On Tuesday’s RHOSLC episode, Heather Gay slammed Lisa Barlow’s decision to allow her son, Jack, to go on a two-year mission with the Mormon Church.
During the season 4 premiere of RHOSLC, Bravo fans learned that Lisa Barlow‘s 18-year-old son, Jack Barlow, planned to go on a two-year mission with the Mormon Church to spread the word of God and hopefully help convert people to the religion.
“About a month ago, Jack and I got into it at home because I wanted to see his essays for two schools he was applying to. He sits down next to me and starts bawling. And I’m like, “What’s going on, Jack?” He’s like, “Mom, it’s gonna be okay because I decided to go on a mission,” Lisa explained in her confessional interview.
“A mission is devoting two years of your life to serving others and teaching people about Jesus Christ. So, Jack’s giving up two years of his life to basically help everyone but himself,” she added.
Lisa later revealed the news to a few of her RHOSLC co-stars while specifically noting that she didn’t want Heather Gay to know about Jack’s plan to serve a mission.
In early September 2023, Jack left for his two-year mission with the LDS Church.
By episode two of season four, Heather learns about Jack’s upcoming mission and discusses her feelings on it with co-star Whitney Rose.
“It’s weird to me. I’d just be curious to know what his motivation was. I literally went on my mission because my friend Diane was at the same point in her life; she’s graduating college. Neither of us had boyfriends, and she’s like, I’ll go if you go. And we went, and then the next thing we know, we were in the temple making death oaths, and we were wearing garbage for the rest of our lives,” Heather tells Whitney about her experience on a mission with the Mormon Church.
A death oath is “a vow to keep the church’s ceremonies secret under penalty of death.”
Heather added that going on a mission is no joke. “It was like a hard knuckle-breaking work. Like you are knocking on doors selling The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that’s all it is. You’re a door-to-door salesman. This seems like a big conflict,” she explains.
The Bad Mormon author questions why Lisa would let Jack go on a mission when she and her husband, John Barlow, are not full-fledged Orthodox Mormons since they drink and don’t follow all of the church’s rules.
“Lisa loves to tell people she’s Mormon, but I don’t see any Mormon coming from Lisa Barlow. All the Mormons I know wear their garments, go to the temple, pay their tithing, and abstain from coffee, tea, alcohol, and cigarettes. She owns a tequila company. She drinks Lisatinis and has signature cocktails. They’re actually morally opposed to it,” Heather notes, adding that she doesn’t believe that Lisa understands how Jack’s mission could change him.
“Jack is going to be teaching that brand of Mormonism. What I don’t think she’s prepared for is who he might be when he comes home, and I think she’s in for a rude awakening,” she continues.
As for Whitney, she doesn’t believe Heather should insert herself into Lisa’s business or judge Jack for deciding to go on a mission.
“It’s a terrible idea for Heather to insert herself into Lisa’s son’s life choices, especially regarding religion,” Whitney quips in her confessional interview. “Like just because she wrote a book doesn’t give her the right to tell other people how to do it.”
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season 4 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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