So...
I went to church from ages 0-20 every week faithfully. I held the calling of ward organist from 12-18 or 19. I went to seminary for three years straight, never missing class. I sat in the front row for seminary, Sunday School, and Young Womens. I went to Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society early, at 17 because I was the only Laurel in our ward. I studied my scriptures like a madwoman, prayed morning and night, and wrote a missionary.

I was NINETEEN when I first heard that Joseph Smith was a polygamist, and I learned it from an ex-Mo friend who I didn't believe initially.

Nineteen! I knew about Brigham Young, of course--but he was painted as a kooky prophet who went to extremes. There were lots of seemingly important church policies and doctrines that I had never heard of--and as I calculate it, I spent:

Over 3,000 hours in church
Over 500 hours in YW
Over 500 hours in seminary
And countless "extracurricular" hours studying on my own.

And I was never filled in on this little tidbit of information about the founder of the restored church.

So... how old were you when all the blinds started opening and the light was let in?

56 years old

I was a young woman convert, married an RM in the Logan Temple in 1962. Spent the majority of the next three plus decades a totally immersed, believer in the claims of the LDS Church: temple recommend holder, attended probably 500 sessions in 8 or 9 temples, held dozens of "callings" and raised a family in the LDS Church.

It was a bit of a bad vaccination -- didn't seem to take as most of us are no longer LDS! :-)

43

I always knew there was more to church history and that the history I learned in church was watered down. I knew about Polygamy, which my other tbm friends denied happened. I stopped believing and left the church by the time I was 19 after deciding the Bible is a complete work of fiction and nothing that came after it could stand on its own merit. Didn't know how extensive the lies were until I had been out of the church for about 6 years and decided to look into figuring out the real history.

18
It was 4 months ago, right before starting college. Thank god I can have a real college experience now!

My kids were 19 and 13.

TG

42 years old

My curiosity got the better of me and I started looking for anything Mormon on the net, be it good or bad when I literally stumbled onto this site. I was at the library and I was so scared that an active Mormon would see me looking at anti LD$ sites,etc,. That is when my quest for the truth began, and I was devouring anything "anti" Mormon and was rapidly finding out why we were not "allowed" to look at so called anti LD$ stuff...its now been 2 years for me since leaving and I feel like I am finally free.

48 nt

Really never bought in to much of the religious beliefs. My family was all semi-active and I went along,,to get along. I enjoyed much of the mormon get togethers and dances, work projects, and helping those who needed it. However when I left the small Idaho farm town and started college in Salt Lake, it was an eye opener. I wrote a letter and bailed out. Never regreted it.

At age 14 in my 8th grade science class we learned about the scientific method (SM). My thinking was quite logical and the SM made a lot of sense to me. I was born and raised in the Mormon Cult. After I had learned about the SM I thought about how the SM could be applied to the Cult.

I realized that was not possible. I figured out that religion is all about magic. To believe that magical stuff you have to take it at face value as there is no way to prove any of the religious magic is "true".

By age 16 I had become a closet atheist. I had to keep my actual beliefs a secret from my TBM parents. But by age 17 I decided that I would simply quit attending church. My parents must have figured out that they could not win the religious war so they did not bother me about it.

My parents were kind and loving people and they treated me well. As I look back on it now I realize that they accepted my leaving the church very gracefully.

I was BIC and my family were/are UBER TMBs. I went along with it until I was 18 and then became inactive and have never looked back, ever! That was 30 years ago and waaaaaaaaaaay before the Internet and I never read any “anti” material, I just knew deep inside of me that it was a total and complete fraud. I love my family very much but could never understand why they believed. My parents and older brother have PHDs!!!!!!!

I always thought that Joseph Smith looked like a perv and Brigham Young like a criminal.

15. Free in mind; not so in flesh..

My folks converted when I was nine. There were things that didn't add up from the outset. Never got any of the warm fuzzies, particularly at my baptism or whenever the priestly types laid on hands as I progressed through the priesthood.

