Recovery from Mormonism

From: What me worry Nov. 2011

There are many "proofs" that the church isn't true. But in my mind three of them stand out above the rest.

1-Racism. Blacks and the priesthood, lamanites cursed with a dark skin, preoccupation with lineage and blood of Israel. One word, Vile.

2-Polygamy. The whole history of plural marriage and Joseph Smith's pedophile escapades in particular underline the sexist, patriarchal nature of TSCC.

3-Book of Abraham. May not have the emotional power of 1 and 2. But nothing shouts fraud like the story of the BOA. The wrecking ball of many a testimony.

So, what are your big three?

freeman
Re: What are your big three?
I would have to agree with your 3. But if I was allowed a 4th it would be the obsession with editing "God's" word with the changes in the BoM, the D&C, etc after they were originally published as "correct."

Rebecca M
Re: What are your big three?
1. The garden of Eden being in The United States

2. Polygramy

3. That women had the priesthood and then it was taken away from them.

Lucky
Re: What are your big three?
1. Olympic bid bribe scandal

2. Hinckley lie about polygamy on Larry King Live Sep 8 1998.

3. Local LDS Inc leaders attempt to ex com my convert out of spite & viciousness & maliciousnes, the final straw & ultimate terminal message to me that LDS Inc never really wanted or appreciated me and/or any of my attempted contributions to their VILE EVIL POS *church*. the just want ppl to push around, feel superior to, and steal from.

with the general bonus factor that MORmONISM had NEVER made sense to me.

wine country girl
Re: What are your big three?
1. Joseph Smith

2. Brigham Young

3. Every "Prophet" thereafter

jpt
Re: What are your big three?
Why does God need a Starship? Or.... why all the correlated business organization and real estate? AKA infatuation with money.

Lack of any evidence of inspiration beyond people being people.

The "one size fits all" method of trying to make everybody into identical pod people.

Misfit
Re: What are your big three?
1. The book of Mormon-anachronisms, borrowing/plagiarism of KJV Bible.

2. Book of Abraham Facsimiles.

3. The history of the church is so well-documented, even its fake history is documented, yet there is no documentation of the restoration of the Milky cheese-a-dick priesthood. If anyone ever challenges me to come back to church, I will issue a return challenge: Tell me where, when, and who was present when Peter, James and John came to restore the Melchizideck Priesthood, and I'll come back to church. Those supposed facts just do not exist, because it never happened.

zimmy
Re: What are your big three?
1. mormons are to much like calvanists.
2. byu, narcs and spies everywhere.
3. to many of them read d and c section 121 and never see that it pertains to them.

Greyfort
Re: What are your big three?
My number one thing would have to be the Book of Abraham, because once I realized that it was a complete and total fraud, then the entire house of cards came crashing down with it.

Number two would be the Book of Mormon and all of the evidence against it, such as the fact that DNA has proven that there were really no Lamanites at all. There's also the lack of archaeological and linguistic evidence showing that the Nephites and Lamanites ever existed. There's the lack of steel and grains, etc. on this continent during Book of Mormon times. There is just so much evidence against that Book, that one could write an entire long post on that subject alone.

The third thing would be the Church's fight against other peoples civil rights. That shocked and appalled me when I realized that's what they do. They always taught us about the sacredness of God-given agency, and yet here they were, actively fighting against the civil rights of others. That's when I was really outta there. I did not want my name associated with them anymore.

I don't even know if I could really put those things in order of 1, 2, 3. They're all equally important to me and are the reasons I'm no longer Mormon.

WinksWinks
Re: What are your big three?
1. The BoA, it is so obviously false. And the idiocy that is the rest of the mo scriptures.

2. The political machinations against all minorities, blacks, women, non-straights... etc. And the current doctrines against them: do not marry interracially, proclamation on the family, "flooring" gays, etc.

3. Mormonism doesn't make good people. Any good people that are members are good people IN SPITE of mormonism. Mormonism encourages horrible behaviors that do not make good people.

