Any characteristics or positive lessons you brought out of mormonism? What are some of the positive gems that were to be found in the crap and lies of mormonism.

I can't think of any....but give me about 2 seconds. No, still nothing.

I can play the piano. There's no way my parents would have paid for piano lessons if they weren't planning for me to play for the church my entire life.

I'm a pretty good quilter. My friend insisted that I support her in starting a church quilting guild. This was about 15 years ago when the LDS church actually promoted women learning skills and spending time together.

Other than that...I got nothing.

Me too--a life in service as Ward Organist. But unfortunately from an artistic perspective, the standards are so very, very low.

If I brought anything good out of Mormonism, it is perhaps the fond memory of about a half-dozen exceptionally good people who treated me better than my own parents treated me while I was growing up.

I personally didn't get crap either. I was just wondering if it was just me. Piano playing and quilting is nice though. I didn't even get the skills from scouting as I was bullied out of it for not being like the other kids. I don't even understand how I was different besides being introverted.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2016 09:50AM by lifefromanewview.

(1) Choosing as an adult convert to become a Mormon and then realizing my error reminds me daily that I'm perfectly capable of being an idiot. Armed with this knowledge, I'm better able to avoid other risky behavior--e.g., assuming the oncoming taxi will stop just because I'm in the crosswalk; eating the leftover chili that's been in a fridge since I forget when...

(2) I met my wife at church. She's a doll--without her I'm little more than your basic lumpy bag of wet parts, making odd noises and emitting occasional noxious gases. As problematic as LDS was and is, for me it was all worth it for the opportunity to get next to her.

In fact, as I write this she's in the other room sorting laundry. I think I'll go paw her for a minute or two, just because. She'll slap my hand and tell me she's busy, and smile, and I can slink off and wallow in a little undeserved happiness.

I suppose I did get one thing from mormonism. I learned that as well meaning as parents might be, they aren't always right.

I really liked the message, "The glory of God is intelligence".

Took that little gem all the way to my PhD. Then the church correlated all the intelligence right out of all the lessons and sacrament talks. All utterances from the top 15 were devoid of meaningful and deep content.

The glory of the church became ignorance.

I liked the original message.

A life lesson. The broader perspective that comes from an unusual experience.

Mormonism is the forbidden fruit and having bitten into it and having swallowed it's bitter flesh, I now have a much better understanding of good and evil that I may not have had otherwise.

I escaped only with my life, and a good lesson on life.

Entertainment. Seeing my testimony go up like Bridge on the River Kwai was pretty spectacular. Although it was a little weird being the train. You know how people say some day you'll look back and this with all seem funny? I think I'm there. Thank you God, best joke ever. But let's not do it again, I might laugh myself to death.

1. Bilingual (from mission)
2. Came out of my introverted shell (from mission)
3. Gained a healthy understanding of all things "bible"
4. Learned how important creating and maintaining boundaries is
5. Learned how to question authority

I'm really happy I was raised in mormonism, and that I had the ability to see through the lies at a fairly young age and make my exit.

Really great experience overall.

"If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report, we seek after these things." Now we know Joe did that in over abundance. But, oh what the heck, so did Hugh Hefner! Just Hefner makes no bones about his having been a cad about town.

I liked the family values it taught me, and life values overall. My family was not the lovey dovey Mormon home we sang about in Sacrament meetings. Anything but. Still my values were formed growing up as a Mormon, and that's how I turned out.

They aren't all bad. I still don't drink alcohol very much (rarely.) I enjoy tea and coffee, especially during the winter months. I'm health conscious about what I eat and drink. Was that the WoW, or just basic common sense and education?

I gave up cigarettes at 19 when I went back to active church attendance. Up to then I hadn't been able to quit to save my soul. It was like a ball and chain that tied me to the addiction of tobacco. When I stopped being agnostic and realized there was a God who loved me is when the desire to smoke completely left me. Before that it was impossible.

But then I've known non-Mormons who had the same epiphany with drinking, swearing, smoking, etc once they found God. It wasn't Mormonism that changed them, it went much deeper than that.

Being a mom is what defines my life up to now, besides having had to work to raise my children. Mormonism helped to prepare me for motherhood. It just didn't prepare me very well for single motherhood, and turned against me after I became a single parent.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2016 12:27PM by Amyjo.

