So, I've sent my TBM father a text message that basically asked him to review his life and where the church has gotten him with his family. I brought up the times of Californias prop 8, reminding him that it was a campaign filled with hate just like Trump (who most Mormons voted for).

Has anyone else recently reached out to their family to share UNCONDITIONAL love even if they only know CONDITIONAL love?

Decades and decades I have maintained the relationship with the TBM family. I always felt like all was on a sliding scale with love being at one end and duty being at the other. Or is it EOD's bell curve?

Unconditional. I'm not sure I even know what love is anymore, except when it comes to my dog.

I like your question to your father. Should be a conversation starter. You skip the part about truth and facts and whatever and go for what really matters. Did the church enrich your life? Did the church bring family closer? Or, do they only say they are close.

Dad is long gone now, but I could ask my mother the same question. However before I could even get the words out of my mouth she would be telling me what a wonderful family we have. She needs desperately to believe that. At the end, every parent wants to believe they raised a wonderful loving family, especially Mormons because that is one way they judge each other.

And so, they will believe what they want to believe even if it just ain't true. Just like they believe their church which is provably untrue.

They will go to grave believing Joe Smith was a prophet who restored the true church and they will go to ground claiming they had a wonderful family even if the kids don't like each other much and are rather shallow.

Should we stop them? Burst the bubble?

My parents bubble was made of bullet proof glass, so I really didn't bother.

I wish you luck and hope you return and report.

My parents weren't too much into it by the time they both died 12 years ago. Three of my 5 siblings had already gone inactive long before I did. My niece and nephews had all left the church or never were even baptized. I was one of the holdouts. They still will ask me sometimes if I really don't believe--my inactive siblings. My sister who still attends doesn't believe the church. She believes in God and Jesus Christ, but she attends as it makes her husband happy. My other sibling is disabled.

It just so happens that of all the grandchildren and great grandchildren, my daughter is the one and only mormon. We don't touch on the belief subject. She kept trying to prove to me I was wrong and that I obviously hadn't felt the spirit like she has and so I resigned (which I said I'd never do, but so glad I did). She and I get along good now because I quit allowing her to trigger me. (My therapist told me that this was a pattern for her and she wasn't going to change, so maybe I should and it worked.) I'll let her live out her beliefs since I got to as I was as bad, if not worse than she is.

I have a lot of support around me where mormonism is concerned. Mormonism isn't and has never been a really big topic when we would get together as a family--even growing up.