I wasted two years of my life

[_Trevor]

People tend to forget things that don't jibe with their perspective.

[_Jersey Girl]

I need a chill pill. But since I am now spewing.

WTF is up with all the anecdotes about those that leave missions are losers and go on to be miserable losers? WTF? The Church, does it create one big nagging, gossipy circle to Twitter at people that suck and aren't so friggin special as everyone else? I mean, if the comments on this board and MAD are any indication I could NOT imagine the social pressure created. It's disgusting, really. The railing on people that don't meet up to standards. The gossipy nature of it is sickening to me. SICKENING!

Hey Nehor, do you have a story about some great missionary that left because his conscious told him to and he went on to do maaahvelous things in life?

Now take a few steps back...do you see the same mob that I do? Imagine this as your homecoming for a mission cut short.

Just IMAGINE THAT.

[_Bond...James Bond]

I need a chill pill. But since I am now spewing.

WTF is up with all the anecdotes about those that leave missions are losers and go on to be miserable losers? WTF? The Church, does it create one big nagging, gossipy circle to Twitter at people that suck and aren't so friggin special as everyone else? I mean, if the comments on this board and MAD are any indication I could NOT imagine the social pressure created. It's disgusting, really. The railing on people that don't meet up to standards. The gossipy nature of it is sickening to me. SICKENING!

Hey Nehor, do you have a story about some great missionary that left because his conscious told him to and he went on to do maaahvelous things in life?

What do you expect? They have to attack the apostate, helps reinforce their non-apostateness. (Cause you know...they'd never go apostate!)

Or in a shrieking Pahoranesque voice:
Those apostates are just a bunch of whining pussies who need to get on with their lives anyway. They're supposed to shrug off any Church baggage and never mention the Church ever, EVER again. Hell if leaving the Church was the best thing they ever did then they shouldn't ever mention that harbringer of sadness, the LDS Church. Those Sons of Perdition weren't strong enough and didn't have enough faith, so they need to swallow real hard, and leave us to worship as we choose.

[_Moniker]

I need a chill pill. But since I am now spewing.

WTF is up with all the anecdotes about those that leave missions are losers and go on to be miserable losers? WTF? The Church, does it create one big nagging, gossipy circle to Twitter at people that suck and aren't so friggin special as everyone else? I mean, if the comments on this board and MAD are any indication I could NOT imagine the social pressure created. It's disgusting, really. The railing on people that don't meet up to standards. The gossipy nature of it is sickening to me. SICKENING!

Hey Nehor, do you have a story about some great missionary that left because his conscious told him to and he went on to do maaahvelous things in life?

Now take a few steps back...do you see the same mob that I do? Imagine this as your homecoming for a mission cut short.

Just IMAGINE THAT.

I can't imagine it. I mean, when I was a young woman I couldn't face up to just my parents. It was terrifying for me to consider going home and facing my parents. I was overwhelmed with that. Opposite experience -- obviously... but when you're that age any type of family pressure is huge. Add onto that the Church? My goodness. I can't imagine it. That is why I have empathy for Mercury and anyone else that relates their experience of feeling pressure and anxiety as a young adult. We make stupid decisions because we are YOUNG! And for someone else to come behind and second guess them really infuriates me. If they didn't have to deal with that kudos to them. Yet, it doesn't discount others experiences.

~~taking a chill pill~~ Until (and if) Coggins replies to me. :)

[_Coggins7]

Why such ad hominem?

Mercury raised what he regarded as important issues. The issues were the focus of his first post and some subsequent posts.

It does not appear that Coggins7 has any points of analysis on the issues raised by Mercury.

Because its all he deserves. Mercury has, quite literally, never made an intellectually substantive statement his entire time in this forum. Literally. I'm only here tonight for the Jazz. The entire thing is pointless. He has personal issues, like some others here, for whom the Church has become the sacrificial goat. It is the great process of externalizing and reframing personal internal conflicts and deficiencies and the placing of them upon the chosen goat that is at the root of most exmormonism (apart from those who just fall away and move on with their lives). The entire phenomena of active exmormonism is, in my view, perhaps one of the greatest exercise in the compensatory transference of responsibility from the self to an external entity in modern society. Exmormonism is more of a psychological defense mechanism; a means of lashing out at unseen enemies that really lie within, then what it habitually presents itself to be. I speak from experience.

Most exmormons, as I've said before, will never be found in a place like this. Those that are are a select few; a group of highly motivated critics and gadflies whose motivations are different then that of the "inactive" Mormon who just loses interest and moves on.

[_Jersey Girl]

I need a chill pill. But since I am now spewing.

WTF is up with all the anecdotes about those that leave missions are losers and go on to be miserable losers? WTF? The Church, does it create one big nagging, gossipy circle to Twitter at people that suck and aren't so friggin special as everyone else? I mean, if the comments on this board and MAD are any indication I could NOT imagine the social pressure created. It's disgusting, really. The railing on people that don't meet up to standards. The gossipy nature of it is sickening to me. SICKENING!

Hey Nehor, do you have a story about some great missionary that left because his conscious told him to and he went on to do maaahvelous things in life?

