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I put the documentary on right after work. It's a good one. There is a lot I identified with from my mission and few things I didn't.

The overarching theme seemed to be that, no matter what part of the world you live in, Mormons are seriously incapable of comprehending doubt. The results of the documentary shouldn't be surprising. I guess what's surprising is that Elder P. had the insight to make a documentary about something that is really hard to put into words but likely the greatest commonality that doubters have. I gave up trying to explain myself barely before I started many, many years ago with my family. I just relate to them on their terms and I never say anything about the Church. I take it as the price of admission that they'll talk down to me as the ward members did to Elder P. on his return, and that they are incapable of doing otherwise, so it is what it is.

The apologists should really watch the film because then they'll realize just how pointless Witnesses is. Nobody from the real world is going to take the flimsy witness "testimonies" seriously. Those on the inside have fully protected themselves from doubt, as the documentary shows, and so no more firepower is needed. Those on the fence, to the extent that Witnesses gives them hope, will only get curious and do a web search and then they are worse off from considering it in the first place.

Thanks to Everybody Wang Chung for mentioning, and to IHAQ for researching and recommending, the film.

My experience in Guatemala was, in some ways, like that of Elder Pingree, in that it left me with a great deal of respect for the Guatemalan people. In the mid-1980s, my brother and I went to Guatemala to help with the start-up of a natural products company called Farmaya. We wrote the protocols and otherwise helped the founder with some analytical chemistry and the set up of a double blind clinical study. This six month study turned out to demonstrate the effectiveness of a natural product hypoglycemic agent for management of Type II diabetes. We patented the formulation and process in the US. We also helped with the development of other products, one of which was moderately successful.

I did not make a return trip 25 years later. However, my brother made several trips in the intervening years and we stayed in touch with the founder for a while. The company we had helped get off the ground with donated time, a lecture at the local university, a US patent, and some donated used lab equipment, ended up more than 30 years later doing very well indeed.

Unlike Elder Pingree, upon his return to Guatemala, my brother did not need to explain that he no longer trusted, or believed in, organized science. The founder whom we had helped, and who also still believed in science, had no reason to be disappointed in him or in me.

The founder wrote me a few letters in the intervening years, and was grateful for what my brother and I had done for him and his company. We ended up with US rights to the intellectual property in the patent. Novo Nordisk looked at the opportunity but eventually passed on it because, while much less expensive, our natural product was source limited so was not worth their time to develop and was not needed in their product line.

Nonetheless, we felt that we had learned a lot from the founder about the valuable art of making due with what one had. Most of all, we enjoyed his letting us in on the adventure of a bootstrap start-up that eventually made it. His company has made a positive difference in the lives of tens of tens of thousands by providing locally sourced natural products that effectively controlled Type II diabetes and vaginal yeast infections (the two products we helped launch) at a price that was often up to 90%+ less than foreign manufactured ethical pharmaceuticals.

Unlike Mormonism, no one need doubt, apologize, or feel guilty for the practice of science.

Can you watch this for free on Amazon Prime?

My grandmother, mother and uncles were baptized by the older Elder Pingree along with Carlos H. Amado. I have heard his name many times as I’ve grown up. My grandmother, a widow, moved her children one by one to Southern California with help from the church. She remained as stalwart as can be the rest of her life, serving 2 missions in her old age. My mother as well has remained firmly in the church. Just earlier today I informed her of my doubts and faith crisis. She wept and told me how sad she would be if I “lost my testimony”. It’s been a hard day. Seeing Elder Pingree’s name here makes today all the more poignant.
I’ll be watching this documentary ASAP

The religious environment that Elder Pingree and other Mormon missionaries no doubt encountered in Guatemala, and would indeed find in most of Roman Catholic Central and South America, brings to mind the graphic below.

Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely be watching this film.

I recall hearing from Protestant missionaries in Spain that the common attitude was, "Why should I believe in your religion when I don't even believe in the real one?"

Everybody Wang Chung, thanks for the heads up. When honest people telling their honest stories about coming out of Mormonism honestly, believing Mormons should honestly be curious and seek for understanding. It is nightmarishly sad that so many will immediately go to work, looking for ways to nitpick and stick a hand in the face of that person and the way he/she shares their lived experience.

I've watched half of it but must go to bed. Great movie so far and I'm sure the rest will be just as good when I watch it tomorrow. This movie speaks a lot of truth to me about how great I felt the people were who I served in Brasil and the pain I sometimes feel in leaving the mother culture. I loved my mission but realize now how presumptuous I was telling people how to live. I was only 19-21 and what on earth did I know back then.

I love the reunion scenes where he unabashedly tells his converts and friends what his beliefs are now. He does it in a respectful way but completely honest. There seems to still be an inner struggle but a resoluteness in his decision to go on a different path. Again, great movie so far, honest without pretension, without guile.

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 29, 2021 2:38 pm

Everybody Wang Chung, thanks for the heads up. When honest people telling their honest stories about coming out of Mormonism honestly, believing Mormons should honestly be curious and seek for understanding. It is nightmarishly sad that so many will immediately go to work, looking for ways to nitpick and stick a hand in the face of that person and the way he/she shares their lived experience.

Herr Doctor you are so right on with your insight into the nitpicking mopologists undertake when truth must be stamped out!