I'm not sure any of these are particularly #1, they are all heinous.

sam
Re: What are your big three?
1. Book of Abraham
2. Polygamy
3. Whitewashing/covering up/lying about history

jazzskeeter
Re: What are your big three?
1. Homosexuality
2. Blacks and priesthood
3. Their need to control every aspect of our lives. ( eg. White shirts, hair length, primary visual aids, etc, shorts length at girls camp,...)

nebularry
Re: What are your big three?
1. The first clue (and still one of the biggest) was the Book of Abraham. My testimony and acceptance of Moism all began to unravel with the realization that the BoA was B-o-g-u-s!
2. Second was the science that negates just about everything in the Book of Mormon.
3. Last but IMO most is Amerindian DNA! The last nail in the Mormon coffin.

xophor
Re: What are your big three?
In a very broad sense:

#1 has to be the total lack of blessings, spiritual confirmation, answers to prayer, etc.
#2 is the the joy, relief and happiness I felt for several years after turning my back on the church.
#3 is all the filthy crap I learned about the church on RfM about twenty years later.

Naming specific doctrinal/historical clinchers:

#1 is the GBH/LK interview...that was the final nail.
#2 Native DNA
#3 whitewashed history with the attendant lies & cover-up

grubbygert
Re: What are your big three?
mine have changed over the years

right now my one proof is simply this:

belief in (the mormon/christian) god is not healthy for me

CA girl
Re: What are your big three?
1. First Vision
2. The way the members behave
3. Complete lack of historical evidences for the BoM

Joe Laban
Re: What are your big three?
and the site of Noah's Ark being South Carolina.

Joe Laban
Re: What are your big three?
I think all of the above are reasons we all share, more or less. The one that threw me was when GBH said that the people sustain me as such when asked if he was a prophet. Also BKP when he said not all truth is useful.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2011 08:56PM by Joe Laban.

Outcast
Re: What are your big three?
1. Temples - go study Freemasonry and you'll find a LOOOONG list of parallels that scream, "here is where JS stole his material!"

2. Money - there are no good reasons the church does not open its books - only bad ones. Also, a church that supposedly espouses the tenets of Christ does not invest in billion dollar real estate development ventures nor million dollar ad campaigns.

3. Jesus plainly states in the New Testament there is no marriage in the hereafter. DOES NOT HAPPEN, per the #1 authority.

forestpal
I have t
Winks winks, your #3 is my #1. "Mormonism doesn't make good people. Any good people that are members are good people IN SPITE of mormonism. Mormonism encourages horrible behaviors that do not make good people."

#1 Mormon abuse:

#1.A The abuse the children and I suffered at the hands of the Mormons. I will forever be scarred by the beatings my RM temple ex-husband gave me, while screaming the D&C 132 at me.

#1.B. The bishop's creepy older son molested my little girl, who was asleep, at a ward campout. She woke up and screamed, and the other kids saw what was happening. The bishop and the other leaders told the kids to keep quiet about it, and threatened my daughter not to tell me.

#1.C.The adult Mormon priesthood leaders broke into our house and pulled my sons out of bed and butt-kicked them to church, and held them there for 3 hours. WHAT CHURCH FORCES THEIR MEMBERS TO ATTEND? Well, a CULT does.

#2. Mormons and the Mormon church are pathological liars. "The BoA, it is so obviously false. And the idiocy that is the rest of the mo scriptures."

#3. "The political machinations against all minorities, blacks, women, non-straights... etc. And the current doctrines against them: do not marry interracially, proclamation on the family, "flooring" gays, etc."

cludgie
Re: What are your big three?
- Lack of respect for and denial of LDS history and origins

- Revision of prophets' words and "revelations"

- Public denial of actual doctrines (we've seen missionaries do it, we saw Hinckley do it, we see Scott Trotter do it, and maybe we, ourselves, have also done it); having a parallel set of doctrines to be taught to outsiders, investigators, and the weak-of-testimony; the whole dishonest concept of "milk before meat"

Ex-CultMember
Re: What are your big three?
1) Masonic Ceremony plagiarized for the Endowment Ceremony
2) Polygamy - the details I didn't learn in church (number of wives, ages, other men's wives, secrecy, breaking the law, lying, etc)
3) KJV Bible Plagiarism in the Book of Mormon

These were the biggies that first made my shelf begin to break, but the following would have been biggies too if I learned them first.

4) Book of Abraham
5) Racist past
6) Changes in Revelations
7) Book of Mormon anachronisms and archaeology
8) Changes in the Endowment Ceremony

I was really stubborn giving up Mormonism and although my testimony was pretty much shattered, I kept holding out hope that it might still be true. It was after extensive research and learning ALL the problems (thanks in big part to the Tanners' book Mormonism-Shadow or Reality), not just ones cited above that I finally came to the conclusion that Mormonism was a fraud.

