On another thread, it was mentioned that some ex-Mormons become annoyed when "outsiders" (never-mos I guess) criticize TSCC. To a certain extent, I can understand that, but really, why would anyone have a major problem with another person just because he/she realized or was exposed to the truth from the beginning as opposed to taking a while to figure it out/get out? Can't we all (except TBMs of course) agree that there is plenty to be criticized?

And on a personal note, as a never-mo myself, when I criticize or express frustration with TSCC, I am doing it in support of ex-mos and of TBMs who are being mislead even though they don't realize it yet.

PS. I just recently noticed that there is another poster on here named Truthseeker, just that they capitalize their screen name.

I don't get irritated when people criticize the church, but I do clear up misconceptions. The church is weird enough as it is without having to make stuff up.

You've just hit upon my biggest beef with nevermo posters. They go off dispensing advice and blabbing their opinions without having the vaguest idea of what the h*ll they are talking about.

Their confusion about the basic doctrines or well-known traditions of Mormonism muddy up whatever point they are trying to make. And when someone is kind enough to post a helpful correction (i.e. Mormons "bless" their babies, 8-year-olds are baptised) the whole thread can devolve into a Mormon 101 tutorial that hijacks the whole d@mn thread.

Pisses. me. off.

There. I feel better. No offense to the OP.

;o)

Its funny, here at RFM around the ex-mo's, I know nothing about mormon history/doctrine. But, 20 years ago in SLC I felt like a professor around the mormons.

I fully support any and all criticism no matter the source regarding the mormon cult.

cantbsabser Wrote:
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> I fully support any and all criticism no matter
> the source regarding the mormon cult.


me too.

I'm trying to persuade people that Mormonism is a fraud. Having been born into it, I observed a hell of a lot of psychological damage. Every nevermo who laughs at Mormonism is a potential parent who will not subject children to that mindf**k.

I suspect people get defensive when the criticism is directed at MORMONS rather than the MORMON CHURCH.

Let's say I live in a state that has some backwards ways. Criticizing the state is fine. Suggesting I have the same backward views because I am from said state might get me a tad defensive.

The mormon church might represent their youth and their culture, and their loved ones. And they might be embarrassed that others don't respect their decision to join or stay involved as long as they did.

I'm uncomfortable with the whole "We know The Church sucks, but only WE can say it sucks" mentality, either. Some who have never been members of record have suffered at the hands of the Church just as actual members did. My wife attended BYU on a full scholarship because her parents didn't want to shell out $ for her
education elsewhere when she could get it for free at BYU. While neither of us likes the whole "victim" persona, she suffered almost as much as I did, and I'm an RM. My wife has every right to criticize the church, just as many others do who were never members of record.

I will never understand what it is to be an ex-Mormon, or to be Mormon however my heart brakes when I hear the stories, they are so profoundly sad. I do get upset with things that go on around me, but by no way do I hate my Mormon neighbors,I feel bad for most of them, they really are stuck in a system of abuse (and from personal experience when you are repeatedly abused, most times you are not well yourself) I am guilty of finding pictures of the upper church membership to be creepy, they remind me of the bad guys from the movie"The Dark Crystal"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2012 06:34PM by eldorado.

+1 I think one of the reasons I relate to people who have been oppressed by the Mormon church and then managed to find their way out is because I was able to get of an abusive marriage.

when I saw it again a few years ago,
that is the first thought I had.

The 12 Skeksis(sp?)= The 12 apostles.

The life/energy sucker machine = cojcolds

all critics are welcome as far as I am concerned. the more the merrier!

My wife (never-mo) posted on this board for a few years as Lucyfer. From what I could tell she was generally accepted by all. I will say as well, that she was a more popular and recognized than I was. I don't believe I ever saw her criticized because of a post.

I am sure a few people here will remember her.

And Lucy was one cool never-mo.

;o)

Lucyfer was one of my favorites when I started posting here. Loved her board name and learned so much from your posts, Jim. Miss seeing you both around.

... Many NeverMos either don't know what they're talking about or take things out of context when they criticize TSCC. If you're going to criticize, do it right and get the facts straight.

most mormons lives are out of context and stupid because of the mormon cult teachings so who cares who is exposing them and calling them out whether its in context or not? mormons dont have any context, just shifting ideas/beliefs and morons like bkp leading them to hell.

and they are the lucky ones! wish I had that perspective. thanks mom & dad!

Touche!!!

Cheryl Wrote:
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> n/t

Oh, and someone tried to use my name once but it was shown as TOTO. I told admin and they told that poster to get another name. You can ask them about your name as well and see what they can do: ExMoLight@gmail.com

The gods of RfM are truly awesome.

thanks. I'll let them know.

It reminds me of siblings who pick on each other all the time, but come to their sibling's defense when someone else bothers them. Or members of minority groups taking over words that have traditionally been negative slurs against their group, but people outside the groups can't say them. I guess it's just a part of human nature.

I think I would get defensive about the Church way back. It is just the misinformation part, for example having a Nevermo tell you with authority (especialy when they do not know you were once Mormon) that Mormons do not allow dancing. Then when you tell them about all those singles dances etc they insist you do not know what you talkin bout.

The misconceptions reflect how Mormons are actually regarded despite all the ad campaigns and PR. Why would anyone think that Mormons forbid dancing unless they were seen as a clannish, insular sect that can't interact comfortably with the real world. No matter how much money the Mormon church spends on ads to recast themselves as cool, it will never take because the reality is that Mormons are weird and the misconceptions reflect that. Nobody really cares anyway.

When people who are familiar with the Mormon subculture start quibbling about the details of Mormonism, it reminds me of Star Trek fans citing episode numbers and consulting technical manuals. It's good to be accurate, but it's very revealing when people aren't.

But mormons do have horns, right? It's funny how when mormons (mormons, not ex-mormons) talk about misconceptions that people have, they come up with bizarre examples. Things I've never heard, like mormons have horns or mormons don't dance.

No, that's not my misconception. I thought mormons were following a guy who said the word of God was revealed to him in a rock in his hat, and so on . . . .

people are funny, what they view as home territory and what's not as far as they are concerned.

I knew this one person. They had a couple of kids, a boy and a girl. This person hoped the son would go on a mission, despite the fact that the person was treated very poorly by the church. The son was skate boarder, he dropped out of high school and got his girl friend pregnant, among many of the girls he was having sex with. he smoked, he used pot, he liked to get drunk, he had experimented with homosexuality. not exactly the model prospective LDS missionary. .....unless he could lie about and deny all this stuff and then they'd make him an AP ! but he wasn't a much of a liar either.


One day I said something about the church that was not complimentary, you know, something that was true. This kid got all pissed and wanted to fight because I was making fun of his church. now it needs to be factored in that I
NEVER did any of the stuff he had done. Appearance wise, I would fit right in at any LDS meeting. I was such a straight arrow that I did not even have get my hair trimmed any shorter to go on a mission, AND I had money saved up to pay for the stupid thing.

NOW I have to listen to this brainless little jerk rush to the defense of "his" church, even though he'd never lived up to LDS standards in any meaningful way.

I didnt waste any time arguing with him, but I did tell his parent that it was humorous. From my TBM family's perspective this kid is not even considered a real member of the church, inspite of any LDS ordinances that were done. Hell, when I was a MORmON, I basically did everything that LDS INC wanted right down the line, and somehow I still came up short of being a really "good member", because there is always some more hoops to jump through.




That having been said, there are a few ppl here who are still a lot more MORmON than not, they frequently rush to defend LDS INC and MORmONISM, and they only think they have left the church
while they are still pretty much really MORmON. They are still pretty much in a MORmON mind set. I wish they'd just figure it out and finally actually quit, or just go back MORmONISM and leave alone the rest of us who have actually quit MORmONISM.
The fact is that they are such idiots that the MORmONS dont even want them, and even the MORmONS dumped them, so we got stuck with them. Its just a very few ppl, but it shows up quite readily that they are really still MORmONS!


When a Never Mo makes the mistake of defending MORmONISM to me, and insists that I *obviously* don't know anything about MORmONISM, I just automatically make them into MORmON for their effort. If LDS Inc can do it with dead ppl, then I can do it with braindead live ppl who are stupid enough to defend MORmONISM.

If anything I've written on here has caused offense, I'm very sorry. If I'm incorrect on anything, I'd appreciate a correction.

This does have a selfish reason, because right now many of my friends have become really pro-Mormon (they are not and never have been, but well, it just is). Of course, I think blindly promoting/defending something you have never belonged to and really know nothing about, just because your team's guy belongs to it is really foolish, so of course I have to say something -- and that's where reading this forum has come in (found y'all surfing by the way). I want to make good arguments.

Me...I'm skeptical of organized religion as it is, and my own experiences with Mormons has been a mixed bag (which I've had a few, especially for my area). And when I thought about it, it wasn't so much the people but something else (or rather the ones who seemed the nicest to me I found out later were considered a bit black sheep and the ones who seemed quite popular were well, not the nicest -- and the good/bad ones seemed to cause the nice/ black sheep ones a lot of stress -- in fact everyone seemed a bit stressed, and that of course got me wondering, which got me looking around).
And so here I am, because now it seems a lot of the people I mingle with, who are not and never have been LDS, are all talking about how wonderful it is and how good and wholesome...and all I can think about were the stressed out, harried seeming people I saw, and something tells me I should say something (and what I've read here confirms that), but I want to make sure I'm not operating completely off of personal bias; I want to make the good argument.

Great observation - the ones who are the nicest are the black sheep, and the ones who were popular were not so nice. That was pretty much the case the in the ward I spent most of my time in, at least I noticed that towards the end of me going there, when I started seeing thru things and using my head.

I have never-mo friends (most of my friends are never-mo) who are for Romney and who like to gush about whoever they are for and are way to into watching Fox news (all of the time!), but so far they haven't said anything pro-mormon to me yet. They know I'm an exmormon, and I think they know I might go off if they say anything pro-mormon in front of me.

I don't mind if a never-mo isn't exactly correct on what they say about mormonism. Like someone else said, even mormons don't now what they are talking about sometimes. I will correct a never-mo, but I don't really get mad. I get mad when a never-mo defends mormonism, thinking it's just like any other religion where it's completely harmless and you can just leave. Once in a casual conversation a co-worker who I consider a friend, and who doesn't know much about mormonism, pretty much told me to "get over it". That just made me livid. I think I told him, you don't know what it was like. He said I was right, he didn't. And we left it at that. I was so mad I didn't talk to him for the rest of the day.