My wife has doubled down on Mormonism since I pulled back. She attends the temple, listens to General Conference during her commute, reads scriptures, pays tithing, and serves in the Relief Society presidency. She has told me plainly: 1. She will never leave the church, 2. She does not care about church history. 3. She doesn’t want to hear anything negative about the church.
Recently, I walked to the kitchen while she was watching General Conference and heard a hymn lyric: “The wicked who fight against Zion / Will surely be smitten at last” (We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet).
“That’s a strange thing to wish for and sing about joyfully,” I said. She replied: “You have to understand the persecution those people faced. They couldn’t worship in peace. Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered. Mobs attacked the Saints in every city they went to. The song is about a day when the Saints finally can worship in peace.” This is a one-sided narrative and gross oversimplification of church history. The Mormons were not blameless in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. But I did not push back.
Is this how mixed-faith marriages work?