[wptw]

Fragility of marriage is one possible pitfall, but it's not the basis for my argument.

The basis of my argument is very simple:
A promise is a promise is a promise.

If you felt joining a GLO and taking that oath of obligation would conflict with your exisiting relationship with your mother, then it was wrong of you to take the oath. If you are unprepared to honor an obligation then don't take it, ESPECIALLY if it's an obligation that requires you to get down on your knees and raise your hand to god in front of your sisters or brothers. If you still feel comfortable wiggling out of that promise, then fine. But don't punish the other hundreds of thousands of people in your group who ARE going to take it to their graves.

And by the way, I can't conceive of a scenario where I would have to tell my mother secret ritual information in order to get help from her.

Someone else summed it up pretty well: "I guess some people just don't take this stuff as seriously as others". Yeah, I guess that's right. And we wonder why our secrets are out there!

wptw

Edited to add that Fuzzie's distinction between violating a vow "for convenience" as opposed to "for moral reasons" is an excellent point that seems particularly relevant here.