My brother in law has decided that we, my wife and I, are apostates. Up to this point has been the closest thing I have had to a friend in my wife's extremely morg family. Keep in mind that we have not outed ourselves as non-morgs or that we are resigning from the church.

He and I periodically go hiking with our kids. While hike I expressed my concern over the church essay about polygamy. I very briefly reviewed the high points of the essay. His initial reaction was to deny JS was a polygamist. I decided to push a little and assured him that JS was not only a polygamist but had practiced polyandry also.

It was in this moment that his morg dominant psychy took over and began to cycle the mantra "we are the morg". He has been extra busy since this time and has not wished to go "hang out".

I have ask him if he has reviewed the essay and he denies being able to find it. I offered to send him a link or printed copy. He has not accepted my offered help.

When he bumped into my wife and while conversing with her about the pending family reunion he accused her of apostasy. The only reason he would even do this would be because of our conversation.

I am so tempted to drag him out to the wood shed and teach him what courtesy and personal boundaries are.

I can not believe I gave them over 40 years of my life.

Thank you for letting me vent. I wish you all peace and success in all your endeavors.

Apostate Cracker

looks like, for now, the church's plan to hide the essays has worked. it's so obvious what they are doing, though!

they can claim to have written the essays when challenged. But the essays are hardly accessible to the faithful.

perfectly done. Just what Jesus would do if he were on earth today!!

That's why I hate this church so much. They brag about holding the truth, but then they perform sleight of hand to keep deceiving people.

A truly honest and open religion wouldn't bury the truth, wouldn't buy documents from a forger to hide its own history, and wouldn't employ church historians as apologists instead of as chroniclers.

Saltinecracker,

Tell your bro-in-law that the I.T. church employee who was instructed to meticulously go to great lengths to hide the essays (without linking them to obvious key words) left the church.

They demanded that he disregard his expertise and standard professional procedure to bury those essays. They helped him bury his testimony also.

(According to David Twede, former editor of Mormonthink in his speech at Exmo Conference 10-14 on PodCast.)

Mr. Twede was ambushed at church and hauled into a mtg with church leaders to interrogate him/threaten church court... He turned on his smart phone recorder to record the mtg./played back during his speech.

Good luck with your journey!

TSCC burying these essays deep into the website under the radar from all the members is just another example deceit and cover up. That and the fact that none of the 15 will put their name on them either.

Saltinecracker, I meant to also say that TSCC's burying of all this is still keeping its members in ignorance and causing family relationships to be strained. Another example of TSCC cherishing family relationships. It is so sad and unfortunate. I've had the same thing happen to me. Family will not read or even discuss the essays. What a shame!

It is a shame that well educated and sound people will almost instantly go into denial and start to look for egregious sins. They can not consider that they just might be wrong.

I have tried to very gently approach only those members of friends and family with some of my doubts. It has been made extremely clear that unless I want an all out visceral war that I either need to fade into the background letting them keep their head buried in the sand or resign and there by give them the proverbial middle finger.
We have been slowly exiting the church for years. Recently my son is mission age and will not be serving a mission by his choice. He has been more than happy to tell his grandparents to pound sand. The #@$% hit the fan when we defended his desion to both our parents.
So needless to say fading into the background is becoming more difficult with the families beginning to circle and put more of our activities under scrutiny.

As you can tell emotions are running high for me right now as most of the drama has occurred in the last 2 - 3 months.

Thanks for your time

saltinecracker

Brother Cracker,

Send the guy the link to the polygamy essays. He'll immediately recognize them as being legitimate and from the church.

Tell him he needs to understand the doctrine and history of the church. If it's not something we should know then the brethren would not post it.

I don't mind people wanting to be ignorant, it's the key to Mormon bliss, but it is wrong to imply the truth you are sharing with him are anti-Mormon lies.

That approach is why TSCC has to hide the truth now...

I have done just that and he still cant seem to find them.

I believe the adage about leading a horse to water... applies to this case.

...then send him links to the recent New York Times or Huffington Post articles which discuss the publication of the essays. Surely he wouldn't be so obstinate as to think that those major media outlets would publish articles about essays which don't exist. Duh, if that was the case, the church would have issued a statement calling the NYT and HuffPo liars.

Also, send him this:

http://bycommonconsent.com/2014/11/12/plural-marriage-as-discussed-in-the-church-today/

This is a faithful Mormon's blog where he discusses the essays and gets lots of comments from other Mormons. If your BIL thinks that all of that is anti-Mormon bunk, then he's beyond hope.

I disagree. Even if they read the essays, many TBMs will find a reason to say that something is being misunderstood or misconstrued. I've experienced that a number of times. Most recently with my missionary son. He used the "misconstrued" excuse with me. I asked him how I could misconstrue what the church was saying on their website - it wasn't like evil hackers popped those essays in there. His response was that we don't know who wrote them and if the brethren approved this. I stopped arguing. I'll work on him more when he's not around it 24/7.

ferdchet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I asked him how I
> could misconstrue what the church was saying on
> their website - it wasn't like evil hackers popped
> those essays in there. His response was that we
> don't know who wrote them and if the brethren
> approved this.

Protection for the next court battle, but not enough for the loyalists to pay attention. Slippery, they are.

...but he's the one who still refuses to believe that Joseph Smith was a polygamist, even though the church's essays affirm that he was.

Maybe you should point out to your BIL that *he's* the apostate, for disbelieving the church's published history.

I've come to the conclusion that tbms are almost beyond hope. They are addicted to a cult. It would by trying to get a meth addict to agree to saying they don't like meth.

Mormons IMO are very horrible people. All they want to do is promote the Mormon agenda, and appear superior. They have special hidden information and secrets don't you know.

You won't find them if you search the key word 'polygamy'. From t breads here I gather that you might find it if you search 'plural marriage'. I have not searched for it myself, so I don't know how true that is.
They want it to not be easy to find, precisely to keep people like your BIL entrenched.

Print up a hard copy. Mark up the most egregious parts with a highlighter. Stick it in his hand and tell him to read it and weep.

You schooled him. I'm guessing he found out you're right and it's killing him.

Or, he's got his fingers in his ears. "La la la la!"