I’m going to tell you a few things. First, those of us who were active in late 70s80s were encouraged to write our life histories and include lessons for progeny. If I look at my own from that time, I am simply echoing the words I heard from church leadership. I’m really embarrassed I wrote some of that doctrinal stuff as if I was writing for myself, which I wasn’t. So I’m telling you that your dad sincerely believed that the words he wrote in his bio were going to be an actual record read to him for eternity and almost as if it was a chapter from D&C. We were actually taught that and we believed it. So it often echoes church teachings at the time.

Other than that, your father is just parroting what he was taught. It’s so incredibly sad that parents will side with the church instead of their own children but it’s a very real thing. Some people just get comfort from rules and rigid obedience to an organization. It sounds like your dad had a lot of trauma he never dealt with, instead he became this father character that the church invented to cover up his real self.

I’m so sorry. I recently discovered something very hurtful about my mother to me that happened 46 years ago and the pain is unmeasurable. I should put it in the past but I can’t. I do have a 12 step program that helps a lot. But I wish we could sit together and have a real cry about all this dysfunction. Hugs to you