It was a stake fireside, I was about twenty, and this guy is giving a talk and he held up a plate and said that this plate came from Nauvoo and had been in their family since that time and it was really special to the family and that he was going to pass it around. Well the first six pews in the center were filled and I was on the second row, when it got to the third row and suddenly right behind me you heard the plate break. Everyone was stunned and in silence – part of it was underneath me and I was throwing the parts back towards the guy being so shy and scared.
The guy who was giving the talk came down and took the plate and was almost in tears – finally when he came back up to the stand he smiled and said it wasn’t true it was an old plate but was just a regular plate. People were saying like ‘What the hell!’ He asked how we felt when we heard the sound of the plate break and some answered that they felt really bad and then he said that we should feel this way towards non-members we should feel sad and sorry for them. As I looked back – this guy and the guy behind me who was in on it, should have been flogged.
This is the way they keep people in line so just like the old story of taking the rope off the elephant and it won’t wonder very far as it still thinks it’s bound to the tree. thestyleguy, board post 10th November 2007, ‘The Broken Plate’
This was done at about five or six homes. The Young Women were hurt and offended and apparently were saying mean things about the door shutters and some Young Women were in tears. There were two leaders with each tribe and only one knew this was a lesson, the other was just as hurt as the girls.
After enough of this shunning, the leader in the know explained to the girls that they were turned away so they would know how Joseph and Mary felt, being turned away over and over again on a cold night when they were trying to find shelter.
Then, as a finale, they went to a member’s farm and a married couple with a baby were dressed as Mary, Joseph and Jesus and the Young Women stood in the cold as the trio in the sheltered barn related the Christmas story to them, then they all ate the cookies that the door shutters refused.
Several of the door shutters and Young Women leaders went up and carried on about what a spiritual lesson this was, how hard it was to shut out these confused, hurt Young Women’s and how we should all let the gospel in our lives instead of turning away Jesus/his representatives.
What a dirty trick! I think this one belongs with the licked cupcake/chewed gum stories. Clever Pup, board post 6th January 2009, ‘Shocking Cruel Young Women's Lesson’
After dark, we were led to an area, and told to put on a blindfold. After a feeble argument I complied.
Then my hand was placed on a round PVC pipe. I was told to not let go until I heard xxx’s voice. As I was walking along the pipe I heard voices telling me to let go, that all sorts of horrible things were going on around me, and that I had made it so I could let go.
Well, I made it to the end of the pipe trail because I remembered the instruction to not let go until I heard xxx’s voice.
I took off the blindfold and there were several people wearing white robes all happy to tell me that I had made it. There was a big tree all decorated in white lights. Then I was to sit and wait until all the adult unit leaders and the girls had made it to the end.
While I was sitting there I was glad I had made it.
As time went on though, I started to feel as though I had been manipulated. There were girls sitting near me who had made it, but they were wondering what had happened to their friends who were with them.
One girl was sobbing because she couldn’t find her sister.
Later on I found out that the girls who let go of the PVC pipe before the end were taken to an area and given a lecture about what Jesus had done for them. Then they got another turn to hold on and go to the end of the PVC pipe.
Some of the girls had been tricked by their older sisters or friends who were trying to get them to let go.
This went on for hours in the dark and cold. By the time the whole ordeal was over I just wanted to get back to camp and go to sleep. I was feeling very manipulated and used. ORFinn, board post ‘Girls Camp, Faith Promoting Activity’
Today is the 5th Sunday so the bishopric split up and each presented a ‘speshul’ lesson to the adults, youth, and kids. My 10 year old son told me that the counselor gave a presentation where he scooped out various flavors of ice cream and toppings into a bowl, creating a beautiful sundae. Of course he had their complete attention, with each hoping for a taste. He told the kids that they are like this bowl of ice cream. (???) Then he pulled out a bag of potting soil and proceeded to scoop the dirt on top of the sundae, telling them that this is what they are like when they do something bad. He asked if anyone still wanted to eat the sundae, with the object lesson apparently being that they are each just little piles of crap if they aren’t perfect little morgbots. He finished with some confusing explanation of the bishop having a ‘magic vacuum’ that can clean the dirt off again.
My son was animated telling me about all this since it was out of the ordinary and worth sharing, but I could tell it bothered him as well. I sat him down and told him that he will never, ever, ever, in my eyes, be like a bowl of ice cream covered with dirt. I told him that we’re all different, we each follow different paths, we all make mistakes, and all we can do in life is try our best. He melted with relief at the reassurance from this expression of unconditional love.
