Summary: Sheri makes an unusual career choice for a preachers daughter.
Read and enjoy…..
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“We are so proud of you, Charles,” Amy Goodness told her 19-year-old son, beaming a scintillating smile at him.
“It really is quite an accomplishment,” Reginald Goodness added.
“I can’t believe you got a scholarship for a film study of the sex life of the monarch butterfly,” Sheri, his 18-year-old sister said.
“I sure didn’t plan on it,” Charles said with a laugh. “It was just an assignment for my videography class that was supposed to demonstrate understanding and use of various focal lengths and film speeds. The professor is the one who submitted it. I didn’t even know he had done it until I got this letter,” he said, holding up an envelope. “To me, it was just a great chance to work with really good equipment and experiment with macro videography and macro photography.”
“I have to admit that I’m a bit surprised at your choice of subject matter,” Reginald said.
“Oh, Dad, I can’t believe you’re still so hung up about any mention of anything sexual,” Sheri said. “It’s only butterflies! If it weren’t for sex, there wouldn’t be any life, including us.”
“Now, Sheri, you know very well that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints frowns on any mention or display of anything sexual,” Amy said.
“Mom, the Mormons are so out of touch with the here and now,” Amy said, exasperation in her voice.
“That’s disrespectful, Sheri,” Amy said, bristling with indignation. “Your father has been a church elder since you were a child and I’ve been a religious studies teacher for over 20 years in the church.”
“And I mean no disrespect at all towards either of you,” Sheri replied. “The church does many good things and I know how much you and Dad help others. But I’m talking about historical facts. Joseph Smith was a crazy man addicted to sex. He didn’t care who the woman was, whether she was married or not, whether she was very, very young or old. He only cared about having sex with as many women as he could. He never saw a woman that he didn’t want to have sex with. He ‘married’ 50 of them.”
“I cannot believe that I am hearing this from my own daughter,” Reginald said indignantly.
“You object to hearing the truth, Dad?” Sheri asked. “Is that what the church has taught you, to stick your head in the sand like an ostrich whenever you hear something that you don’t like, to ignore inconvenient reality?”
“Sheri, where is this anger coming from?” Amy asked, a shocked look on her face.
“I am just sick and tired of the hypocrisy, Mom,” Sheri replied. “I’d find it all much easier to accept and believe if it weren’t so wrapped up in hypocrisy. There is so much good about the church, no matter how unsavory its origins. At the same time, why do Mormons have the highest suicide rate of any religion? Isn’t suicide one of the biggest sins?”
“It is one of the gravest of sins,” Reginald said. “But for many, it is even a greater sin to knowingly live possessed by the devil.”
“Oh, please,” Sheri snorted. “Possessed by the devil is nothing more than a semantic excuse for not having any self-control and giving in to baser instincts that harm yourself and/or others. Being weak is not being possessed by the devil, if there is even such an entity, it’s just being weak and using the devil as the bogeyman to blame for that weakness.”
“If the church stopped trying to sell the devil as an excuse and instead focused on the very real psychologic problems that people face and dealt with them, I think we’d see a lot fewer people killing themselves because they don’t see any other way out, because in their minds, they’re possessed. And the church doesn’t have any sort of an exorcism process to get rid of the so-called devil, so people know that there is no help and they kill themselves. Even the Roman Catholic church has an official exorcism and they’re about as barbaric as they come. They at least try to help instead of just looking the other way while people kill themselves. Doesn’t that make you feel the least bit ashamed? How many people do you know who have taken their own lives?”
“Sheri!” Amy gasped, jumping to her feet, all 5’2″ of her body shaking, her blue eyes beneath her cap of blonde curls flashing.
“Do you really so blindly, unquestionably accept everything?” Sheri asked, rising to her feet to face her, the spitting image of her mother, but a couple of inches taller at 5’4″. “Have you abrogated your right and ability to think, to question? Well, I haven’t. I’m starting to question a lot of things.”
“Sheri, how can I help?” Reginald asked softly. “What do you want or need from me?”
“I don’t know, Dad,” Sheri replied, shrugging her shoulders. “But I’ve been thinking about things for a while now and, well, it just came out. I don’t mean to disrespect you or Mom, but I do now question a lot about the church, among other things in life.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I have no idea what has gotten into her,” Amy said exasperatedly to Reginald when they were alone.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Reginald replied.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Amy asked.
