LDS Teaching Children About Eternal Families

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I was reading an old copy of the LDS church children’s magazine “the Friend,” and something really bothered me. In this particular issue (April 2004), there was a story about a child having a discussion with his return missionary uncle. In the story, the uncle is talking about the resurrection and eternal families:Uncle Darren continued, “I taught people on my mission who didn’t believe in eternal families. They believed in Jesus, but they didn’t understand everything He did for us.”

“That’s sad,” Kurt said with a frown.

“Reading everyone’s testimonies reminded me that our family can be eternal,” Uncle Darren said. “It was the best Easter gift I could have received.”

Kurt looked up into his favorite uncle’s beaming face and suddenly felt very grateful. He had missed Uncle Darren terribly during the past two years. He couldn’t imagine being separated from him forever.
the Friend, Apr 2004, pg 6

So the point of the story was to demonstrate that Christ’s resurrection made possible the doctrine of eternal families, and through the temple families can be sealed together forever. But here is what really bothered me–the child thinks that if he is not sealed to his family in the temple, he would be separated from them forever. In other words, what a kid would gleam from this story is that if your family isn’t sealed in the temple, you will lose them. Now, I don’t know of a more terrifying thing for a child then the idea of losing their family for all eternity. Do LDS really believe that you will be separated from your family without a temple sealing? And is this what LDS kids are taught in Sunday school?
 
I was standing in line two days ago at a Grocery store in Northern Utah. In from of me was a mother and I would guess 3 year old daughter, along with the grandmother. The grandmother looked at her grand daughter and said “why doe’s grandma love you? Then she said “Because you are so special and you know the church is true” She said this twice. My first feelings were of sadness inside, I naturally thought about Jesus. If I did not know my faith, Christ so well it probably would not have fazed me, it may not have been a second thought. In a kidding matter I looked the grandmother in he eyes and said “bet you didn’t know that a Catholic would be standing behind you?” She was surprised, I said “it’s ok” and that was that. The one thing that was beautiful in this was the fact that this little girl began to stare at my shirt, her eyes were looked onto it, I smiled at her and she smiled back. When I work I wear a T-shirt with my business logo. My Cross is always on the inside of it. It wasn’t until about an hour later that I realized that the cross was on the outside of my shirt. Then I remembered this little girl looking at my shirt.

As far as the eternal family goes for me, we will all be Gods adopted Children sealed to Him in Christ and through Christ. We will not have more love for one than for another. We will love all as God loves all of us. The earthy selfish kind of love will be dead, and true love, spiritial love, Gods love through Christ will reighn for all.
God Bless
 
Well, it has been awhile since I have been to primary so I am not sure I can accurately describe what they are taught. Certainly the complexity of afterlife arrangements have to be simplified to teach them to children. I don’t think the article writer thought through the implications of the message to a mixed LDS Christian/Non-LDS Christian family where a sealing might not be in place. However if a child is worried they might be separated from the non-mormon members of their family, the next comforting doctrine of mormonism is that sealings can be performed vicarously in the temple. In other words, if the present situation isn’t following the standard LDS plan, there is always hope that things will work out in the future.

The message seemed to be more towards a child that experienced two years of separation with an extended family member and hence had some concept on what it was like to miss somebody for awhile. But, joy, that isn’t an issue because the LDS church has the authority to bind and seal families together for time and eternity conditioned on righteousness.

In any event this situation is not unique to mormonism. Mixed Christian/non-Christian families have to worry that some of their members might be burning in Hell, hence separated from those that get saved in heaven. I do find the “death do us part” of many marriages a little sad, even if overplayed against by mormonism.

–fool
 
mormon fool:
In any event this situation is not unique to mormonism. Mixed Christian/non-Christian families have to worry that some of their members might be burning in Hell, hence separated from those that get saved in heaven.
–fool
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I think this is a good point.
 
I disagree with the LDS teaching on families being “sealed”.

First of all, LDS believe that we were all brothers and sisters in the “pre-existence”. We don’t know how long that period of time was but common sense dictates that it was at least longer than our few years on earth in mortal form. This would make it seem somewhat awkward to go up to the next life for all eternity and be the great, great, great grandson of my brother with whom I had spent the pre-existence as an (presumably) equal sibling. Now I am holding my own “kingdom” (assuming I was a faithful LDS and reached exaltation) enfoeffed through a long feudal chain of “fathers”.

I also find it problematic in that we will all remember our earthly existence in the next life. We will know who our friends and family were during our brief time on earth. We get to take our love for them with us in the next life. So if we are in the same “kingdom” as some of them what could possibly be the difference in our approaching them and remembering our earthly relationship and being “sealed”? Is there some sort of angelic child protective services that will forcibly seperate us from our earthly parents and place us in celestial (or terrestrial or telestial) foster care with no visitation permitted? That doesn’t seem scriptural or godly even. It’s certainly not Christian.

I believe that this is a false doctrine that on the one hand tempts with Satan’s words “ye shall be as Gods” if you do this (faithful LDS sealed in Temple) and on the other threatens with the fear “your family will be taken from you forever” if you don’t do this.
 
