Posted by:
exminion
(
)
Date: June 09, 2018 08:34PM
I know just how you feel, jett.
I don't have enough pages to describe the abuse and torture that the Mormons and their cult perpetrated against me and my children--and we were always faithful, good people. I think our experiences were worse than usual.
One thing I needed to cut out of my life--like a malignant tumor--was a temple marriage to a wife-beater, who almost killed me. I got a civil divorce, but I and my family were physically threatened and stalked. I was afraid for all of us. The military took him away (his own family had disowned him for beating his brother and sisters), and he quickly found another TBM victim, who was as trusting and inexperienced as I had been, and he became obsessed with beating her to a pulp, instead of me. I tried for 20 years, to get a temple divorce, and the leaders would promise to look into it...promise to ask higher-up church leaders...when the leadership would change, the new leaders would try...yes, my hairdresser got a temple divorce, but her father was best friends with GBH...no, no woman could ever get a temple divorce...yes, my ex's second temple wife, and his third temple wife divorced him for extreme physical violence, too...oh, but this thug is still a "member in good standing" and is going to the Mormon singles dances looking for his fourth polygamous temple wife. He's two-up on Russell Nelson!
Anyway, you can imagine by my rant that I have a compelling reason to END my temple sealing and any connection whatsoever with the Mormon cult. My temple sealing includes my own children, born with my second husband several years later--the temple thug claims those as his eternal possessions.
It is becoming "eternal", because there is no hope.
I resigned officially in a letter, in which I quoted the cult's own "Handbook of Instructions" that ALL temple "blessings" are withdrawn! For example, if a resigned or ex-ed Mormon wants to re-join, they have to repeat each ritual, from the ground up, starting with baptism, as if starting over. If your records are still "in tact", then why does the cult need you to repeat all of this?
I quoted several officiators, one at my own temple wedding, who say in their temple wedding ceremony, "If both or one of you fails to live up to the commandments, your marriage is null and void! One of the commandments is "Thou shalt not kill", and my ex tried to kill me. Also, there's lying and cheating, and stealing, and breaking civil marriage covenants of loving and cherishing (the last two are not temple covenants).
If you are renouncing the Mormon religion, then your baptism and other covenants are null and void. I made it clear in writing (with copies) that my minor children and I have nothing to do with the Mormon church, or its temple rituals, and it is all a hoax, perpetrated to get money. Joseph Smith was nothing but a con-man. You will find your own words, and create your own beautiful letter. Send it to the COB!
I have ex-Mormon friends who resign again, every year, in that mass resignation at Ensign Peak, SLC.
Yes--it is all fake. It is all arbitrary, stacked against you. It is stacked in favor of the cult getting your money and your children.
You have a RIGHT--it is a human-rights issue--to declare yourself not a member of this cult! My simply declaring it, it is so, by rights. With all other churches, you just walk out the door, and not come back. No resignation is required, even if you have been baptized.
I thought it might help to have myself baptized into another church, and it did, a little, but it's all such a crazy-making mind game. I still believed in Christ, and during my baptism, I silently prayed away any connection with the "evil cult of Mormonism." Baptism into another religion helped my son, who, when approached by missionaries, simply says, "I'm Lutheran." and slams the door. It helps him put the name of another religion on hospital and doctors' forms, etc.
I don't want to belong to any church, though.
Finally, what helped the most was for me to get rid of the Mormon brainwashing. I still had fear, and superstitions, perfectionism, and low self-esteem, to get rid of. I went to a psychiatrist, thinking I was depressed, but he diagnosed me with PTSD (the abuse had been extreme), like Veterans have. It was all tied together, and it wasn't until I officially resigned, that I finally started to flush Mormonism out of my life. The day I walked out of the Mormon church building for good, all of my so-called depression vanished, and has not returned.
You are still better off than you were, right?
Sorry to ramble, but all these things worked, for me, and I really did have to work at it. Instead of "cutting out a tumor", I decided that the Mormon ugliness could be replaced, with other things. I forgot the memorized Mormon fake scriptures, and remembered quotes from Shakespeare, poems, Bible quotes, factual information, Spanish and Swedish vocabulary words. Happy thoughts replaced the Mormon negativity. Sounds overly simple, but that's how the memory works, by the "extinction" of thoughts. I got rid of all Mormon music, Mormon publications, Mormon clothes, anything at all Mormon, even Mormon recipes.
It was like I had given my life an enema!
It was all that I had the power to do, but along the way, I got busier and more involved with my family and career, found new hobbies, worked on old and new relationships, and, after several years (be patient) I can see that cult in the rear view mirror, appearing smaller.