Posted on 06/24/2009 10:24:43 AM PDT by Colofornian
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Nietzsche
This year's conference will be held October 9th–11th at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Salt Lake City. Visit the Exmormon Foundation website for more information and to make reservations.
These conferences are a lot of fun and they're very educational. (I've attended the last two.) It's a full weekend packed with friendly and intelligent conversation, informative lectures, and of course... parties.
If you want to stay at the hotel (which I recommend, especially if you plan on imbibing at the late-night gatherings) you can get discounted rooms that have been reserved for the conference, but reserve them early.
Many LDS members scoff at the idea of a bunch of ex-Mormons getting together like this. We can "leave the church, but we can't leave it alone." Members don't understand why we can't just walk away and forget about it.
This comes from a gross misunderstanding of the situation in which ex-Mormons often find themselves. In many cases, we didn't want to leave. We really did want the church to be true. But want and desire weren't enough when compared to the evidence we were forced to consider.
We reached a point where we realized that it was more likely that our faith was wrong than that everything about Mormonism (angels, gold plates, lost civilizations, the "inspired" Book of Abraham translation...) was true. Simply put, faith can only go so far. If enough information about the world contradicts our beliefs, the only way for faith to survive is for it to transition into something more akin to denial.
Leaving the church was painful. Many of us mourned the loss. In our hearts, we desperately wanted it to live; but we knew that rationally, it had no pulse.
Admitting this to others meant that a few of us lost our jobs. Some of us have lost our spouses, children, and friends. To many who still believe, we are apostates, and should be shunned. Technically, my LDS friends may be unworthy to get a Temple Recommend if they "affiliate" with me.
Many of us feel betrayed, manipulated, and deceived. If the church is not true, then we have given thousands of dollars, years of our time, and immeasurable emotional energy to an idea - a belief - that was a dead-end. We have every right to feel hurt and to want to talk about it.
The sacrifices in time, money, and emotions are enough of a psychological investment to keep many members attending. They need it to be true, because if it isn't, they would have to concede that their time and money was ill spent, and they would also risk losing family and friends. They convince themselves it must be right and avoid thinking about their doubt.
Fittingly, this year's theme is "No Price Too High." It's worth losing everything if it means gaining truth. A life lived in a lie is not a life worth living.
So we gather because we understand and support each other. Now that we're on the outside looking in, we want to learn more about this belief system, how it got started, and why people believe it. It's a chance to socialize, feel accepted, and learn more about ourselves.
The speakers at this year's conference include:
Other speakers are:
William Lobdell, author of "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace". As a born-again Christian, he began to write about religion and faith for the Los Angeles Times. During his investigations, he wrote an article about an ex-Mormon conference he attended. The time he spent with ex-Mormons contributed to his beginning to doubt his faith. In the summer of 2007 he wrote a popular personal essay about his religious journey. In 2008, he published "Losing My Religion."
Craig Criddle, Professor and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, at Stanford University. In 2005, he posted an online essay, "Sidney Rigdon: Creating the Book of Mormon," where he argued that Sidney Rigdon, possibly with help from other collaborators, authored the Book of Mormon. Craig then began a collaboration with Stanford colleague Matt Jockers, which led to the eventual publication of a Literary and Linguistic Computing article on Book of Mormon authorship. The authorship study analyzed writing patterns in the Book of Mormon compared to patterns in Rigdon's and other's writing, suggesting that Rigdon and others may have been involved in it's production.
Richard Packham, founder of the ex-Mormon Foundation. He came from a devout LDS family, graduated from BYU, and married in the temple. After studying church history and doctrine more carefully, he eventually decided the church was not true. As a result, his wife and three children left him. He is a college professor, teaching foreign languages, and is an attorney. He is active in the Recovery From Mormonism groups and over the years, hundreds if not thousands of former Mormons have credited Richard's website with giving them their first honest exposure to the history of Mormonism.
Karen Di Milia and Dennis Lavery, documentary filmmakers in Portland, Oregon. Their collaboration began two years ago with the creation of Pepita Productions. The mission of their production company is to examine the decisions people make and their life-changing consequences. They quickly saw the value of documenting the fear, struggles, and realities of those who doubt the Church. “In the Shadow of the Temple”, their first full-length documentary film, explores and delineates the emotional journeys and day-to-day challenges of ex-Mormons and “Shadow Mormons”.