So I'm halfway through the BoM for the fourth time when it suddenly damns on me that I've been getting the answer all along. Just not the one I was expecting. This on the heals of a "every member a missionary" proselytizing attempt on my best friend (no-mo) who had temporarily gone Jesus freak. I stopped in the middle of relaying Joseph's Myth and told my bud to disregard everything I just said. When he asked why, I told him that I didn't really belief the s**t.

Happened back in the early 1970s. No internet, no RFM, no so-called "anti-mormon" lit (at least none I was aware of). Just couldn't figure out why god was such a jag-off.

This is the Gospel according to Timothy ... Friends don't let friends do mormonism.

Timothy

35ish IIRC.

This year, at thirty-one, I decided to finally discard the last vestiges of Mormon belief from my psyche. However, as is true for many here, I began to question much, much earlier.

Frankly, I'm not sure I was ever convinced that the scriptures or church history were accurate representations of past events, nor was I able to accept Mormon cosmology or "science." The sloppiness and grasping-at-straws nature of LDS apologetics really bothered me, too, and personal interactions with Dan Peterson didn't help assuage my frustrations. Any credibility the church might have had with me in regards to scientific integrity went out the window when I listened to C. Wilfred Griggs, Mormon Egyptologist, grossly distort history and flat-out lie about the BoA at a fireside earlier this year, while the monkeys filling the seats bobbed their heads in unison and smirked in smugness.

I found comfort in the teachings of the church, though, and thought that perhaps the church could still be true even if its history was not. I thought it could still assist me in becoming a more accepting and respectful person. That changed in 2008 when the Mormons intensified their gay witch hunt here in California. My brother and his partner are two of the loveliest people I have ever met, and it pained me to see them vilified by the church I supported.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2010 06:34PM by magunga.

I was 23.

Mormonism was more of a cultural thing for me growing up. I attended church each week and did the seminary thing but I wasn't totally into it until I left for a mission. I had a heavy dose of brainwashing while I was out bothering people and became a total TBM.

After about two years after coming home, things stopped making sense anymore and the more I tried to make sense of it, the less sense it made. So, I decided to be true to myself and left, never to return.

I didn't stop believing all at once, but I stopped attending and had many doubts starting in my teens.It happened gradually but I was pretty much out by 18 and was absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, an apostate by my late 20s.

18. I wasn't Molly, but def. TBM until I stopped believing. Tried to fool myself for a few months but just couldn't do it. Man, do I love being free!

It depends on how much of the truth we're talking about. I was gung ho TBM until I was 18 and went to BYU. I decided to not go on a mission and moved away from the church.

I'd been inactive for a decade or so when I read The Mormon Murders about the Hofmann affair. That didn't really make me an apostate but it did make me think.

Then around about '02-03 I read Under The Banner of Heaven and found RFM about the same time. So I guess when I really found out the truth and considered myself to be an apostate I was 46-47.

I'm 55 now and I'm proud that today Steve Benson called me an apostate. I get a chuckle every time I think about it.

I guess I learned the truth from age 18-47. And I thought I was a quick learner.

learned the truth from my husband. He'd been a closet unbeliever for about 3 years before telling me, poor guy. Very TBM until then. Example: I read the Ensign every month, cover to cover and cried while reading most stories from feeling the spirit.

I first started questioning as a teenager, although, a more faithful teenager would be hard to find. I often questioned the policy of keeping families out of the temple for weddings. I even went so far as to write to Hinckley asking why faithful siblings could not attend temple weddings. I was not engaged, nor did I even have a boyfriend at the time. The response I received was to tell my siblings how important a temple marriage was. I knew then that there was no inspiration. I wanted a real answer, not the same BS I had been told my entire life.

When I was 24, I did go through the temple to get married. I knew then the LDS church was not what I thought it was. "Secret combination" kept running through my mind during the endowment session.

I believe I was 25 when I was watching conference as the camera panned across all the general authorities. I wanted to be sick when it really hit me that there were no women.

I finally found the courage to leave the church at age 33 after being threatened with church discipline. I had written to the general authorities asking why women were barred from standing in the circle for baby blessings, being witnesses at baptisms, and being witnesses at temple weddings. I learned then that a 33-year-old stay-at-home mom was a real threat to those men in power. I decided then that they had had too much power over my life, and I was not going to give them any more.