OK, I don't want to hijack your thread, but here goes: just today I realized what my particular tack will be when the inevitable conversation comes up between my brother and me; at first I thought was just to come straight out and tell him "that there's no other way to say it, but you're in a cult."
But then I remembered the advice I gave to someone who was planning on getting up at F&T and quit the church--"start with something positive and then work your real message in after you gotten their approval".
So, while this may not work for you, I have decided to start out with a nice mention of the Temple Square visit my brother offered us, and that after that I stayed up late for many nights really looking into the church, and reading up JS and the "prophets"....then I will start work in the fact that the BoM was unreadable *and* had the same mistakes as the KJV + Isaiah, so that I just couldn't fulfill Moroni's promise, and that the study of church history (not even anti-) and looking at D&C (132 of course) led me to discover that it all must be scam, no matter good work they do. I'll also mention that I tried to follow along with GC, but the constant pablum & talk of obedience and tithing made it so cult-like I had to conclude that he does, indeed, belong to a cult--albeit a big, successful cult. And how could he have any integrity if he doesn't realize it?
That's my plan, tell him I tried, and studied, and pondered, and prayed, but there's no way Jesus and God came down to talk with JS or inspire a racist like BY: it is all a scam.
We can't force a one-month old to walk and we can't force a TBM to openly examine their religious beliefs. They have to be in a mindset to finally see relalty.
That's exactly where I am with my wife. I seriously doubt she'll ever be in the mindset to examine and investigate her beliefs. Her fallback position is always "I gained a sure witness and testimony." End of story.
I was a TBM who followed the trail of evidence to its only real logical conclusion, it is a fraud. There is no excuse. Mormonism is justa euphamism for White Supremacists who worship a rapist.
OfCourseItsTrue, I'm assuming that you went through the temple before 1990, just like I did. Remember the death penalties? The men who committed the murders in the MMM pantomimed those same penalties right after the murders. Agreeing to allow someone to murder you or willingly commit suicide if you spill the beans sounds an awful lot like the mafia to me; total opposite of what Christ taught. D&C 132 was thought up by JS to shut Emma up and keep her in her place so that he could go about his merry way with any female he wanted. Not to mention so many other things, this organization screams "cult"! A very profitable cult,at that.
Like OfCourseItsTrue, My elderly Mother now knows most of the ugly facts of Mormonism. She knows the BoM is a faulty mess at best. She sees Oaks for what he is. But she wants the Mormon's church to be true so badly that she overlooks anything and everything and uses the Mormon crutch that "all will be explained in the afterlife." What a cop out.
You do have to want to know truth more than you want the Mormon church to be true. It takes guts and integrity like what you find plenty of here at RFM. There is a tipping point to knowledge about Mormonism and if you can pass that point and still cling to the church then the issue goes to character.
I give my mother a pass because at 91 the last thing she needs to know is that what mattered most to her was a lie.