Charles Larson, author of By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus, an examination of the papyrus Joseph Smith used to create the Book of Abraham, and how a modern translation of those fragments show something very different than what Joseph wrote. He has also written Numismatic Forgery which discusses coin forgery and includes information about the Mark Hoffman scandal in the LDS church and pioneer Mormon coins issued in the 1840's-50's. His most recent book is Destroying Angel, an action/crime drama set in contemporary Utah that includes elements of Mormonism's polygamous past and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Latayne C. Scott, award-winning author of over a dozen books, poems, radio plays, and hundreds of articles in several magazines. "Mormon Mirage," according to one review, is about "...two journeys: her own and then the historic development and changes of the Mormon Church from its founding right up to the Twenty First Century. The integrity and rigor of the research and scholarship are impressive. All sources are available to be rechecked by any skeptic. Even after being subjected to lies and vilification, Latayne’s generous spirit extends affection to those left behind, still trusting the mirage." Her newest book, "Latter-Day Cipher" is a modern-day murder mystery with Mormon doctrine & Utah undertones.
(Obviously, a conference of this type will include "all comers" -- including Lobdell of "Losing My Religion" status).
I might be attending this conference. My seventh grandchild is due to make her appearance on October 10th - she is my obvious priority.
Even though I live in the Salt Lake Valley, I’ve never been able to attend one of these conferences. :(
I bet there are a lot of very moving testimonies at this.
My heart goes out to these poor people who were so deceived and misused by the lies that the charlatan Joey Smith created...
I pray that their lives are better now that they have escaped the clutches of mormonism...
Inman Ping
bfl8r
It is not possible to reform those who have no concept that they could be teaching and promoting error. All you can do is believe and communicate truth for yourself.
Some think that the quest for truth involves some brand new invention or epiphany. Quite frankly the opposite is true. One must go back to the basics, back in time to locate what you (man) screwed up.
Every religion claims to have the market cornered on what God's will is. Well to locate God's will you must have accurate God's word. And to get an accurate understanding of God's word you must go back to as early a rendering of that information as you can. This would vastly predate Joseph Smith and the contemporaries of his time.
To the degree and the extent that you rightly divide God's word you will have truth. To the degree and the extent that you do not rightly divide it, you will have error.
Me too, TN.
Quoting from the article:
Why would one assume that ex-mormons "have been rejected from a certain religion"?
Perhaps a further reading of the article would be helpful. "We reached a point where we realized that it was more likely that our faith was wrong than that everything about Mormonism (angels, gold plates, lost civilizations, the "inspired" Book of Abraham translation...) was true. Simply put, faith can only go so far. If enough information about the world contradicts our beliefs, the only way for faith to survive is for it to transition into something more akin to denial."
About 26 years ago, my wife and I had to leave a church that had become abusive. However, I did not come to terms with how hurt I was for many 20 years. I could not face facts about how painful and destructive it was to me until about 4 years ago. The testimony of recovering ex-Mormons helped me the most. Their testimonies helped me admit to myself that I had been in a cult (though not a Mormon one). Most importantly, their testimonies helped me to see the terrible need for approval that was inside me. Testimonies about the confusion, pain, anger and guilt were very similar to my own experience. Though the theology was quite different, I recognized the controlling and manipulating behavior of the leaders. The denial behavior of the congregation was also very similar (me included - or should I say especially).
I have said this elsewhere, but wanted to repeated it here in this thread. I think exmormon.org (all the Recovery from Mormonism project information), and the Exmormon Conferences are a very valuable and effective part of dealing with cults and helping Christians recover from spiritual abuse.
Goodness, I have never experienced this “abuse” in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Perhaps you could expound upon it since there are so many millions of us poor souls that have not experienced it?
Goodness, I have never experienced this “abuse” in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Perhaps you could expound upon it since there are so many millions of us poor souls that have not experienced it?
Many compelling first hand accounts may be found at the Recovery from Mormonism website. Most of the accounts are found in the sections:
Also, the book, "THE DOUBLE-BIND is found on this site.
Quoting from the intro:
Quoting from the first chapter:
The Pattern destroys the awareness of all the above necessary faculties for the realization of our own individual identity; the most essential parts of us as human beings are missing. Therefore, all that is human and intrinsic to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is invalidated. The Pattern destroys Identity, along with integrity of mind, and the ability to truly love.
Many of my fellows who are folks at exmormon.com have found that after being deceived by Mormonism, they want nothing to do with Christianity. We need to pray, always, that they will find love, acceptance and freedom in Jesus Christ.
Trust betrayed causes a terrible injury, probably the worst. The trust between us and God, us and our father, us and close family (blood or church) is so fundamental to our health (spiritual, mental, and physical). God knows. I am amazed by the implications of the verse:
That is so nice that you could refer me to some site on the internet but have NO FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE of any abuse by The Church toward YOU.
I thought my bloviation detector was going off rather strongly.
I think your bloviation detector need recalibration.
Don’t think so. It goes off whenever I run across your posts.
Exactly, yet it seems so strangely silent when you read the nine different version of Joe Smith’s “vision.”
You’re welcome.
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