Rated-R

I read the Book of Mormon on occasion. I am no scriptorian, but it has been recommended that as a Mormon I should read it everyday. I am closer to once a week. In my weekly reading, I read in the Book of Ether about Akish. Feel free to correct me at anytime here.

Generally, how I remember it is Akish was the daughter of someone who was in power. To get her father out of power she danced (probably a little like the Pussy Cat Dolls) for a guy. The guy decided he wanted her to be his wife. She told him that she would marry him if he brought her her fathers head. I have not finished this tale or I don’t remember how it ends, but I would have to say that it is more than a little gory. And this is recommended reading for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I believe the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, but it is bloody. I was telling jj about this this morning and he said if they made a movie about the Book of Mormon it would be rated R.

So last night at my book club, we discussed These Is My Words. Which I have talked about here. It is a story of a woman at the turn of the century when Arizona was being settled. There are wars with the Indians (Native Americans), people are killed and scalped by them. There are bandits hanging around waiting for times to rape women and children. It was a lawless time, a time when you took care of yourself.

So, a woman (who happens to be in my ward) came to the bookclub and had not read the book. Every time we said killed or raped or died, she scrunched up her face and said things like, I am glad I did not read it. When the talk turned to sheepskin condoms, which I guess was a form of birth control back then, she got up and left. I was more than a little irritated. Real life is rated R, not by choice and you hope those things never happen to you. But they do, and pretending that things don’t happen doesn’t make them go away or not happen. Facing the issues and being prepared is more productive and more realistic than wishing them away.

Annie did a great review of the book, which I also recommend.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 1:02 pmand is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Rated-R”

  • Michele Says:
    March 29th, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    I agree that the book was great, and for how many horrible things happened it was always very realistic and never indulging, meaning it was never gory to be gory. I didn’t realize about the girl leaving, but now I remember. That’s unfortunate that the discussion of birth control makes her so uncomfortable, especially as we were mostly interested in what birth control was like in that historical time period and the challenges of using it.

  • Annie Says:
    March 29th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

    Well said. Real life needs to be dealt with and living in a bubble only gets you in trouble. Do you want to be afraid and raise your kids completely unaware of their surroundings or do you and your children want to be prepared, intelligent, and able to make the right decisions when situations present themselves. I am thankful that my mom introduced me to by some peoples standards, “questionable” stuff because I am a much better person for it. I grew up with opinions, morals and values that I would not have learned and developed otherwise.

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