And I'm kind of worried about them they like a lot of people here gave so much time and energy to the stupid cult and believed EVERY word the stupid ga's ever said. Spent so much money and I can tell my dad is just SO crushed and I'm worried about my mom shes talking about wanting to die to find out what's really next. I think they were at first in shock but now there in the grieving stage and they are greiving BAD. Ever since my mid teens I have NOT been a fan of Mormonism for all the black sheeping they brainwash members into doing teaching them to abandon there own family for the damn cult and to treat non members like second class citizens and apostates like there Satan's army got SO annoying! Plus the damn cult really got in the way of my libido. So one day I thought to myself "self?" "What means more to you this stuffy "church" or your va jay jay?" And my va jay jay won by a landslide obviously! and I was out! Lol

my parents loved it though and are hurting and feel so angry lost and betrayed. I is just really hard seeing them like this :( I hope as time goes on they feel better about the whole thing. Ironically ever since they found out the fraud we have NEVER been closer as a family! And it hasn't even been that long since they've been out! So much for it bein the lords one true church that's all about family's right?! Good grief gosh my mom even admitted to me there were things she was not pleased with about the cult like how she felt she could never be worthy enough among other things when she was a member she always just said everything about the church was perfect!
Its sad how members feel too scared to even be able to admit what bugs them about the church what an awesome organization huh? I literally had NO idea she ever felt that way about it!

Both my parents would talk about how amazing the church was as members but now there saying it really does make people judgemental and teaches them terrible things! Its like members feel scared to admit anythings wrong with the church like they think they will be punished its sad actually. But ya I think she is mostly very sad and very very very angry but I think some part of her feels relief hopefully things will get better as time goes on! Life without Mormonism would have been so much better for all of us. And when people who love it find out they've been duped it hurts them so much. Different beliefs in our family have caused so much havoc over the years and to think all this pain so some greedy men can get some good money! Seriously what is wrong with them?!?! There SO beyond evil! I hope this evil cult goes down in flames straight down to hell with Joe and Brig soon!!!

Complement them often on their courage and integrity. Tell them you are grateful to them for teaching you to think for yourself and question. It is the greatest gift.

I was 40 before I caught on. The older someone is, the more invested they are in the church and the harder it is to realize they've been had. Most people cannot admit this to themselves. Let them know you are proud of them. :-)

The blacksheeping thing is by far the worst thing they do. Thats what they did to me at seventeen years old and they STILL make me feel like i am the leader of satans army. So i just said screw it i am always going to be labeled like this so i might as well throw my life away because the real world could give two sh#ts about what happened to me. I might as well rebel against the world and god forever in this life and the next because i will always be an outcast even when i returned to the cult for the family to accept me but they never did so screw em and their stupid handshakes.

Thanks Dagny I will do that! Ya I am dang proud of them! It really must be hard for them my moms been in for 60 years and my dads been in for about 40 so its been a tough journey for them stupid cult!!! Good hell it really needs to be illigal for these idiots to do this shit to people its so evil!!!! And badassadam I'm so so sorry for all you have been through! Good grief they STILL blacksheeped you even when you returned to the cult just for them? That's completely disgusting!!! Your right I think the whole black sheeping thing is terrible I hate the whole you cant marry anyone who's not lds garbage and your OWN FAMILY blacksheeping you!

And then this cult is parading its ass around like a "family" organization makes me want to effin puke! The whole "there not lds oh no!" Crap is what turns alot of people off to the cult in the first place its just plain obnoxious!!! Its like come on people would JESUS blacksheep people for not bein lds? Jesus walked away from N-O-N-E he gave his love to E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E! Gosh do they ever even L-I-S-T-E-N to the words of that song? Or are they too doped out on kool aid? We should sing to them Jesus walked away from none he gave his love to everyone (oh except for if your not lds! Then screw ya!) And see if they get how messed up that is! Hopefully! They really need to get a clue don't they?

The beginning is the roughest, when your identity evaporates and you're going down the rabbit hole. It's a crazy ride. It does actually get a lot better.

Mormon cultural practices are pretty bad, which is why I can't go back. Doctrine isn't a problem because beliefs really don't mean anything. Life goes on independent of what you believe, in spite of thinking you're on the inside track with God. Now you can just relax and not worry about the rat race to heaven. Let the rats win.

So glad for you and your parents that they were able to wake up from the cult coma! It can be devastating to find out the truth, especially if someone is older and been indoctrinated for most of their life. It's reinforced that your whole sense of self-worth and social life is suffocated and confined to the realms of TSCC. It will get better. " By their fruits ye shall know them". In one of those hymns, there's a line that goes: " who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly?" Those still caught up in the cult are both blind and deaf.

How did they find out?

It sounds like your mother especially is really suffering.

They still have a lot of life left to live. I'm 60, too, and it is kind of shocking to realize what age I am. But I'm far from dead yet, so they have time to really go out and LIVE and find real friends. That will be one of the biggest issues as most of their mormon friends will abandon them.

I hope your parents find peace and are able to embrace a different life.

On the other hand, I am very glad that my very elderly TBM mother is a champion at doubting her doubts. It would be devastating to know the truth after a lifetime of servitude. She keeps hearing all the problems with the history, the BoM, etc. but manages to give the Gerontocracy the benefit of the doubt each and every time. Faith is all that matters. Doesn't even matter what she has faith in anymore, just so she has it.