Sorcha
Re: What are your big three?
The Book of Abraham "translation" fiasco opened my eyes (to Charles M. Larson, who wrote *By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus*, THANK YOU!). If the BoA was false (and it IS), then so is the BoM. My “testimony” unraveled in a day. But it took longer for me to see TSCC as inherently evil.

Once my eyes were opened, however, I saw:

1) the bigotry against gays, blacks, and women
2) the relevance (in debunking the claims of TSCC) of those thousands of changes to the "unchangeable" scriptures of the "one twoo church"
3) how controlling the cult is in every aspect of members’ lives

Then I came here and read y’all’s stories and realized how pervasive is the hurt. This church is a cult and it’s evil. I’m under cover in my community because DH is a BIC inactive, but he will defend TSCC against any and all assault. I have to be careful. Thankfully, he’s inactive and doesn’t care that I am as well. Maybe some day we’ll resign together, but if not, I WILL eventually resign. Can’t stand the duality of living a lie.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2011 04:05PM by Sorcha.

introvertedme
Re: What are your big three?
1. The "church" lying, hiding information, and manipulating members, to the point where people fear reading what they want, thinking what they want, and (god forbid) asking pointed questions. Punishment surely follows.

2. The forced servitude - cleaning buildings for free when the church rakes in untold millions, the stunning number of mandatory meetings, etc.

3. The fakeness of it all. I couldn't take the fakeness. Nothing is as it seems - everyone is trapped into a see-and-be-seen situation in which they are forced to continually try harder and harder to accomplish that which is impossible (which the "church" also uses as a weapon). Entire families are held hostage, family ceremonies are hijacked, bishops' discernment is nonexistent, and rote behavior is rewarded. I hated every single second of it.

Cali Sally
1. Lying, 2. lying, and 3. white washing doctrine ie. LYING !
They lie about their finances. They lie about their membership numbers (joining AND leaving). They lie about their history. They lie about their doctrine. They lie about their feelings. They lie about their motives. They lie about lying !!! If they could have come clean about anything I might be able to have some respect for how devoted they are EXCEPT they are devoted to one big fat lie. The biggest lies are the ones they tell themselves when they know things just don't add up.

jameswilmons
Re: What are your big three?
1. The evolving endowment ceremony. If this is the crowning part of the Mormon experience which is too sacred to discuss, why has it had to be altered so many times?

2. Differences in the various accounts of the first vision. If two heavenly beings appeared to me I would've been able to write down the definitive story right after it happened. I wouldn't need to 'revise' it over the course of a decade.

3. The sales force missionary program. I was one of these and there is so little care placed in teaching these unsuspecting people the reality of what being a Mormon is. Missionaries are instructed to get them baptized and try to get them hooked into the fold. The reality of what it takes to be a Mormon (endless meetings, GUILT, financials, etc.) are happy little surprises along the way.

thetruthwillsetyoufree
Re: What are your big three?
1. white washed history....J.S. secret wives some as young as 14. B.Y. and all the crazy stuff he taught.

2. the mind washing of good people...after leaving the church not one person in my TBM family asked the reason...(b/c they "know the church is true") enough said.

3. priesthood and blacks

4. changes in the temple ordinances.(slit your throat...etc. etc.)

5. book of abraham

6. all the crazy stuff J.S. did but he is looked at as a martyr even though he died in a shoot out.

7. woman are not important...polygamy

8. unquestioning faith is considered a virtue

9. the very nature of god...just doesn't make since....Knowing secret handshakes....really?!

I'm sorry there are just so many ...I could go on and on....

peregrine
Re: What are your big three?
1. Revisionist history: The teachings of Brigham Young, the most famous US polygamist, having zero reference to polygamy; The Ensigns republishing of the Wentworth Letter with the modern wording of the AoF; etc. etc. etc. etc.

2. The essential doctrines that are nowhere to be found in the BoM: Temple endowment, baptism for the dead, three degrees of glory, etc.

3. Focus on obedience over love, the savior, charity and every other doctrine.

andyb
Re: What are your big three?
Spending 2 semesters at Ricks College (dealing with the honor committee Nazi's) and looking at that phony bastard Tom Monson on TV...that's 3 isn't it?

kolobian
Re: What are your big three?
1. The plan of salvation is a pyramid scheme. The best men can ever hope for is middle management. All their hard work only serves to push Elohim up the pyramid.

2. The plan of salvation enslaves and subjugates women. They will never rise above the status of breeding cow and cannot attain salvation without a worthy husband. They cannot even have a partnership because they will be one of an infinite number of wives assigned to that one exalted man.

3. That pesky god thing.

"Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org"