1. Spanish language (mission)
2. Wife & kid

That's it. Just wish we'd left the church right after meeting and marrying.

Sure.
I learned not to fall for the BS cults (and I include all religions in that definition) spew.
A valuable thing I learned from being in mormonism. :)

I suppose I can blame my academic achievements on the Mormon church. I've always known I'm gay. And growing up Mormon I always knew I was going to hell because of it. So I overcompensated by putting all my energy into academics. I graduated from college summa cum laude, which has always come in handy on job applications, etc.

Mormonism taught me self-loathing. I would have been much happier growing up liking myself.

I only had one childhood, and thanks to mormonism, it was okay. Then whisking me off to Mexico for two years, that was okay, and then college was inexpensive.

I learned a lot about being a good and understanding mother to my child.
Oh, wait, nevermind. I learned everything I know about mothering from my own mom.

I got nothing.

I still have a believe in God.
So yes it did teach me that i can have a personal relationship with him.
there are a lot of good people in the church, some with some great values. No values are not inclusive to church people...but i found some in the LDS Faith who have some.
I try to base my family off of some of those values i learned with in the church.

I brought out the ability to see through their lies.

I learned Italian, and... That's it. I learned Italian.

I think giving talks, such as they were, at least got me up in front of an audience, so that's a good thing.

The people in my Ward were nice people for the most part, and the kids were too. So I had nice friends at church. But then I might have made more nice friends that were NOT Mormon if I hadn't spent so much time at the LDS church.

We had some really fun times back in the day. Summer camp was a lot of fun. The music festival was great. Road shows were fun. Volleyball tournament was always fun. Stake dances were fun.

Despite some fun memories, those didn't make the LDS church teachings any more TRUE. I dropped out after college, so I don't have any adult-level things to report.

I learned how to stand up in front of people and talk. It gave me a skill I'd not previously had...which gave me the courage to accept a TA position in college. There's no way my naturally socially-awkward, introverted self could have done that without practice as a teacher/speaker/leader at church.

1. Glad I never smoked or did drugs.
2. Glad that my first experience with alcohol was as an adult, rather than a kid, and I was able to make choices with it rather than get addicted.
3. I learned how NOT to be a parent, so therefore learned how to be a pretty good parent by NOT doing as they did.
4. I sucked at sports, and never got the opportunity to play in JR Hi and HS, but I loved to play. Because I played church basketball, softball and volleyball, I got to play in games, even tho I was bad at it.
5. I learned some pretty good sales techniques that have helped me in my career, when I was a stake missionary.
6. I never caught any STDs
7. Like a lot of people here, I learned to play piano.
8. I had the opportunity to sing solos in front of people, and therefore lettered in vocal music in HS.
9. I learned public speaking.
10. I was in the church during the era when there were road shows, gold and green balls, dances, youth conferences, firesides, and all kinds of fun activities for teenagers, so it was fun for me, as kind of a social outcast, to have an automatic group of friends, whom I would still be friends with to this day, if it were possible.
11. I am who I am because of the mormon church. Not sure I would be as outspoken and strong, had it not for being repressed by the church.

applesauce

You know, there are plenty of people that don't drink or do drugs or do about 90% of what you pride yourself on not doing without ever stepping foot inside a temple?

Wonderful loving husband

I believe my parents were better parents because they joined the church (I realize that some others don't have that experience)

Cool son in law from a foreign country.

Fluent in Spanish.

Church and Mutual, for me, were a great escape from home and school life. (I did not grow up in Utah)

I think I learned skills I might not have otherwise, serving as a missionary and in various callings--favorite being Primary President.

I'm also really glad I never smoked, drank, or did drugs. I'm not sure it's because of the church, because some of my brothers didn't stay away from those things.

Myself.

Personal experience with a controlling and manipulative organization.

I learned values that at the time I thought were exclusive to the church. Turns out that they aren't, but the church wants you to think that they are.

lifefromanewview Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What are some of the
> positive gems that were to be found in the crap
> and lies of mormonism.

That life is for the living. Mormonism brings this into crystal clear focus when you are leaving it.

Can't think of one single thing, to be honest.

As with all of life it's "the good, the bad, the ugly." I'll concentrate on the good in this post.

Yes, I gained a lot because of my membership in the LDS Church. First and foremost is my late husband of 50 + years, and our family (children, grand children, and now a great grand child), of course. I was a convert who married a believer who stayed convinced all of his life.

