For those of you who are trying to get your family out of the clutches of their church I suggest you take them to a few places and explain some of the oddities of their religion. I recently did this and here are some of the things that I was able to teach my children and wife. Without the context of being at the places themselves I would never had had a chance to spew these lies and half truths.

Indepence, is the site of the Garden of Eden, the Church of Christ Temple Lot felt it was important to go and buy the land for the temple, the Community of Christ (RLDS) felt they should fight the Church of Christ for it, the LDS did jack.

Liberty, Joseph was imprisoned because of the surrender terms for the Mormon War, that he had been tried and convicted in a court marshal and was waiting trial for murder and other things when he escaped. (The missionaries believed that they were allowed to escape so as to avoid a trial that the state couldn't win)

Far West, another site where there was a temple dedicated and never built.

Adam-ondi-Ahman, another temple site, as well as the site of Adam's house before he died. At this point two of my children were in full revolt against my wife because the cradle of civilization is not in America but in Africa. It's good to know that even in Utah they still learn something in school

Nauvoo, this was a real eye opener for my kids and wife, number one we had a long conversation about how the Community of Christ owns the Joseph Smith buildings because they belonged to Joseph and Emma, not the LDS church. We talked about this being one of the reasons for Emma and Brigham hating each other. We talked about the origin of the RLDS church as well as the reasons for it taking so long for it to be established, after Joseph and Hyrum were killed,

Carthage, even my wife was tired of the faith promoting bull shit at this point and point blank asked the missionary if Joseph Smith really had a gun (something she and I have never talked about). The missionary got real quite and gave her testimony about Joseph being the prophet.

Winter Quarters, interesting as it seems this place did more to shake the faith of my wife than any other place. Again the missionaries didn't say this, but I got the chance to explain that Brigham bargained for the right to build on "Indian land" with the government. Brigham got the land in exchange for the Mormon Battalion.

I came away from the experience thinking that the Mormons were Bat Shit Crazy, my wife came away thinking that Brigham was an Ass Hole, and my kids came away thinking that Joseph Smith doesn't know anything about real history. All in all a very hot long and fruitful trip.

I so badly want you to be my neighbor who just took his family on a church history trip. I know the chances are pretty slim, but let me hold onto the fantasy for a bit. It would be so cool to have another like mined person to hang with.

Stunted

My real name is Nate, I to hope for a neighbor that I can watch football with while the family is at church.

What a great idea, take the family on a "faith promoting" trip and share the historical information you know....the REAL information, not the whitewashed versions the church wants everyone to swallow whole heartedly.