Posted by:
Breeze
(
)
Date: May 05, 2017 03:28PM
I was also a faithful TBM all my life.
I left for my children. I left to enjoy life and love in the here and now (not after death).
I don't think I ever fully believed all the JS stories. My ancestors were neighbors of JS, and among the earliest Mormons. Some were polygamists. I could never stomach polygamy, either. My ancestors left journals, which I read. There were some real horror stories in there, about JS's marriages to little girls. My own ancestor married his wife's sister (which began my line), but he had to wait until she was 16, but his friend JS married them at 14 and 15. The older sister and her baby died crossing the plains, but the sister survived, and raised all the children. My ancestor was very high up in the church, and he owned some prime land in the City Creek area, but when he died, the Mormon church took that land from his widow. In exchange, the church gave them some useless swamp land. The widow's son became a doctor, and made his way in the world.
The diaries of the high-up Mormon, the younger sister that he married, and the doctor son, stayed with the family. Soon after "consolidation", the Mormon cult tried to get these diaries from our family, but we refused. An old aunt borrowed the diaries, and was persuaded to loan them to the BYU library, to "share with everyone," so she gave them away. My cousin and I tried for months to view these diaries at the Marriott Library, until we finally realized that the cult either destroyed them, or permanently locked them up.
The Mormons had something to hide. I also knew a lot about the polygamous Mormons, that most Mormons didn't know.
Another of my ancestors, on my father's side, died right before the Mormons left to cross the plains. He and his wife had sold their home and everything they owned to buy a good quality covered wagon and team of oxen. The Mormons confiscated all of her equipment, telling her that a woman could not make the journey without a husband. She had 5 children. The Mormons left them at Winter Quarters, and they had to survive in a cave.
Sorry to ramble, but I grew up with these ancestral stories and diaries, so I never believed in Joseph Smith. Our whole family was Mormon, and I believed in Christ, so I stayed in the cult, anyway. What's the harm, right?
Fast forward to Salt Lake City, with me as the ward organist, and also a single divorced working mother. I was marginalized. Because we had no man to protect us, the Mormons tried to take over my position as head of household. We suffered home invasions, my sleeping children being pulled out of their beds, my little girl being molested at a church camp-out, and other abuses.
Final Moments of being a Mormon--at last! My children had been threatened to keep silent about the incidence of abuse. When they finally told me, we cried together, and I said, "We don't ever have to go there again." We all officially resigned together.
Ask yourself this one question: Do you want your children to believe in a hoax cult, support their hatred of gays and women, pay their money, lose their hope, lose their self-esteem, become janitors, and support the criminal behavior of their leader JS?
I left, and took my children away from all that. It's one of the best decisions I ever made. 9 years later, we are happy and successful!