Posted by:
Life #5
(
)
Date: July 07, 2018 03:14AM
I felt like I did that to my innocent children. Fortunately they knew I loved them, and they had the courage to tell me about ongoing Mormon abuse, which the leaders had ordered them NOT to tell me, on the threat of ostracism and hate from their Mormon peers. It was a jolt of a wake-up call! We all quit going, and never looked back. Still, I have trouble forgiving myself. My children have forgiven me, though.
We all have done this to ourselves! For whatever reason, we have stayed in that cult, for however long, and paid out our money, and wasted our time, and pretended to believe, and pretended we were helping others, and pretended the cult was OK, when it was not OK at all.
I feel worse for having been prejudiced, racist, and sexist, until I was old enough to know better.
Don't accept the blame for other people's failures. You weren't there to monitor the rest of these people's lives. Other factors could have made them unhappy, too.
You were given false information, from a lying cult. You were brainwashed to believe that you could control others. You were trained to be arrogant in your recruiting power. No, you didn't have enough power over these people to force them into an evil cult. It wasn't you, as much as it was the Mormon lies they bought into. The Mormon advertising, Mormon propaganda and literature, and the Mormon missionaries, who are professionally trained in sophisticated manipulative techniques and dialogs. Mormons tell the members that they have the power to change lives--but you didn't have all that power. For example, the power of prayer, and the power of the priesthood is all bogus!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Just because you introduced them to the cult, and encouraged them, doesn't make you responsible for them joining, and making all their mistakes.
Get rid of your guilt. Guilt is one of the Mormon cult's greatest weapons. You might feel better if you contact the people from the '90's. You might discover that they have left the cult on their own. The Mormon cult has a very high dropout rate.
I know of missionaries on this board who have called their converts and apologized to them. Do whatever you need to do to feel better.