I recently got an email from a lovely lady named Jean Bodie who has become a follower of my blogs, especially in connection with my hymn parodies. I first met Jean at the ExMormon Foundation Conference in October 2010 where she gave a wonderful talk entitled Good Works in a Post-Mormon World. Even though I didn't get to know her very well then, I felt an immediate kinship with her as a ExMormon woman. Since then, though, we have become Facebook friends and have exchanged several messages that have further cemented my opinion of her, and I now consider her a very good friend IRL. I admire Jean's courage and conviction despite the struggles she has encountered since leaving Mormonism as illustrated very vividly in this video posted on YouTube (from the I Am an ExMormon website). Jean currently serves as the Secretary of the ExMormon Foundation, and is involved in working on this petition as well as many other worthwhile activities.
In the recent email I received from Jean, she asked if I would write two hymn parodies highlighting the issues that are addressed in the Mormon Temple Wedding Policy Petition which seeks to change the policy of the Mormon Church requiring people who decide to first have civil weddings to wait for a year before they are allowed to have their Temple weddings. She told me that she wanted to use these hymn parodies in varoius ways to support the petition, including possibly being sung publicly during the time when the petition will be delivered to Mormon Church leaders in October 2011. In communicating with Jean about this (and reading the information contained on the petition website), I began to see that this is an important issue and a compromise that the Mormon Church should make - and since it became so obvious to me that this policy is unfair to non-members and others who cannot attend temple weddings, I agreed to write the hymn parodies. Because Jean gave me the inspiration for these hymn parodies and provided various possible lyrics to me (some of which I used), I have given her credit on these hymn parodies as well.
Of note, of course, is the fact that in countries other than the United States, this policy does not apply. In such countries as Latin America and throughout Europe, people are allowed to be married civilly first and then soon after that to be sealed in a Mormon Temple. Why should the United States and Canada be any different? After all, from what I have been able to ascertain, there is no doctrinal backup for this tenuous position taken by the Mormon Church. In short, it is exclusionary and discriminatory against those who are not members of the Mormon Church or who do not have recommends enabling them to enter Mormon Temples.
While discussing the issues surrounding this petition with Jean by email, and commenting that sometimes when something doesn't directly affect people, some tend to shrug it off, Jean very eloquently replied as follows:
"As you said, if something doesn’t directly affect people they can just shrug it off. We have to make people realize that it really DOES affect them; it can affect anyone – children, non-endowed members, non-tithe paying members, ‘unworthy’ members, and Ex-Members. Then it can affect anyone who is not a Mormon and that is the majority of people in the world. Why the heck are they building temples all over the world when so few people can enter? The temples are the brainwashing centers of the cult. It is so obvious from what goes on inside and all the Masonic symbols on the buildings, even the new ones. If it wasn’t part of their brainwashing/occult stuff, wouldn’t you think that now with all the negative publicity that they would be leaving out those Masonic symbols?"
"We also need Mormons to understand that we are not trying to take away their right to be married in the temple, if that is their choice, and that we are not asking for all the above who are excluded to be allowed in their temples. It is just a case of removing the penalty; there is just no need for it except as a means of control – get the couple into the closest brainwashing center to make those scary covenants so that they have them by the short hairs."
I hope that you will take the time to consider this important issue and visit the website dedicated to the Mormon Temple Wedding Policy Petition - and if you are so inclined, that you will sign it. It is only through making issues heard that they are ever changed. Indeed, the old adage that says "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" is very true.
Below are the two hymn parodies on this issue. As a note, these hymn parodies were written from a Christian point of view even though I consider myself an Agnostic now. But it seems rather obvious to me that this is a universal issue, regardless of a person's religious affiliations or inclinations, and it is one that needs to be addressed.
I SIT OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE
Below are the two hymn parodies on this issue. As a note, these hymn parodies were written from a Christian point of view even though I consider myself an Agnostic now. But it seems rather obvious to me that this is a universal issue, regardless of a person's religious affiliations or inclinations, and it is one that needs to be addressed.
I SIT OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE
Sung to the tune of I Love to See the Temple, #95
I sit outside the temple,
My daughter’s getting wed.
I long to be there with her,
To hear their vows be said.
But I can’t go in this house of God,
A place where few can enter,
Even though I worship Jesus Christ,
Oh yes, he is my Savior.
I know the path she’s chosen,
But such a special day,
Should not be so exclusive,
This is the price I pay
For not worshipping the way she does,
Since I am not a Mormon,
But if there was just some other way
That felt much more like heaven.
The temple’s very sacred
To Mormons everywhere,
But weddings without families
Seems totally unfair.
But I sit outside the temple now,
And think about the wedding,
Trying hard to wait here patiently,
Although my heart is aching.
If only they would hear me,
And change the way it’s done,
Allow a civil wedding
And then the temple one.
They would help keep families unified
Although they are not Mormon,
And if they would make this compromise,
They’d show that they are Christian.
© Diane Tingen and Jean Bodie, 7/4/2011
FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER
I sit outside the temple,
My daughter’s getting wed.
I long to be there with her,
To hear their vows be said.
But I can’t go in this house of God,
A place where few can enter,
Even though I worship Jesus Christ,
Oh yes, he is my Savior.
I know the path she’s chosen,
But such a special day,
Should not be so exclusive,
This is the price I pay
For not worshipping the way she does,
Since I am not a Mormon,
But if there was just some other way
That felt much more like heaven.
The temple’s very sacred
To Mormons everywhere,
But weddings without families
Seems totally unfair.
But I sit outside the temple now,
And think about the wedding,
Trying hard to wait here patiently,
Although my heart is aching.
If only they would hear me,
And change the way it’s done,
Allow a civil wedding
And then the temple one.
They would help keep families unified
Although they are not Mormon,
And if they would make this compromise,
They’d show that they are Christian.
© Diane Tingen and Jean Bodie, 7/4/2011
FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER
They are so dear to me,
But they believe that I won’t be
With them eternally.
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
Families can be together forever
In Christianity.
Though Mormons all believe
The doctrines they receive,
Yet I know the Lord still loves me, too,
I know the Lord still loves me, too.
I have a daughter and a son,
I have a daughter and a son,
So special and unique.
But when they marry, I won’t hear
The vows that they will speak.
(Chorus)
(Chorus)
Families can be together forever,
As Mormons testify.
But there’s a cruel ban,
Through Mormonism’s plan,
So I won't be able to attend
Because the Mormon Church won't bend.
© Diane Tingen and Jean Bodie, 7/5/2011
© Diane Tingen and Jean Bodie, 7/5/2011