“Did you never ask yourself about the things that she brought up?” Reginald asked.
“Of course not,” Amy replied indignantly, raising her nose just a bit.
“Why not?” Reginald asked mildly.
“Why not?” Amy sputtered. “Why would I? I accept the church’s teachings. I teach the church’s teachings!”
“Blindly, unthinkingly, just as Sheri suggested?” Reginald asked, blinking behind his glasses.
“I don’t need to think about such things,” Amy replied. “I trust the church to teach me what I need to know. Don’t you?”
“Oh, yes, certainly,” Reginald replied, “to a degree. But I haven’t limited myself to only those things that the church would have me know.”
“But you’re an elder of the church,” Amy gasped.
“Which in theory means that I’m wise, not stupid,” Reginald replied. “How could I possibly counsel others if I don’t have any idea of what it is that they’re going through or feeling.”
“But what she said,” Amy said.
“Was mostly true,” Reginald replied, smiling. “The church doesn’t like to talk about such things, but they are what they are.”
“I’m shocked hearing you of all people saying such things,” Amy said.
“How many people do we know that have taken their own lives, Amy?” Reginald asked her somberly.
“Too many,” Amy replied quietly. “Far too many.”
“Our church has created a system of control and repression that has no safety valve,” Reginald explained.
“But there is prayer!” Amy protested.
“Yes, there is prayer,” Reginald agreed. “And God knows I never stop praying. But the Lord works in mysterious ways and at a time and place of His choosing.”
“What are you saying?” Amy asked.
“People who can’t handle the pressure, the strictures of the church, either leave the church to one degree or another or they kill themselves,” Reginald replied. “Our numbers are not growing and haven’t been for a long time. Our missionaries are being refused in more and more countries around the world.”
“But Sheri…” Amy began.
“Is more typical of the new generation,” Reginald said with a sigh. “The youth of today either reject the church, for good reason, I believe, or they become mindless sycophants who want to be told how to do everything and have no interest in taking a proactive part in their own lives. They aren’t truly spiritual, they’re lazy.”
“Reginald!” Amy gasped.
“Have you ever noticed how all of the casino and bordello parking lots just across the border into Nevada are always full of cars with Utah license plates?” Reginald asked with a laugh.
“Not particularly, no,” Amy replied.
“With 90% of the population of Utah nominally Mormon, that’s a lot of Mormons looking for a safety valve that they can’t find in this state,” Reginald said.
“Do you have a point that you’re trying to make?” Amy asked.
“Just that I’ve also thought of Joseph Smith’s proclivities with respect to the church’s current stand on anything sexual, which is to pretend that it just doesn’t exist,” Reginald replied. “The two seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, as though the church is trying to make up for his actions by going as extremely in the opposite direction as possible today. It makes me wonder how much of the church dogma is spiritually based as opposed to politically expedient.”
“I had no idea you even thought of such things,” Amy said.
“Don’t you think you’re being just a little bit hypocritical now?” Reginald asked.
“Reginald!” Amy exclaimed, her cheeks coloring slightly.”
“You enjoy sex,” Reginald pointed out. “Why is one okay and the other not?”
“I don’t know what you’re asking me,” Amy said.
“Well, you enjoy sex and don’t stop yourself from enjoying it, right?” Reginald asked.
“Reginald!” Amy exclaimed, her cheeks coloring even more.
“Well?” Reginald persisted.
“Yes, I enjoy it,” Amy said. “You know very well that I do.”
“This is the kind of hypocrisy that Sheri was talking about and I find it hard to disagree with her.”
“I’ve never thought of it at all,” Amy confessed. “I’ve been content with what I had and didn’t see any reason to do anything to change that.”
“That’s where Sheri is different,” Reginald said. “She’s not content with the straightjacket of the church and she’s not certain what to do about it. Right now, she’s acknowledging it. It’s what she does next in the evolution of her thoughts that should prove decisive. All things considered, don’t you think that you’re overreacting just a bit?”
“But she’s our daughter!” Amy exclaimed, exasperated.
“Yes, she most certainly is,” Reginald agreed, nodding his head.