Sunday Mixed Bag

Sunday was a mixed bag at church. About a million people asked me my due date (I think they were expecting it to be much sooner than mid-October, since I'm really sticking out there), quite a few people complimented me on my dress, I had some good chats with people during the SS hour, and endured one truly cringe-worthy comment in RS.

Here's the dress, which I made with fabric purchased at Bolt a few months back. The pattern, Simplicity 3888, is a maternity pattern, but very similar non-maternity versions are available. I shortened the sleeves about two inches (thank goodness--they would have been too long if I hadn't) to make the pattern fit better on the fabric so I could add about 7 inches in length. Then I also added the contrast border around the hem (thank heavens the fabric store still had that fabric when I realized, upon laying it all out, that I would want to add length). The shoes, by Van Eli, came from the Nordstrom Rack.




During SS I chatted with Skye, who was scheduled to present at Sunstone but stayed home because her husband was starting chemotherapy (get better soon, Jared!). She wanted me to tell her that Sunstone had been boring and uninteresting, but I was unable to fib.

Then there was RS. The lesson was about "the false idols we worship." I tuned in and out, as per usual, so I'm not exactly sure why the comment was even relevant to the topic, but the very sweet, very young and very Utah woman said something to the effect of "One of my friends' families had a saying that 'When the prophet speaks, the debate is over,' and I just think that's a really great way to live your life." The teacher, typical for RS lessons, agreed, thanked her, and moved on. It about killed me, but I kept my mouth shut. 1) Since I hadn't been paying enough attention to figure out how her comment related to the topic, I couldn't figure out how to address the issue without seriously derailing the lesson; and 2) since she's new to the ward (doesn't know me) and has led a very sheltered life thus far, I couldn't figure out how to say something without scaring her to death, making her feel like her new ward is full of bitter angry apostates.

You can probably guess that I think the whole the-prophet's-every-utterance-should-close-all-debate-on-the-topic idea is evil and pernicious, but let me tell you why. My understanding (possibly colored by too much early exposure to My Turn on Earth) of Mormon theology is that in the Great Council in Heaven, we chose to follow God's plan for our earthly existence, and would need to make our own choices about just about everything, entailing both greater risk (possibly making bad choices that would lead us away from God) and greater reward (increased light and knowledge and better preparation for post-earthly existence). Satan's plan, which we voted by supermajority to reject, entailed an absence of freedom of choice, guaranteed return, but no personal growth. The thing is, although we voted down Satan's plan, it's still a very basic human urge to want to avoid making responsibility for our own decisions, to want more rules so we have fewer choices to make. That's what's kept this idea alive.

But what I really want to know is, where did it come from? Who said it the first time? Do they keep saying it, or has it been left to persist under its own steam? Anyone know?