I still remember a meeting where the speaker said "I was never part of your organization and knew nothing about it until I was called to be in charge of it, now I appreciate how important it is" followed up by a couple tone deaf comments about the organization. She quite successfully got the point across that (a) serving in the organization was insignificant insofar as any leadership position in it mattered and (b) understanding the organization was not necessary either.
The only worse thing that happened was when one of the women complained about it, an elders quorum president said "You can ignore her, she is a woman and doesn't have the priesthood and so doesn't have any authority at all."
What is the worst thing you've ever heard anyone say?
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In a singles' ward I was a member of, a Stake High Councilman said in a Sacrament Meeting talk, "If any of you sisters go on a mission, you'll never get married because men will be too intimidated by you."
(By the way, I'm a man and I'm very intimidated by women. My wife is a returned missionary - dedication to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not intimidating, it's actually kind-of attractive!)
"When you grow up and go to BYU...."
In the 1980's my wife and I lived in a ward with five or six members who had long standing, serious chronic health problems, from quadriplegia to End Stage Renal Disease. You can guess what happened. On High Council Sunday one of the speakers commented that people become seriously ill because of the sins that they have committed or evil that they have done.
What was most memorable that day, however, was the reaction of one of the sisters. Leora was, and still is, the epitome of courtesy, rectitude and decorum. But her button had been "pushed." In a stage whisper that would have made Sarah Bernhardt proud, she could be heard throughout the chapel saying, "That is not true."
Leora did not remember uttering those words and was somewhat appalled that she did so in a sacrament meeting. A number of us feel, however, that she might have had a wee bit of divine guidance. Most of us left the meeting smiling about Leora's retort and not focusing on the uncaring remarks of the High Councilman.
In a Gospel Doctrine lesson about the family proclamation, someone made a comment that people who don't marry young are selfish, worldly, and unrighteous. I raised my hand and told her that it was completely inappropriate to judge people like that and that she doesn't know what is going on in any individual's life or what God has in store for any other person. (For the record, I'm 28 and single, but I would like to think I would have stuck up for my single or later-married brothers and sisters even if I had married young.)
The teacher deftly steered the discussion in another direction and nobody in my ward has given me any grief since.
"On Saturday, all of you are going on a mission. Are you all excited? We are passing out your mission calls. You can open these letters to find out where you are going on your mission on Saturday."
(Here is when I get up from the piano and ask the Primary President to please tell them it is a PRETEND mission for their Saturday activity). I was sure my son was probably starting to freak out that he was expected to leave home and go on a mission that Saturday....usually kids his age aren't ready to leave home.
My poor son, even with that "pretend" in there he still asked me later if his letter meant he was going to go to Japan for his real mission when he was older.
Two things:
The first being a teacher comparing George W. Bush’s threatening/blackmailing our allies to support his invasion of Iraq to Captain Moroni’s rallying the Nephites around the Title of Liberty. There have been very few times when I’ve ever felt a greater lack of the spirit.
The second happened during a sacrament meeting talk just this past Sunday wherein the speaker said, “The prophet’s job is to receive direction from the Lord. Our job is to sit down and listen.” Or, as I coined it, the doctrine of “sit down and shut up” because overall it was one of those “blind obedience to the prophet” messages. On a similar note, all three talks that day were so erroneous/full of false doctrine/uninformative/boring that I could not say “Amen” in good conscience at the end of any of them, but that one was the worst.
Man...These are crazy. I can't remember something said out loud - like in sacrament meeting, but I do know someone that said to me, "I don't like this calling because it has nothing to teach me. I'm not growing."
I guess I was surprised and felt bad about that because we think that callings are always for us. Like - there's something we need to learn, and as soon as we have learned how to do it we'll be released.
Sometimes, serving in the church is all about...serving.
Not strictly heard at Cchurch, but... I had a missionary companion who believed that everyone born into the Church was de facto more righteous in the pre-existence than anyone born outside the Church (including converts). He didn't seem to think this notion was at all odd.
This is an interesting topic. My husband and I have dealt with infertility for over 13 years of marriage. After 4 failed treatments we were able to finally become pregnant. After a fairly uneventful pregnancy 2 days before our precious daughter was to be born she died.
So 7 months after all this I'm sitting in Relief Society and the lesson is on the Priesthood. One lady raised her hand and was trying to give an analogy of how boys don't just receive their various priesthood offices just because they turn a "certain age", such as deacons because they are 12, but rather they have to be prepared and ready for this calling. Her analogy went something like this, it's not automatic for the priesthood to be given to boys, you know how we women can just get pregnant anytime we want. Boy did that one hurt as I've been just anytime wanting for 12 years.
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