SplayedAnus
2011-02-26 16:51:05 UTC
IF THESE ACCOUNTS DON'T CONVINCE YOU THAT THE MORMONS AND THE AMISH
ARE CULTS THAT SHOULD BE DENIED TAX-FREE RELIGION STATUS, YOU NEED TO
GO "TO BE WITH YOUR LORD" NOW!
--------------
"On sex and the single Mormon"
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Washington Post
Saturday, February 26, 2011; B02
To many Americans, religious or not, chastity before marriage is a
quaint tradition at best and emotionally damaging at worst.
After all, more than 90 percent of men and women have reported
engaging in premarital sex, according to Guttmacher Institute surveys
during the past 50 years. And the older a single person becomes, many
people say, the more ridiculous it seems to forgo physical intimacy.
That's the perspective of Mormon poet Nicole Hardy, who in a New York
Times essay last month described her decision to join the rest of the
modern world.
"As I grew older, I had the distinct sense of remaining a child in a
woman's body; virginity brought with it arrested development on the
level of a handicapping condition," Hardy writes. "Too independent for
Mormon men, and too much a virgin for the other set, I felt trapped in
adolescence." Hardy, who declined to be interviewed until her
forthcoming book is out, had reached a point in her mid-30s at which
she thought it was no longer worth holding out.
Hardy's essay swept across the Mormon blogosphere, attracting critics
and defenders. They argued about her reasoning. Some blamed her, not
the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for her
predicament. They said she misunderstood Mormon principles. Others
empathized with her complaints. They felt - and lived - her pain.
There are millions of unmarried Mormons; some say up to a third of
adult Mormons in the United States are without spouses. For a religion
that makes marriage and family central to a person's eternal
potential, that can be tough.
Although Mormon men are also expected to be abstinent before marriage,
the challenges facing Mormon women seem particularly difficult. The
church tends to align itself with a more traditional culture, in which
men typically are seen as the deciders and women patiently wait to be
asked.
Frances Johnson, an unmarried 20-something writer in the District,
sees Hardy's approach as simplistic, missing the essence of Mormon
teachings.
"When you boil the issue down to simply, 'Can I have sex or can't I?'
you are going to find yourself in a less-than-optimal situation if
you're in your 30s and not married," Johnson said. "You are going to
be frustrated and probably talk yourself out of waiting."
Sex isn't the doorway to adulthood that makes you the type of person
you want to become, she said. That is a "fallacy and discounts the
value of all the other kinds of relationships in our lives - with
family, friends, co-workers and romantic partners where sex is not
involved."
Chris J. - writing for a popular Mormon blog, timesandseasons.org -
said the lack of sex is only part of what keeps him from feeling like
a grown-up.
What troubles Chris, who lives in Arlington, about his unmarried state
is the "persistent feeling of unsettledness that leaves so many
personal triumphs and tragedies - and the overall arc of my life -
doggedly incomplete."
Marybeth Raynes, a Salt Lake City psychologist and sex therapist, said
any institution with clear behavior boundaries is going to be
difficult for "outliers," those who do not follow all the rules.
Such a dynamic can lead to a "split life" for such people, who may
choose to give up either their sexuality or their spirituality.
"Each person has to resolve that for themselves," Raynes said. "Some
women - a minority, I think - lead a double life as the church would
define it, saying, 'This part is between me and God.'"
Stephen Lamb, a Mormon and a doctor, applauds the LDS Church's "stern
but compassionate approach" and blames modern society for equating sex
with maturity.
A recent Brigham Young University study reported that couples who
delayed sex until after marriage reported greater satisfaction in
their communication - and in their sex lives - than those who didn't
wait.
"The hypersexual culture in which we live has one pervasive message to
young adults and it is that happiness can only be derived through
sex," said Lamb, co-author of "Between Husband and Wife: Gospel
Perspectives on Marital Intimacy."
"But the vast majority of LDS kids who succumb to that illusion
eventually discover that sex before marriage doesn't bring happiness
and doesn't make them more fulfilled," Lamb said.