There is much more to this situation. My SIL converted to LDS after she married my DH brother. MY BIL was baptized LDS but has not been to church in at least 25 years, won’t have the home teachers in the house, etc. Their son was killed in a tragic accident a few years ago. My SIL is very unhappy that son cannot be sealed to them for all eternity. Sealings are for active, worthy, members only. SIL&BIL never married in the temple, and quite obviously, they never will be. The son who was killed left a wife and two children. They were never married in the Temple either, and she has remarried. Now, inorder for all of them to be together for all eternity, those who did not accept LDS religion and were not sealed, will be given another chance after they pass on. Of course if they reject it, as they have on this earth, the family will not be together. My SIL has a very good chance of being sealed to a worthy LDS man and having his spirit babies, thus a new family. None of their children have accepted LDS faith so she is all alone in that belief.

While family being together for all eternity sounds great and it makes good bait, Catholics and other Christian faiths have a much greater chance of spending all eternity with loved ones than LDS.

Even if all the family are worthy LDS, the chances of them spending all eternity together is slim, since the men become gods and the women goddess of their own planets, leaving the family spread out and too busy ruling their own planets to get together much. I have a dear friend who is LDS. She always told me that we would be very busy in eternity. Meaning raising spirit babies. Now, she says she is not sure she really wants to spend all eternity having and raising babies after all the work she has done on earth. (I can guarantee her I don’t!) She remains LDS, and we are best friends. I feel sure I will see her in heaven for all eternity.

If I were an LDS child and knew the “truth”, I would indeed be very frightened. No matter how you slice it, they will not spend all eternity with their family.

Love and peace,

Mom of 5
 
I would like to thank Christina for acknowledging that I had made a good point :cool:. As a result, I have kept my ears open to try to understand how catholics handle this question. Obviously, I think it is unfair to criticize mormonism on a problem that is shared by the critic’s religion. That is not to say that the problem takes the exact same nuances, but the boiled down essence is the same. In other words: how can being in full felicity of God in the afterlife be desirable if this experience can’t/won’t be shared with loved ones?

Here is how Peter Kreeft, a man that needs no introduction by the likes of me, fields such a question in Christianity Today from a catholic perspective. (I was pointed this source out by the M* blog, which discusses intellectual issues in mormonism):
  1. Will we recognize our loved ones in Heaven?
George Macdonald answers this question with a counterquestion: “Will we be greater fools there than here?” Of course we will know our loved ones. This is a divinely designed, essential part of our joy. We are not designed to be solitary mystics, lovers of God alone, but to be, like God himself, lovers of men and women as well.

Just as Jesus on Earth loved each person differently and specially—he did not love John as he loved Peter, because John was not Peter—so we are designed to love people specially. There is no reason why this specialness should be removed, rather than added to, in eternity. Our family and special friends will always be our family and special friends. In this life a child begins to learn to love by loving mother, then father, then siblings, then pets. The concentric circles of love are then gradually expanded, but the beginning lessons are never abandoned. There is no reason to think God rips up this plan after death.
  1. How can I be happy in Heaven if someone I loved deeply on Earth doesn’t make it to Heaven?
This brings up all sorts of other questions about emotions, relationships, and suffering in Heaven. These will be dealt with shortly, but the simplest and most important answer to this question for now is this: If there is someone you love and identify with so deeply that you cannot imagine being happy in eternity without him or her, and that someone seems now to be in peril of being unsaved, then use the relationship that God’s providence has ordained for you.

Tell God that he has to arrange for this person’s salvation as he has arranged for yours, because this person is a real part of you, and for you as a whole to be saved, this person has to come along, just as your own body and emotions have to come along. It need not be a “wheedling” or “blackmail” prayer; it can be a simple presentation of the facts, like Mary’s “They have no more wine.” Let God do his thing: it is always more loving, more gracious, and more effective than our thing, more than we can ever imagine or desire.

Trust him to use your earthly love as a channel, supernatural and/or natural, of grace and salvation for your friend. Your very question, your very problem, is the clue to its answer. God put that burden on your heart for a reason: for you to fulfill.

I like Dr. Kreeft’s advice, it would seem equally applicable to either mormons or catholics in mixed-religion family situations.

Merry Christmas,
fool
 
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Chris-WA:
I was reading an old copy of the LDS church children’s magazine “the Friend,” and something really bothered me. In this particular issue (April 2004), there was a story about a child having a discussion with his return missionary uncle. In the story, the uncle is talking about the resurrection and eternal families:Uncle Darren continued, “I taught people on my mission who didn’t believe in eternal families. They believed in Jesus, but they didn’t understand everything He did for us.”

“That’s sad,” Kurt said with a frown.

“Reading everyone’s testimonies reminded me that our family can be eternal,” Uncle Darren said. “It was the best Easter gift I could have received.”

Kurt looked up into his favorite uncle’s beaming face and suddenly felt very grateful. He had missed Uncle Darren terribly during the past two years. He couldn’t imagine being separated from him forever.
the Friend, Apr 2004, pg 6

So the point of the story was to demonstrate that Christ’s resurrection made possible the doctrine of eternal families, and through the temple families can be sealed together forever. But here is what really bothered me–the child thinks that if he is not sealed to his family in the temple, he would be separated from them forever. In other words, what a kid would gleam from this story is that if your family isn’t sealed in the temple, you will lose them. Now, I don’t know of a more terrifying thing for a child then the idea of losing their family for all eternity. Do LDS really believe that you will be separated from your family without a temple sealing? And is this what LDS kids are taught in Sunday school?
Click to expand...
You just found the power of their Church, why is has been a success in America. (Fear for those who search otherwise) I would like to speak about where Jesus says we are to be centered in Him rather than in our families. Pretty imortant topic.
But I have to go for the day.

God Bless
 
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