Who Knows wrote:Then you take a step back, and realize it's pretty ridiculous. There's maybe only a couple of things that my kids could do, that would make me kick them out of my life FOREVER (joining a specified religion ain't one of them).
You seem to be making a baseless assumption about my thinking on this matter. In another place, under different circumstances, I'd be happy to discuss the issue. Not here, though.
truth dancer wrote:I had a similar time as a child.
I was a child convert. My father is agnostic, my mother joined a few years after I. Everytime I heard, "families can be together forever," I heard, "I will be alone in heaven."
The Plan, for me, was, no matter how good I was, I would not be with my family. My parents were not sealed, I was not sealed to anyone. I would not be with my parents and siblings.
I never liked the plan. It always seems so elitist, so cruel, so wrong. So NOT what a child needs to here. I spent many a night as a child crying, wondering why God would create such a plan.
I grew up with a non-Mormon father and a semi-active Mormon mother. I heard nothing about the plan of salvation, really, until sometime in my teens. I've always loved it. And, probably not coincidentally, I've always read the doctrine of the Restoration in at least a quasi-universalist way. The glass is not half or more empty, but half full at a
minimum.
I can't see how it's better, incidentally, to believe that
nobody can be with his or her family than to believe that at least
some people can be. But then, I'm probably lying.