Once again I see a parent post how proud they are that their child "chose" to be baptized like it was actually a decision.

I didn't have a clue who I was at eight years old except I already figured out at seven that I liked boys but didn't know what that really meant. I thought baptism would take it away.

All the information I had at eight years old came from my extremely TBM parents, Sunday School, Primary and a nearly 100% Mormon community. By the time I was eight I knew of no non-Mormons at my school. For me the choice was either get baptized or lose my family at some point. Get baptized or go to hell. What kind of a decision is that?

I don't know of a single eight year old who has been presented a broad view of religion including all the options with pros and cons, so that they could make an "informed decision" to choose to be baptized.

To every parent out there telling the world that they are so proud of their eight year old child for "making the choice" to get baptized, I only wish my middle finger were even longer than it is.

Fuck your arrogant ignorance. Years ago I could understand, but you have to work hard nowadays in the Information Age to stay that blind to the truth.

How much longer is the Mormon crap going to go on? How many more kids are going to be stifled and robbed or die?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2016 02:28PM by blueorchid.

I hate the "he chose to be baptized, isn't he great?" bragging too. Does he know that he is expected to keep that choice for the rest of his life? There is no choice in it. I didn't feel, at 8, that I chose. I wasn't against it either. No one said I chose. It was just something we do, so I did it. It was so long ago. There were no pictures, no party, no presents, no new scriptures, no excited teary parents. Just my nervous dad trying to do it right. And me feeling embarrassed because after getting wet, my white dress was transparent.

My ex-husband and I finalized our divorce while our daughter was seven years old. Although I had briefly converted to the LDS Church during our marriage, I officially resigned while we were separated.

As I expected, the topic of our daughter getting baptized when she turned eight years old came up during the legal process. Although my ex was rarely "worthy" to hold the priesthood (due to drinking alcohol and coffee and smoking) he stated his desire to baptize our daughter.

I declined to allow that to happen.

Thankfully our Divorce Decree states that neither of us will baptize her.

I think it's utterly wrong for the LDS Church to have a prescribed age (and a very young age at that!) for undertaking such a large spiritual commitment. I also think it's inappropriate and strange when young children give their testimonies about the church being true and Joseph Smith being a prophet while their parents whisper in their ear what to say.

Indoctrination at it's finest.

Kids that age can decide what to have for breakfast and what kind of shoes they'll wear.

They should not be asked to knuckle to parental pressure to join a lifelong organization they can't comprehend until years later when they are fully mature and legally culpable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2016 05:46PM by Cheryl.

Thinking about it, I'm sure I'd been underwater before as I remember my aunt throwing us in the swimming pool when we were younger. But I was scared to death of going underwater. My dad didn't baptize me. Some other guy did. My dad did confirm me, though. The only thing I remember about the confirmation was how heavy those hands were on my head and I had my eyes open.

I just wanted it over as I hated being the center of attention just in terms of having to do any of it. I think my parents had dinner and my relatives came, but nothing like they do these days.

When my kids got baptized, we were just going through the motions so we wouldn't have people questioning what was going on. My ex was unworthy, but we decided we weren't ever going to leaders again, so he baptized them. I think my very inactive sister is the only one who came from my family. No big production for my kids either. Nowadays, my daughter wants to believe it took and my son wants to believe it didn't. ha ha ha

Yeah, but didn't it feel good to have your little 8 year old sins forgiven?

These willfully blind people need sky daddy to forgive them because they refuse to forgive themselves. News flash: all of the righteousness in the world won't make God forgive you. All the grace of Jesus won't make God forgive you. Because only you can forgive you, and only you can teach yourself that there's nothing to forgive. Hello, you're human.

+1000

At an age where a child can still have an imaginary friend LDS Corp provides one for them in the form of a ghost who's supposed to haunt them for life and will leave them if they don't behavior right.

I got baptized at 14 and even then, I was old enough to understand that I wasn't really old enough to understand WTF I was committing to, exactly. I think it's tantamount to child abuse.

DH comes from a HUGE TBM family. Every time someone turns 8 the FB "announcement" is the same....they "chose".

When I was eight my big choice every day was what socks to wear and where I was going to ride my bike. I got baptized because that what you did as good Mormon son and to make your parents proud.

RB

I've never felt they were making a decision on their own at eight years old. I know my kids didn't. They were just going along with what their parents wanted at the time.
Baptism, with my kids turned out to be like a bad vaccination. It didn't take! :-) They have all eventually left the LDS Church!
So much for that!

Baptism happened in my life at eight because I attended some primary with my friends and had a loving primary teacher who saw that it happened for me. I just wanted to do what my friends were doing.

I had picked up enough in my primary class to know that it was going to be magnificent to have my sins washed away (as if an eight year old has in need of this!) and I would feel oh, so good.

The big event happened, and I was dripping wet and freezing cold. and did not feel any magnificent feeling all over me as I was now washed clean.

