Nice rant! Well said caww.
Folks that get sucked in are usually those who know little of Biblical truths or scripture (like myself). I grew up in an agnostic household. Had no religious background in my immediate family and my personal exposure was very limited. Limited to those few times I went to a Union Church in the Canal Zone with some friends of mine as a kid.
My grandparents, (RIP) were very devout Southern Baptists and were quite dismayed when I joined the mormons. I was active for over 6 almost 7 years. Married an active mormon, but didn’t convert right away. Anyway, once I joined, I dove headlong into it.
Ordained an elder in short order, a year after my baptism, got my temple recommend and the wife and I took out our endowments, ordained to the Melchizidek priesthood a year or two later, don’t recall exactly.
It wasn’t until I came across some “meat” in LdS teachings that really got me to thinking. D&C Sect. 132. Men can become gods. That shook me. I knew little of religion in a formal sense, but what I did know, directly contradicted that teaching.
I went inactive a short while later. Needless to say, this troubled/troubles my wife since she’s depending on me to get her through the veil in the celestial kingdom (according to mormonism).
I was like the disruptors you see here now. Questioning the motives, intentions, reasons, etc. Decrying the “maltreatment” I perceived the mormons were getting.
I don’t recall who posted it, but one of the Inmans posted a comment that struck home. It got me to start reading to comprehend the message, not to find offense. As you probably noted, many of the disruptors and mormons don’t care about the message. They look for ways to be offended. Once they can get that chip off their shoulder, then maybe, maybe, they’ll see the light.
Don’t let yourself get angry. Fill yourself with resolve to share the message that is Jesus. Work to help the mormons and those trapped in other cultic religions to escape the traps that have been set for them.
I’m sure one of the Inmans have my public personal witness that I posted on one of the threads here on FR a few months ago. I neglected to save it as I typed it in the posting feature of FR and didn’t think to save it. It’ll help give you some insight.
It wasn’t until I came across some “meat” in LdS teachings that really got me to thinking. D&C Sect. 132. Men can become gods. That shook me.
| The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © 2006 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Rights and use information. Privacy policy. |
....well... God and I share that emotion from time to time when together we face false teachings which harm and destroy the souls of man..... He lets me borrow His anger just like He does His love and other emotions he created us with...I prefer it when I share His as it is measured and accurate for whatever a situation or response might require......as you know left to just our own emotions alone they can and do get out of hand or misappropriated in the wrong direction..... Emotions can be fickle.
Anger is a good thing when it opposes injustices and that which flys in the face of the Almighty. When He shares His with me I count on it being measured accordingly.
Congratulations for having eyes to see before you went too deep to get out on your own. Six or seven years is quite awhile under their teachings but as I stated in another post...the mormon indoctrination process/steps are done incrementally for a reason..... Same as with Freemasonry and others like these....you are really only a cash cow at the lower levels... and they give you enough titles or rewards of achievement, along with the rituals to make you feel “special” along the way.... but it is about keeping their coffers full.....actually those in the higher levels often enjoy making fun of those climbing their way up...they see them as far less than a “true” believer because the “real secrets” are only for the high achievers.....and they make certain you know those are there for the having....like putting a carrot out there for you to jump for.....it's all part of keeping you engaged and the money flow going. Additionally the time needed to ‘reconstruct’ your thinking via their teachings in order to prepare you mind for the “darker side” teachings ahead of you....(entrapment time). What you referenced as “meat.”
You mentioned a very important and critical moment when it was stated to you to.......”start reading to comprehend the message, not to find offense.”........
.....Comprehension requires critical thinking, not emotional reaction, in order to rightly discern good from evil..... Otherwise you'll be tossed about with every wind of doctrine, like a ship in a storm..... So this was a defining moment for you.... and you choose to be teachable with what God was trying to reach you with. He knows those who are seeking ‘His truth’....and the time that they will truly desire and seek it..so when the student is ready for His truth God provides the teacher.....sounds like after escaping the stronghold on your soul you are heading in the right direction. That is an encouragement to me and I thank you.
"I’ll do it openly as opposed to “privately”. I’m not ashamed.
I expect there will be those who will look for fault or choose to attempt to draw a response out of me, but I’m learning that the right decisions are more often than not the toughest.
I grew up in an agnostic home. My father was not a religious man by any stretch of the imagination. The only time I went to church was when my friends and I went together and that was only so I could hang out with them.
There was a mormon family in our very small town of about 1500. Good people, Maxine, the wife and mother was a phenomenal person and an even better cook. Her son Wade was one of my best friends even though he was a year older. Although I never understood why he couldn’t hang out with us on Sundays. It was later that I learned that they went to church and then came home to a quiet day.
I enlisted when I was 19 and spent some time in the mid-Atlantic states. Transferred to Nevada in ‘88 and that is where I was introduced to my wife in ‘89. The night we met, she told me that she was a mormon and fully expected me to bail out. Truthfully, I didn’t care at that time. She’s a beautiful gal. Inside and out. We married about 8 mos. later in a civil ceremony because I wasn’t a mormon. For my wedding gift she gave me a “quad”, I gave her a new car. I deployed in August of ‘90 to the Gulf, 6 mos. after our wedding.
