While watching the new Pope being put into place, I decided to see what google had to say about the Catholics. Being raised LDS, I was completely aware that there were entire factions of people whose main purpose in life was to help "Mormons with Recovery" yet when I googled a church that for hundreds, nay, thousands of years, has changed doctrines, murdered thousands in the name of God, and most recently an epidemic number of child molesters in their hierarchy- no angry ex-Catholics. But Google Mormon and boy is that a different story. The funniest and saddest site I stumbled upon was
www.ex-mormon.org Several days later after spending varied periods on the net, digging deeper, reading, visiting other sites, all I have to say is "WHAT??"
This particular website makes claims about the many hits it gets each day, as an indication of how many "disgruntled, disenfranchised" members seeking support there are. I don't think so. First off, I was there several times and each time, I became firmer in my belief than when I started.
I'm not a "Molly Mormon". I was raised in the church but my father was a non-practicing Catholic and my mother was my primary religious influence. My father though, supported my mother in her bringing me up in the church but we weren't zealots. I attended church, primary, camps, etc and I read the scriptures. We prayed before meals and we tried to spend time together as a family. In high school, several members of the church didn't take a liking to my "changing face". I was what you would call a "mod" and didn't have a lot of member friends. I decided that I didn't want to spend time with people whom I felt were hypocrits. Now it would seem that I would be labeled a "jack mormon" and although I drank, smoked and did other things that weren't considered very moral by some who would judge that, I never believed I was a jack. The difference being that I believed in the basic principals of the gospel, even if I didn't like some of its members. I examined the belief systems and practices of other religions, everything from Catholicism to Budha but I always came back to the LDS church. It fit some independent ideas that I felt were true. I became an "active member" again when my son was young but I never really left the church. I brought with me some of the bad habits I picked up in my wilder, younger days (still a smoker sadly) but I found a ward whose members knew this and didn't judge me. I made some very good, often quirky friends here. I had also decided that I was going to run into an idiot now and then, either in church or in the real world (I actually have one idiot in particular in my life right now- a non-member really, well unless this is what she is pretending to be today, maybe. You never know what fantasy this chick will concoct! Trust me. I know far more about this woman than I ever wanted to know and it is all completely frightening for those involved in her life but I digress.)
I had to get over the human factor of these people. They were human and as humans are, imperfect. They will offend, misjudge or even misinform but if I knew this and remembered this, the church was fine.
When I stumbled onto this ex-mormon.org website, I couldn't help but laugh and be sickened at the same time. I, of course, did as they "encouraged". I researched, read and researched some more but the difference was that I took information from both sides and decided that I wasn't going anywhere. Even more so, I became outraged that there are people in this world whose sole purpose in life is in working to destroy something for me, when I was very happy with it.
I'm not un-intelligent. I'm not brain-washed. I used my own mind (as I had in my teens when I sought religious answers) and I came to the same conclusion. The church may not be perfect but I have a good life. I don't suffer from depression because "I can't live up the Mormon standards of a Mormon wife" as one woman stated in a post. (Seriously, this isn't a Mormon issue, you have a self-esteem problem and need a psychologist. You are worrying too much about living up to "someone's expectations" not the Church in itself. I guess when you try too hard to belong and you feel you don't - that can do that to someone if they aren't secure in themselves. Guess she found a place of universal acceptance in these anti-Mormon bigots.) I am not disenfranchised with changes that happened over the years. (Are Catholics really upset over new doctrine as it comes from the Vatican- birth control??? How about not being able to murder non-believers anymore?) Change is expected and I am perfectly okay with that. Be realistic for crying out loud!! The main basic principles remain the same.
Now there is the DNA, archeolicigal finds "TO DATE"... yadda, yadda, yadda. As a scientist- you must know that you don't know it all. At one time, well respected scientists believed the world was flat. They didn't believe in the existence of certain things because there was no proof- but WOW when you found it...
The bible can't be completely proven factual and here's the kicker. It is the nature of most religions to work on (pay attention- big deal here) FAITH! Just because I can't see it, touch it, taste it, smell it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There are historical inaccuracies in the Torah, in the bible, (much harder to find surprisingly than anti-mormon sites but the information does exist)
If you use the bible in any way in ANY religion, you are wrong, based on the same precepts of these anti-mormon sites. If you leave and become agnostic, I can respect that a little more but if you're an ex-mormon run off to be a Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, etc. then you are still apparently disillusioned and still in need of "recovery" because the same arguments exists with other religions.
And I need to correct a few things. Not everyone visiting these sites are there to leave the church. I would be inclined to believe that curiosity about these people who hate us so much that they would stand outside our places of worship to give us their propraganda, is a strong driving factor on the hits. If you are a Mormon who disagrees, you can't post on their boards either. So you wouldn't even have known we were there or why.
Another correction, many of our members are well-educated, intelligent, people capable of and excercising free thought. Because we remain members, doesn't mean that we are stupid or under the spell of the church. I am more inclined to believe that many of the people who end up in these anti-mormon sites, were really just looking for something to fulfill them, never realizing that self-love is the most important thing they ever could have explored. They are still looking for something outside themselves to fulfill them.
Lastly, I don't have to agree with everything. To quote South Park (a pretty funny episode and one that I am able to laugh at myself with)
“Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls.”
(as a postscript- I've read the arguments against the validity of the Book of Mormon. Now, if you are an ex-mormon or thinking that the facts you've read are just to overwhelming- go here... http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml
