“Personally, I have found blogging to be a great way to learn to recognize triggers that set people off. I have become quite proficient at not offending fellow Mormons when I discuss LDS history and doctrine.”

Hmm, I might take out one word myself, to say:

“Personally, I have found blogging to be a great way to learn to recognize triggers that set people off. I have become quite proficient _at offending_ fellow Mormons when I discuss LDS history and doctrine.”

Now, if only we could have those rules in Relief Society!!

Steve, I didn’t get that feel from his post or the article. This is simply something that women decided to do. I’m sure men could do the same thing. Most of the men I know are more argumentative or debaters so that part might be a challenge, but I think anyone could start similar groups to this in thier community.

The question of healing only arises when you don’t have anything better to do anyway. If you have time to focus on how bad you felt yesterday (or how bad somebody made you feel yesterday), you don’t have enough on your plate for today.

Your final paragraph is one of the stupidest things I have yet to read in the bloggernacle–and that’s saying something. If you have time to focus on making unsupported, blanket statements of little use to anyone, you don’t have enough on your plate for today.

Please know that I am writing not out of irritation, but in a genuine attempt to get you to try harder to engage the topic or save me from the boorish remarks. It sort of like hearing a small child swear–some might find it amusing, but it’s a stupid trick.

I don’t know if you live in Utah or not. If you don’t, then you have no idea the real tension and pain that can come from both sides of the religious divide. If you do live in Utah, then I have absolutely no doubt that you’re one of the Mormons contributing to the problem.

If only we could all be as thick-skinned as youa nd call attempts to avoid pain and grow together in understanding a luxury. It just doesn’t work that way. But hey, who needs understanding? It’s not like Zion means we’ll be of one heart and one mind. Oh, wait…

Steve, I believe men “achieve a level of harmony” through Church basketball as opposed to mere verbal communication. For Canadians, hockey does the job of expressing affection through mild aggression.

Mathew, I think you need to try a little harder to “feel the love.” Personally, the dumbest things I have read in the B’nacle have been on the LDS-law list, but I don’t know whether that truly qualifies as part of the B’nacle or whether that actually dates to the Dark Ages of the Net (i.e., “BB,” Before the B’nacle).

There’s wisdom in this maxim, Mathew, and I think we agree on it in principle. Our difference is probably over its application.

John H: I don’t know if you live in Utah… or have [any] idea [of] the real tension and pain that can come from both sides of the religious divide… If only we could all be as thick-skinned as you and call attempts to avoid pain and grow together in understanding a luxury

I fully appreciate the irony in your attempt to hold me up as a role model, John H, but I do not think that this is about being thick-skinned.

There are things like Hann’s Mill, Buchanan’s Blunder, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre which cause real rifts between communities. On the other hand, if we had to wake up at the crack of dawn and do farm-work until nightfall to keep our family from starving, I think (a) there’d be a lot more conformity, and (b) we’d spend a lot less time insulting and being insulted by our neighbors.

I’m not advocating a return to an agrarian economy—I, for one, enjoy the unprecedented amount of disposable income and leisure time afforded our generation on America. But I think that we shouldn’t let misuse these luxuries by getting bogged down in harboring resentment and grievances. And when we do (as we are wont to do), we should certainly keep it in perspective. Catharsis works against this by legitimizing petty grievances that people should actually be ashamed to whine about. I think that this is tacitly recognized by the use of a title of this thread, which leverages a popular parody of group therapy.

First of all, some of the gripes of the ladies in the article do seem unjustifiable. As in expressing surprise that all Mormons don’t think alike. Or in being offended that the LDS church claims to be exclusively true.

Of course it’s true that Mormons in Utah, and even the church itself, have done some things to occasionally offend our neighbors, and for this we should be humble and apologize where appropriate. But is it really stupid to suggest that a significant percentage of these grievances are trifling and trivial? Or at least to call for a higher-degree of self-examination before seeking therapy and apology for the putative wrongs?