https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/12/03/commentary-utah-author/

She echoes many of the discomforts I felt when I was still trying to attend church...my calling was the Mia Maids class.

Wow. That resonates with me as well.

Deeply.

"...if I’m not at church or in a calling with them, not on their list of ministering sisters, they don’t think about me at all."

I imagine that a lot of exmos can relate to her.

In my heart of hearts, I just don't get her.

How so, Cunning Canine?

Seems like the sort of thing you would write if you wanted the Mormons to still buy your Mormon books once you became an Exmormon?

Hard Hearted Hannah

...the waffling...

And it sometimes comes across, at least to me, as 'Pride in Waffling!'

Eh, I don't know. To me, it sounds like she is out, even if she's not at the point of resigning.

But see, she's been out before! She declared herself an atheist at one low point in her life...

She's got RM kids...

She taught German at the Y...

She won't fish and her bait-cutting skills are suspect.

Perhaps so.

Parts of her story made sense to me, I guess perhaps in reverse. I initially lost faith in the people, then the history and doctrine, and finally the leadership. The final straw was interaction with leaders to whom I had given the benefit of the doubt and who revealed for me that there was no question about their ethics and judgment at all. Things like Prop 22, Prop 8, and the 2015 doctrine about the children of gay parents just underscored my earlier decision. Those dessicated old men wouldn't know God if he appeared to them in a California wildfire

I also took a couple of vacations along the way, including right after my mission. It was a horrible experience and I felt God would understand the need to decompress. So I understand the process she's going through.

As for selling books, she would have done better, I'd think, if she had not written that op ed. Now that she's gone public, I'm confident she'll lose a ton of Mormon sales. So her confession of doubt resembles a statement against interest.

The feeling of having assigned friends was my feeling, too. I had a neighbor who saw me at a function and gushed "I've missed you!" I had not been to church in a while, so I knew she meant that she missed seeing me at church. I lived a few houses away from her , so I responded "I haven't moved." She knew she was busted then, so she lamely said , "I am a bad neighbor". Yes, they forget all about you.

Yep - I'd say she's not going back. I wonder whether she has immediate family in the church?

This woman makes me suspicious, too. She seems very slow in accepting the facts of Mormon socialization, which I knew even before I left.

She seems too apologetic, in saying that it's easier to go to other wards, other than to her own home ward. Sorry, Sister, but ALL of the wards are the same. It's called "correlation."
My old California ward was just as bad, and a lot of my old ward friends back there were on the list of those who donated heavily to Proposition 8. $20,000, and an additional $10,000 for each of their children. It's all there, on the list.

I resent the apology that this author uses, that "Other churches are just as bad." Though, she preceded her statement by saying that she has never tried other churches.

I think some of you posters nailed it. This woman is deeply troubled, but she doesn't want to lose her book audience, or her job at BYU. I can't imagine BYU keeping her on, after this.

I do relate to what she says, but it's more than "busyness", and Mormons simply forgetting she's there. The Mormons know I'm there, when they see me at the stores and in the neighborhood. They notice me--otherwise, they wouldn't know to look away, or cross to the other side of the street or move to another section of the supermarket. They aren't too busy to be jealous, and make up lies, and gossip.

I think the author is in a hole, and she can't get out of it. I might still be enmeshed in the cult tangle-web, if my children were all still in there, but my kids led the way out. I was not married, and my TBM parents were deceased, and my job didn't depend on the cult at all. I take no credit for bravery, or sacrifice, in leaving. I wonder if the author will be brave enough to plunge in, after she has tested the waters....

I can totally relate.
She is at the stage I was at after 9-11, realizing that Gordo the Clown PRofit was just a feeble mind3d old man who had no clue what to say in the wake of 9-11. What kind of "mouthpiece of God" has jack squat to say in response to the greatest terrorist attack on US soil in the history of our country?

She still believes in God though.
I became a Nihilist after 9-11.

schrodingerscat Wrote:
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> I became a Nihilist after 9-11.

Nietzsche would say you were one before but that you just couldn't bring yourself to believe you were.

"All that said, I still love Mormonism."

and there you go....

probably has not been for a very, very long time.

She's clearly one of those who see the Mormon church organization as a collective and she would like to influence that collective.

But she can't really go play follow-the-leaders within that collective. They aren't her leaders. She would rather be the leader or see the current leaders replaced by people she would prefer to see as leaders.

She clearly sees no reason why she should ever defer to the judgment or pronouncements of the collective's leaders, anymore than you would feel a need to defer to the judgment of the local PTA leader.

