Overheard at UVU

September 11, 2009 — John C.

I heard this in the hallway as I walked to class today.

“They’re not coming to church, but not for any legitimate reason. They’re just too lazy.”

Discuss.

Posted in Mormon. 46 Comments »

46 Responses to “Overheard at UVU”

  1. StillConfused Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 9:47 am

    “glad God made you judge and jury.”

  2. Aaron Brown Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 9:47 am

    1. Laziness is a perfectly legitimate reason to stay home on a Sunday morning. Laziness is a talent, bestowed on certain individuals by God, and you know what the Church teaches about magnifying our talents.

    2. Nice of the speaker to acknowledge there are legitimate reasons for skipping church, even if he did unfairly malign laziness. I wonder what would make his short list of approved reasons-to-be-absent: Crushing boredom? Unfriendly, cliquish ward members? An overbearing Bishop? Out of town, non-LDS guests? Hmmm.

    AB

  3. Scott B. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 9:48 am

    I suppose this narrow-minded young fool does not understand that football is a very legitimate reason.

  4. psychochemiker Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:05 am

    Is it really possible to condemn this young person without being judgemental?

    “Fool.” That’s downright Christian of you, Scott B.

  5. Chris H. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:12 am

    I have had pleny of students at UVU who specialize in lazy. So this person may have some special knowledge.

    (This applies to students I have had elsewhere as well. Not intended to be an insult towards UVU or UVU students).

  6. Chris H. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:19 am

    “I have had plenty of students…” I can’t even write so I should not be pointing out their weaknesses.

  7. Kari Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:23 am

    What’s UVU?

  8. Chris H. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:26 am

    UVU is Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

  9. Peter LLC Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:28 am

    What’s UVU?

    I believe it’s the first Orem off-ramp when driving up from the south.

    But to the point: I believe that being truly lazy is like committing the unpardonable sin–very few of us were ever industrious enough in the first place to demonstrate observable laziness by removing our foot from the pedal of life.

  10. oskar Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:30 am

    #7 – That would the Sand Hill Institute of Technology formerly known as UVSC.

  11. MikeInWeHo Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:33 am

    I overheard somebody say “He’s not coming to church, but not for any legitimate reason. He’s just too gay.”

  12. esodhiambo Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:42 am

    I must admit that I have thought this about people I have loved (the too lazy one, not the too gay one–how can you be TOO gay?). I don’t care if people I don’t love are too lazy for church, but I have seen too many people I love go out of Mormonism with a whimper.

  13. Kevin Barney Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:50 am

    I’m with no. 3; football is my legitimate reason.

  14. Dan Weston Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:50 am

    I suppose people leave a Church for the same reason that they leave a blog. It stops being edifying and interesting, loses sight of its core mission, or forms cliques and alienates moderates.

  15. queuno Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 11:05 am

    Wait, do blogs have core missions?

    I’m with 2B, this is a defining moment in the church where there are now legitimate reasons for missing church (my dad would make us go even if we were “a little sick”).

  16. John C. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 11:06 am

    I disagree, Dan. People stop blogging because they get lazy ;)

  18. mpb Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 11:48 am

    This quote obviously came from the missionary that just moved on from our ward, with whom I was so infatuated. The one who sat at my dinner table and told me the ward hadn’t had any baptisms for two years “because the members don’t want it bad enough,” right after opining that a member of our bishopric who said “the Lord is in control and has His own timetable” was “really just copping out.”

    (only slightly bitter)

  19. rameumptom Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 11:56 am

    Didn’t Brigham Young have something negative to say about lazy people, football and UVU?

  20. Michael Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    I thought the uvu was the little thing that hangs down at the back of your mouth.

    mpb – Those missionary quotes are priceless. Reminds me of Elder Wolfe, who got pawned off on me once. We went to teach a guy who’d stolen a Book of Mormon from a Marriott hotel room, read it, and wanted to join. He’d had two years of college, could read, drove a taxi for a living (which meant not only did he have a way to get to church, but he could take other people too), and had studied a wide variety of Christian and non-Christian religions. Car, job, could read, that’s future Bishopric material in an inner city. Elder Wolfe, in the first discussion, started discussing polygamy, Heavenly Mother, Kolob, the mummies which had accompanied the Book of Abraham, and how far you could go sexually before you had to talk to the bishop. Poor guy told us at the end of the discussion “This just isn’t what I thought it was going to be.”

    On the way back to the bus line, Elder Wolfe said, “Well, I guess the Lord doesn’t want him to get baptized.”

  21. Kari Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    On the way back to the bus line, Elder Wolfe said, “Well, I guess the Lord doesn’t want him to get baptized.”

    Clearly.

    Thank you to everyone for the clarification on UVU.

