Recovery Board
: RfM
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2013 11:03AM by cl2.
Recovery from Mormonism (RfM) discussion forum.
I find this quote from Kenneth Daniels book "Why I Believed" to be insightful:
It's a very good description of what we as Mormon typically encounter - it's interesting that he describes almost exactly the same reaction by Evangelical Christians.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ken_daniels/why.html
[quote]
I wish I could say from my experience that this fear is unfounded and that you will encounter only a minor bump in the road. This will not be the case if your relatives or friends take their faith seriously. They will analyze you to figure out what went wrong; they will chalk it up to the wiles of Satan; they will blame it on some negative experience you had with the church; they will tell you they are praying for you; they will say your situation is sad; they will blame you for being the one who moved from the original position; they will assert you were never truly saved to begin with; they will blame it on your misunderstanding of the True Christian Faith; they will seek you out not for who you are as a friend but for the opportunity to set you straight; they will question your integrity—in short, they will look for any explanation that exonerates their faith and places the blame on anything but the deficiencies of the Christian faith itself. You may be thankful you do not live prior to the Enlightenment when heresy was rewarded by torture or death, but you will have to live with the suspicion of those you love most.
[/quote]
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2013 08:31AM by bc.
It's a very good description of what we as Mormon typically encounter - it's interesting that he describes almost exactly the same reaction by Evangelical Christians.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ken_daniels/why.html
[quote]
I wish I could say from my experience that this fear is unfounded and that you will encounter only a minor bump in the road. This will not be the case if your relatives or friends take their faith seriously. They will analyze you to figure out what went wrong; they will chalk it up to the wiles of Satan; they will blame it on some negative experience you had with the church; they will tell you they are praying for you; they will say your situation is sad; they will blame you for being the one who moved from the original position; they will assert you were never truly saved to begin with; they will blame it on your misunderstanding of the True Christian Faith; they will seek you out not for who you are as a friend but for the opportunity to set you straight; they will question your integrity—in short, they will look for any explanation that exonerates their faith and places the blame on anything but the deficiencies of the Christian faith itself. You may be thankful you do not live prior to the Enlightenment when heresy was rewarded by torture or death, but you will have to live with the suspicion of those you love most.
[/quote]
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2013 08:31AM by bc.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2013 11:03AM by cl2.
Thanks bc. I just used that as my FB status for today. Each of those things has happened to us.
What were the reactions like?
This encapsulates the ex-mormon experience very nicely.
I hate when such sad things are true :-/
It is an excellent quote though.
It is an excellent quote though.