I heard awful news a few days ago that a friend of mine who was a BIC, TBM committed suicide. I was a member of the church for a while and when I left a few years ago, i remember my friend saying the church brought her peace. However, there was something about the way she said it that didn't quite sit well with me. I asked her how she knew if there were billions of other galaxies with the potential for other life out there... would they also believe TSCC was true? She nodded and eyed the glass of iced tea I was drinking. I still remember that odd, awkward conversation five years later.
My friend was quite an accomplished woman... in fact, she sacrificed having a family for her career. She married later in life and did not have her own children. I knew the church frowned on that.
I suspect her bookshelf came crashing down and in the middle of this pandemic, it may have hit her harder. I know that the church was her life.
And now, the world lost a really good woman... an accomplished lady with a kind, compassionate heart and wealth of knowledge. She was a brilliant, brilliant woman.
I am sad and partly mad at the church. I want to blame them... but this is me coming from a place of pain and sadness.

I will blame them for you. Utah doesn’t have an epidemic of suicides for no reason. They promise you a better life in the hereafter. But what about now? Your friend was robbed of her birthright. I’ll do my best Charlton Heston: “Damn them to Hell.”

I am sorry to hear that terrible story. I suspect that your explanation is right, more or less, and that this is another of those cases of abuse that will never show up in statistics about the harm the church causes.

Very sad. My cousin was a church member and believer right up to the day he hanged himself in his tool shed. He habitually used cannabis, which is now legal in our state, and I believe he hated himself for that. He told me it was wrong all the time. It's possible, knowing him as well as I did, that he was naturally asexual, and that bothered him too. He was absolutely unable to maintain a relationship with a woman, and he was an attractive guy. He looked like Jan Michael Vincent, and he had several girlfriends, every one of whom he pushed away. He said he wanted a wife and kids. Who put all these thoughts in his head? His father and other Mormons.

JAMES E. TALMADGE USED CANNABIS. NOT MUCH, BUT HE DID EXPERIMENT. AND HE TURNED OUT OKAY!!!!!

I'm so sorry about your friend.

Thank you.

My tbm friend died on a south american mission of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The official position is the usual Christian one: suicide is murder. But in recent decades some church leaders have suggested that people cannot understand the pain of the person who kills himself and that God will be merciful, whatever that means.

I attempted it at 13 partly due to issues that all 13 year olds go through, partly because I'm gay and the fam didn't care for that (except Uncle Howard - he was a pedo), partly due to the pedo, but mostly due to the mormon church, what was told to me at church about homosexuality and how it's EVIL and so forth.

My cousin managed to complete his suicide at age 52.

I've come close to thinking about it a few times since I was 13, but have snapped myself out of it.

The mormon church is a bad, bad organization filled with well intentioned but misguided people who say the most hurtful, awful things TRYING to be nice.

Mormonism works for some people, but for others it can be a bad, dark place.

I'm sorry that your friend died. I think the pandemic has worsened issues that people were already dealing with.

A friend of mine also said that the church brings her peace. When she said that, I thought it had a hollow ring to it, like it was some sort of Mormon catch phrase, and not something that genuinely reflected her thoughts.

I am very sorry about your friend. No matter what the person was like, no matter the religion, etc, its always so sad when someone commits suicide.


Having lost a friend to it, I understand how difficult it is.

I'm sorry for your loss. About the Mormonism angle this is my take - Mormonism enhances life's struggles for the many for whom its regime, rules, and rituals are undesirable.

They attempt to force the entirety of humanity into square eternal holes which are claustrophobic mental spaces for many many people. They even catalogue and organize the dead into their perfect little square holes of the holy.

Life is greater than Mormonism and it always will be.

Thank you for the kind words of support.
Now that a day has passed, I can say that I definitely blame the church. Elder Berry, you hit the nail on the head when you said that TSCC attempts to force others in small square eternal holes... and how messed up is it that they even categorize the dead?
I hope more people wake up to the fact that this is a fraudulent corporation and nothing more than a Jonestown cult where their leader has not yet told them to drink the koolaid. It's coming, though.
Their numbers are shrinking despite how many lies they spin. Their time will come too. A lot of blood is on their hands and if there is one thing I believe in, it is karma.

Unfortunately they believe that blood on their hands is justified by their beliefs. Amazing isn't it? If I knew that what I believed could hurt someone else dearly, I would try to mitigate it for them. I would continue believing but try to accommodate the others around me out of love for people. They do the opposite. They trumpet their beliefs and think by cajoling people into taking their beliefs that they are doing something good.

It is almost gaslighting and often is when dealing with believers since that is a way they hold their beliefs up damn what others believe.

Respect for individuality in people isn't seen as a good thing. Unconditional love is a rare stone in the quarry of humanity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2020 05:31PM by Elder Berry.