I remember feeling let down. What went wrong? I felt on one level that the church did not deliver what it had promised.

Too bad I didn't stop the church at this point.

Well, Blue, I thought I chose to be baptized (at 18) into a typical, well-respected, loving church. The Mormon church that was presented to me valued clean living, family, and love (HA! HA!) It is amazing how converts were kept In the dark about the more fucked up aspects of the church. Here are some things I learned my first couple of years in the Morg and at BYU--

Mormonism is racist
Mormonism is anti-feminist
Mormonism judges unmercifully
Mormonism cares a lot about money
Mormonism is offended by natural biological functions
Mormonism is based on appearances
Mormonism values loyalty to its fucking authority above all else.

Here's what I've learned the past several years as an EXMO

Mormonism is a cult
Mormonism is racist, anti-feminist, and severely homophobic
Mormonism will destroy anyone or anything to perpetuate it existence
Mormonism fucking loves non-disclosure agreements
Mormonism hates little children enough NOT to baptize them if their legally, lawfully married parents are gay
Mormonism hates me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2016 10:01PM by byuboner.

"Mormonism fucking loves non-disclosure agreements"

I do believe that is the very basis of Mormonism. Had to laugh.

With that in mind, it is easy to see why it's just as bad at 18 as 8. You get to take the test without ever being given the lesson first. "Just sign the contract. There is nothing in the contract you really need to know. Just trust us on this."

Problem is, the information has been disclosed. This was not in the plan. "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2016 10:26PM by blueorchid.

And, there's us--legions of EXMOs ready and willing to share our knowledge and experiences with the masses! We are the brethren's worst nightmare, fuck yeah!

I was the spiritual "glue" in my family. Once I no longer believed, the ex was lost on who was going to teach our children all the Family Home Evening stuff, all the Sunday School home projects, etc...I wasn't going to do it..and he gave up on it a few months after I quit Church Inc.

So, when we divorced, I had been attending another Non-Denominational church and the kids often went with me (by choice) and over time I respected their choice to not go. During the times the kids were really enjoying Sunday School, my ex husband, demanded that I not allow the kids to get baptized in that church. Well, the kids did not ask, nor was I or anyone pressured to have it done.

I said yes, but only IF he agreed to abide by the same with Church Inc. He agreed.

Then came our Son's approaching 8th birthday.
I was called by the Bishop, who stated that he was scheduling ALL the Baptisms for the children turning 8 next month. He was wondering when we wanted our son to be baptized or was it ok to do it with some of the other children on a "group" day?

I said, the answer was NO and we would decide with our SON, when and if he ever got baptized. The Bishop was gobsmacked and asked me why our son was not ready.

I simply asked him, "Shouldn't this be a free-will devotion where he understands and is prepared to make this commitment into membership? A lot is going to be expected of him".

Bishop: "Well I understand, but.."

Me: "No, I don't think you do. You are making as schedule assuming every child who turns 8 is read emotionally, mentally, and spiritually for this choice...you are also taking away the imput of the parents of the child and making the decision above them all. Is that ok?"

Bishop: "Well I suppose you should have a discussion with your husband an get back to me..."

Me: "Do not had him to the schedule. We will call you when we are ready to move forward on that step".

Little did he know that the ex and I were already separated and the ex knew that if he made a move getting son baptized...then he was going to be a member of TWO churches.

So, to this day my children do not belong to ANY Church, and I feel the right to choose any faith or no Faith is up to them.

We have had long and loving convos about what is personal to them. It is their choice and no one else has the right to make it for them.

RMM

And that Ladies and Gentlemen is how it's done! Your post makes my day, Recovered Molly Mo.

It's a good thing that promises made by eight-year olds are "pie-crust" promises - easily made, and easily broken.

That TSCC expects to extract and impose life-long commitments from eight-year olds states everything that anyone needs to know about the "church."

It hopes to indoctrinate, inoculate, use and abuse people too ill-informed of their options to employ agency.

If they were offering anything of value, they would need no trickery, no lies, no control. It would be freely offered, word would spread, and they wouldn't need to coerce an under-twenty (children, again) sales force into third-world country to falsly inflate "membership" (lol) numbers.

They go after kids and the poor to "maintain" their image. I see their image, and it is a rotting corpse of a criminal who had no compunctions about using and harming children and others to sate his personal desires.

His unholy ghost is alive, but not doing so well, at TSCC.

Jesus was 30 when he got baptized, aren't we supposed to follow his example?

You just made me realize--I don't even know why the age 8 was picked in the first place.

The only place I have seen the age 8 is in the D and C. Not in bible or book of mormon.

So they could boast that they don't practice infant baptism.

I experienced following my baptism and confirmation at age 8 was probably the beginning of my "apostasy." Somehow the holy spook, on myriad occasions, failed to warn me I was heading for trouble.

More-letdowns-followed-ly yrs,

S

At eight, TSCC implants a brain chip and provides innocent children with perma stalkers.

Yup. It's a cult.