What do you expect? They have to attack the apostate, helps reinforce their non-apostateness. (Cause you know...they'd never go apostate!)

Or in a shrieking Pahoranesque voice:
Those apostates are just a bunch of whining pussies who need to get on with their lives anyway. They're supposed to shrug off any Church baggage and never mention the Church ever, EVER again. Hell if leaving the Church was the best thing they ever did then they shouldn't ever mention that harbringer of sadness, the LDS Church. Those Sons of Perdition weren't strong enough and didn't have enough faith, so they need to swallow real hard, and leave us to worship as we choose.

Oh well, since the never's are having their say...the OP is seen as an attack on the church. The response to an attack on the church is to attack the person who is perceived as making the attack. No compassion. No love. No kindness. No empathy. No perspective taking. Simple outright mockery, ad hom and belittlement.

[_Coggins7]

From what I have observed, “serving a mission” is a bad thing. It’s bad particularly if it is a roadblock to other interests, goals, and talents of people who have a contribution to make. Parroting religious dogma or being pressured to do so has much potential to damage if not destroy the talents and productive contributions which an individual might make.

From what I've observed, its the best choice any young man could possibly make at that point in their lives, and a great deal better than some they probably would make, given our present society. The rest of your critique is nothing but gaseous verbiage.

Not knowing Mercury’s age, he may offer contribution here as he sounds an alarm for others who might escape his fate in his youth.

Mercury is a biter, angry, over aged teenager. Don't make him an ethical or moral hero. He's not.

Surely, Mercury deserves praise, not criticism, for being open and honest about his own experiences with a religious organization. Nor does Mercury have any obligation in a discussion here to detail ethical concerns with religious organizations for which he may be less familiar.

Surely, we don't have any idea whether he's ever been open and honest about anything. His juvenile, petulant, vulgar, and profanity laced argumentation and spleen venting would seem, were a mind unprejudiced, to militate against such a state of affairs.

This is not to suggest that all other religious power-structures escape scrutiny. Without doubt, they deserve surveillance.

Spoken like a true post modern automaton. Readable/writable?

[_Coggins7]

And there it is. A response to a reasonable post that is nothing but full blown ad hom/character assassination.

I did not assassinate Inconceivable Jersey, he committed suicide. I'm only the bearer of the bad news.

[_The Nehor]

I need a chill pill. But since I am now spewing.

WTF is up with all the anecdotes about those that leave missions are losers and go on to be miserable losers? WTF? The Church, does it create one big nagging, gossipy circle to Twitter at people that suck and aren't so friggin special as everyone else? I mean, if the comments on this board and MAD are any indication I could NOT imagine the social pressure created. It's disgusting, really. The railing on people that don't meet up to standards. The gossipy nature of it is sickening to me. SICKENING!

Hey Nehor, do you have a story about some great missionary that left because his conscious told him to and he went on to do maaahvelous things in life?

Yes, he left because he felt he wasn't doing what he should be doing. He is now successful, is married, and is doing very well.

I have a bigger gripe with those who go out and stay out when they don't want to be there. It erodes their character and they're obnoxious to those who want to be out there. I imagine it would be like joining the Peace Corp and then finding yourself stuck with someone who thought the Corp's methods were bad, their motives were very suspect, and was convinced that their being there wasn't doing any good. The correct response: GET OUT!!!

The reason I am fairly passionate about this is my experiences on a Mission. Merc's description of his Mission days in days past leads one to the conclusion that he was mostly convinced that everything the Missionaries were doing was in some way wrong. Yet he stayed there. Brings to my mind those passive-aggressive gits who wasted my time, their parent's money, and their lives dragging down everyone around them.

[_Coggins7]

No Coggins, I didn't even think of draft dodgers, the biggest whiner I met on my Mission was Canadian. He believed the gospel but he hated it. He hated his family, the church, and all his leaders. He thought everything was out to screw him and that he was going to hell for reasons beyond his control. He was convinced he was physically hideous and would never find love (he wasn't bad looking). He was a pain to take to discussions as he would share all his doubts and sometimes his hatred would spew out. The guy needed therapy. He needed to get OUT of the Mission where he was destroying himself. He was the biggest wimp I have ever known. Nothing was his responsibility. Not his happiness, not his conduct, and not the choices he'd made. I hope he's sorted himself out by now.

That was just a joke post anyway.

I've known a few missionaries who needed to shape up or ship out, and I turned one of them in at one point. This was the guy who converted my first wife (see what I mean?). He was from Texas and an unreconstructed racist with the educational background of a Prawn. He was teaching a close friend of mine and going on and on about how he and his friends used to sit outside on their porch with shotguns and wait for niggers to try to steal things. Niggers this and niggers that. He also tried to hit on Colleen (my future first wife). I called and spoke to the mission President and, whether or not that had any effect, he was transferred out of the area, and may have been sent home for all I know.

Another guy I met in Kentucky would sneak out at night and meet girls, smoke pot, and generally, lived a double life on his mission. He had a corrupting influence on his companions as well. He said he was their because his parents expected him to be. All probably true. However, given his behavior while he was there, I think he had more issues with the Gospel and the Church than parental expectations.