Inactivity and "Coming out"

[_Tobin]

Cicero,

Thank you for the OP and I sincerely hope you able to regain your testimony of the gospel.

I believe it is very difficult to maintain Mormonism or belief in it without some evidence. I personally wouldn't believe in it because its claims are absurd (as are Christian and other religious claims) without that. As I've often said, we are literally talking about people seeing God, Angels, Gold Books, people walking on water, splitting the Red Sea, crossing the oceans in boats (or submarines) thousands of years ago and so on. There just isn't any reason to believe in any of that given that those things don't and shouldn't of happened without some witness of something similar today.

For myself, I know there is a God and that this things are true and really did happen. And I know the Book of Mormon, despite its many problems, is a revealed text as is the Book of Abraham. I know that Joseph Smith, despite his many character flaws and mistakes, was a prophet of God. But to know that, one must know God and God must tell you personally that these things are true (and I'm not talking about having a feeling here). That is what you should seek. Otherwise, I'd live a good, honest life in service and kindess towards your fellow man and NOT believe it.

Tobin

[_SteelHead]

Ahhhh how sweet.

Tobin just bore his testimony.

[_Cicero]

But to know that, one must know God and God must tell you personally that these things are true (and I'm not talking about having a feeling here).

Reading that made me think of the old Boston song "More than a Feeling"

[_Sethbag]

They are not off topic. The witnesses are a strong case that the church is true. They experienced something unusual which stayed with them all their lives. Why? What did they experience? I see no troubling issue there.

So what? Who knows what they experienced? You certainly don't, and neither do I. That they experienced something is not unique - millions upon millions of people "experience something" in regards their religion. That doesn't mean that what they experienced means what they think it means. And that's just as true for the Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses, or anyone else in LDS church history.

You seem to have this huge, massive hangup about the Witnesses. Dude, it doesn't freaking matter what the Witnesses thought, or if they ever recanted, or if they had something Mormonesque engraved on their tombstones or whatever. None of that can turn a non-true church into a true one.

Bah! This isn't what Cicero was asking about anyway, it's all just a big derail, and now I've participated in it. I'm sorry. I repent.

If Cicero feels like the time is right for him to come out, more power to him. If he doesn't feel quite right about it yet, then I think he should hold on and wait until it does. If his experiences ends up being anything like mine, in not too long he'll be used to the idea of the church not being true after all and will stop giving a crap what believers think about his apostasy. If that time isn't now, there's no hurry.

[_Yong Xi]

So, come out, tell one and all that you have no desire to regain your testimony and stop attending.

Is this what you did when you decided to stop attending?

[_Maxrep]

As a personal note, I have seen remarkable evolution in my attitudes over the last 7 years since I first entertained the possibility that the church might not be true. If I had thought that whatever I felt at any given time early on was the way it was going to be forever, I'd have been seriously mistaken. My evolution has taken me from caring what the church (meaning bishop, wardmembers, relatives, etc.) thought about my unbelief, to where I honestly couldn't give a sh**. I didn't stop wearing my garments immediately, didn't stop attending church immediately, didn't start drinking coffee or other things immediately, etc.

Ditto

[_angsty]

As a personal note, I have seen remarkable evolution in my attitudes over the last 7 years since I first entertained the possibility that the church might not be true. If I had thought that whatever I felt at any given time early on was the way it was going to be forever, I'd have been seriously mistaken. My evolution has taken me from caring what the church (meaning bishop, wardmembers, relatives, etc.) thought about my unbelief, to where I honestly couldn't give a sh**. I didn't stop wearing my garments immediately, didn't stop attending church immediately, didn't start drinking coffee or other things immediately, etc.

Ditto

Dittox2

I don't think there's a "right way" to go about dealing with any of this. I think we all play it by ear as best we can and sometimes it's not so bad, and other times it is.

I'm not an example of a person who has regained a testimony after wavering, but I am an example of someone who tried very hard to. I attended as an active non-believer for several years. For the most part, I kept my doubts to myself. When I did share, I found that talking with people about my concerns just freaked them out and made the issues seem all that more compelling. Every time I talked to the bishop, or the SP, or a home teacher, or a visiting teacher, or a family member about it, I just ended up further down the slippery slope.

Of course knowing what I know now, I'd never go back. But initially, I did go through a phase of desperately trying to reclaim my former convictions.

I'm sorry you're going through this. It isn't fun.

[_Sethbag]

I'm not an example of a person who has regained a testimony after wavering, but I am an example of someone who tried very hard to. I attended as an active non-believer for several years. For the most part, I kept my doubts to myself. When I did share, I found that talking with people about my concerns just freaked them out and made the issues seem all that more compelling. Every time I talked to the bishop, or the SP, or a home teacher, or a visiting teacher, or a family member about it, I just ended up further down the slippery slope.

When I was transitioning from still not quite totally an unbeliever to "yeah, I pretty much don't believe anymore" I talked to my home teachers, some family members, and eventually got called in by my bishop to discuss my testimony. The home teachers, family members, etc. were all sort of freaked out that I didn't believe anymore, and it really did put a crimp in our relationship. That's a negative. On the positive side, the fact that the only answers they could come up with to my criticisms were utterly and totally lame just reinforced the shift toward unbelief. It was all pretty weak stuff.

To be honest, having listened to Tom Philips' Mormon Stories podcast about his 2nd Anointing and subsequent apostasy, I had the distinct feeling that he kind of rushed it. He went a lot faster than I did. I have to wonder how his family situation would be right now if he'd taken the apostasy route a little more slowly. Of course, everyone is different, so who knows?

[_sock puppet]

Cicero,

Thank you for the OP and I sincerely hope you able to regain your testimony of the gospel.

I believe it is very difficult to maintain Mormonism or belief in it without some evidence. I personally wouldn't believe in it because its claims are absurd (as are Christian and other religious claims) without that. As I've often said, we are literally talking about people seeing God, Angels, Gold Books, people walking on water, splitting the Red Sea, crossing the oceans in boats (or submarines) thousands of years ago and so on. There just isn't any reason to believe in any of that given that those things don't and shouldn't of happened without some witness of something similar today.

For myself, I know there is a God and that this things are true and really did happen. And I know the Book of Mormon, despite its many problems, is a revealed text as is the Book of Abraham. I know that Joseph Smith, despite his many character flaws and mistakes, was a prophet of God. But to know that, one must know God and God must tell you personally that these things are true (and I'm not talking about having a feeling here). That is what you should seek. Otherwise, I'd live a good, honest life in service and kindess towards your fellow man and NOT believe it.

Tobin

There's no reason to believe it, but you do.

[_why me]

So, come out, tell one and all that you have no desire to regain your testimony and stop attending.

Is this what you did when you decided to stop attending?

I didn't have to. They saw it by my actions. And I did pay a small price for it. But I stayed true to myself and remained a good dad. And I have never forgotten that experience that I had when I prayed about the Book of Mormon.

The witnesses and me had an experience and not a warm feeling in the tummy.