Am I wrong to think that finding the truth in your nineties is past it's sell by date?

Sadly, there is also the Second Anointing (secret, not sacred) that your parents would have never heard about, even if they'd spent every penny on tithing and every spare moment in callings and "volunteer" work.

How does that make sense, Mormon Jesus?

My mom was the first to be converted in our family and my dad never joined. Because Dad became so anti-Mormon, Mom agreed to stop attending church soon after her baptism. She never really learned much about tscc so when I told her the truth about everything Mormon she left (not officially) and stopped believing. I'm really glad that Mom was never fully indoctrinated into Mormonism and simply believed she was in a simple Christian church. There was never that depression nor anger. She just walked away and has never paid tithing since. All her Mormon friends still think she is a believer. Jokes on them. At age 91 they consider her a member but do absolutely nothing for her. She prefers it that way but it does show that all the talk they give out about caring for widows and orphans is just that. Talk.

Sorry your parents are having such serious withdrawal from the cult. It will get better for them. The realization that they wasted so much time and money on the fraud takes quite a bit of time to get over. Sorry for their and your pain. Even though my mom never suffered, I sure did.

My parents didn't figure that out before they died, two months apart.

Mom believed it hook, line, and sinker. Dad believed parts of it, and left the rest.

Mom didn't question, even though she was the convert. She smoked the last two decades of her life which kept her from going to church (she didn't feel worthy enough.) She couldn't give up cigarettes, but her testimony was still what it was.

Your parents seeing the light now finally must be freeing for you too. They can draw strength from yours because you've been where they are now.

Thanks everyone! Your words make me feel better and gives me hope that it will get easier for them eventually ya I think it most definitely is more devastating to know the REAL truth the longer you are in the cult. Its definitely been hard on them. And ya I think the whole "worthiness" bs really wore them out! I think that's one thing that they are actually relieved about. Yes that's awful that there mormon friends will abandon them they actually are trying to keep this super secret so that very thing doesn't happen! Because they know that blacksheeping is a big part of what happens when someone leaves the cult.

Its SO stupid!!! I HATE the black sheeping crap!!!! And they found out because my dad heard about the whole blacks and the preistood thing and he had read the surveys about Joe having other wives and told my mom and she was like huh? So she ended up reading up on it and just kept on finding more and more stuff like on how the book of Abraham is a fruad and about how Joseph had a filthy dirty nasty affair with Fanny Alger and married other men's wives and shared Zina Huntington with Brigham Young well he took her after Joe died to "help her out" he and Joe shared wives how touching!!! Yes I'm SURE there was a lot of "touching things" going on!!! Good greif!!!

They read the quotes something like "don't marry the pretty ones you keep bringing The ugly ones bring the pretty ones!" And found out they had a big sex ring thing goin on My mom now calls that heber dude Heber C. Horny LOL and about the mountain meadows massacre and how Joe raped Helen Mar Kimball and about the temple bein ripped off masonry and a BUNCH of other stuff and it was a little hard for them to deny the church wasn't true after that!

I love how in the surveys they say these men weren't perfect! Even though they pretty much have RAVED about how they were the most holy men ever second only next to God and Jesus all these years. Its like really?! Come on guys!!!!! If Joe had spanked the monkey and uttered a few swear words in his lifetime you could maybe get away with calling him "not perfect" but raping children stealing other men's wives and the shit he was doin is a LIIIIITTTLLLEEE more than "not perfect" and Brigs murder orders ya "not perfect" just not going to cut it sorry! Good grief apperently Emma even tried to poisen Joe once too bad she didn't succeed!!!! Would have saved us all a lot of crap!!!

And oh ya they read the ces letter by Jeremy Runnels and watched his ex cummunication online and I asked them if they were going to be getting counseling and they said they were listening to John Dehlin and he was helping them out a lot!

Yes. It's like a house of cards. You learn one fact and then another and pretty soon the whole thing falls down once you go outside the church for your information. I was dumbfounded at what J.S. did to William Law and his wife in Nauvoo. I was always taught what a horrible liar William Law was and then I did the research. I even went to an institute teacher to confirm whether or not the stuff I was learning about Mormon history was correct. The teacher admitted to me that it was all true and then said, "But the church is still true". I walked away scratching my head and wondering how anyone can be so completely deluded. If everything taught about the church is lies, how can it be a "true" church?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

The only way one can be a true Mormon is to suspend all reason and logic.

Its a very big house of cards i learn something new every freakin day.

Hahaha ooooohhhhhhh MAN!!! I KNOW!!!! How on EARTH can anyone think the church is true when there are SOOOOOOO many lies and coverups?!?!?! It really shows you the power of brainwashing doesn't it?!?!?!?! And oh ya my parents were also horrified to learn of the Thomas Lewis castration and how Brigham Pigham Young was like just let it go. WHAT?! What an absolute horrible human being!!!! And yes Joseph Smith was such a lovely young man wasn't he?! UGH!!!! The history is just absolutely horrifying you REALLY do have to be very very very VERY doped out to still believe in it!!!!! Its horrifying how powerful brainwashing is!!!!!