Why I am still a Mormon (Testiphony)

[_TAK]

In other worlds you are a deceitful liar. Is this how you operate in the rest of your life as well?

Where is the lie? If he wasn't a member and said he was - That would be a lie.
There is no lie there.

[_antishock8]

http://sexylep.user.stfunoob.com/LIAR.jpg

[_The Dude]

Once in a while someone will ask if I am still a Mormon. "Well," I say, "I was raised Mormon but I don't believe in it anymore." Never once has someone asked for documentation of my status.

Generally I get odd questions whenever I tell non members at work that I am no longer a Mormon. "What? I thought you could never get out!", is common.

Common? In over 10 years I've never met a person outside of message boards who thought you couldn't "get out" of Mormonism. Most people, like me, figure you are out as soon as you stop attending and paying tithing. The paper formality is not very significant, unless you believe in it, in which case... why are you trying to leave something you still believe in?

I respond with, "Oh because it is a cult?"

Often theyl carefully reply, "Uhhh yeaahh...", almost like the know Mormons do not like being labeled as a cult.

I assure them that they are correct, "It is a cult. I know it is because in it and I really had to PULL my family out of it!".

"REALLY??", they jump.

"Oh yes, they are a very controlling group... a cult!"

\

Sorry B&L, but this conversation does not ring true to me. I guess it's been a long time since I read the RfM message board.

[_neworder]

I'm still a member. In fact, I just got a voice mail today asking me if I'd done my home teaching this month.

Even though I left almost 3 years ago and everybody in the ward knows I don't believe anymore, I still get random calls from a new ward member or someone from the stake. A few months ago I got a call asking if I wanted to join the Stake Choir.

[_Thama]

I assure them that they are correct, "It is a cult. I know it is because in it and I really had to PULL my family out of it!".

I find it interesting when I see people writing these sorts of experiences because they are so foreign to what my experience of leaving the Church has been. Nobody was pulling me back, or trying to proselyte to me, or anything of the sort. Those close to me asked for me to explain, and I did with the caveat that the conversation remained rational. To a person, so far, they have respected that wish. I have received no visits from missionaries (so far) nor ostracizing by the ward members.

Common? In over 10 years I've never met a person outside of message boards who thought you couldn't "get out" of Mormonism.

Well, some of the Baptists here in NC have some pretty crazy ideas of what Mormons are (I've been asked if I filed my horns). But as for those who actually know something about the Church, the idea that "you can't get out" is a pretty Roswellian one to have bouncing around in your head.

[_moksha]

When I left the Church, I never resigned and I am glad that I did not. It made coming back so much easier.

[_The Nehor]

I think we have to remember that this is Porter and anyone who would take seriously what he has to say is probably not the best and the brightest of modern society.

[_ludwigm]

I am still not.
But:
It happens that I appear with my wife in some church event. There are stake conferences, two in a year, and sometimes I should shepherd 2-3-4 of the grandchildrens while my wife is teaching the teachers.

The older acquaintances ask me
- What about the inactive investigator? - and I correct them
- The word "inactive" should no more used. The correct expression is "less active".
(Typically, they ask the count of the grandchildrens and I typically can say a bigger number than previously ...)

There are always new members, who ask my wife
- Really? Isn't Your husband a member? In turn, he would be a good one. He looks like he were one. - or similar.
The answer of my wife
- The problem is he is always thinking. - and she says it seriously, as she is totally humourless.

[_JonasS]

hmmm... lol

I am still an active member and have been back and forth in my beliefs, but I was writing a letter to a friend and I was thinking about my testimony and I made an attempt at bearing it. I shall post it on a new thread.

[_Dr. Shades]

The problem is he is always thinking.

Ah, yes. How many of us apostates have had some variation of that said to us by members?