Strangest story ever told in a Sacrament Meeting?

 

WHAT’S the strangest story you’ve ever heard told in an LDS Sacrament Meeting?

For myself, it was hand’s down, “The Parable of the Push-Ups and Donuts.” And, that’s saying a lot, considering I’m drawing on some 50-plus years of hearing Sacrament meeting talks.

For starters, the story is way too long and very repetitive. (It took up about 15 minutes time to tell it in my Sacrament Meeting and this meant that the first speaker telling this tale, stole most of the time and left only about 5 minutes for the other and second speaker.)

Secondly, there are a few versions of this story and sadly, the version told in my Sacrament Meeting in the summer of 2025 wasn’t the more applicable version titled, “Parable of the Seminary Doughnuts.” (That version, at least, has a specific LDS Church context, whereas the version told in my Ward was as if everything happened in a regular, public school classroom).

The fact that the star of this story is always a needy student who doesn’t obey rules and who was kicked out of many other classes doesn’t bode well for such a person being idolized at the end of the tale as being compared to Jesus Christ himself and his Atonement for us.

Some versions of the tale imply that this story may have really happened, but it is doubtful, based on its extreme nature and how long such an experience of doing sets of pushups for an entire class would really take. (After all, it is listed as a "parable.")

In addition, once a person -- even a trained one on pushups -- reaches their physical limit, their arms would collapse – and no matter how slowly the exhausted person is doing the exercise, they will eventually collapse rather suddenly. A person who gets tired can limp and slow down a lot if they are walking or running, but one can’t do the same for pushups.

If one ever hears this story told in a church meeting, one isn’t likely to forget it.

-If one wants to read versions of this story, just search Google for pushup story and atonement.

 NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.