Have you been blessed by leaving the church?

[Poly G Porter]

Mental Gyrations(MG) cannot leave. Plain and simple.

Regardless of how he feels now about the Mormon church, or in the future, he is in too deep to ever exit.

Like many of us, he must pick his battles. Remain and deal with the CULTure or exit and deal with the fallout.

I was fortunate that I exited when all my children were very young. Plus not living in a Mormon dense population.

So to answer the Old Testament, yes I have been blessed! Here are a few of my bwessings:

• In addition to Sundays off, I got way more than a 10% raise!

• Saturday is no longer "the day we get ready for Sunday"

• I have genuine friends, no more assigned or obligatory friends

• I am a spiritual person now, often imbuing the spirit(s) of Brother Morgan(who is a Captain by the way), Brother Daniels and his brother in law Brother Beam.

• People like MG are here for my amusement and reminder of how miserable I would be now had I not left the CULTure of Mormonism.

I say these things in the name of cheese and rice, ramen.

[Dr Exiled]

For me, I think the biggest thing is the relief I feel from not having to automatically support the Fund regardless. There was always this us v. them mentality and this push/pressure to be church salespeople. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that anymore. Plus when I make a mistake, it is just that and not an action fraught with eternal peril.

[MG 2.0]

There! That wasn’t so hard, was it?

It’s good for believers to hear from the ‘other half’ and how they view and appreciate their ‘escape’ from the worldview and life of a Latter-day Saint.

And it’s good for you to share your ‘testimonies’ with each other.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
MG

Testimonies have there place.

Does it bother you that it's being used against the church?

Dr. Exile, I am one of those folks that believes in free expression. I’m enjoying those expressions on this thread. I was just a bit surprised that it took a nudge. Kind of like LDS F&T meetings.

One thing I do get a bit frustrated with, however, is the posting style of folks like Marcus who are trolling along looking for reason…any reason…to throw darts and make mountains out of molehills. It’s wearying and unproductive to have interactions with him. I’ll keep interactions at an absolute minimum with this new entrant to the board. I just wrapped up my participation over on another thread with some top notch individuals where we got into Fine Tuning and such. That was fun! We generally respected each other’s views and didn’t make hay over individual slips where we may have miscued or miscommunicated, etc. It was worthwhile in my estimation.

Anywho, I like hearing Mormon Stories from whatever ‘bent’ in experience they come. For a number of years I would listen to THE Mormon Stories Podcast and found the stories of individuals compelling, even if at the end of the day I disagreed with their conclusions, etc.

So, onward with free expression and testimonies (of a different sort than the traditional LDS testimony of course).

Thanks for your question.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

He seems to be threatened by people who leave and don't have an instantaneous downturn in their lives like the Fund always told or implied would happen.

Nope. I have friends and family members that have gone on to live productive and happy lives after having gone inactive or left the church.

I love them just as much as I ever did. And we get along just fine!

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Shortly after that I found the website run by Richard Packham, and it was a rapid downhill from there.

That dates you. I remember reading his stuff back in the day. Small print with lots of long paragraphs without much in the way of formatting, etc. Old school. He had a LOT of stuff to present.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Except that unfortunately I don't think that MG really has to try hard at all.

It's not a Utah thing, or new, or a one-off. I believe that condescending paternalism is baked in to many religions, and in many variations of non-religion. Simply knowing that you know better than others is a burden to be borne. OTOH, I also think that non-religious folks probably have an easier time recognizing it in themselves, and compensating for it.

If I come across as condescending, I apologize. When there are disagreements and each party to the conversation believes that they’re ‘in the right’, it can come across and appear that way. Truth be told, I get the same vibes from a number of folks here.

But that’s to be expected. We’re all human and have turf to protect and sometimes we come across as being holier than thou, etc. Something to consider and work on.

None of us are free of ego.

Again, I’m enjoying the personal expressions being shared on this thread. If we can steer it away from MG 2.0 that would be fine by me.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Mental Gyrations(MG) cannot leave. Plain and simple.

Regardless of how he feels now about the Mormon church, or in the future, he is in too deep to ever exit.

Like many of us, he must pick his battles. Remain and deal with the CULTure or exit and deal with the fallout.

I was fortunate that I exited when all my children were very young. Plus not living in a Mormon dense population.

So to answer the Old Testament, yes I have been blessed! Here are a few of my bwessings:

• In addition to Sundays off, I got way more than a 10% raise!

• Saturday is no longer "the day we get ready for Sunday"

• I have genuine friends, no more assigned or obligatory friends

• I am a spiritual person now, often imbuing the spirit(s) of Brother Morgan(who is a Captain by the way), Brother Daniels and his brother in law Brother Beam.

• People like MG are here for my amusement and reminder of how miserable I would be now had I not left the CULTure of Mormonism.

I say these things in the name of cheese and rice, ramen.

Aarggh…here we go again. PP, you have an unnatural fixation on me. Yecch.

But thanks for the rest of the post where you talk about YOU.

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

One thing I do get a bit frustrated with, however, is the posting style of folks like Marcus who are trolling along looking for reason…any reason…to throw darts and make mountains out of molehills. It’s wearying and unproductive to have interactions with him. I’ll keep interactions at an absolute minimum with this new entrant to the board.

that’s a wise decision. I’m not really patient with the illogical techniques you use.

I just wrapped up my participation over on another thread with some top notch individuals where we got into Fine Tuning and such. That was fun! We generally respected each other’s views and didn’t make hay over individual slips where we may have miscued or miscommunicated, etc. It was worthwhile in my estimation.

Interesting. What I saw was people humoring your rudeness, and you refusing to back up your points and instead asking others to do it for you. People worked around your refusal to support your comments, I suppose because it’s obvious you can’t or won’t.

Someone suggested I read a couple of older threads, including one where the proprietor here asked people to tolerate you, just in case you ‘didn’t know’ how obnoxious you were being. I got a laugh out of that!

But, the proprietor must have had a reason for that, so… carry on.

[Marcus]

He seems to be threatened by people who leave and don't have an instantaneous downturn in their lives like the Fund always told or implied would happen.

The first real clue to me that there was something "funny" about Mormonism was that during an intense period at work, that kept me busy 7 days a week for several months, I was surprised to find that I actually didn't miss the "joy" of attending church.

Shortly after that I found the website run by Richard Packham, and it was a rapid downhill from there.

That was one of the early ones I read also, it had great information, and was extremely helpful. Good for him for posting his work. We need more of that.

[Marcus]

But that’s to be expected. We’re all human and have turf to protect

Hmmm. No, I don’t think so. To others it might be a consideration but having “turf to protect” seems to be your exclusive goal, overriding every thought process. Also, you come here to “protect your turf” in what you clearly consider a hostile environment, taking every opportunity to be rude and then condescend and act the victim when people respond. It really suggests something far different than you just enjoying the conversation, that’s all. Like I said, it’s an interesting phenomenon.