After reading all of these threads today about bishops or Stake Presidents visiting, I've been thinking about what I would say or do if I was to be confronted. I guess it's good at least to arm myself and be prepared if it ever happens. I'm in far outside of Utah so it wouldn't be quite as likely for me to run into the bishop at the gas station, but there are still 7 wards in my town of 300,000 so it's possible.

I don't have much desire to resign officially, I'm happy enough to be inactive, but I have decided that if they were to ever try to punish me or call me into a disciplinary council, I'd resign immediately.

But I'm curious, for those of you who haven't been into one of those showdown meetings, what would you say if confronted by the Bish or SP about your inactivity?

I lived my fantasy. Told the sp to go to hell. Told the bishop to quit trying to find something wrong with me so he could feel better about himself. Then I resigned.

If they climb the 6 foot fence to make it to my front door, I probably won't be so kind.

I've also lived the fantasy, and I was in my PJ's to boot!

I kept my cool, and made my points. Though, if I could do it over again I would have brought up the BoA and polyandry. (I mostly focused on my newfound atheism, and he wasn't getting it)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2012 08:19PM by archytas.

Serious question:

If it ever happened what should be my ace in the hole? What issue is the strongest to lead off with? I was an excellent bible bashed on my mission, but I had 20 years of prep. I only have 6 months in this side.

Personally, I think the more knowledge the better, and the more areas the better. The old moniker: knowledge is power.

Mormonism is weak in a lot of areas from history to linguistics to genetics.

I guess the best stuff would that which you can explain in a short amount of time, and that which is backed by church-trusted sources (which makes the material harder to question by a tbm).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2012 08:46PM by archytas.

aka the Place Where Testimonies Go to Die.

seriously, if you were in possession of an actually artifact that proves the veracity of kolobianism, wouldn't you have it on display?

Hell, wouldn't you send it on a world wide tour to all the important museums of the world so EVERYONE could see that it's true.

Why would you have it cached away so that nobody can see it?

Oh, because it's not true. Now I get it.

When the bishop professed his belief in the devil through a testimony statement after I told him I didn't believe anymore, I replied with a strange look like, "You're nuts, dude." I told him I didn't believe in the devil and he said that was "my problem."

It was a creepy testimony.

I sent him a calm letter back explaining how cult-like his letter was. I asked him how he would feel if his neighbor sent him a letter like the one he sent me? I also told him he was no longer allowed to interview the kiddos without dh or myself present.

I now feel kind of bad because I think he blames himself for offending me and therefore caused me to leave mormondum.

My soon to be BIC, TBM Ex was not present, or there would have been a scene.

If you sleep on it and let your subconscious dream land come up with some images to try to make sense of the situation, you should take note of them. Curious what kind of dreams of meeting some obstacle you might have. A dream dictionary could get you some insights on how you feel/possibly programed to feel about the confrontation.

I imagine that the church is a big huge 'I love you guys human' with all of its building blocks at the cell level individuals. It's prime directive to love one another and to love god. But it has a quirk of character-severe extreme selfishness "for my own sake I have preserved thee". That means the big human is able to preserve itself more than any other cell/creature/country/law of the land/ect. The love of god is the severe love of itself.

The big human now will do anything in the not love of others list of things that can be done such as lie, cover up, just not remember, take/steal ect. to continue to exist so it can be the big human institution of love of others and god.

The mind of the big 'I love you guys' human is all of the little programmed leaders actions and they just cannot comprehend as individual programmed cells they are operating the big selfish rotten lawless human because they are so plugged into the church. It for the most part is usless to change the individual little programmed leaders-they just know they get perks if the cover for the church.

So, I get my big 'I love you guys human' in lots of trouble in my fantisizing watching it become the major source of wars in history and behaving differently to threats from individual people than the big 'I love you guys human' should from your individual point of view. Sort of like the big human has a life preservation of its own that is the most selfish creature that ever existed (based on history this is true if you really think about it)to preserve its own life. It is the ultimate fraud because it always gets in this predicament eventually and will probably be the end of us all in trying to preserve its fraudulent self.

I fantasize my big human in a limited resources situation but has made some promises. I fantasize my big human making a mistake but wanting to take care of its job. I fantisize it getting in an argument of who is the biggest human and how many individual cells get injured for its selfish boasting. I think the big human is only functioning marginally as a 'love of others' big human because it gets in a lot of trouble. I try to understand where it might have HIV or AIDS type of diseases such that its individual cells think they have an immune system but are really making more virus. The problem is that it lives for many lifetimes and the big human's able to wait and let a new bunch of cells who do not remember what a rotten thing it can become keep it alive. You just cannot kill the beast that is 'big I love you guys' not organization. The SP or Bishop are just unable to see the selfishness they represent.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2012 07:18AM by commonbackground.

He said he was considering a church court for me based on gossip from a known liar.

I was not rude, but I forcefully put him right on several issues.

He backed down.

For me I’ve actually done an awful lot of research on epistemology, the study of truth and how we can know what’s right. That led to research into logical fallacies. I can’t remember the last LDS talk that I heard that wasn’t loaded with fallacious reasoning. Most LDS members recognize these reasoning flaws when it’s a Baptist or a Jehovah’s Witness trying to tell them they are wrong. They just are very selective about when they apply what they know.
That will be my ace in the whole. From the start I will explain to him that appealing to my emotions is not going to work for me. It was critical reasoning that caused me to leave the church and if he wants me to come back he’ll have to use those same tools to get me there. Then, in my fantasy, I envision a pleasant conversation but me having to step in every now and then to remind him that his logic is flawed.
I have no hope of getting him to leave and there is no way that I’m going back. I just would like to make sure he knows that it was the church itself that caused me to leave and not the fact that my HTs never came or that anybody hurt my feelings, etc. I just don’t believe it anymore.

I would want a showdown with -

1) SWK - 'The Miracle Of Forgiveness' indirectly ruined my life.
2) Dieter - I have a feeling he doesn't believe, & I want him to admit it
3) The asshole SP who insinuated many times that my mom was already pregnant with me when my parents married. For that to have been true, my mom would have been pregnant with me for roughly 16 months.
4) This friend of my grandparents who'd been a BP, SP, & a bunch of other bullshit. What a prick. >:( Fucking ruined my grandfather's ***and*** my grandmother's memorial services.
5) My cousin's bishop who disfellowshipped him & his wife because they had to work on Sunday.
6) The SS teacher who said we were going to hell because our moms worked. Oh that's right, I did actually have a showdown with him. This other girl & I straight up walked out of the classroom & went to the bishop. Who did absolutely nothing of course.
7) The bishop who told my friend it was her fault she was raped because she was drunk. She was barely 14 years old at the time. Fucking asshole.

The list goes on & on. :/

He is dead.

I just gayed him.

I win.

That felt so so much better than I was expecting it to.

What would be nice on that site would be a list of Mormons who have been gayed already, and how many times and on what dates.

And an anticipatory list. Mormons still alive who are booked for a gaying when they kick the bucket.

TSM:"Eh? What's that? I'm on the grey list?"

And a comments section filled with the kinds of stupid questions we fielded as mos - "Do you actually dig them up when you gay them?"

Imagine the rumours.

If you have not capped off your real or imaginary showdown with a gaying, I can highly recommended it. And it is the only charitable thing to do - bringing the blessings they could never have in life.