Middle-aged Mormon man doesn't want to reveal his questions so that others don't stumble? LOL. He has no faith in himself to work things out nor does he have faith in the ability of other mormons to work it out. I suppose they don't want to know and want to remain blissfully ignorant. Sometimes it is nice not to know of the horrors that go on in the world, but not knowing doesn't make them happen any less, and if everyone ignores it no one will ever do anything about it.
Can you imagine if everyone in society acted this way? Let's say that the children next door seem to have a lot of bruises. Middle aged mormon man has doubts about how they got those bruises but he doesn't want to tell anyone else since it might not be true and they might start to wonder and stumble over how they feel about their neighbor. So he puts the thought in his box and relies on his faith that his neighbor would never beat on the kids because he is a good mormon man (or woman, don't want to be sexist).
There is this guy called Middle-aged Mormon man. And there is this guy called dadsprimalscream. I read all the things they had to say. If I have any kind of question about anything whatsoever, I will defer to primalscream. Why? Because Mormon Man admitted that he will close off part of his search for truth, if it seems disruptive to the order. I've had a harder time ordering dinner than figuring this one out.
"I have a whole box of unanswered questions, none of them threatening to my own testimony. New questions enter that box regularly. Others come out of that box, yielding to both study and experience." (Link here)
The "I'm Not Smart" card is really a "I'm a F*cking Coward" card. What's he's really saying is that he doesn't have the courage or integrity to stand up and tell the truth (or even ask an honest question), and accept the consequences that go along with it, but being a coward he can't say that, so he hides behind the more socially acceptable claim of not wanting to damage someone else's testimony.
He doesn't even have the courage to put his name on an article where he can't even muster up enough courage to state what his questions are! What we're really seeing here is a middle-aged man trying to salve his own guilty conscience at our expense.
I am also a middle-aged man. As a result of cowards like Middle-Aged Man the rest of us are left with the much greater burden of standing up to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers and dealing with the alienation, the shunning, and hurt directed at us for having the courage and integrity to ask those honest questions.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2013 06:48AM by Ihidmyself.
After reading the letter supposedly written by a middle-aged mormon man, I question that this person wrote it by himself. I think it reads like he was told what to write or that someone from Mormoney church wrote it, and had him post it on the blog under his name. Do I think the church would do this or has done something similar in the past. Yes, I do.
I think the church is in a panic mode and they are pulling out the guns to get the members in line. Middle-aged mormon man says that he has never thought of himself as smarter than God or the men who speak for God. That is a mighty powerful put-down to any member Mormon who might have questions for the l5. Do not question us. We, not you, have stewardship. You do not have the RIGHT to question us, and, by the way, do not share your questions with anyone at all. Period. As middle-aged mormon man says, "I don't want to be responsible for sharing doubt." And, by inference, NEITHER SHOULD YOU!
It's not working. Telling people not to believe the plain truth that is right in front of your face. Telling people not to look for the truth, for answers. Telling people not to think.
It's panic time, and these types of things are evidence of it.
In a way it should be reassuring to all of us. We all questioned our sanity when we found out this stuff. We had people telling us we were wrong, that we misunderstood, that we were evil, that we wanted to sin, etc. And now, all of this "doubt your doubts", all of this is absolutely stunning. It is a sign of pure panic at the upper levels of a major con. The "end" may in fact be much closer than we think. At least the end of the ability to fool people. The only people who will be fooled by this now are people who actively WANT to be fooled.