's family were gathering at her parent's house in St. George for an 80th Birthday bash for a grandparent. Most of the families planned on spending a week or so, which meant that they would be there for Sunday. Since my brother and his family were not Mormons, they had no plans to attend Church with everyone else that day, and decided instead to drive over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

So on Sunday morning, my two nephews come bounding out of their bedroom dressed in shorts, sandals, T-shirts and sunglasses, ready for the day's adventure. Their cousins came out dressed in their dresses and suits. One of the little girls looked at my brother's children and said, "Hey! How come they don't have to get dressed up for Church?"

To which their mother replied, "Oh! Guess what!? YOU get to Primary today! They are just going to go look at a stupid hole in the ground."

As you can imagine, THAT made my brother want to invite the missionaries right over... :Puking

Paul

They really must come up with some better comebacks, don't ya think? The typcial "ooooo YOU get to go to church....you lucky little girl and boy!!!!" Yeah, like they bought that chit.

That was a funny story, though. :)

[miss taken]

Having been to church in St George, AND having been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I CAN tell you where I would have been even on a SUNDAY!!!

I can honestly say HONESTLY SAY, that I felt closer to God as I marvelled at the beauty of nature at the Grand Canyon, as well as Zions National Park, than I EVER DID in 20 plus years of attending church on a SUNDAY. Now isn't that ironic..

Never got the hang of the name of those birds though, what was it??.. Sap suckers, said that wrong first time I read it on one of the signs at the GC. (Just change an S for an F, a p for a T and another s for another F, and you will get the drift - done entirely innocently - honest)

[dogzilla]

:: Slaps forehead :: People just don't even see the opportunities god places in their paths, do they?

She's so caught up in getting those kids to Primary, it never occurred to her to, I dunno, teach the sunday school lesson herself, to her kids while AT the north rim of the Grand Canyon. But then again, I was raised by people who tossed the book aside and made up more relevant lessons. :: shrugs ::

This actually brings up another topic dear to my heart. Since I've been out so long, perhaps one of you can enlighten me: I hear many fundamentalist Christian religions believe it's a complete waste of time to preserve or protect the environment and/or endangered species because the apocalypse will happen any minute now, so what's the point? We won't be needing this planet for much longer anyway! Why not just continue to pillage and rape Mama Earth for her resources as long as we're here to consume them?

Does the Church teach this, even if in a roundabout way?

[peter_mary]

dogzilla

This actually brings up another topic dear to my heart. Since I've been out so long, perhaps one of you can enlighten me: I hear many fundamentalist Christian religions believe it's a complete waste of time to preserve or protect the environment and/or endangered species because the apocalypse will happen any minute now, so what's the point? We won't be needing this planet for much longer anyway! Why not just continue to pillage and rape Mama Earth for her resources as long as we're here to consume them?

Does the Church teach this, even if in a roundabout way?
I have stood on my soap box and called the sinners to repentence on this particular issue for years now (in fact, I'm waiting to see a letter to the editor published here shortly regarding the issue of wolf versus hunter here in Idaho...another story).

I was first introduced to this recognition by a Native American author, Vine DeLoria (a good ol' Sioux name, eh?) He was very clear that the Western Christian mindset was, "get while the gettin' is good, 'cause tomorrow it's all gonna burn anyway." There is no incentive for conservation when you are operating under the belief that we are living on borrowed time. Cut the trees, kill the critters, drain the lakes and rivers, foul the air, dig up the mountains...doesn't matter because the world is gonna end long before we use it all up anyway.

Scares the hell out of me.

Because what appears to be happening is that we are hell-bent on a course to ensure that the world really DOES come to a screaching halt, at least as we know it. We seem determined to ensure our own misery and destruction.

--Why sign the Kyoto Accord if we're making good money today, and tomorrow never comes? Why designate the Escalante/Grand Staircase as a National Monument when there are cattle to be grazed there and water rights to protect? Why protect the Boulder/White Clouds in Idaho or the Mt. Hood/Columbia Gorge in Oregon? Just get as much out of 'em as you can, and hope like hell that Jesus comes before it's too late!

--Why should we care about endangered species, unless they are good to hunt or eat? They are, after all, ours to do with as we please. Snail darter? Who cares? Desert Tortoise? Grizzly bear? California Condor? Big Whoop...if they don't taste good on the grill, then why worry? They just keep us from getting more while there's any left to get.

Well, I'm not really expecting Jesus to come, but the world coming to an end seems more and more plausible all the time. Not because of God, but because we assume there IS God, and this is all part of His plan.

...sigh... :(

No, I don't think there are any mainstream Churches who teach this overtly. But it is a natural outgrowth of the paradigm of Christianity and Mormonism. It is logical to assume that IF there is an end date for the planet, THEN there is no need to concern ourselves with such petty issues as resources. Besides, God no doubt built the planet with enough resources to get human beings through until the second coming, right? RIGHT? Dear God, I hope they're right, but I fear they are dead wrong.

Hmmm...this seems to be a hot-button for Paul...

[dogzilla]

It's a hot button for dogzilla as well. I read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, like any good environmentalist should. I read River of Grass by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. I don't believe in your stupid apocalypse and I want your grandchildren to be able to breathe without a gas mask.

Florida stayed out of the Everglades (to a point) while Mrs. Douglas was still alive. Her ancient body was hardly cooled off before Florida Legislature started floating bills to drain the annoying puddle at the end of the state and turn it into another giant strip mall, brought to you by Disney. :Puking

I could start a whole web site on this one issue.

I believe it's why the three big E's never came up in the last presidential debates. IMHO, the most important issues we face in this country today are Environment, Education and Economy. But no, fear of gay marriage put The Shrub in the white house. That and terrorism. :mad:

Oh and :Puking
for good measure. That was me "choking on the ashes of our enemy." Thanks to Kurt Cobain for that line.

[miss taken]

It's a hot button for dogzilla as well. I read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, like any good environmentalist should. I read River of Grass by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. I don't believe in your stupid apocalypse and I want your grandchildren to be able to breathe without a gas mask.

Florida stayed out of the Everglades (to a point) while Mrs. Douglas was still alive. Her ancient body was hardly cooled off before Florida Legislature started floating bills to drain the annoying puddle at the end of the state and turn it into another giant strip mall, brought to you by Disney. :Puking

I could start a whole web site on this one issue.

I believe it's why the three big E's never came up in the last presidential debates. IMHO, the most important issues we face in this country today are Environment, Education and Economy. But no, fear of gay marriage put The Shrub in the white house. That and terrorism. :mad:

Oh and :Puking
for good measure. That was me "choking on the ashes of our enemy." Thanks to Kurt Cobain for that line.

Environment is a really hot topic over here in the UK, but I suspect that the forthcoming election shall not be fought over this issue either!!!!! A lot of people (including me!) are ignorant of many of the issues, and just don't know how seriously to take them. A great TV programme came up on global cooling the other day, which seems to be masking the effect of global warming. Pretty scary stuff. One argument I heard for doing little, is that we don't know how much of climate change is due to natural fluctuations in the earths weather and also that one volcanic eruption can spew out more carbon dioxide than the world's entire industrial output. If that is wrong, then someone needs to instil on all of us that it is imperative to cut C20 emmissions and protect the world for our children. However, me thinks the big issue of money, oil, and greed, probably puts a bit of a halt to that.