End goal?

[_krose]

Is there similar feelings from people who leave catholic methodist or even islam?

Perhaps not, but it's a definite 'yes' for Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, 'Moonies' and some others.

[_dogmaster]

While I do not know your background, I do know there are a lot of people who falsely claim to have been Mormon a Mormon bishop or even a general authority then make very untrue claims about what we believe. I get emotional because I think that is mean.

[_Who Knows]

I have been considering how I should respond, but I can not come up with an answer that would make me seem angry too. That could be the problem? We all have a hard time expressing ourselves without seeming angry? I do not know if I could present my views like the church has asked us without getting emotional.

...

If I take the time to express my views I would not know how to do so in a way people would take me seriously. I might be better reading than posting.

Just spit it out, dawg!

[_Runtu]

While I do not know your background, I do know there are a lot of people who falsely claim to have been Mormon a Mormon bishop or even a general authority then make very untrue claims about what we believe. I get emotional because I think that is mean.

Yeah, I've met a few knuckleheads like that in my lifetime. Whether or not you believe it, I'm a high priest and have been elders quorum president, executive secretary, and assistant to the High Priests Group Leader. Of course, none of that has anything to do with whether or not the church is what it claims to be.

[_karl61]

While I do not know your background, I do know there are a lot of people who falsely claim to have been Mormon a Mormon bishop or even a general authority then make very untrue claims about what we believe. I get emotional because I think that is mean.

Do you think it was mean for Joseph Smith to send Orson Hyde on a mission and then marry his wife when he was gone?

[_malkie]

It is always interesting to me that two people who know the same things can come up with different interpretations. I have been involved in apologetics for several years. I know all the arguments agaisnt the Church. All the complaints against Church leaders. All the history issues. The Book of Abraham criticisms. Etc.

I am a faithful, temple attending LDS. I joined as an adult. It was only after 25 years in the Church that any of my parental family (I say this to distinguish the family I grew up in from the family born to me.) were members. And then it is two cousins I rarely see due to distance. I have a graduate degree from an institution not BYU. I taught college courses for years until I retired. The only time I lived in Utah was for a brief period when I was too little to remember it, and then at BYU for 3 years. I am telling you this so that you can see that I don't fit the profile that many anti-Mormons will say of faithful LDS. I was not indoctrinated into the Church as a child. I am not ignorant. I am reasonably intelligent. I don't live in Happy Valley. My activity in the Church is not because I am afraid my parents would have been heartbroken if I wasn't.

Runtu and others here say they have invesitgated the Chuch carefully and come up with the conclusion that most of the leaders were scoundrels, that Joseph Smith (and/or Sidney Rigdon and others) made it all up, that the truth claims of the Church are false. I have investigated the Church just as carefully, if not more so, and come up with the opposite conlcusions.

I agree with Charity (did I really say that? ;) ) that it is interesting how different people can draw such radically different conclusions from the same information.

What would also be "interesting" would be for the LDS church to provide the controversial information upfront, starting with the missionary discussions - e.g., having the missionaries talk about the several different versions of the First Vision; polygamy; polyandry etc - so that everyone was exposed to all of the issues, arguments, complaints, criticisms etc. I'm sure that this would never happen, but it is interesting to contemplate.

I will not attempt to speak for anyone else, but (even trying to allow for hindsight) I doubt that I would have become involved with the church if I had had access to this material in my youth.

I was angry for a while when I started to find out about the issues. That has mostly dissipated now. Mostly now I'm just trying to find a peaceful way to live a non-believer life surrounded on all sides by TBM relatives.

By what I understand as Charity's criteria, I never had a testimony, although my family was widely regarded as a model of how to live an LDS life (within more than one ward that we lived in from time to time). Perhaps I never tried hard enough. Perhaps I'm just evil, and have been deceived by satan. There are many possibilities. But the one that makes most sense to me is that it was a mistake for me ever to have become involved in the LDS church.

The backgrounds and opinions of the contributors to this board are extremely varied, and sometimes just extreme. You should find plenty here to educate (and entertain) you. I hope you find it as worthwhile as I have to read, and occasionally to post.

[_Blixa]

While I do not know your background, I do know there are a lot of people who falsely claim to have been Mormon a Mormon bishop or even a general authority then make very untrue claims about what we believe. I get emotional because I think that is mean.

Such a thing would be worse than "mean," but I don't know that there are a lot of people out their doing this, really. There are some faux GA's here (some funny satires on specific personalities) but that's something else altogether. Even so, that would be pretty easy to spot, don't you think? What I do think does happen sometimes is that people speak from their experiences of things that have changed, sometimes quite recently, and younger folk or those who haven't explored Mormon history, might indeed think that they are "making stuff up."

Since you have an aversion to "mean" things and wish to stay away from things which push your emotional buttons, maybe it will help to spend time getting a feel for a board (any message board) before you decide what you make of it.

[_malkie]

While I do not know your background, I do know there are a lot of people who falsely claim to have been Mormon a Mormon bishop or even a general authority then make very untrue claims about what we believe. I get emotional because I think that is mean.

Yeah, I've met a few knuckleheads like that in my lifetime. Whether or not you believe it, I'm a high priest and have been elders quorum president, executive secretary, and assistant to the High Priests Group Leader. Of course, none of that has anything to do with whether or not the church is what it claims to be.

Hey, Runtu, what's going on here? I mean, not only are you and I both technical writers, but we are both high priests and have both been elders quorum president, executive secretary, and assistant to the High Priests Group Leader (though not all at the same time - at least in my case). And I've also met a few knuckleheads in my lifetime.

Are you following me, or am I following you?

[_Some Schmo]

I have been considering how I should respond, but I can not come up with an answer that would make me seem angry too. That could be the problem? We all have a hard time expressing ourselves without seeming angry? I do not know if I could present my views like the church has asked us without getting emotional.

This should really tell you something.

[_Runtu]

Hey, Runtu, what's going on here? I mean, not only are you and I both technical writers, but we are both high priests and have both been elders quorum president, executive secretary, and assistant to the High Priests Group Leader (though not all at the same time - at least in my case). And I've also met a few knuckleheads in my lifetime.

Are you following me, or am I following you?

I thought you were one of my sockpuppets. What gives? ;)