I put up with it because it was true

[_Gazelam]

Do you think its similar to watching sports? If your not playing its boring, but you do enjoy the highlight reels?

[_Runtu]

Do you think its similar to watching sports? If your not playing its boring, but you do enjoy the highlight reels?

No, because if sports are unpleasant, I'm not made to feel guilty if I can't make myself enjoy it.

[_beastie]

Church meetings were brutal because they were so frequent, long, and repetitive. It's hard for me to believe any Mormon actually enjoys church meetings, but they go out of religious obligation.

I know several active LDS who get headaches almost every Sunday. I don't think it's a coincidence.

[_Sethbag]

What I find amazing, now that I'm able to look at it a bit more objectively, is the almost slavish requirement of some of the TBMs I know, like in my family and my wife's, to going to church on Sunday. They act as if it's absolutely required that they go every single Sunday if at all possible, so they usually will just not go anywhere if there isn't a LDS wardhouse they can visit for church. My wife's grandma has a cabin up in the mountains here, and when the family all go up to this cabin, they'll all bring their Sunday clothes and drop by the local ward on Sunday morning, without fail. And they'll look askance at whomever is up there who doesn't go, for whatever reason.

Even amongst those who go to this local ward building, there seems to be some unspoken tension between those who are devoted enough to go to all three hours, and those who leave after Sacrament Meeting. Come on people, you're on vacation, can't you afford to miss LDS church services for one freaking Sunday every once in a while? I can totally tell, these people are not going because they enjoy it; they're going because they have to.

[_Yoda]

What I find amazing, now that I'm able to look at it a bit more objectively, is the almost slavish requirement of some of the TBMs I know, like in my family and my wife's, to going to church on Sunday. They act as if it's absolutely required that they go every single Sunday if at all possible, so they usually will just not go anywhere if there isn't a LDS wardhouse they can visit for church. My wife's grandma has a cabin up in the mountains here, and when the family all go up to this cabin, they'll all bring their Sunday clothes and drop by the local ward on Sunday morning, without fail. And they'll look askance at whomever is up there who doesn't go, for whatever reason.

Even amongst those who go to this local ward building, there seems to be some unspoken tension between those who are devoted enough to go to all three hours, and those who leave after Sacrament Meeting. Come on people, you're on vacation, can't you afford to miss LDS church services for one freaking Sunday every once in a while? I can totally tell, these people are not going because they enjoy it; they're going because they have to.

That's one thing I'm grateful for. As TBM as my husband is, we don't scramble to find an LDS chapel if we're on vacation.

When we went to the beach last month, he enjoyed lounging on the beach on Sunday as much as I did.

:)

[_Yoda]

I know several active LDS who get headaches almost every Sunday. I don't think it's a coincidence.

I always have a migraine after Church on Sundays.

[_Runtu]

Church meetings were brutal because they were so frequent, long, and repetitive. It's hard for me to believe any Mormon actually enjoys church meetings, but they go out of religious obligation.

I know several active LDS who get headaches almost every Sunday. I don't think it's a coincidence.

I remember Henry Eyring talking about how his father smiled all the way through a particularly brutal meeting. Afterwards, he asked him if he had really enjoyed the meeting. "Yes," he answered. "In my mind, I gave the talks that should have been given." In other words, he enjoyed the meeting by pretending he wasn't at the meeting.

Not all meetings are awful, but the vast majority are, as you said, repetitive and excruciatingly tedious.

I'm prone to migraines, too, and I was having them often on Sundays. Recently my youngest told me during sacrament meeting that his stomach hurt, so I took him home after sacrament meeting. As we pulled into the driveway at home, he said, "I think my tummy will feel better when church is over." Mine too, I thought. ;-)

[_harmony]

It's been years since I attended church regularly. No one even blinks an eye; no one worries that I'm "going inactive". I do my job every week, so they're happy. They're all delighted when I show up, either for SM or for a ward activity. I've been offered the opportunity to have the sacrament brought to my home, but I decline. It seems an excess, although the two boys would probably think of it as a breather from the boring sameness of church, but I don't want to be anyone's excuse to escape. If they escape, they must do it on their own, not use me as a crutch. And besides, I usually am asleep at that time.

I wish I could say I once had ward leadership who made the meetings consistently interesting, informative, and fun. Unfortunately, I'm like everyone else: they're generally boring. They didn't used to be; when I had young children, they weren't boring--they were torture. At that time of my life, I'd have settled for boring! We used to have great musical numbers every Sunday--either the ward choir would sing, one of the Julliard-schooled sisters would play, or a ward member would play or sing. Now we don't seem to have the same musical caliber in our members, so we aren't treated to a concert-quality piece every week or so. And maybe it's not that the meetings have gotten more boring, it's that I'm harder to satisfy. I've heard it all so many times that I've been known to amuse myself by writing letters to missionaries (with my personal comments inserted into the talk descriptions), play tictactoe, or color in the o's in the bulletin. The kids are bored and restless, the parents are bored and impatient, the old guys sleep, and even the bishopric yawns. The highlight of the meeting is the little kid who escapes his parents and runs screaming down to aisle to grandma! Those of us who have any soul left are secretly rooting for the little guy!

Meetings don't have to be boring, but the emphasis on surface piety makes it almost impossible for them to be anything else. God said to bring the children to him; he didn't say to shut them up too. God said to make a joyful noise unto the Lord; he didn't say sit down, shut up, and listen. God said don't worry, be happy! Well, he would have said that, if anyone had still been awake in church enough to write it down!

[_Yoda]

Meetings don't have to be boring, but the emphasis on surface piety makes it almost impossible for them to be anything else.

That, and the fact that 3 hours is just too bloody long.

[_Runtu]

Meetings don't have to be boring, but the emphasis on surface piety makes it almost impossible for them to be anything else.

That, and the fact that 3 hours is just too bloody long.

At least it's better than the all-day church marathons they had when we were young. I remember getting up early for priesthood meeting, and then most of the Aaronic Priesthood walked down the street to the Jewish bakery for bagels (we figured it wasn't their Sabbath, so we were OK) before Sunday School. Then we'd go home for lunch and then back in the afternoon for sacrament meeting.

Of course, it is easier to handle meetings like that when they are broken up.