to do what most of us only dreamed of, namely, got up in Sacrament Mtg, Stake Conference, Mission Conference, whatever, and said in essence "I'm done with the BS. I resign!"
It's not about b@lls. It's about social suicide. In UT where I live, if I were to get up in sac mtg and say its all BS! I resign! I would turn myself into a leper or parriah if you will. Word would travel fast and things in my life and career would be jeopardized. For people like me in my community, its simply easier to just stop attending church. Everyone just assumes your a "good guy" who is less active.
and face them anyway? Hell, we live in a 95% lds community here in Utah Valley and we knew that when we left we would be commiting social suicide. We knew our character would be questioned, our kids would be isolated, we would have to find a new group of people to socialize with. We knew all that and more and it all turned out about as we expected and had seen it happen many times before. And life is beautiful by the way.
But we didn't do the epic resignation where we stood up and announced to the world it was all bs.
There was one I watched on youtube that was a sacrament meeting resignation. It looked pretty authentic. It was several months ago so I don't have the link. Sorry.
I clicked on it to check it out, only to find that it has been yanked.
The note on the YouTube page says, "This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube's Terms of Service." Riiight...
Anyway, I saw the original video back when. The young man took a very respectful approach throughout his talk. He first mentioned the things he had appreciated about the church and bore his testimony about Christ. Then he matter-of-factly begin to list the reasons why he had to leave the church. It was as he got into this part that the bishop turned off the microphone.
Can't have facts reaching the ears of the sheeple!
We knew we were leaving the church and we picked the time and the place. No one knew of our intentions. We still attended meetings although we did not permit our 3 year old daughter to attend Junior Sunday School. Took a little flack for that but nothing to tip our hand that we were leaving the Church.
We were living in Germany attending the military ward and knew we would be returning to the States. Our plan was to never attend again when we got States side and so we never asked to have our records forwarded. We just walked away. We left no forwarding address. That was 1978. It was probably a lot easier for us since we were both converts and had no Mormon family. Years later we did have our names removed.
Well, one Sunday the Bishop stopped us and asked us to be the speakers at Sacrament Meeting the next week. We asked him if he had a specific topic and he said no and that we could speak on whatever we wanted.
When we got home my husband and I looked at each other and said do we dare say what we really want to. We agreed to do it.
We upset them the minute they announced Brother and Sister ______ as the speakers. They expected me to speak first and my husband got up first and a few heads turned but nothing was done/said. His talk was more like a 2 1/2 min talk and he read a poem about I am black, and I am white, etc. It was all about everyone is equal. Can't remember the title now but he read it and sat down. The only remote thing he said that was Mormon was "inthenameofjesuschristamen" LOL.
Then I got up and spoke for about 40 minutes. I started with my conversion story and how I met the missionaries when I was a student nurse in Canada. They didn't ask me I asked them to tell me about their church. I became one of the Golden Contacts. *sigh*. I shared how when I met the missionaries and thought what a coincidence that they were both from the western United States and they both had the same first name Elder. I talked about how surprised I was to learn that there was a living prophet on the earth and asked if he was in Jerusalem? When they said SLC I asked, where is that? I've never heard of it. I had their full attention through conversion, moving to "ZION", going to the temple, working at Primary Children's Hospital, meeting the love of my life and the birth of our daughter.
Then I dropped the bomb. Of course I said I was speaking for me Helen. I was not speaking for the Church. I went on to talk about the problems I had with the Church from men HAVING to wear white shirts, to Home Teachers showing up at the end of the month. I can't even remember all I said but if I must say so it was good and I maintained "my sweet spirit" through it all {I always hated that term, "sweet spirit" }
I said, "Do you really think Jesus cares if a man wears a white shirt? He wore a long robe and sandals. When our home teachers show up the end of the month they are not there because they care about us; they are there to fill in a square on a report. Well, I don't want them coming if all we are is a number and a statistic. I also said I don't have a testimony of the Church or of Jesus Christ. I can tell you all kinds of things that are taught in the Church, I can tell you a lot of things that have been said about Jesus Christ but I don't KNOW anything and I do not have a testimony.
Of course the minute I dropped the bomb some wouldn't look at me anymore and some women picked up their babies and went outside the chapel. I intentionally made eye contact with the congregation and when I felt scared I'd look at my husband and kept going.
We were shocked that the Bishop didn't end the meeting when I dropped the bomb of my Un-testimony.
And true to form after the meeting some members came up to me and asked, "Did I offend you?" My response was, "Didn't you listen to what I said? I said I do not have a testimony of this Church." I wasn't talking about individuals in the Church. I was talking about doctrine, policies, and practices that trouble me.
When they started dragging their feet on my resignation, I started calling around and being obnoxious. When I called Greg Dodge's office I asked if they could send my final letter on some sort of bond or parchment paper suitable for framing. The guy I talked to harumphed.
Makurosu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > When they started dragging their feet on my > resignation, I started calling around and being > obnoxious. When I called Greg Dodge's office I > asked if they could send my final letter on some > sort of bond or parchment paper suitable for > framing. The guy I talked to harumphed.
(majorlulz!) now THIS sounds like a business proposition to me