I’m really feeling angry at this obvious child abuse. You’re all asking why I let him attend, and it’s because he also has a mother who is ultra-TBM. It’s a tough situation. I feel like the best I can do is offer damage control each week. 2thdoc, board post 1st June 2009, ‘Today’s Primary Lesson’
A flower, picked bare, petal by petal. See how a beautiful flower is ruined when it gives pieces of itself away to boys? So you will be ruined if you give away your petals. (Wow, that’s sort of naught-ily Freudian).
A piece of buttered toast (yum!) – Young Women’s leader licks the butter off of it then offers it to the girls. Do you want to eat toast that someone has licked the butter off of? Do you want to BE the toast that has been licked? Heavens, no. Stay delicious. Stay unlicked.
Beautiful white apron, pure and unsullied, suddenly and viciously attacked by ketchup by Young Women’s leader. Poor ruined apron. Nobody wants a dirty, sullied apron, and nobody wants a dirty, sullied girl. Debra, board post ‘Our Young Women and Their Precious Virginity’
Our high counselor gave a talk on the Book of Mormon and described approvingly of the most horrible object lesson I have ever heard.
He said that his seminary teacher told the class that he had a dead baby girl underneath a sheet. The class didn’t believe him.
He invited three witnesses to come up and look under the sheet. They came and left shaken and affirmed what he had said.
He invited eight witnesses to come and look underneath the sheet. They left declaring that he had spoken the truth.
He asked the class who believed him now. They all believed him. He applied this to the Book of Mormon witnesses and then removed the sheet and revealed a fetus preserved in formaldehyde in a jar.
WTF! The high counselor drilled into us that in like manner the Book of Mormon witnesses prove it to be true. I felt sick.
How could they objectify a baby girl like that and then self-righteously oppose abortion? How could they make such a sad, sick, and tasteless comparison? In seminary and sacrament meeting with lots of little kids listening?
WTF! This surprised even me. captainmoroni, board post 16th January 2012, ‘Horrible Object Lessons in Sacrament’
In my application of this illustration, the sugar beets represent the members of this Church for whom we who are called as leaders have responsibility; and those that have fallen out of the truck represent men and women, youth and children who, for whatever reason, have fallen from the path of activity. Paraphrasing the farmer’s comments concerning the sugar beets, I say of these souls, precious to our Father and our Master: ‘There’s just as much value in those who have slipped off. Let’s go back and get them!’ First Presidency message Ensign July 2009
My last calling in church was in Young Women’s. There is no organization in the church, perhaps in the world, I believe, so fond of object lessons – most of them having to do with ‘virtue’ or, more to the point, the loss thereof.
You know what I am talking about: The teacher gets up one Sunday with a bouquet of beautiful white roses. During her lesson she sends one of these flowers around the room with an invitation to all to take a minute and feel the rose, maybe take a petal, to enjoy it for a moment and pass it on. We all do this and by the end of class the rose is back in the teacher’s possession looking much worse for the wear. We are then invited to pick a flower to take home and no-one picks the one we passed around. No-one wants ‘damaged goods’. Or, in a similar lesson, the teacher offers us a choice of gum, the wad from her mouth or a fresh stick from the pack. A Young Men’s leader brings in a board into which he invites the young men to hammer a number of nails. During the lesson the young men are allowed to remove the nails from the board, but it is pointed out that the holes still remain.
I admit to a fondness for a good analogy or parable, but these stories about chewed bubblegum and nailed boards and wounded roses, meant to convince the young and innocent youth to protect themselves from the evils of the world, have long rubbed me the wrong way. Chiefly, my discomfort with these stories comes from my understanding of Christianity. If there is an atonement (and I am a want-to-believe-er) the beauty and miracle of that event is that Christ’s death is meant to make the unclean, clean – the scarlet sins as white as snow. It troubles me that people who claim to believe in the atonement put so much emphasis on the permanent scars left by youthful sins. Tierza, board post 24th March 2011, ‘Object Lessons and Other Horror Stories’
This morning I want to discuss some of the spiritual lessons we can learn from the process by which a cucumber becomes a pickle. I invite the Holy Ghost to be with us as we consider the significance of those lessons for me and for you as we come unto Christ and are spiritually reborn. David A Bednar, general conference April 2007, ‘Ye Must Be Born Again or the Parable of the Pickle’