Relations with TBM In Laws —bighand

I’ll post my exit story later and go into more details but my question today deals with my mother in law.

My wife was talking to her mom yesterday and her mom said that ever since we left TSCC (I hope that is right, I’m very new to using these clever shortcuts for phrases) we always try to bring up issues that make TSCC look bad. Just to give a little more background, when we told everyone we were stepping back from the church we told them that we didn’t want to go into a lot of detail with people in order to avoid arguments and debates. So we have not talked specifically about our issues with anyone in the family but if conversation turns to any subject related to TSCC my wife and I usually add our two cents.

For example, when we were at my in laws for breakfast on conference weekend my SIL was asking how President Monson provided for his family when he was an apostle at such a young age. I told her that the GA’s are paid a stipend. My other ultra TBM SIL started arguing with me and told me no church authorities are paid. I responded that I was certain that the GA’s are paid a stipend and told her she might want to look into it further if she didn’t believe me. It’s situations like this that my MIL was referring to in her complaint.

So you can't talk about the stipend because it makes the church look bad? It's nuts, isn't it? Welcome to the board, bighand, congrats on moving out of "lurker" status. FWIW, my approach is to just leave the room when the conversation turns to GA worship or the latest LDS fiction or whatever. I don't make a scene, I just excuse myself from participating in the insanity. Of course if they ever asked my opinion they'd surely get it, but that would never happen. Believers don't want information, they want reassurance.