Her attitudes are consistent with membership in an organization that is not divinely instituted and that is not led by divinely called and divinely inspired leaders.

It's just a big Elk's Club or Lion's Club or other civic organization and she wants it to change and wants to change it. But they're not listening to her, so she's apparently writing this to express her displeasure.

Best of luck to her. But there's nothing particularly remarkable in her story. She doesn't really believe that the leaders of the church have any divine mandate to lead, nor does she believe that the church is any of the things it's traditionally claimed to be, so she's "taking a break" from an organization that she doesn't believe in. I'm not sure what the "news angle" is here.

Sounds like she's never really known what "Mormonism" is other than a place to go and hang out with other people who used to call themselves "Mormons".

What in Mormonism is lovable?

The false prophets?

The phony scriptures?

The plagiarized masonic temple ritual?

The church-issued underwear?

Polygamy?

Etc, etc., etc.....

Sounds like one of those comedy routines, where the comic goes on a rant about all of the failings, flaws, crimes, sins and horrors of a particular person and then finishes it off with, "but other than that, he's a great guy and I love him so much."

"That #$%$! Mormon church, founded by a liar, adulterer and swindler, led by a long line of pompous gasbags, oppressing the downtrodden with their high-handed, arrogant and presumptuous claims of divine authority, provably false in every instance, pronouncing false, racist, misogynistic doctrines at every turn, squeezing money out of widows and orphans to enrich themselves, their relatives and their cronies, squandering tithing money, censoring and suppressing individuality...but all that said, I still love Mormonism."

It makes me dizzy to contemplate. But I understand that transitioning out of a cult can be a long and confusing process.

Sounds like she is confused and doesn't know LD$ Inc. is a total fraud.

My Dad used to say that you are either going to get on the airplane and go for the ride or you're going to stay behind and watch the plane take-off. You don't get to have one foot on board and the other one dragging on the ground.

I am not advocating for her to hold to the rod and follow the prophet. However, the sooner she admits to herself that she will be a happier person without the church, the better off she will be.

It should be obvious by now that the church is not interested in becoming progressive by listening to disaffected members.

She's on her way out. For some people the process is gradual, and that's what's happening to her.

I'm glad she wrote that letter to the editor. It will influence others. Sometimes those who are questioning benefit from hearing the views of those not fully out but on their way out.

For some people she'll function as a bridge.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> For some people she'll function as a bridge.

Its a back breaking labor of love.

I'm still on that break since the seventies.

I’ve never heard of her. Are her books any good or just your typical fare from mormon authors that is written for a middle school mindset?

I’ve never even heard of these books but I bet the movie adaptation of “Vampires in the Temple” would be a doozy.

I'm on team Jacob. No temple for me.

NormaRae Wrote:
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> I’ve never heard of her. Are her books any good
> or just your typical fare from mormon authors that
> is written for a middle school mindset?


I believe your second alternative is correct.

Here's my review of her first 'adult' novel. Like so much of what I do, it is fraught with turgid prose.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z3mwOWmI7jyjKRRPxEUBplFYeVESQiaj-0-murEERIc/edit?usp=sharing

Oops...

"Spoiler Alert!"

yes there were one or two spoilers there in your 13 page plot summary..

Seriously, a great review, and thanks. I wouldn't have read it anyway, but you provided quite a service. Thanks!

Consider posting it on Amazon, and Barnes and (ig)Noble.

I think she's been very brave to publicly "out" herself.

She lives in Utah.
She has Mormon family.

I have been following her journey & the process out of Mormonism.


She is aware of this forum....and hopefully she'll read these posts & comment.

I'm on team.....Go Mette.

+1

I concur, having read various reviews of her books on "Goodreads." Non-LDS tend to review approvingly, "Oh, how bold and forthright your descriptions of Mormonism are!" (etc.). The believers' sentiment was sort of, "Yes, we do have those jerks, but do you have to portray most Mormon men this way?"

My admittedly superficial take is that she's another Joanna Brooks ("Book of Mormon Girl"). As long as she's at least nominally LDS, the secular (un)Intelligentsia will love her and she'll find her place in talking-head squares and panels as a palatable "Mormon."

Mary Louise Kelly (breathlessly): "To fill us in on this latest outrage, I mean, development, with the Mormon Church, we have, in Utah, Mette Harrison, a best-selling author and commentator on the Mormon church. Mette is Mormon, herself. Mette...?"

This could be a sabbatical. More likely, it's when somebody tells her sweetheart, "I think we should consider dating other people."