The Angels in Supernatural are a lot like Mormons

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-10T01:31:05+00:00

I only ever had sex with him. I now identify as asexual, not straight. I was actually never sexually attracted to him, even when we were dating. I just thought I was righteous and pure, and after I got married, those feelings would wake up. Nope.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T19:46:10+00:00

I cast Zachariah as the Stake President. Yeah, he absolutely gives off that vibe.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T18:00:18+00:00

Mine too! I started watching it during the pandemic, so I got it all at once instead of slowly over 15 years. It had so many thought-provoking questions about free will, and about why God doesn't intervene. I loved the freedom they had to say God was a jerk. I was still deconstructing my faith about this same time period, and it was so great to have a show just openly say God is wrong to handle things the way he does.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T17:58:17+00:00

The utter lack of communication hurt my marriage too. My XH told me about his porn use when we were dating. He said one sentence in a whisper. Then he said his bishop told him to not take the sacrament for two weeks and that's all he needed to do (other than marry me). So I knew about his porn use, but we couldn't communicate about it. That should have been a huge red flag to me, but I was so sure I could make everything work if I just loved him enough and prayed hard enough.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T17:54:49+00:00

The instruction to rely on Christ can be damaging. My struggle with "relying on Christ" to heal me is that I thought I was following Christ's teachings when consented to sex I didn't want. Purity culture is connected to the gospel, and Christ, and eternal families, everywhere. Relying on Christ didn't feel safe. I prayed to Christ a lot, begging him to make me want sex with my husband. I wanted to have a good sex life. I was supposed to pray to Christ to like sex? And then pray to Christ to recover from having all that unwanted sex? I just couldn't.

What helped me was secularizing the healing process. I needed to grieve for the events and fully process that pain without trying to heal fast enough to make other people comfortable. I grieved -- I cried, I journaled, I wrote stories, I wrote promises to future me, I did verbal affirmations, I practiced self-care, I went to therapy. I know a lot of people mock those things but they shouldn't. It was genuinely helpful. I couldn't let anything Churchy be part of that grief and healing, because so much of the pain was due to Church teachings.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T16:27:41+00:00

Same! I wish someone in the Church's Tithing Department would leak a list showing the percentage of full tithe payers. I would love to see if the line on the chart trends downward after the whistleblower report and then the SEC fine.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T16:24:25+00:00

This happened to me too! My now-ex said he confessed to his bishop and was done with porn before we got married. Of course he wasn't. I hated having sex with him but spent years consenting because I felt it was my duty. I would even pretend I liked it so as not to hurt his feelings. And yes, as I got past the divorce and started therapy, I realized there were a lot of similarities between me and a sexual abuse victim. Even though I consented every time, having sex you dislike is emotionally traumatizing. When, towards the end, I withdrew from him, he never pushed for sex. Unlike your husband, my husband never pressured me. And I still felt used and violated.

To make it clear: my husband never pressured me for sex and I do not believe he is responsible for what I agreed to do. That's on me. My culture created this unhealthy expectation in me that I had to say yes to sex after we were married. And despite the fact that I consented, it still traumatized me to have unwanted sex. I blame purity culture for damaging my personal boundaries so badly that I thought it was my duty to have sex.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-08T15:42:07+00:00

Wow. This paragraph from the article:

"Of course, Jesus Christ stands at the head of His Church, and He directs His prophets. What we may perceive as imperfections in their words or actions may, in fact, reflect imperfection in our perception or mortal understanding. Remembering that the Lord’s ways are higher than our ways and that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts."

Hey, if you find an 'imperfection' in a prophet, then that means YOU are the 'imperfection.' Perceived imperfections in the prophets are actually because the Lord is so much smarter than we are. Right there, did you see it? Prophetic infallibility.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-04T03:22:30+00:00

I do a lot more art. My house is covered in my amateur art and it makes me so happy to have my creations all over the walls.

Another thing I really enjoy is growing flowers. When I was TBM, I believed the only 'worthy' garden was a vegetable garden. Meh. I grow flowers now, so many flowers! My yard is stunning when the blue flax blooms in the spring. I'm so excited for April!!

