Buffalo wrote:It takes two separate perspectives to have depth perception. Being totally immersed in the Mormon faith and then being totally deprogrammed from it gives you that depth perception. A frog swimming in a shallow pool doesn't know how shallow the pool was until it leaves the pool and hops up into a tree and gains a larger perspective. Regardless of whether Mormons or ex-Mormons are right or wrong, it's the ex-Mormons who have a deeper, more complete understanding of Mormonism.
I would never claim to have known everything there was to know about Mormonism, but between the ages of 14-32 I was totally immersed and enthusiastically soaking up everything offered. I graduated from BYU, mission, temple, avid genealogist (driving across North America to gather information from county courthouses and cemetaries before the internet), participated in every organization available to my sex/age group.
At this point, I don't want to say how many years later, I know more about Mormonism than when I was a member, mostly due to reading internet groups like this one for more than a decade, which has led to a hearty interest in the
issues of Mormonism. The kinds of
issues that I had no way of knowing about before and would have put on the shelf if I had known. TBMs can claim that delving into those issues leads to one's downfall. I say they add to one's perspective. I totally agree that (generally speaking) apostates have a greater perspective and a fuller knowledge than TBMs. This is not speaking of the thousands who simply drift away every year. I'm speaking of people who know enough to feel confident in their apostacy as so many of us here do.