I used some of my skills I brought with me in drama and speech and music. I was given opportunities to expand those skills over the years. I participated in classes and had opportunities to sing in some excellent choirs.

We sent two of our children on missions, and we gained as a family from their experience, plus one learned another language which has been used as a teacher, etc.

I continued to use the standards I brought with me, and had many opportunities to use them: honesty, optimism, gratitude, respect, service, etc., to name a few.

I still have friends I met in the LDS Church and some relatives.

The following were good lessons. They were the ones that gave me the impetus to make a major change in my life. I learned there are no: wouldas, shouldas, couldas, what if's. It is what it is!
I learned that the overwhelming, intrusive, controlling, manipulating, elements of the religion, (often misunderstood and misapplied by the members and leaders,) were all very restrictive of my total freedom and authentic self. I learned that I did not like how I was treated by many of the man (mostly leaders but other men also), because I am a female.
But, not by my husband. We were equal partners.

I left Mormonism because I changed my mind and could no longer accept their claims by faith because the facts and evidence in their own history proved it was not what it claimed to be.

Religions have provided a valuable part of our human history. We still have evidences of centuries of the art, architecture, music, costuming, foods, etc . I'm a believer in universal truths. What's not to like about: love one another! :-)

We are free to believe whatever we find works for us. I am appreciative of what I learned as an LDS woman and mother. I live by the adage: keep the good, and leave the rest! I took my power back and own it! You find what you look for!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2016 01:41PM by SusieQ#1.

I'll be honest, I had a pretty nice Norman Rockwellian life growing up. My parents joined the church when I was but a lad but I had an immediate group of friends. I loved Cub and Boy Scouts. I loved camping out and mostly all things scouting. I loved going to MIA/Mutual/APYW and Super Saturdays and Road Shows. I loved the Stake Dances. I didn't grow up in the Morridor but church was still the main source of my social life.

Growing up east of the Mississippi all of my school friends were not LDS but even though they knew I was they were pretty cool about and didn't give me any flak except for the occasional "how many Mom's do you have?" crack.

The church leaders of my youth were pretty laid back compared to the uptight bunch of sphincters running it today. Sure, I got annual intrusive worthiness interview but I, like the other kids in my ward, pretty much just blew it off and said what they wanted to hear.

I got to go on a mission in a country I wanted to go to. I got into BYU and got a pretty inexpensive degree. I met life long friends that I still have today.

You may notice that all of my memories were social. The church has destroyed that - and they wonder why the youth are leaving the church. My children did not have the same experience I had. The church correlated and tightened down the screws so tight that the kids are bored beyond belief and aren't even close with the other kids at church.

Its all such a big mindfu@k. I loved it as a kid but when I went to BYU and on a mission I started to see it for what it really is. The final straw was realizing the FP & Q12 were liars.

So I wouldn't be who I am today without having been raised in the church. I wouldn't have my great friends and family (Mom & Dad had more kids because of the church). So to that degree it was good.

It doesn't work to go against my better judgement in favor of trusting self-important authority figures like church leaders and my parents. Their advice and pronouncements benefit them, not me.

This has saved my life and my eyesight more than once when what arrogant medical people said didn't fit my individual medical needs. I say get other opinions and ask questions before doing anything life changing or drastic.

my missionary experience in the Caribbean was good. That's all for me.

Public speaking.

Some people fear that more than death, I hear.

Giving talks from the time you're three years old and teaching lessons, leading activities, etc, really helps in that area, in my opinion.

That's a life skill that's very valuable.

Other than that...I can't think of anything.

As someone who believes 'we' selected our 'mormon' lives, there were many good things ------ knowledge and experience.

Many of the 'good' things are discussed above but the 'experience' of being in and leaving a 'religious' cult were amazing (good and bad) and will continue possibly throughout our lives and will the 'learning'.

Some people say some things must be 'experienced' this is definitely true of 'mormonism' ----- never mos will never know. Examples include brain washing/mind control, realizing the fraud then continuing to associate/live with Mormon family, relatives and friends.

Remember how 'special' we were ----- less than 1% of spirits incarnating now will have the chance to 'experience' the 'mormon' cult.

Hopefully, we learned and experienced what we needed to so we won't chose an incarnation in any cult again!