Have you been blessed by leaving the church?

[Canadiandude2]

I've been watching recent stake conferences on youtube. There's not really anything noteworthy in them, unfortunately. Most of the speakers at the end of the meeting, the highest priesthood holders, have only one thing to say. That being in the church offers unique blessings that you can get no other way.

Is this true for you who have left Mormonism? Have you lost your blessings? Has your life gotten harder, has the joy been removed?

51 looks so far. No comments. Interesting.

Regards,
MG

And??

Do we know those 51 folks have left the church?

Have the time or energy to engage on here at a greater level than reading people’s comments?

This is Troll-level stuff.


I’ve seen many advantages to leaving the church. I’ve become more tolerant, more curious, more concerned with figuring out what right looks like and then acting consistently in that regard.

I no longer feel shame for my sexuality, and am more authentic and kinder now that my ethics are no longer bound to the church.

There’s a lot more but all I have time for this morning.

[malkie]

I echo the thoughts of honorentheos, CanadianDude2, and IHAQ in particular.

When I joined the church and started to get to know some of the members, I used to joke that, to really fit in, I would have to lower my standards of morality. I was actually shocked at some of the things I learned.

As I adopted the standards of the organization, I judged people even more harshly, and became rather a "letter of the law" kind of person.

However, I also gradually learned to be less judgmental - as a member - and to be even less so as I transitioned out of the church.

I'm a kinder and more gentle person than I was as an active member, and, I believe, better than I was before joining.

ETA: I'm actually ashamed of some of the thoughts I had about others, and some of the things I did as a member, and especially as a "leader" within the organization. What an idiot I was

[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

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I also echo the thoughts of honorentheos, CanadianDude2, IHAQ, malkie. Since I’ve been blessed with time let me count the ways …

1) I’ve been given the opportunity to appreciate different trains of thought that are now viewed outside the lens of Mormonism. I spent the majority of yesterday’s ‘tv time’ watching Lex Fridman interview and converse with some of the most intersting thinkers around right now. In other words, my spare time is devoted to developing my own ideas and notions about every tooic under the sun instead of wasting time reading chloroform in print the scriptures and listening to corporate businessmen pretending to be spiritualists the brethren. It’s been invaluable, this shift toward intellectualism, substance really, instead of brainwashing myself with nonsensical pablum that’s destaked from any sort of connection to its claimed spiritual legacy.

2) I’m married to legitimately my soul mate and best friend. This wouldn’t have happened had I stayed in the cult. My wife is a joy to be around and I count myself as lucky beyond measure. The Mormon girl, and I use girl accurately as a mental description for her, that I was married to was narcissistic, a lazy bones, and a poor role model for my girls. How and why did I marry her? Young Single Adults ward and she was nice. I thought she’d make a good mother. How stunted was that thinking? After leaving the cult I was free to figure out relationships on my own terms, and I ended up with a gem of a woman.

3) I own all my crap outright, and have been blessed with the results of some good financial decisions. Pairing my financial present and future with Mormongod was a bad retirement strategy. He seems to really like other people’s money, and, you know, good for Mormongod. He can buy some more farmland, or condos, or cafeteria-free cult factories. I’m doing my own thing and it’s alright.

4) My relationship with my daughters is authentic and excellent. There were no weird structural constraints that affected how I regarded them. They were free to pursue their own ways, I was free to mentor them where I saw fit, and we were free to love and accept each other. I’m surprised at how many strained familial relationships exist within Mormon - so much BS and destroyed families over nonsense. I was and am blessed to have avoided the pitfalls of cultural identity that’s very narrow within the cult.

finally

5) I don’t view life as a test or probation to be ‘endured to the end’. I value my time above all other things, because that’s the only thing I have that’s truly mine. I’m blessed to wake up every day with an appreciation for my life whereas before I wasn’t super excited about living because, apparently, the really good stuff is after you’re dead and gone. My culty BIL admitted to me that he visits his parents’ gravesite occasionally, and wishes for death. My dad used to say he was tired of life and wished for death. My in-law-uncle has mentioned that he’s done with life and he recently retired! This should be some awesome exploring time, adventure time, and yet he wants to die. This is a fairly common theme within Mormonism where members are done with life and just want to get on with the heavenly good stuff. Crazy, and I mean crazy they’d prefer to hold that mindset.

- Doc

Bonus) I’ve been blessed with an appreciation for the natural world that I didn’t have when I was a Mormon.

[drumdude]

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

I’ve been impressed as several posters both here and at SeN have admitted their lives are no better without Mormonism. I don’t think you could get up in fast and testimony meeting and say that your life hasn’t been blessed after joining Mormonism. The bishop would certainly intervene.

[Marcus]

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

You try so hard to be condescending! Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining as hell, but oh my goodness, you make your religion look bad!

Seriously, though, I really wonder where this condescension comes from. When I was growing up, Mormons privately complimented themselves on being “the chosen generation,” but I can’t think of anyone who was as openly rude and horrible to people not in their religion as you are. Is this a new thing? Or a Utah thing? Or are you just a one-off who even other Mormons are embarrassed by? I find this phenomenon fascinating.

[Dr Exiled]

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 Exiled]

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

You try so hard to be condescending! Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining as hell, but oh my goodness, you make your religion look bad!

Seriously, though, I really wonder where this condescension comes from. When I was growing up, Mormons privately complimented themselves on being “the chosen generation,” but I can’t think of anyone who was as openly rude and horrible to people not in their religion as you are. Is this a new thing? Or a Utah thing? Or are you just a one-off who even other Mormons are embarrassed by? I find this phenomenon fascinating.

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.

[malkie]

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

You try so hard to be condescending! Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining as hell, but oh my goodness, you make your religion look bad!

Seriously, though, I really wonder where this condescension comes from. When I was growing up, Mormons privately complimented themselves on being “the chosen generation,” but I can’t think of anyone who was as openly rude and horrible to people not in their religion as you are. Is this a new thing? Or a Utah thing? Or are you just a one-off who even other Mormons are embarrassed by? I find this phenomenon fascinating.

Dang, Marcus!!

You beat me to it.

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.

[malkie]

You try so hard to be condescending! Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining as hell, but oh my goodness, you make your religion look bad!

Seriously, though, I really wonder where this condescension comes from. When I was growing up, Mormons privately complimented themselves on being “the chosen generation,” but I can’t think of anyone who was as openly rude and horrible to people not in their religion as you are. Is this a new thing? Or a Utah thing? Or are you just a one-off who even other Mormons are embarrassed by? I find this phenomenon fascinating.

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.