How to Stay in the LDS Church After a Major Trial of Faith [Internal Mormon critic]

Slideshare.net ^ | Oct. 12, 2007 | John P. Dehlin

[Colofornian]

Staying is not for everyone...

In spite of 32 years of church education, I didn't ever learn...

* "Peepstone in hat" treasure digging and translation of Book of Mormon * Credibility issues w/the 3 and 8 witnesses * Multiple lst vision stories...the changing narrative of founding stories * Book of Mormon historicity issues * Book of Abraham papyrus issues * Joseph Smith having 30+ wives, 8+...married to other men at the time they were sealed to Joseph * Post-manifesto polygamy, and polygamy as a requirement for exaltation * ...depth of the Temple/Masonry connections * ...basics of Mountain Meadows (though lots about Haun's Mill)... * ...extreme racist statements and opposition to civil rights by top church leaders

SNIP

"I have been VERY naive in my faith with what I have been taught. In the last year...I started to realize that my testimony, the testimony that I held to so very close to my soul, was being attacked by what looked and acted like truth [and] that contradicted what I was taught. I began to feel betrayed."

"My immediate reaction was one of going to my close friends and family...all that did was make my relationships with them strain to a new high. I realized I was now on a island, all by myself, no one to talk to or pull from..."

"And then something happened just recently, the Stake President called me to the Stake High Council.

...very reluctantly, I accepted the call.

So here I am, as a member of a Stake High Council with SERIOUS issues..."

"I have entered a very dark place. I refer to it as a dark place because what I believed was light, now seems dark."

"The church is either exactly what it claims to be, or the biggest fraud ever perpetrated upon mankind."

[Elsie]

You would be shocked to find out that the distortions which you put on the LDS Church pale in comparison to the those that you support in your own church on a regular basis.

Then it should be your desire; nay - your DUTY to point out these distortions that are SO obvious to you and point them out to the rest of us.

We sure do NOT want to be fooled, any more, by this slippery Califoriumn person!

[Elsie]

I’m tried of people bashing Mormonism..

Don't worry Kevin. We MORE than make up for it!

[Elsie]

ITLTSTQ