  22. Clayton Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    John C.,

    I am curious as to what you think of this comment. If you overheard it in the hallway at UVU, how do you know the context of the conversation? The “they” the person who was speaking is referring to may very well be someone whom they are very close to, have had long talks to try and understand their testimony and potential struggles with any number of things in the church, etc. and the person may have come flat out and said after all of that effort that they just did not want to come.

    Without more context here, we simply don’t know what to think.

  23. Liberal Mormon Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    Rather judgmental, I say!

  24. Martin Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    Oh, come on. How many times have BYU or UVU students missed church simply because they were too lazy? There’s nothing particularly judgmental in the statement.

  25. Bob Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 2:02 pm

    #3 & #13: No..it’s TV golf. They even whisper when covering it, so they don’t wake you from your nap.

  26. Left Field Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    They changed the name one too many times for me to keep up. I went back to calling it Utah Technical College. Or “The School Formerly Known As Utah Tech.” Or “Whatever UTC is Called This Week.”

  27. Soul Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    People has way too much free time in their hands to wonder what everybody else is doing or not doing.

  28. AspieMom Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    19- Its a basic given that Brigham Young had a negative comment for just about everything…..

  29. StillConfused Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    I got my associates degree from “what was then Utah Technical College” That is still what I call it now

  30. Mark B. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    You’re late to the game, Left Field. It’s the Trade Tech, and that’s where you go for drivers ed.

  31. Joseph Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    I’m having the best day of my life, and I owe it all to not going to Church!

  32. Left Field Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    I remember it being called the Trade Tech, but I’m not old enough to have ever made reference to the AC or the BY.

  33. MCQ Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 4:19 pm

    “how can you be TOO gay?).”

    “The one who sat at my dinner table and told me the ward hadn’t had any baptisms for two years “because the members don’t want it bad enough,” right after opining that a member of our bishopric who said “the Lord is in control and has His own timetable” was “really just copping out.””

    Awesome.

    Michael, you should have punched Elder Wolfe right in the face and continued the discussion over his limp, unconscious body. Obviously, you just didn’t want the investigator to get baptized bad enough, lazybones.

  34. Talon Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    I’m not going to Church this Sunday for the following legitimate reasons:

    1. It’s Stake Conference
    2. Double header HD NFL (Welcome back Brother Brady)

  35. John C. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    I don’t know what the context of the statement was. I’m giving it to you as I heard it. I have no comment about possible contexts because there could be any number. I think it works well without context, myself.

    I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more discussion of legitimate reasons to not attend church.

  36. Antonio Parr Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 10:22 pm

    Psychochemiker wrote in Number 4:

    <>

    I am now wrestling with the issue of whether being judgmental by condemning someone for being judgmental because they condemned someone else constitues a double negative (thus making the second act of condemnation a kind of “free pass”), or whether I should, to avoid sin, let the aforesaid secondary condemnation pass without writing a thing . . .

    Sometimes these blogs raise harrowing moral questions . . .

  37. Mark D. Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    But being meta-judgmental is not nearly as bad a sin as being judgmental, given its potential educational value…

  38. Confutus Says:
    September 11, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    Speaking as one who was called “lazy” for one reason or other for some forty years, I might be possibly be considered an expert on the subject.
    “Lazy” is one of those terms that usually describe the speaker at least as well as if not better than the one he is describing.
    As in, once you’ve judged someone as lazy, you’ve exempted yourself from even trying to help them. It’s often easier to imagine you can read minds and pronounce a moral judgment than it is to actually listen and try to understand someone else’s lapses.

  39. jimbob Says:
    September 12, 2009 at 10:23 am

    I can tell you all from experience that you can be “too lazy” and “too gay” but you can’t be both at the same time.

  40. sam Says:
    September 12, 2009 at 10:56 am

    My first thought is:

    Why are you eavesdropping on conversations you weren’t invited to listen to?

  41. Natalie K. Says:
    September 12, 2009 at 11:36 am

    I haven’t gone to church for several weeks because my work keeps scheduling me on Sunday morning. :(

    Legitimate?

  42. HighTower Says:
    September 12, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    What if God tells you not to go to church? Is that legitimate?

    What if, instead of God, it’s Buddha, the Great Spirit or Karl H. Marx, that tells you not to go? Is that legitimate?

  43. CEF Says:
    September 12, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    “Well, I’m glad I ain’t scared to be lazy.” -Guss McCrae(Lonesome Dove) …
    I have always loved that line.

  44. Yorgus Smeagle Says:
    September 12, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    That little hangy-down thing in the back of your throat is named after the Los Angelos campus of Utah Valley University (UVU-LA). It has nothing to do with the Orem campus.

  45. Mark N. Says:
    September 13, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    Football!?

    Now, golf, that’s a reason.

  46. Clark Says:
    September 14, 2009 at 9:17 pm

    Ask if they are lazy and have the muchies. If so it might not be simple laziness… (bg)


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