If you’re ever confronted with the “you can leave the church, but you can’t leave it alone” nonsense, consider the following analogy:

Suppose you needed to have your roof replaced due to storm damage. You are approached by representatives of a roofing company that enthusiastically claims to be superior to all others. You agree to contract them for the work, but soon after the roof starts to leak. An inspection reveals improper installation and substandard materials. Don’t you think the right thing to do is to warn others?

It’s even scriptural. D&C 88:81 Behold, I sent you out to testily and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.

I can imagine a conversation with this fictional roofing company.

Your motto is “best materials, best workmanship.”
-that’s just a couplet.

Your website claims an A+ rating with the BBB.
-I don’t know that we teach that.

I just had a falling out with my very long-time friend. I posted about it. They won't leave me alone. Resigning doesn't stop the insanity. The neighbors invite me to church activities. I didn't like going to church activities when I was very active mormon. My husband would force me to!! I'm not social. People like me, but I prefer to not be around a lot of people.

But my friend made the comment that "we just want to share this religion we love so that you can be as happy as we are." She knew me in my DEVOUT years and even if she watched what happened in my life, she still thinks I should want to be bothered by a bunch of people who think they have a "better way?" I've done that "better way"--it isn't better.

So if they'd leave us alone, we sure would leave them alone.

"we just want to share this religion we love..."

The religion is Christianity, the sect is Mo'ism. So that's a giveaway right there.....

Here's a church that's obsessed, infatuated and makes no bones about stalking its members to return. The church can not get over the idea that people leave and are CONTENT to do so.

Clearly, it's the church that can't leave the ex-members alone.

That's just right.

The church says we leave the church but can't leave it alone, and yet they are the ones constantly pestering us.

messygoop Wrote:
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> Here's a church that's obsessed, infatuated and makes no bones about stalking its members ...Clearly, it's the church that can't leave the ex-members alone.

Ha! You’ve got it!!!

What made you so offended?
/s

Personally, I don't bring up the subject about the church unless another mormon does.
It really isn't that difficult, because we all know they can't go 5 minutes without saying something about it.
Then, when it happens, slam bam... there you go,
Usually they respond, I don't really want to talk about this.
My response to that? You brought it up.

DHS PSA applicable here. "If you see something, SAY something!"

My TBM family can't go a minute without talking about the church or the 'lord'.

nolongerangry Wrote:
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> My TBM family can't go a minute without talking about the church or the 'lord'.

They have nothing else in their lives, probably. No fun movies or books, only look at LDS stuff on the net. Nothing else to talk about.

mel Wrote:
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> nolongerangry Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My TBM family can't go a minute without talking
> about the church or the 'lord'.
>
> They have nothing else in their lives, probably.
> No fun movies or books, only look at LDS stuff on
> the net. Nothing else to talk about.

This is so true. Probably among other TBM diehards as well. It is really sad that they are missing out of things.

nolongerangry wrote,
>
> This is so true. Probably among other TBM diehards as well. It is really sad that they are missing out of things.

Yes. I met some smart people in my time inside and wondered how they could limit their interests so much that they knew about nothing except LDS crap and only the minimum needed for their job. I just couldn’t imagine only reading that stuff, vacation in nauvoo, tv time only on the Mormon channel. Ack!!!

how much Mormons like couplets, that little saying never made much sense to me.

I know that when they say it they're implying that when a person has discovered that they were lied to and tricked into spending years doing things that they wouldn't otherwise have done (e.g. tithing, temple work, church attendance, church busy work, etc.) if they had known the truth, that person's only response should be to quietly walk away and never talk about the experience to anyone else...as though they had signed a valid and binding non-disclosure agreement with the Mormon church.

It's ridiculous for Mormons to think that it would be natural, normal or morally imperative for ex-Mormons to subsequently never spend any significant time focusing on or talking about an organization that had, by design and with full intention, inserted itself into every waking moment of their lives for years or even decades.

What if you went to a heavily advertised and promoted amusement park, paid a hefty admission fee and then once inside found it to be a hellish experience. You waited in lines for hours to get on rides that turned out to be crap and nothing like the rides depicted in the brochures. The "Thrilling White Water" adventure turned out to be nothing but a guy throwing a bucket of water on you as you go down an ordinary playground-sized slippery slide. The "Wild Jungle Adventure" turned out to be two of the amusement park owner's cousins wearing plastic lion masks and making growling sounds. Then you injure yourself when you step on broken glass, which turns out to be everywhere because the park managers expect the guests to do all the cleaning. (It's in the fine print of the ticket, which claims that the guest is getting a "huge discount" on the admission ticket in exchange for the guest agreeing to spend an hour cleaning the restrooms and tidying up the grounds.)

Then when you finally get out of there, you write a scathingly negative review, warning others not to waste their money because the amusement park is crap and doesn't even come close to living up to the hyped-up marketing materials it puts out.

The management of the park responds by saying: "Well, it looks like some people can leave the park, but they just can't leave the park alone." Uhh, yeah...so what? Why should they have to leave it alone?

Anyone who thinks they are defending the Church by using some "you can leave the church, but you can’t leave it alone" rubbish excuse is what I call a dishonest TB[long] and they are part of why I post online as I do. Its really easy for people to figure out that they aren't being honest when they try such an approach. Then people will be more likely to ask "how can they possibly be a True Church (i.e. one that is honest and transparent) if they are being deceitful like this" and then such people will start to have doubts about whether the Church is really true and start wondering if it might be some silly dangerous cult or something else besides a true Church. The only way we can be apologetic is to just simply be completely honest. If we truly have faith in Heavenly Father then we can certainly presume that if He could create worlds without number that he could easily overcome a little bit of anti-[long] literature. The only reason to use dishonest tactics is if we don't have faith or we think God is a wimpy God.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

My response would be in reference to their 50,000+ missionaries.

But it is totally unreasonable to expect that those of us who were "active" and believing Mormons for most of our lives (doing all that entails), and then find out that the church is not what we thought, that we would walk away without looking back.

iris Wrote:
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> But it is totally unreasonable to expect that
> those of us who were "active" and believing
> Mormons for most of our lives (doing all that
> entails), and then find out that the church is not
> what we thought, that we would walk away without
> looking back.

Yes. We own our history. It is ours. The church doesn't get to take it away because they don't like who we are.

I don't have any trouble leaving the church alone.

Still, I have what used to be called my Vising Teacher--a very good friend, with whom we never talk church talk.

I am not allowed a Home Teacher, as I am a widow now, and so they cannot come and visit me.

A couple of times male missionaries have dropped by, but when that has happened I sit on the porch and chat with them for a few minutes. Poor boys--they have nothing else to do!

Even so, I've discouraged them leaving me with a verbal message.

Is the Hill Camera still a shrine?

It reminds me of the movie Star Wars, where one of the characters encourages other characters to "Move along, move along, there's nothing to see here".