Mormons teach that no one attains the highest reaches of heaven alone.
And although LDS doctrine reassures members that all righteous Mormons
eventually will wed - whether here or in the hereafter - marriage
remains a requirement.
LDS spokesman Michael Purdy said church leaders care deeply about the
welfare of Mormon singles and "value these members just as they love
and value all members." Purdy acknowledged that "this love and support
are not always shown the way they should be" and said any
insensitivity is "unacceptable."
Many single Latter-day Saints "live happy, fulfilled lives and
contribute greatly to the church," Purdy said. "These faithful members
recognize that while they are not currently married, they belong to
immediate and extended families, to a church family and to the all-
inclusive family of God."
- Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022506370.html
--------------------------
AND ANOTHER LAUGHER ...
"Four Amish Children Killed In KY Flash Flood After Missing Radio
Warnings"
BRUCE SCHREINER and KRISTIN M. HALL
Huffington Post
02/26/11
MAYFIELD, Ky. — The flash flood warning went out via electronic
channels the Amish typically eschew: TVs, radios and computers. About
an hour after the National Weather Service alert, four children were
swept away as their family tried to ford a rain-swollen creek in a
horse-drawn buggy.
Whether the family was aware of the warning for their Kentucky county,
they knew it was raining hard Thursday night. And when they reached
the normally tiny creek, it was more like a fast-moving river.
Within moments, the covered buggy tipped, tossing the four children
into the torrent.
Amid the darkness, searchers were summoned. By early Friday, rescuers
had recovered the bodies of three of the children. They later found
the fourth.
"We're trying to give the family some time by themselves right now to
grieve," Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said. "There's no doubt
that this was just a terrible accident."
The night had begun when Emanuel Wagler had packed his wife and
children into the buggy for the short trip to his brother's house. The
buggy is a mode of transportation commonly used by Amish families like
Wagler's.
Emanuel and his brother, Samuel, went to a community telephone inside
a wooden shack not far from the brother's house to call their father
in Missouri.
"That's the main reason they came out, to call my dad," explained
Samuel Wagler, 37.
Later, the families ate supper. Samuel figured the tiny creek his
brother had to cross had risen to around the black buggy's axles by
Thursday evening.
Emanuel, his wife and seven children – one of them Samuel's 11-year-
old daughter Elizabeth – were on their way back around 8:30 p.m.
Already, the severe thunderstorms that had swept over these rolling
green farmlands had dumped 2 inches of rain on the countryside. More
was coming, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flash
flood warning for the eastern Kentucky county, said meteorologist
Rachel Trevino.
It's not clear if the family knew of the warning, issued just about an
hour before the tragedy.
"It's very sad. Very, very sad," Trevino said.
The Amish live among non-Amish in this farming community near the
Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois state lines. By Thursday evening,
some 250 emergency workers were helping in the search.
They found the bodies of 5-month-old Rosemary, 5-year-old Sarahmae and
8-year-old Samuel.
Despite hopes that Elizabeth may have been clinging to a tree branch,
her body was found late Friday morning.
"She was just an all-around good girl," said uncle Levi Yoder, 30, his
voice cracking.
Neighbors brought food to the farmhouse where the family lives, and an
Amish woman was hanging clothes on a line beside the house on Friday.
Reporters were asked to leave.
"The community has stepped up above and beyond," said Rachel Marler, a
non-Amish neighbor.
Kentucky has nearly 8,000 Amish and 31 settlements, according to the
Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown
College in Elizabethtown, Pa.
Graves County has up to 250, divided between two settlements, said Don
Kraybill, a Young Center senior fellow.
On Friday afternoon, the battered buggy sat beside the creek in a
cornfield. Its wheels were mud-caked and slightly buried in the thick
brown soup. Part of the buggy's side had peeled away. A red blanket
hung out of the cabin. The horse survived.
Yoder kept his own vigil, trudging through a muddy field at creekside
when his niece's body was found.
"They crossed this creek, but when they came back they didn't realize
it was still rising," he said, his voice choked with emotion.
