The City Creek mall on the main page was the first thing to catch my eye. I didn't realize the church had such a high level of investments and owned so many companies, real estate, radio stations. If I would have learned of their financial holdings in church I would have wondered how they kept tithing and the corp part separate. I would have wondered where the tithes went and to what purpose all that money is used.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2011 06:02AM by suckafoo.
Yes, that was a ? moment for me too. You cannot find mention of Church investments etc on any of the Church's websites, in any of the Church teaching manuals, seminary, institute, Sacrament talks, Conference talks etc. It's like the Leaders don't want the members to know.
After the first couple of years I left, I still really wanted to know what I missed by not getting the endowments. After reading the various changed temple cermonies, I was SOOOOO glad I never went through them. It sounds like such an anticlimactic disappointment.
Then after I read about the temple "wedding," I knew for sure that I made the right choice to leave when I did.
I read most of the website before I came to the forum. I think I pretty much know all the major truths now, though if I had only heard 10% it would have been enough to destroy my fragile "testimony".
That a Bishop is not the shepherd of the ward, but the dog who chases the sheep into a the circle.
That the church hurts families and and creates feelings of self-loathing.
That men are not called to be in leadership because of their real spirituality , but that they are called due to their obedience and tithes. And that they are not actually inspired any further than their own creativity and prejudices.
That the spirit of discernment is not a replacement for your own reasoning skills and that by relying upon it you will lose your ability to make confident decisions.
That the witness of the spirit whether real or imaginary is universal and that no one church can claim sole ownership.
That the "spirit" can be manufactured by manipulating the environment and personal use of body language.
And I wish that I had known up front that the actual words of four of the prophets listed in my Line of Authority would destroy my testimony of the church.
But from my perspective, the overriding thing learnt here is the degree of lying, obfuscation, prevarication, hiding away, revising, and re-writing of Mormon history and origins. It became obvious and demonstrable that Mormonism depends on a foundation of lies, and that was the most valuable thing I found on RfM.
I learned that my whole life in the church I was being told what color the emperor's clothes were, how soft and luxurious the material was, and perfectly they fit.
Yet every time the emperor was trotted out so we could see his clothing people would jump in front of me and wave their arms and try to distract my attention, and the harder I tried to see around them at the emperor's clothes the more crowded they became. Then when the emperor was back inside his palace everyone who distracted me would try to tell me how awesome the emperor's outfit was, only they all had different descriptions of it. When pressed they would all agree that at least "he was wearing something."
Finally, the last time the emperor came outside I was ready. When those clowns tried to jump in front of me to distract me I simply jumped in my car and ran them over. Then I saw what I had known all along: the emperor had no clothes.
This is all a metaphor for the plan of salvation:
It's a pyramid scheme. That's it. It's very easy to see as long as you're not distracted by bullshit like callings, deep doctrines, temple visits, gossip, home teaching, and the million other things they throw at you to distract you from the fact that you're engaged in the largest pyramid scheme ever devised.
To me it doesn't matter if the church is true or not. It's still bullshit. It's just icing on the cake that it turns out it's all made-up after all.
that anti mormon is just a mormonism for 'someone who learned the truth about mormonism and is courageous enuf to follow it'
that native americans are asian not hebrew- they've known that for years already before i found out about that 'tiny' fact.
that joe smith wasn't some spiritual dude. he deserved to be in jail and he wasn't 'persecuted' but had to run away to save his sorry ass when he tried to swindle people -peepstoning and more especially the kirtland bank stuff.
b. young was an asshole and murderer, not a prophet and spiritual giant. he made sure he came out on top.