Question
My husband would eat this website for Thanksgiving. He used to ask me questions like this all the time, being a convert and having spent more time inactive or anti than active. He loves to find things like your questions about fire newts, seer stones, prophecy, Abrahamic facsimilies etc. but he refuses to consider explanations by anyone part of the church. He is the same with therapists and doctors, as if one’s faith negates effectiveness of reality. Currently we have an amazing home teacher who absorbs his concerns and sees through his inconsistencies. What is it going to take to get through his thick skull?
K.D.
Answer
KD,
A quarter-inch drill, perhaps?
Few people investigate anti-Mormon claims the way you describe your husband as doing because they are seeking for a reason to believe. Typically, people act that way because they want to find a reason to disbelieve. They may be embarrassed about being a Mormon (you know, the whole green-Jello-peculiar-people bit). They may be confused about the doctrines. They may be put off at the service and sacrifice required of the Saints. They may be uncomfortable about what we are taught to do — and to avoid. Or maybe they just don’t want to be deceived, and so go looking for deceptions.
Whatever the reason, it is not possible for you to pound this through your husband’s “thick skull”. And it’s not your place to do so, either. I suggest you follow your home teacher’s lead and show your husband compassion, tolerance, understanding, and patience. Bear your testimony to him as appropriate, and don’t be put off by his anti-Mormon questions.
If you are deeply bothered by such things, you might simply tell him that you find such questions offensive, and to please not bring them up around you any more. But don’t fight or quarrel about such things. Be a rock and an anchor for him as he works out his own difficulties.
Gramps