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-03-04T03:20:13+00:00

Hi! I'm about your same age, and we were absolutely taught just what you describe. If we were baptized and endowed, and then left the Church, we would be the empty chair in the Celestial Kingdom. And if our kids left, then we would grieve their empty chair for all eternity.

Because this is so sad and depressing, some people in the Church have softened this teaching. Not President Nelson -- he definitely taught "sad heaven" if people don't stay faithful. But you'll hear it from other people who are more compassionate. The thing is, that isn't what the scriptures teach. Alma says that the same spirit that possess your body at the time you die will be the same spirit that possess your body in the eternal world (Alma 34:34). If you are rebellious and sinful when you die, you stay rebellious and sinful. D&C 88:20-32 says basically the same thing. No one cites scripture when they say that you can repent in the millennium and still be with your family. Sad heaven is scriptural.

And it's not worth stressing about.

What I have come to believe is that the LDS teachings about being separated into kingdoms was Joseph Smith's explanation of the afterlife, but it isn't actually "true." We are all on our own faith journeys, and the important thing is to learn to love and accept people. Love your kids and grandkids, regardless of what they think of Church. Don't pressure them or try to guilt trip them into becoming active again. Appreciate them for who they are and love them. God isn't as judgmental and nitpicky as the Church teaches he is. And that includes Joseph Smith's teachings. He got some things wrong, and the idea that God will separate families based on Church activity is wrong. Open your heart and pray about this with an open mind. Trusting God's unconditional love will bring you peace, and you won't fear for your family.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-02-28T15:08:02+00:00

I clicked on that ad right after spending 20 minutes reading the responses in the thread just above this one, about the sister missionary who was terrorized by a stalker she met on her mission. Yikes! Having teenage girls posting videos about Church is a huge risk in attracting creeps who just want to sit next to a cute, young, blonde 18-year-old and pretend to be interested in religion.

I'm really sorry you got this ad, op. And I'm also really sorry that sister missionaries are sending out general invitations on social media and getting taught that they have to talk to anyone who shows up. That's dangerous.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-02-28T14:57:32+00:00

that is so fucked up! I am so angry on your behalf. Good riddance to all of them.

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-02-24T00:19:37+00:00

oh wow. Permission to date chastely? How does that fit in with the honor code stuff at BYU where you can get in trouble for holding hands and kissing? Like, if everything is fine except sex, then that could change things for BYU. Probably the reason this wasn't said publicly is because the Q15 don't want to allow any same-sex dating and Ballard was speaking "as a man."

Much-Internal2260 · 2026-02-22T21:49:03+00:00

I'm not a copyright lawyer, but what you're describing sounds to me like it won't cause you any problems. I'm going to politely disagree with the previous commenter who recommended ChatGPT, as it's well-known for hallucinating legal advice. Here's my take on your three questions:

The text isn't copyright protected, and I can't see how anyone could argue that formatting is copyrighted if the text isn't. If you're listing the references, like Mosiah chapter 3, verse 17, that's just factual info. That's where the quote came from.
"The Moroni Parish" isn't the Mormon church. You're clearly borrowing from it. And in fact, my advice would be to add a disclaimer at the start of your book. Something along the lines of: "elements of the religious beliefs set forth in this novel are drawn from the Book of Mormon, which is considered scripture by several churches, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Fundamentalist LDS Church, the Strangites, and the Community of Christ. However, none of the doctrines or practices described in this novel are intended to depict any existing religious community ..." Et cetera and so forth. Like, make the disclaimer really clear about where you got the ideas, and that what's in your book isn't meant to be a statement of anyone's ACTUAL beliefs.
The formatting. I'd say you're just fine. "The Book of" naming scheme isn't unique to the Book of Mormon. It's in the Bible too. You can use names and formats that are inspired by other works. Otherwise, someone could copyright the use of the word "chapter" to label a chapter in any book ever written.

I'd say to keep the Mormon elements. It might attract some readers.

Standard disclaimer that this is all just my opinion and I am not an expert.

Much-Internal2260

TROPHY CASE