One of mine is that Mormonism is a structure built on lies. As a Mormon following Mormonism one puts themselves into another Russian doll of deceit and it's dolls all the way down to a ground of nothingness that Mormons worship as an Eternity - of lies.

Mormonism is built on conformity. Nonconformity is shamed.

So we have all the dudes at General Conference wearing white shirts and dark suits. Facial hair? A piercing? Not likely.

Individuality should be encouraged, IMO. Creativity and personal choice should be celebrated. We are individual human beings, not robots. A dark--and false--lesson of Mormonism is that such nonconformist thinking is wrong.

When my father was dying from cancer and I was tBM I suggested he read the BofM. Big mistake. Right at the beginning he read the part about having to slay Laban for the book. My dad was horrified at how violent, bloody, and cruel God must be to require a man be slain for such a test of faith. This did not make him wish to die and see the Mormon god any time soon. Thank goodness Dad refused to read beyond that chapter.

The original temple enactments of slitting my throat and disembowelment were pretty dark lessons. Not to mention giving all my time, talents, etc. etc. that I possessed then and in the future was a pretty dark lesson. What is left if I give all I possess to a corporation?

Then there is the misogyny. Women hold little to no power in the structure of the organization. All the power that Mormon leaders speak about for women is pure lip service. It only exists in their minds and not one wit in reality.

Dark lessons indeed.

Perhaps it's an even darker lesson that women did at one time hold significant power within what at one point were deemed their spheres of influence, the Young Womens Association, the Relief Society and Primary.

Women were also the power behind the founding of the Primary Children's Hospital.

I don't know the details of how they came to be stripped of their powers in these organizations, only that it happened.

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't know the details of how they came to be
> stripped of their powers in these organizations,
> only that it happened.

There was a man behind it. The one behind the curtain made from the mantle of priesthood power.

+1
I think the essential idea of your anecdote is trying to apply a fairytale gospel to real life, and death.
There's just enough folk wisdom in the gospel that it does seem to work in real life. So because some parts of it worked sometimes, the fallacy is that the whole thing will work all the time.
That's a problem with the gospel. It has some nice parts, a sugar coated shit.
And when we really needed it to be true and work...it didn't.

The church crossed my line in the sand when they had me act out grusome penalties in the temple ceremony. I didn't resign until roughly ten years later. But I didn't fully believe after that either.

The dark lesson is that anyone will lie to you. Those who had been through the temple before me knew what I was headed in to. Your friends and family will lie to you, not only strangers will lie to you. What a great lesson to learn from an organization that claims to value family and close friendships. The mormon church has zero moral authority.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2016 09:55PM by azsteve.

That TRUTH is a LIE

My ex swallowed the dark lesson, hook-line & song book. He believes that he will end up in the terrestrial kingdom, and his GF will have to travel from the celestial kingdom to see him, because he is stuck on earth and doesn't have travel privileges like you do from the upper realms.

They seriously taught us that! Who came up with that crap????

If he really knew what the church believes, he won't have a penis if he ends up in the telestial or the terrestial kingdom. So let's see how long she continues to visit him instead of staying eternally pregnant in the CK.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2016 10:53PM by azsteve.

Unconditional love is for those non-members who are 'misguided' and trust the bible only: children born into church are only to be loved under conditions of complete obedience to church, then their parents.

"judge not, lest ye be judged" - that's only for non-members too. Members must hold each other to high standards and punish those who do not conform.

Thinking for yourself is evil, ignorance is power, freedom is slavery, war is peace, etc.

When I went through, they were still teaching this. It wasn't the fact that "penalties" were given... but rather the language was, "This are the ways that life can be taken".

Whoa!!!! I wasn't afraid to take some sort of college initiation or "Order of the Arrow" oath (since most are silly). Most saw the penalties as some sort of Mormon Hari-Kari. It was the doctrine/teaching that I may someday be called upon as an Elder to take the life of another Mormon who had broken their oath. I was sincerely afraid that a Stake President could call me up sometime to fulfill and commit a blood atonement on someone I might know (or possibly a relative).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2016 11:41AM by dydimus.

That nothing is as it appears to be...

Wear a chronic smile, but don't laugh.
Don't be too creative or interesting.
Don't wear anything unique or too beautiful.
Be beautiful, but don't acknowledge it.
Be intelligent, but don't acknowledge it.
Don't have a thought of your own. Don't stand up for yourself.
Don't ask questions. Don't be curious.

These are just a few things that were taught. I was a lousy student. I asked way too many questions.

that I can believe something 100% for my whole life, and it might be a lie.

"- Prophet Brigham Young, Messages of the First Presidency, v. 2, p. 239

"Any Latter-day Saint who denounces or opposes whether actively or otherwise, any pan or doctrine advocated by the prophets, seers, revelators of the church, is cultivating the spirit of apostasy. One cannot speak evil of the lord's anointed... and retain the holy spirit in his heart. This sort of game is Satan's favorite pastime, and he has practiced it to believing souls since Adam. He {Satan} wins a great victory when he can get members of the church to speak against their leaders and to do their own thinking."

(source: http://www.mormonthink.com/QUOTES/intellectualism.htm )

So when we think for ourselves, Satan wins a great victory?

This idea did huge mental damage to me personally over many years.

More to the point, it continues to do damage to many members worldwide. It's utter mental poison.

Love the sinner not the sin. They act like this is somehow a loving statement, but really it's so judgmental and plain old mean. My husbands best friend is gay and a couple years ago married his boyfriend. We went to be there for him on his big day and were so excited for him, he was finally truly happy (he served the same mission as my husband and then left the church years later to be true to himself). So we got back from the wedding and some people we were "friends" with from church found out we went to a gay wedding and looked at us like we were crossing some line, then said "well, love the sinner not the sin". That's the last time we have spent any time with them. We were done with the hateful attitudes towards "sinners".

That duty and obedience to church comes before family, friends, loved ones, or any other human being.

To me, that's the darkest of the dark in Mormonism.

Jesus preferred sinners and publicans....and Billy Joel is right. The sinners are much more fun.

Gatorman

If your religion treats you like shit, it is shit.