We are a Church of nearly 10 million people. That is more people than lived in Italy during the Renaissance and we are as numerous as our Jewish brethren. Yet, where are our Michelangelos and Meryl Streeps? Our Frank Capras and Monets? Our Shakespeares and Bryshnikovs? Gordon Bowen, BYU address
Mormonism has become an archconservative culture built on the sand of family and tribal values with respectability as its chief cornerstone. Its adherents are less like living stones in the mystical temple of God and more like living stiffs in a morgue or quiet conformity. Paul James Toscano, Sunstone Symposium 15th August 2003
Three men and three women have been charged with apostasy for their writing and speaking about Mormon subjects. Paul Toscano, Avraham Gileadi, D Michael Quinn, Maxine Hanks and Lavina Fielding Anderson were excommunicated. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was disfellowshipped. Salt Lake Tribune 2 October 1993
I loved the fuckin’ church, and the church loved fuckin’ me. The Mad Jesuit, board post 12th July 2005
I’ve found that the members of my family who judge me the most and tell me I’m a humanist like it's a bad thing – they are afraid.
Everyone has had doubts at some time, and when you’re told that doubt means that you aren’t saved according to my old religion, you’re dealing with some scary @#$%&. I was a 12-year-old heretic because I told my mother that it’s unfair that people who love god just as much as we do should go to hell because they don’t worship like we do.
Some people fear us because we didn’t ignore those doubts and investigated our way out rather than in.
Some people envy us because what many call sinful is nothing more than being human and social and curious and wondering what life is like without the very public stigma of sin. That is not to say that people don’t experience regret or don’t make mistakes, but we allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes by broadening our experiences beyond what was once forbidden.
When you leave a religion that controls damn near every aspect of your life and weasels its way onto your mind, it scares people. Hell, it scares the person who is leaving. But yes, it scares those who are in and can’t let their doubts free.
Keep that in mind the next time someone tries to knock you down because you left. They’re scared, envious, mean or all of the above.
They try to stifle the still small voice of reason, but it’s like a gnat buzzing in their ear. Beth, board post 21st June 2014, ‘Why are People so Nasty When You Leave a Controlling Religion?’
It [Mormonism] has taught me quite beyond my knowledge, the imbecility of human nature, and especially my own weakness. It has unfolded in its proper character, a delusion to which I had fallen a victim, and taught me the humiliating truth, that I was exerting the powers of both my mind and body, and sacrificing my time and property, to build up a system of delusion, almost unparalleled in the annals of the world. Ezra Booth, letter to Reverend Ira Eddy 1831
You can lead a Saint to knowledge, but you can’t make him think. Richard Packham
I have shown them abundant evidence that the Church is not what it claims to be. Frankly, I expect them to accept it and stop this silly charade. They have used the most outrageous, hilarious defenses, and I’ve told them as much. It’s clear that they use the Church as some kind of bizarre emotional crutch, because they are too weak to stand on their own two feet and accept the world as it really is – and live in it.
Much as I would like to respect their dedication to their beliefs, I’m finding that I can’t. This sort of childish denial of the truth and then turning it around to make it like I’m the one doing something wrong offends me very deeply. I just don’t respect them, and I can’t help but show it in the way I speak to them, how I roll my eyes at the things they say and do, and the body language that I use around them. My disrespect for them goes deep into my subconscious. Makurosu, board post, ‘I’m Finding That I Can’t Respect My Mormon Parents’
In my late twenties, I decided to search for the happiness I was told could be mine by gaining more education. Since church members are admonished to seek wisdom and knowledge out the best books, for me that meant the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Bible.
So, I began an in-depth study of the scriptures. In the process, however, I found major contradictions, particularly between the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, both which the church claimed to have been revealed by God ...
So, I began searching other church publications, such as the Journal of Discourses and the History of the Church and was perplexed to discover prophecies of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young that were not, and never could be, fulfilled. I also came across doctrines taught early in the church that have since been abandoned ...
In my early thirties, I became aware of emotional, physical and sexual abuse in my extended family – and also of denial and cover-up of that abuse by my family and mormon bishops. I wondered how my adulterous brother-in-law could repeatedly receive temple recommends from church leaders who were supposed to be able to discern his worthiness through revelation and inspiration ...
I believed that ultimately the validity of mormonism rested on its claim that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith from gold plates. I decided I had to know for myself if what the critics were saying about it was true.
So, I began to dig even deeper. I spread many potential sources of the Book of Mormon across my dining room table. Maps, pamphlets, books, manuscripts, first editions and the like, soon covered it completely ...
The three-hour meeting, on September 9th, 1993, with Oaks and Maxwell was very disheartening. Before they would talk with me about my concerns, they swore me to confidentiality. Shouldn’t it have been the other way around? ...
I deeply mourned the loss of my belief. I also wondered how, in good conscience, I could remain a member of this organization. The answer was simple: I could not. I knew the time to leave had come.
Finally, I was free from prying church leaders and their demands on my time and emotions. I was free from outside forces pulling at our family. The impossible expectation of perfection was lifted, the magnifying glass of ‘what will others think’ was broken and we all were set free to be ourselves ...
So, this is where I am. I live now, in the present moment, fully experiencing all my senses. Mary Ann Benson, board post 6th December, ‘From Mormon Patriarchy to Personal Peace: How I Came to Leave’
It wasn’t until I discovered the authentic history of the Mormon church that I was set free. When I came across the actual verifiable cold facts of Mormon history, the truth set me free. Knowledge lifted a great weight from my mind and heart.
The Cult damaged my happiness for many years.
As a child, I always spent Saturday afternoon in bed, because I wouldn’t toe the line at primary. It was a weekly punishment, inflicted on me by a typical Mormon mother who did her best, because she too was a victim of the Cult.
As a missionary and then in my post mission years, I was miserable.
Since leaving the Cult, I’ve discovered that prayer and meditation continue to produce results, if you want them to. Leaving the Mormon god, or I should say, the godless Mormon Cult, has set me free.
I am happier than I have ever been.
Goodbye to the post mission guilt.
Goodbye to all that shit.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Anonymous, board post 14th April 2009, ‘Post Mission Guilt’
Meet Mitt Romney. He’s the front-runner for the Republican Party in the race for the White House. But for some reason the chap they call the Tin Man can’t connect with the voters. John Sweeney, This World: The Mormon Candidate, BBC 2012
Mitt Romney is a Mormon and they believe Jesus came to America. ibid.
The Mormons don’t talk about their polygamous past. ibid.
Will Mitt’s faith stop him becoming president? ibid.
The Republican Party kneels before evangelical Christians. ibid.
For some he’s got the wrong kind of God. ibid.
The Church of the Latter Day Saints craves respectability. ibid.
An estimated wealth of thirty billion dollars. ibid.
Warren Jeffs, the leader of a small group of breakaway Mormons, was convicted of sexually assaulting children. ibid.
Despite the Church’s efforts, polygamy keeps coming back – a boomerang from history. ibid.
The power of the Church here makes life difficult if you fall out with Mormonism. ibid.
Court documents in New York State record his [Joseph Smith’s] conviction in 1826 – the charge – he was a conman. ibid.
The Mormon Church has sent more than a million missionaries around the world. ibid.
The Church vehemently denies being a cult. ibid.