Posted by:
missguided
(
)
Date: October 29, 2012 10:50PM
I am also a teen, but I'm out to my parents and family. I no longer attend any church or mutual or seminary (WOO).
Here's a little boring back story: I came to this board very scared and asking for advice. I found out the truth and decided that this church was a fraud. (Figured out the truth last summer at 16, now 17 too)
I had orginally planned to come out to my family when I was out on my own too, but it didnt work out that way. I was finding out so much and finally forming my own opinions, and learning and deciding for myself what to believe, rather than having some white guy in a suit TELL me what to believe. It was so liberating and quite a journey that I am still traveling today. My opinions were hard to keep in, especially when my parents or someone would start off on a TBM tangent with *completly* false info from the church :p
Anyway, even before I found out the truth, I was doubting and asking questions that my seminary/sunday school teachers obviously werent happy with me asking; needless to say, my parents were already wondering about me and what I believed before I even really began to find out for myself.
After I found out the truth, and even though I wanted to stay "in the closet", my new born opinions and my dislike for all things churchy started showing through my behavior. It got so bad that eventually my mother started asking me directly whether or not I believed. I knew I didnt, but I didnt want to lie or answer her. My silence probably answered her best. Keep in mind,though, this whole process took about a year from when I found out to when I came out.
****Advice****Anyway, as one who has gone through this, I believe in allowing the suspicions about you develope within your family. Ask well worded thoughtful questions that are usually taboo, like why Joseph Smith really had so many wives or why the church spent 5billion$ on a mall & where they got the money. Little things. Use evidence from church sources. Let them wonder about it themselves. This will eventually help them better understand why you chose what you chose.
This decision also depends on how much your family means to you. For me, my family means the world, especially my mom, and my atheist views arent as important as she is. I still am atheist, but I dont rub it in her face every time she starts to bear her testimony to her apostate daughter.(Just as I wouldn't want mormons rubbing their beliefs in my face when I started talking about cave men or something)
So, if you care, go slow and gently. TBMs are basically children. Jesus is their Santa. Knowledge, understanding, patience. It'll be worth it. It'll still be painful, but hopefully less so.
If you don't care so much, then go ahead and make it fast like a band aid, but that will involve ALOT more pain and misunderstanding, and maybe even isolation.
I *really* wish I could write more (i could write books) but I'm not sure anyone reads my posts this far and that kind of makes me sad to think I spent the last hour on my phone, typing a 5 hundred word essay to help someone... ****Good luck*****