JAR- THANK YOU for time and heartfelt response to my last post!!! It means a lot that a stranger would take the time to research and post what you did! I went to a "mega church" yesterday. The pageantry was something that needs to get used to but the message was relevant and Jesus centered. I AM angry and distrustful. I don't want to be. I faked my Mormon-ness, convincingly, for such a long time that I have a hard time with anyone who is overly pious. I have thought to ask the church if there are any Mormon converts in the congregation. I think that would help to talk to them.

We're other Christians angry at God or Jesus after their Mormon experience? How'd you get over it or separate the Christian God from the Mormon one?

Thought I would chime in to offer a hand. One of my best friends came out of Mormonism...we have had many discussions pertaining to his experiences. I am currently in a relationship with a mormon right now interestingly enough. There is much to be said about that but since my relationship started with her I have become a student of Mormonism. To say the least it has been an incredible journey in seeing it from the outside and also seeing it through the eyes of those who are current members. I am obviously at a disadvantage in that I have never been one so my worldview can only go so far; and on the other hand, there is an advantage of seeing it from the outside. It's mind boggling...wonderful people, many thoughtful and smart people. Having said that, when one really tears the theology apart, I have been able to see that Joseph was the ULTIMATE synthesizer of ideas where he pulls from so many sources for whatever he needed at the time to "get the job done". So as a LDS, you have a huge dose of ideas from all over the spectrum. I say all of that to say this, it is going to take a while to retrain yourself from a psychological point of view, and a longer time from a theological point of view. I think the best thing to say is that the gospel Jesus came to communicate breeds liberty and freedom. There is a simplicity to it and at the same time is bottomless in it's complexity. You are now going out into a world to decide where to attend church. One thing you must keep in mind is that with freedom comes the unintentional consequences of other believers with some varying viewpoints on Biblical matters. When one becomes more mature in their faith, we tend to be very accurate on the "essentials" and won't allow that message to be distorted and at the same time shouldn't fight on the non-essentials. Think of churches as being different flavors of ice cream. Do I wish there were no denominations and everyone is perfectly in line with their viewpoints? To some extent I would say yes. Be we are not robots either. Perhaps you might agree that the LDS church goes to great lengths to force everyone into compliance from every angle. What really matters in the end is LOVE to not only those we like but also to those who don't like us or whom might be different than ourselves. You will carry with you your entire life the lessons or scars of mormonism; perhaps you will be very sensitive to the words people use since you may now know how powerful those "suggestions" people in authority have over you, or you might be overly sensitive in people "looking the part" and seeing their outside appearance in determining if they are genuine or not. Keep in mind, if Jesus or John the baptist walked into the door of an LDS church or other Christian churches, I wonder if any would give them the time of day. Some of the most thoughtful people have tats or might be ragged but have an incredible loving spirit and are sold out for God. Please feel free to give me a call or anyone else who might want to get a perspective on your post lds life. - Gary 412-716-4344

Let us know if jesus calls... ;)

bingoe4,

There are many, many Mormons who have become Christians, especially in recent years. While on a fact-finding trip to Utah last year I spent time with a Christian pastor whose church was 1/3 former Mormons; they recently had to expand their building to make room for the influx.

Some Mormons make their way to Christianity via a direct conversion, others by way of a wilderness period. The stories of hundreds of them are available to you on the website I mentioned in a previous post. But not very many of them hang out here at RFM.

In my opinion, (<-- did everybody hear that?) many ex-mos could accelerate their recovery process by doing exactly as you have said: separate the Christian God from the Mormon one. And I would also add, separate the Bible from the other Mormon standard works. Even those ex-mos who have no interest in becoming Christian. More on that below.

Here is another resource that you might find helpful in this separation process. It is described as "...a respectful comparison of the differences between historic Christianity and the predominant religious culture of Utah." Please note that I don't know the individuals or institutions involved; and I'm not at all favorably disposed to the dry, classroom, lecture format. It's only the content that I'm recommending:

http://theheightscommunity.org/watch/fresh-start/

Please know that I regularly get together with Christians who are former Mormons, or whose lives significantly intersect Mormonism in some way as does mine. Last year I watched a young man go through the difficult process of disentangling his Mormon upbringing from his new Christian faith. He and his never-mo wife both are brilliantly sharp people. Doesn't matter; disentangling is still tough. I'm one of the people who's doing what I can to help. (For free, Satan isn't paying me.)

-----

This is why I think ex-mos (maybe not all, but certainly some) could benefit from the separation described above. [The 'in my opinion' disclaimer still applies.]

First, you have to get a grip on this reality: Mormonism is not Christianity; Mormonism is not sort-of Christian with a twist; no, Mormonism is NOT EVEN REMOTELY Christian. The reasons people think Mormonism is at least somewhat Christian is because (1) Mormons say they're Christian, and (2) they use many, many Christian terms and phrases. But their words means something very different from what a Christian means when using the same word or phrase.

God, Jesus, Holy Ghost/Spirit, prophet, apostle, church, elder, deacon, priest, teacher, missionary, faith, grace, sin, worthiness, heaven, obedience, gospel -- I suppose I could come up with dozens of words before getting into the full phrases such as plan-of-salvation, etc. -- these all mean something different to a Christian than they do to a Mormon, often something radically different.

[Decades ago an adult friend of mine converted to Mormonism and proudly boasted to me that he had been made a deacon. I wasn't even Christian at the time but thought he had leaped immediately into some high office. Made no sense.]

The fact that Mormonism has no relationship to Christianity would become obvious if we could somehow take all the Christian words out of Mormonism and substitute uniquely Mormon words instead. This would allow a person to see Mormon CONTENT and MEANING more clearly without being confused by the similar language. And find that the content is unrelated to Christianity; indeed is unique among all religions.

[Yes, it's not just words but forms also such as baptism, the laying on of hands, etc. For now let's keep this discussion simple.]

Here is how this phenomenon affects ex-mo recovery, again, in my opinion. Mormon words and phrases are emotional triggers for ex-mos. We live in a still somewhat Christian world, especially in America. Christians use Mormon words and phrases. (Actually, it's the other way around; Mormons use Christian words and phrases. But I'm talking about the ex-mo's perspective of Christians.) When Christians use Mormon words and phrases (without realizing it since most of them don't even know what Mormonism is) in the presence of an ex-mo, the ex-mo gets triggered.

The ex-mo is driven emotionally into hearing something that the Christian has not said, has not meant to say. The survival instinct of the ex-mo shuts down the conversation quickly, as it should. (This happened to me many times on this board before I started figuring it out, and still does when I'm not extremely careful.) Communication is difficult at best.

This is an unfortunate wall. One that cuts off the unrecovered ex-mo from a significant part of the world around him/her. Separating Christianity from Mormonism would help pull down the wall between us and let us talk to each other.

May the healing continue!

JAR

[I would offer a prayer here, but that might trigger someone, so...]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2016 04:11PM by justarelative.