Posted by:
jessica
(
)
Date: January 29, 2012 04:16AM
Since this poster seems to read here so much, I'd like to comment on his post---
"all of those folks follow a similar pattern.
they start out questioning something(questions are good) which leads down to two things. one they find something usually something obsecure to doubt themselves. then suddenly they doubt whatever made them join the church to begin with. alot of times these are return missionary stories on there. i served a great wonderful mission and had a blast. my testimony is great.
they then consult quite often google seemingly unaware of how anti mormon the world is an confirm there doubts. they are confirmed though really cause they are looking for an excuse for their doubts to be true. the odd thing is here is where they start to realize i never had a testimony not once yet i still did all this stuff....first this is highly illogical. secondly why would you continue going to a church for 30 years and not believe it? the level of stupidity starts getting high from here on out.
now here is where it varies a little
depending if the person in question has a highly populated LDS family or if they are a loner. if they are a highly populated family they now struggle with the family betrayal issue. if they are a loner they now dont want to look back at their families that gave them the finger for joining in the first place.
now a few things happen.
1. if they are temple endowed as usually the case in these stories...the level of guilt these people express is downright alarming and staggering. seriously these people get torn up over having to get rid of the garments. they really get eaten alive. this is straight on the The Holy Ghost smacking them across the head for being idiots.
2. they become conflicted on how to stop going to church....seriously they get torn up over this.
3. if the person is married or has kids....oh man hell is about to be unleashed.
the end result is usually an angry person that is bitter at the church because they went to church for 30+ years of their own free will. they are divorced usually over this random doubt they had one day. family members hate them. and quite a few dont stop wearing temple garments for a good year or two after they become completely inactive. they then post on that website and act like completely angry bitter people and make it their life's mission to topple the church.
these people then start smoking drinking and participating in all manner of sexual perversions and sexual sin. its quite an interesting fall from grace but more or less every story on exmormon.org follows this exact format.
you will of course find a number of stories of people claiming to tell off bishops and stake presidents in excommunication meetings. there is no evidence they did or didnt do this. but given how guilt stricken many of them are in these stories i suspect it is the total opposite. i suspect the bishops and stake presidents hit them where it hurts. and they are now angry internet bloggers.
the end result is a bitter now smoker alcoholic with a mission to kill the church.
also ive never seen one happy post there. not one single happy person posting there. not one. the irony here is of course some will then profess other christian religions as the one and completely overlook the flaws in those in religions and not even bother to fact check them. why? they can drink smoke and buy hookers with no punishment.(no offense intended to other religions just stating the frame of mind of the people on exmormon.org)"
I'm not a smoker or an alcoholic and the only sexual perversions I do are with my spouse (don't worry we aren't into anything weird, we just go beyond the missionary position). I read quite a bit, and I've read some interesting and very true things about the LDS church--I didn't have a little doubt that I verified online, I had many doubts and LDS websites were my first stop in the information highway. I was not justifying anything, just wanted to know what was true. There are many obscure historical things about the church that don't make sense and everyone is a little different in how they react to them depending on whether or not they knew about it beforehand or not ie: polygamy. But for me, I knew a lot of that already what got me was the Book of Abraham, good video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcyzkd_m6KEAnd the multiple versions of the first vision:
http://www.mormonthink.com/firstvisionweb.htmI do not think those two events are obscure at all..in fact to me they are HUGE parts of the gospel I once believed. Yes I did have a testimony of the gospel at one point, and yes that is why I continued to go for 30+ years, I wanted it to be true. I believed Joseph Smith was a prophet..but the more I read the more I knew he was not. You can't make every decision in your life based on emotion and that Holy Ghost burning feeling is not unique to Mormonism.
Yesterday I got rid of my garments after years of not wearing them, this is not the Holy Ghost smacking me for being an idiot or if it was it was because it was because I believed it all to begin with. It is hard to let go of something you truly believed in and then found out was untrue. Your eternal family is on the line until you realize the restoration of the priesthood is all a fake too. Imagine wondering if your marriage really mattered at all being married in the temple--those garments are so tied to family and family connections that it is hard to admit, we would be a good family anyway without the temple, which is actually the truth. I am married and have kids but all hell has not broken lose--some families break up, mine has not and will not.
I am not angry or bitter at the church--I was in the beginning of this process though I will admit, but more than anything I was angry at myself--angry I fell for it for so long, bitter at my parents for raising me to believe such nonsense, but now I am at peace--and here is the happy post you never seem to see--I love the freedom to make my own decisions, I love that there are greys in this world and I know that I will not turn out to be an alcoholic, smoking, hooker paying member of society because I left the Mormon church which your black and white view supports. I know I am a good person with a moral compass, and I have a broader view of humanity in general now.
I don't know if other religions are true or not, I don't know if God exists or not..but I am ok with who I am and I am ok with who my husband is, and I love my family. I don't come here to tear down the church, I come here because finally for once in my life there are people I can talk to who are going through the same things, who don't tell me to go pray and read the scriptures to get my answer. What you and the original poster are having trouble stomaching here at Rfm is the anger, I still have a hard time with it too, the horror stories here such as abuse and families breaking up are horrifying and those going through them have every right to be angry, they seem to get the most responses too, imagine that, support for people who need it. But stay here awhile and you will see the happy stories too..people like me who are not bitter or angry anymore..who are at peace with their lives and willing to look beyond themselves and help others.