Would I feel better getting rid of all of the old Mormon books in my home? Sometimes I don't know if I should part with them, but then I think it might be a good thing to heal.
^^ Totally agree with The Boner. I had a set of books by McConkie's son called "Doctrinal Commentary of the Book of Mormon." He actually believes the earth is 6,000 years old, along with other hardcore TBM crap. Very cathartic when I tossed them in the trash and watched the garbage truck dump them. Why is that so cathartic? My only thought is that it's like carrying a sack of rocks and then dropping them on the side of the road because you can't figure out why you've carried them for so long. I like the word cathartic. Just saying it is cathartic.
I felt better after getting rid of mine. First off they were taking up valuable bookshelf space and they were also out in the open so I saw them several times a day. Going through them was a little stress inducing but after they were gone and I had more room it was a weight off my shoulders.
problem is, the church also has people throwing away older books about mormonism. You would be doing it because you no longer believe and they are doing it to destroy as much evidence as possible that this information was out there. I have held on to much of my stuff only because of this fear that in time it will be hard to have evidence of the stupidest and evil sides of mormonism.
I have a few criteria for evaluating books in my home library. First, do I think I will use it as a reference? If so, I keep it. If I really, really like a book I will keep it. Finally, I look at my emotional attachment to a book. If I have a positive emotional attachment to a book but have outgrown it or don't need it, I will try to find a family member or friend who would enjoy it. I would not keep a book that I feel negatively about and/or don't need as a reference.
I threw a ton out during a move. I don't miss any of it.
I kept a few old books. Things like first edition Mormon doctrine, etc. They are on top of high up cabinets being used under art objects to elevate them above the moulding on the cabinet. I can't see them, but know I have them if I want to use them for reference.
Eventually i'm going to put together a letter to my grandchildren telling them of my mormon life and ancestry. I will include all of the reasons why they should never become mormons. I'm afraid that if I die and they don't know my history, they may get coerced into signing up. I may need some of those books as reference when I write that letter.
Scriptures changed last year, introduction to BoA and something else I have forgotten already, lol. So keeping for the future makes the point about how scriptures are still changing.
I threw out or redistributed 95% of stuff. Very important for me. Glad it is not there any more.
I hollowed out a copy of "The Miracle of Forgiveness" and keep an alcohol flask in it. I'm hoping some mormon will pull it out of my bookcase and take a look.
Mormon doctrine and beliefs seem to be a moving target. If you've got the room, put your books in a box and hold on to them. In 10 or 20 years they'll all be in the "I don't know that we teach that" category. Or pass them along to some other ex-mo that might use them.
If not I'd recommend recycling the paper. It would be oh-so-much fun to burn them as well.
It depends on where you plan to go from here. If your goal is to put Mormonism behind you and not look back, then you should get rid of all the Mormon crap.
If your goal is to spend a chunk of your life rehashing the inconsistencies and down right lies of TSCC, you might want to keep the books for reference.
I threw all of my books away. I didn't think that any of them were old enough to be useful, but it turns out that materials printed in the 90s taught things that TSCC claims not to teach. Since I'm still addicted to this subject, I wish I had kept more of my books.
Maybe you should keep the books until you stop coming to places like this.
If you don't know, then box them all up and put them out of sight. You'll forget about them, you'll heal, and then the next time you move you can throw them out without any drama.
That's what we did. We packed them all for our first move after we left the church but our last move we threw them all out. We must have had 100+. And we had "The Mormon and the Negro"and the BoM that said "WHITE and delightsome. Pitched them all.
I really wish I had the 6 lessons the missionaries taught from in 1986 and 1987. I would love to read them and see what I was taught. Although they used those until the 2000s so they might not have changed much
I have a copy of "Mormonism and the Negro" that my father gave me in 1976. It was two years before the curse of Cain doctrine was overturned, and I was against it. The book was supposed to show me the error of my ways, but I was proven right within twenty four months.