It was during this deployment that I began to search for some meaning in my life and to bring more to our relationship. I asked her to send me the quad so I could read what I thought was the Bible. It made it through U.S. customs and the Saudi religious police didn’t find it. If they had, it would’ve been confiscated and destroyed as contraband. I rec’d a whole missionary packet, lots of pamphlets, study materials, etc. Not much of that stuff made much sense, but I pursued it out of a desire to learn. It “sounded right”, but that assessment is based on my utter ignorance of Biblical scripture.
Anyway, during the 8+ mos. I was deployed, I started receiving letters from members of her ward. Nice folks, offering words of thanks and encouragement, I don’t recall any proselytizing (sp?). My wife would tell me how much they were supporting her and offering encouragement to her which made me feel reassured that folks were looking out for my wife while I was gone.
When I returned, I met the good folks from her ward and thanked them for their support for my wife while I was deployed. I continued my “studies” for awhile, attended services, etc. and then made the decision to take the lessons. It was pretty much a haze. I don’t remember much of it today, but there were plenty of happy folks, my wife included after I was baptized.
We were transferred to South Carolina about a month later. I dove headlong into my callings first as the Primary teacher to the 11 year olds and 11 year old Scout leader and then as a Young Men’s leader in the Deacon’s quorum and Asst. SM. My wife was placed in the Young Women’s. After about 6 mos. we found that we were spending a lot of time apart in the performance of our callings. Me being gone at least one weekend a month for Scouts, on top of my constant 12-14 hr shifts 5-7 days a week at work with the occasional weekend duty thrown in didn’t help things much.
We also found ourselves being used as the ward taxis because we had two vehicles and very few of the parents would take their kids to the Wednesday night meetings. So any chance of us being together on Wednesday nights was basically lost. We lived ~ 18 miles each way from the ward bldg. But keep in mind, country roads aren’t all that quick to get around on. It was easily 30+minutes each way, usually more.
We approached the bishopric asking for more help in our callings as we were starting to feel quite frazzled. Lessons to prepare for Sunday, talks to prepare for Sunday meetings, planning meetings for YW & YM meetings, Sunday presidency meetings, Scout meetings, Scout leadership meetings, Ward and General Conferences, splits with the missionaries, Fast Offering collections, etc. We were so busy that it was difficult to remember which day of the week it was. The help never materialized, we were told to pray for more strength in doing our callings. I was ordained an elder in the priesthood within a year of arriving in SC, and in the summer of ‘92 we were sealed in the Washington Temple, about a year later, ordained a melchizidek priesthood holder.
It was during this experience that I started to question what the church was really about. The ceremonies, (endowments, sealing) were quite “unique”. It was then that I started looking into the “oaths” and to see where I could find these ceremonies outlined in lds scripture. I was told that I was not to do that. The ceremonies were “sacred” and investigating further would only cause “confusion”.
I let it drop since my wife was not too happy with my attempts to investigate this. But a short while later, during priesthood sessions at sacrament meetings, I noticed that we skipped over D&C132. Curious as to why, I read it and then read the reference notes. This is when I realized that this wasn’t right.
I asked the bishop about this and was told that the “lord” would reveal more to me when I was ready. Not knowing where else to turn for clarification, I let it drop, for a while.
We were transferred to CA in ‘94. Our son was born not long after our arrival. I attended sacrament meetings for a short while after our son was born and broached the question about D&C 132 to our new bishop. Basically the same reply. “Why the refusal to answer the question?” I thought.
It was shortly after, a few months if I recall, that I decided to stop attending services. I still attended some ward functions with my wife and son, but there was an almost closing of the door from the priesthood quorum. My wife told me later that she had met with the bishop and elder’s quorum president numerous times asking them for help. They didn’t, which caused her a lot of grief.
I tried to explain things to her, but the hurt was palpable. Our relationship since hasn’t been what one would describe as optimal, but we’ve managed to work through things. I even spent some time here on FR behaving just like the disruptors. Questioning their motives and purposes in “defense” of the “oppressed” and “hated” mormons.
It was during an exchange I had with colorcountry that I really started to read to comprehend what was being posted. I had posted a particularly nasty comment which to this day surprises me that it stayed on the thread that got us to chatting with one another. She was and is an extremely gracious individual. I truly believe it was because she openly declared her past as a TBM born into the church that gave me the confidence to step out of the shadows of denial.
I had denied numerous times that I “had no dog in this fight”, which later changed to admitting being married to a mormon. I then started to read more of what was posted and finally started researching the internet to find out more. The catalyst for my conversion from mormonism was on these very pages. I subsequently revealed that I was an apostate and that I realized that what I had been taught and learned during my active years as a mormon was false.
This is my witness to you. I was a faithful and active mormon for 6 years. Ordained to the melchizidek priesthood, sealed in the temple, our son born “under the covenant”, faithful tithe payer, temple recommend holder, obedient to the performance of my callings, etc.
I have since learned for myself that mormonism is untrue. Why do I say that I learned it for myself? It’s because with the help of the numerous posters who expose the heresies and blasphemy of mormonism on these threads that I finally opened my eyes. They can’t make you open your eyes, only steer you in the right direction. You have to make that decision on your own and then move forward with it.
God Bless"