Posted by:
summer
(
)
Date: August 10, 2018 06:52PM
IMO the hatred, when it happens, tends to be temporary. It can happen when exmos first discover that they've been systematically lied to, and compelled to give excessive amounts of time and money to a largely ungrateful church.
If you take a walk through the archives, you will see lots and lots of board members who don't post here anymore, or who just swing by on occasion to say hello. Those board members have recovered and moved on. They are living their lives. (Some board members stay here for the companionship and understanding, and to give support to others.)
I believe that churches should help and support their members, and not treat them like errant children or slaves. Churches should be for the members, not the other way around. Where religious leaders work in support of positive virtues (love, kindness, tolerance, humility, real charity, etc.) I will be generally supportive of those faiths. Where church leaders are controlling, demanding, demeaning, overly authoritarian, close minded, intolerant, and full of hubris, I will call them out. People deserve better than that. People deserve to be supported. They deserve to be treated in a loving manner by those who are supposedly more spiritual and enlightened than themselves.
If my friends who are Mormon feel that their faith supports them and gives them peace, then so be it. But if they are merely in church only because of obligation, then I will encourage them to question that. There are too many Mormons who are in church each Sunday only because they feel it is expected of them. Their frequent perusal of their electronic devices while in church tells the tale. How many people pull out a cell phone while at a concert, or at a fine restaurant, or out on a beautiful hike, or at the beach, except to take a joyful photo to say, "I'm here! I'm happy and enjoying life."