Posted by:
SusieQ#1
(
)
Date: January 18, 2011 02:52PM
God, Country, and Apple Pie---and several Christian ministers in our family. And, a dappling in spiritualism, which led us to believe JS was a medium channeling spirits. (Interestingly, I later read in BH Roberts Comprehensive History of the LDS Church: Joseph Smith was not the only psychic in the Palmyra area. (I've posted those quotes from LDS history in the past.)
We thought that the LDS Church was just another Christian Church (belief in the savior Jesus Christ) and had what we knew to be "channeling" in regards to the Book of Mormon, which we kept to ourselves, of course. Seemed like a nice idea to us, in our little family: disabled mother, by polio, and four children, I was the oldest. The reason we called the missionaries in the first place and became a Golden Contact (remember that term?) was my brother had been in trouble and was in an honor camp and mother wanted a good youth program for him when he got out. (Interestingly, he never joined!:-)
We had never attended the LDS Church before we were baptized. We didn't have a car. It was too far to walk. After we were baptized, the Elders in their hats used their cars (they owned their own in those days) to take us to church.
Mother's father had a car and lived next door, and he had been agreeable to drive us to the family Christian church in the past a few miles away. However, when the ELders offered to drive us, mother decided not to ask him for transportation.
A few months later, I bought a 1955 Plymouth, (then had to learn to drive it) and that was our transportation to church.
Why not join the LDS Church? This was 1961. It seemed to have everything we wanted, and we were welcomed warmly and given assignments right off the bat and felt needed. My mother played the piano in Primary and taught Primary for years. She loved it.
It was a perfect match. At least, initially, for some of us.
Then I met an RM and married in the Logan temple a little over a year later then moved to married student housing at BYU where we lived for the next five years.That was where I became totally immersed in my new "tribe" -- Mormonism a-la Utah-BYU style!
I am quite sure we had no idea what we were getting into. But we made the best decision we could with the information we had at the time.
Along the way, I kept coming up against: "what's wrong with this picture," which I was counseled to put on a shelf, which later came tumbling down when I found the core--Joseph Smith Jr. didn't really have any golden plates from any angel, and the BOM was fiction about imaginary people, places and things, and a lot of plagiarized other notions.
I was so convinced for years that it was all literally true that we even made our own visual aid of Golden Plates! I chuckle now !
The interesting thing is that thousands -- millions, of people are convinced by faith and a spiritual witness that the whole story is factually true and believe it with every fiber of their being. I can understand that as much of my family believed the same about the Bible.
Well, not me, not anymore. I can see it all as a typical God Myth based on metaphysical, supernatural claims like most other religions (not all of course.)
Faith in those kinds of claims seems to be a core element in most societies throughout history.
I'm OK with that. It's just not for me, not anymore.
That is a short snap shot of my story and how I came to live Mormonism for three decades.