Spirituality & Family Reactions (Lynne Whitesides 3 of 3)

As we conclude our conversation with the first member of the Sept Six, Lynne Whitesides, I asked her about her spirutality now. It's a long way from Mormonism. We also discusses her family's reaction to her church discipline. Check out our conversation...



https://youtu.be/QN2fSsHQj_g



Don't miss our other conversations with Lynne! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk4ldrx61TI&list=PLLhI8GMw9sJ7fveXlF645QDhoAUGnCyYf



 



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Forgiving the Church

Interview



GT  00:34  Well, that's what I want to get into a little bit, because it sounds very interesting to me. So, a few years later, it sounds like you sent a letter where you were forgiving. You're asking for forgiveness because of your own anger. But you had no intention, really, of coming back.



Lynne  00:54  I wasn't coming back. I never said I was coming back. That wasn't the point of that letter.



GT  00:59  Okay.



Lynne  01:00  The point of that letter was: I see that I was asking you to hear me and you couldn't, because it's hard to hear someone who's really pissed about the way things are. Not that it's a problem to be pissed, but I was pretty pissed. I was saying things, like, I can do sound bites, and that was part of the problem. I was doing talk shows and that kind of stuff. But the other thing is, I really wanted to say, "You can't give me what I already have. And that is my own authority, my own power as a human being, as a woman. And I was somehow asking you for that." So, I began to realize that, because I wanted their approval, I was dancing around the patriarchy, instead of going to do something that I really wanted to do. And so when I realized that, I sent them that letter, and then I moved into the direction. I was already in the direction of going in that direction where I am now, because of things that had shown up in my life and the work that I do that has a lot to do with going to Peru, and some of the stuff that I talked about in my talk at Sunstone. But, no, I was never [coming back.] I never even had a moment of thinking of coming back when that happened.



GT  02:15  Okay, so was this was, for lack of a better word, a way to get forgiveness with the Church, where you were forgiving the Church?



Lynne  02:28  Yeah.



GT  02:28  So this is your own personal forgiveness.



Lynne  02:30  Absolutely. The only reason to do forgiveness is for yourself really. Tight? To let yourself off the hook; I really wanted to let all that go. I have come to this conclusion: The Church is doing exactly what it needs to do. Well, whatever that is, for me, was the perfect amount of patriarchal authority that I needed to find myself and to go, okay. I don't believe that. That is not good for the world. Patriarchy, in my opinion, is what is crushing the world at this point. And so, I don't want that. I want something else. And so that sent me on my way. And without the Church, I don't think I would have become who I am, really.



GT  03:13  So do you regret being baptized? Or was that just part of your journey?



Lynne  03:17  Nope, I actually think every single step was exactly what I needed.



 

Own Spirituality

Interview



GT  03:23  Okay. And so, as you're looking at this, you basically forgave the Church, and then said, I'm moving in this other direction. Can you talk about your spirituality now? Because it sounds like you've just got a different kind of spirituality.



Lynne  03:39  Yeah, Let me also say, I mean, I still work on the Church. Sometimes I hear stories,