Haha no...
Really, I typed the story out strictly out of curiosity and it is far too huge to post here. I'll boil it down - their family values include keeping silent about physical and sexual abuse regardless of who is suffering and what the law requires. They place themselves, wherever they are, in government positions to hide and remove evidence of family abuse. My parents left that church a long time ago because of a shit-hurricane that was unleashed on them by the church and the influence its members wielded. It happened where I used to live, and it happens where I live now. The faith seems to exist exclusively to protect abusers and paedos. What kills me is that because my old Dad is getting long in the tooth he is starting to feel his mortality. As a result, he decided last year to return to the church; regardless of the no-two-ways-about-it evil that they propagate. He has dragged my mother, who was excommunicated for defying them, back to the church, where she found out that she wasn't ever actually excommunicated - so they lied about that, too.

I'd curb the Osmonds if I ever got the chance, but only on principle, and frankly, I think their teeth would chip the concrete before the other way round.

Legless - I don't get it. I don't binge drink - because it's too expensive, but people look at me weird if I decide to have a few with dinner. If I'm not driving, I'm drinking. My attitude towards alcohol comes from my once-and-future Mormon parents, who had drinks with dinner and drinks on weekends and shared them with us kids. I like beer. I like whiskey, and vodka, and wine (even though I have a sulfite sensitivity, I still like it)
I think it comes from the idea that drinking at all is indicative of an intention to binge drink - which, sometimes, is completely true. It doesn't mean I am an alcoholic; I just don't see anything wrong with it. I don't have an addictive personality. But I do get stared at for ordering a beer FFS it's a beer, bread soda with less alcohol than a shot of vodka and healthier for me than the Cokes and Mountain Dews my friends are guzzling. So here's a glass raised in your honor, sir, and I can honestly say I don't understand these guys either - I don't know where they come from.
(aeon chicken Like the Millenium Falcon, only slower and noisier, Sun 4 May 2008, 22:44, Reply)