___
[Associated Press writers Dylan Lovan and Janet Cappiello Blake in
Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/26/four-amish-children-kille_n_828608.html
ARE CULTS THAT SHOULD BE DENIED TAX-FREE RELIGION STATUS, YOU NEED TO
GO "TO BE WITH YOUR LORD" NOW!
--------------
"On sex and the single Mormon"
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Washington Post
Saturday, February 26, 2011; B02
To many Americans, religious or not, chastity before marriage is a
quaint tradition at best and emotionally damaging at worst.
After all, more than 90 percent of men and women have reported
engaging in premarital sex, according to Guttmacher Institute surveys
during the past 50 years. And the older a single person becomes, many
people say, the more ridiculous it seems to forgo physical intimacy.
That's the perspective of Mormon poet Nicole Hardy, who in a New York
Times essay last month described her decision to join the rest of the
modern world.
"As I grew older, I had the distinct sense of remaining a child in a
woman's body; virginity brought with it arrested development on the
level of a handicapping condition," Hardy writes. "Too independent for
Mormon men, and too much a virgin for the other set, I felt trapped in
adolescence." Hardy, who declined to be interviewed until her
forthcoming book is out, had reached a point in her mid-30s at which
she thought it was no longer worth holding out.
Hardy's essay swept across the Mormon blogosphere, attracting critics
and defenders. They argued about her reasoning. Some blamed her, not
the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for her
predicament. They said she misunderstood Mormon principles. Others
empathized with her complaints. They felt - and lived - her pain.
There are millions of unmarried Mormons; some say up to a third of
adult Mormons in the United States are without spouses. For a religion
that makes marriage and family central to a person's eternal
potential, that can be tough.
Although Mormon men are also expected to be abstinent before marriage,
the challenges facing Mormon women seem particularly difficult. The
church tends to align itself with a more traditional culture, in which
men typically are seen as the deciders and women patiently wait to be
asked.
Frances Johnson, an unmarried 20-something writer in the District,
sees Hardy's approach as simplistic, missing the essence of Mormon
teachings.
"When you boil the issue down to simply, 'Can I have sex or can't I?'
you are going to find yourself in a less-than-optimal situation if
you're in your 30s and not married," Johnson said. "You are going to
be frustrated and probably talk yourself out of waiting."
Sex isn't the doorway to adulthood that makes you the type of person
you want to become, she said. That is a "fallacy and discounts the
value of all the other kinds of relationships in our lives - with
family, friends, co-workers and romantic partners where sex is not
involved."
Chris J. - writing for a popular Mormon blog, timesandseasons.org -
said the lack of sex is only part of what keeps him from feeling like
a grown-up.
What troubles Chris, who lives in Arlington, about his unmarried state
is the "persistent feeling of unsettledness that leaves so many
personal triumphs and tragedies - and the overall arc of my life -
doggedly incomplete."
Marybeth Raynes, a Salt Lake City psychologist and sex therapist, said
any institution with clear behavior boundaries is going to be
difficult for "outliers," those who do not follow all the rules.
Such a dynamic can lead to a "split life" for such people, who may
choose to give up either their sexuality or their spirituality.
"Each person has to resolve that for themselves," Raynes said. "Some
women - a minority, I think - lead a double life as the church would
define it, saying, 'This part is between me and God.'"
Stephen Lamb, a Mormon and a doctor, applauds the LDS Church's "stern
but compassionate approach" and blames modern society for equating sex
with maturity.
A recent Brigham Young University study reported that couples who
delayed sex until after marriage reported greater satisfaction in
their communication - and in their sex lives - than those who didn't
wait.
"The hypersexual culture in which we live has one pervasive message to
young adults and it is that happiness can only be derived through
sex," said Lamb, co-author of "Between Husband and Wife: Gospel
Perspectives on Marital Intimacy."
"But the vast majority of LDS kids who succumb to that illusion
eventually discover that sex before marriage doesn't bring happiness
and doesn't make them more fulfilled," Lamb said.
Mormons teach that no one attains the highest reaches of heaven alone.
