And there's one other thing, the official action that really and truly made me excommunicate: When the central organization of the church received word that I was out, someone formally went to the filing cabinet where my membership file was kept. And that someone, specifically and officially using red ink, took my folder and stamped across the face of it EXCOMMUNICATED. And do you know what? If I repent and am once more received into the church and my sins are washed away again, I will triumphantly be issued a new file folder. I thought this was wonderful, a sort of bureaucrat's revenge and redemption.Read the rest if you want more odd details, like how the excommunicating church officers say goodbye by shaking her hand and saying "it was nice to meet you", which is pretty funny in and of itself.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Quote of the Day: the Bureaucrat's Redemption
From Teresa Nielsen Hayden's lengthy and fascinating account of her excommunication from the Mormon church (officially, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints):
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1 comment:
this was indeed very funny. Thanks.
Paul Toscano is an LDS intellectual who was excommunicated in 1993 for heresy. He described his own trial and excommunication as "being gang raped by the care bears." Reading this account of Hayden's excommunication, I could certainly understand the comparison.
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