I wonder if it might become a televangelism church with the temples being the only physical structures. I'm not sure how they could consistently collect tithing and conduct worthiness interviews for temple attendance, but I could see things going in this direction.
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When I first left mormonism I felt a need to fill the space that mormonism left by attending other churches. I have since decided that that space that mormonism left is meant to be empty, that it's my space, a place for me to go and be by and with myself. When I would like advice from outside myself, I go to people who I trust to give advice that is in my best interest. But I never trust anyon
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I thought the temple ceremony was much more ancient than the 19th century. That's quite an admission by the three-member first presidency.
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Mormonism is a cult, and cults are very good at destroying healthy boundaries in order to get people to do what the cult wants them to do. I formally left the cult a few years ago after 49 years (I was BIC), but the process of constructing a self is more difficult than just leaving. I have only recently come to realize that I didn't have any healthy boundaries--a good friend I met after I lef
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They claim that interviews are confidential in order to protect the individual. My experience is that they are only interested in protecting themselves.
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I would just follow up by saying that the truth about who you are and how you should live your life isn't in the bible or book of mormon or any other so-called scripture. It's in you. I agree you shouldn't let anyone or anything stop you from being yourself and enjoying being yourself.
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I really like that idea. It's important that children learn to set those boundaries for themselves and not just let their parents do it for them. Thanks for the input. Incidentally, AmIDarkNow?, her mother is also on board with this, we're on the same page on helping her negotiate boundaries. I can't imagine how difficult it would be with my ex-wife on the other side of this, I know there a
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That is a good point. The church holds the carrot of fellowship and belonging and forever families, but you have to destroy your self and your ability to think in order to get there. Being a member of the church is the ultimate self-destructive behavior.
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I taught early morning seminary (Old Testament) and about a month of New Testament. I hated the lesson manuals. I imagined them being written by maybe five people with a specific lesson being assigned to each one. They were then forced to fit every reading assignment that they were assigned to do a lesson for into that specific lesson. They then reviewed the other people's lessons and purged
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So, I thought you might be interested in this conversation I had with my xbp last sunday. A little background, I resigned my membership last year. My youngest daughter, 13, has still been attending church somewhat regularly because she has friends there and I don't want to yank her away from something that she's doing for good motives. I'm not worried about her going to church because I talk t
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This board is still doing good for people transitioning, even though a lot of you have been here for many years. I found the board in 2017 after my now ex-wife came out as gay to me and we decided that we shouldn't be married any more. The final straw that ended my patience with the church was the realization that she would be excommunicated from the church for being honest about who she was an
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"The church, in a statement, acknowledged the ceremonies violated its policy and said they would be invalidated...." Will there be posthumous excommunications to invalidate the baptisms?
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This story is so bizarre, it's got to be a spoof, right? If this is real, this church is even crazier than I thought.
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The Book of Mormon was big for me. Not the entire book, but there were parts of it I felt were really powerful. I must admit that I still find parts of it to be quite compelling, I just know now that those parts aren't divine, but rather human. Which is kind of cool in a way. I think some of the ideas there are worth still talking and thinking about in a different way than the church talks an
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Thanks Greg. I just emailed Eric to get your address, I'll drop you a line when I get it. I would love to meet others as well who are close by.
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GregS, I was just reading your thread on being excluded from a temple sealing. That would be cool to get together for a drink during the ceremony. I don't know if there's a way to make online contact outside of the forum, but if not let me know when the wedding is and I'll see if I can be there then.
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Elder Ballard spoke of criticisms to the effect that the Church has hidden the fact that there is more than one rendition of Joseph Smith’s First Vision. “The facts are we don’t study; we don’t go back and search what has been said on the subject. For example, Dr. James B. Allen of BYU in 1970 produced an article in the Church magazines explaining all about the different versions of th
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I was born in Rexburg and grew up in the church. I have 10 brothers and sisters who are all active in the church (for now). We moved to Nampa (near Boise) when I was 14--I was there when the first Boise temple started doing business. I served a mission in Michigan and graduated twice from BYU. I got married in the temple and we have five children, they're now aged 13 to 21. We moved to Minne
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Just wanted to thank everyone again for the warm welcome. I don't have a lot of time to post but I'll keep in touch when I can. I'm interested, as I'm sure many here are, in helping others get out, so I'll keep you posted on how that effort goes. I'm especially glad that my kids, though not formally out yet, are mostly free of the church and that we have kept great relationships throughout the
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valkyriequeen (I love the name), it's funny that you bring up eye surgery as a comparison, I just got the surgery done recently and it is definitely analogous to leaving the church. My vision has changed in so many ways. Minnesota is beautiful, although this time of year I wonder if it's worth it, the winters are just so brutal. I agree that more people are seeing the church as it is, it's
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I agree that the mormonleaks.com website presents a well-documented picture about the creation of the BOM. I'm wondering if anyone knows about the last two episodes of the story, if they're still being made. I haven't read "Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon" but it sounds like a good read as well. Bottom line is there were a number of people involved in writing the Book of Mormon,
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Thanks for the welcome! And pants off to elderolddog and all of you! I agree that not enough people are finding out and we're reluctant to speak up for a variety of reasons. I do think, though, that a lot of mormons are probably closer to leaving than we know (like I was for a long time), and we might just be able to bring up the issue that will finally break their shelf and get them to look a
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So this is my first post here although I have been lurking for a while (almost a year). I left the church formally just this last May and wanted to thank all of you here for helping me make what you all know to be a difficult transition out. I also attended the last ExMormon Foundation Conference in October and wanted to thank everyone there for being so helpful and for making me feel like I be
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