And although LDS doctrine reassures members that all righteous Mormons
eventually will wed - whether here or in the hereafter - marriage
remains a requirement.
LDS spokesman Michael Purdy said church leaders care deeply about the
welfare of Mormon singles and "value these members just as they love
and value all members." Purdy acknowledged that "this love and support
are not always shown the way they should be" and said any
insensitivity is "unacceptable."
Many single Latter-day Saints "live happy, fulfilled lives and
contribute greatly to the church," Purdy said. "These faithful members
recognize that while they are not currently married, they belong to
immediate and extended families, to a church family and to the all-
inclusive family of God."
- Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022506370.html
--------------------------
AND ANOTHER LAUGHER ...
"Four Amish Children Killed In KY Flash Flood After Missing Radio
Warnings"
BRUCE SCHREINER and KRISTIN M. HALL
Huffington Post
02/26/11
MAYFIELD, Ky. — The flash flood warning went out via electronic
channels the Amish typically eschew: TVs, radios and computers. About
an hour after the National Weather Service alert, four children were
swept away as their family tried to ford a rain-swollen creek in a
horse-drawn buggy.
Whether the family was aware of the warning for their Kentucky county,
they knew it was raining hard Thursday night. And when they reached
the normally tiny creek, it was more like a fast-moving river.
Within moments, the covered buggy tipped, tossing the four children
into the torrent.
Amid the darkness, searchers were summoned. By early Friday, rescuers
had recovered the bodies of three of the children. They later found
the fourth.
"We're trying to give the family some time by themselves right now to
grieve," Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said. "There's no doubt
that this was just a terrible accident."
The night had begun when Emanuel Wagler had packed his wife and
children into the buggy for the short trip to his brother's house. The
buggy is a mode of transportation commonly used by Amish families like
Wagler's.
Emanuel and his brother, Samuel, went to a community telephone inside
a wooden shack not far from the brother's house to call their father
in Missouri.
"That's the main reason they came out, to call my dad," explained
Samuel Wagler, 37.
Later, the families ate supper. Samuel figured the tiny creek his
brother had to cross had risen to around the black buggy's axles by
Thursday evening.
Emanuel, his wife and seven children – one of them Samuel's 11-year-
old daughter Elizabeth – were on their way back around 8:30 p.m.
Already, the severe thunderstorms that had swept over these rolling
green farmlands had dumped 2 inches of rain on the countryside. More
was coming, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flash
flood warning for the eastern Kentucky county, said meteorologist
Rachel Trevino.
It's not clear if the family knew of the warning, issued just about an
hour before the tragedy.
"It's very sad. Very, very sad," Trevino said.
The Amish live among non-Amish in this farming community near the
Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois state lines. By Thursday evening,
some 250 emergency workers were helping in the search.
They found the bodies of 5-month-old Rosemary, 5-year-old Sarahmae and
8-year-old Samuel.
Despite hopes that Elizabeth may have been clinging to a tree branch,
her body was found late Friday morning.
"She was just an all-around good girl," said uncle Levi Yoder, 30, his
voice cracking.
Neighbors brought food to the farmhouse where the family lives, and an
Amish woman was hanging clothes on a line beside the house on Friday.
Reporters were asked to leave.
"The community has stepped up above and beyond," said Rachel Marler, a
non-Amish neighbor.
Kentucky has nearly 8,000 Amish and 31 settlements, according to the
Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown
College in Elizabethtown, Pa.
Graves County has up to 250, divided between two settlements, said Don
Kraybill, a Young Center senior fellow.
On Friday afternoon, the battered buggy sat beside the creek in a
cornfield. Its wheels were mud-caked and slightly buried in the thick
brown soup. Part of the buggy's side had peeled away. A red blanket
hung out of the cabin. The horse survived.
Yoder kept his own vigil, trudging through a muddy field at creekside
when his niece's body was found.
"They crossed this creek, but when they came back they didn't realize
it was still rising," he said, his voice choked with emotion.
___
[Associated Press writers Dylan Lovan and Janet Cappiello Blake in
Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/26/four-amish-children-kille_n_828608.html