Shut Your Mouth and Fake It

[_why me]

. .

There are more Mormons in the pews faking it than I had suspected.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

I see that you now have another talent: to actually know who is faking it and who isn't. And what is exactly faking it? Can you be more specific? And so, in your ward, you know that there are Mormons in the pews who are faking their spiritual experiences?

Let me explain something to you: it is not easy to be a faithful christian today, regardless of the faith. It is a tough field to hoe. Faith also requires doubt since faith is believing in something that has no confirmed evidence. And so, we can go through our lives with various moments of faking it or not. It is just the way it is from the time of the founding of christianity with the 12 apostles who seemed to have been faking it at times.

[_why me]

What I meant is that I knew about all the problematic issues in the church for years before I acknowledged their implications. I made all kinds of excuses, and some of those excuses make me ashamed of myself. When I finally acknowledged to myself that my excuses didn't work, it was as if a heavy weight lifted off my soul. Yes, it precipitated 2 years of fighting with my wife, but I knew it was right.

Every christian or religious person in the world can look at problematic issues involving their faith and become disillusioned. Churches, mosques, synagogs etc are made by human beings who are not perfect. And when a spouse begins to question their faith and begins to live a life outside that faith, they can expect to get a negative reaction from the believing spouse. That is just the way it is unless that spouse sees the spouse's point and leaves the faith too. And because of this: the most fervent missionaries are those who have left their faith and who are trying to convert their spouses to the new belief systems.

[Guest]

DrW,

Thanks for your response earlier to my question.
If I may ask, what were the LDS sources that you sourced the Joseph Smith information from that your wife read?

[_cafe crema]

]

I respectfully disagree. I think we are conditioned to think that Mormons are always extremely hostile and distrusting of insiders who lose their faith, and so we try to slip away quietly and fearfully when we apostize. Frankly, most of the Mormons, my still believing wife and children included, that I have "come out" to, have been friendly and have tried to be understanding. They often bumble in their attempts to "fix" me, but surprisingly it has been a lot less painful than I was conditioned to expect.

Another point is that I have had, what I consider to be, a very healthy, peaceful, and relatively untroubled exit from the faith. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I think that you are right.

In my opinion, people after reading horror stories on NOM or on Postmo become conditiioned that Mormons are hostile toward spouses or anyone who lose their faith. But this is not true. Most of the members that I know have been understanding of people who lose their faith. I think that the problem comes from people who begin to voice strong contrary opinions to the church as some do on this forum. That may get a negative reaction from Mormons and spouses. Confrontation is never the best tactic or way to go.

Well there wouldn't be any horror stories on NOM or Postmo if they hadn't had those horrific experiences.

[_cafe crema]

I see that you now have another talent: to actually know who is faking it and who isn't. And what is exactly faking it? Can you be more specific? And so, in your ward, you know that there are Mormons in the pews who are faking their spiritual experiences?

His ability to know about other people pales in comparison to yours, he only knows about people who actually approach him and talk to him, you on the other hand endlessly talk about what other people (most of which you've never met or spoke to) think, feel, believe, your knowledge of what goes on in other peoples head is amazing.

Let me explain something to you: it is not easy to be a faithful christian today, regardless of the faith. It is a tough field to hoe. Faith also requires doubt since faith is believing in something that has no confirmed evidence. And so, we can go through our lives with various moments of faking it or not. It is just the way it is from the time of the founding of christianity with the 12 apostles who seemed to have been faking it at times.

Well you have the doubt thing down to a tee, can't commit to what you believe in, so pretend to believe in something else, deceiving all your fellows in the pews, not to mention the nuns and priests. That is if you really do what you say, I doubt you have what it takes to do even the minimum you claim.

[_just me]

Runtu, that gets me thinking.

We aren't really taught to live an authentic life, let alone how to do it. That makes it even harder. We have been taught all our lives to follow a prescribed path that is supposed to work for everyone.

This is bulldinky. Most Mormons are living an authentic life. What is an authentic life ooutside the church: having sex outside of marriage, getting a butt tattooed, getting blasted on friday, watching porn...etc, etc,....What is an authentic life? And what is the prescribed path? To live the teachings found in the new testament? That is what a christian should do and in that, an authentic life can be found. Authenticity, during this postmodern age is what one feels is the correct way to do life regardless of personal consequences.

Get out of my thread if you are just going to call people liars.

Your entire post is BS. You don't even know "most Mormons."

Although you do know the rhetoric well enough to jump to the conclusion that living authentically means "sex outside marriage, ass tatoo, drunk partying and viewing porn." How cliché.

Being christian is not authentic living for everyone. Being christian is not best done in Mormonism for all people. Mormonism is a whole hell of a lot more involved than following the New Testament.

YOU are doing the exact problem of prescribing a path and telling everyone that they must get on it and that will make them authentic. Foolishness!!!

I have never met a single person who believed that living authentically was to do whatever regardless of personal consequence. In fact, that is about the opposite of authentic living.

[_Runtu]

Get out of my thread if you are just going to call people liars.

Your entire post is b***s***. You don't even know "most Mormons."

Although you do know the rhetoric well enough to jump to the conclusion that living authentically means "sex outside marriage, ass tatoo, drunk partying and viewing porn." How cliché.

Being christian is not authentic living for everyone. Being christian is not best done in Mormonism for all people. Mormonism is a whole hell of a lot more involved than following the New Testament.

YOU are doing the exact problem of prescribing a path and telling everyone that they must get on it and that will make them authentic. Foolishness!!!

I have never met a single person who believed that living authentically was to do whatever regardless of personal consequence. In fact, that is about the opposite of authentic living.

For me, living an authentic life meant figuring out who and what I was deep down inside. What did I think was right and moral? What did I want to do with my life? Where did I find meaning and joy? These are all questions I had allowed other people to answer for me through 40 years of my life, and I honestly didn't know what I really thought and believed.

Not surprisingly, the authentic life I have found does not involve debauchery, drunkenness, tattoos, porn, or anything else why me mentioned in his silly post.

I have no doubt that some people find an authentic and fulfilling life within Mormonism. That's obvious. But many more people find an authentic life, even if they've never heard of Mormonism. The choice is not, as why me would have us believe, between a life of reckless hedonism and a pious Mormon life. Heck, even why me has chosen a middle ground, which presumably he finds an authentic life.

[_Buffalo]

I'm not sure why Why Me continues to comment on Mormon life issues. He isn't a Mormon now, and he never really was one.

[_Black Moclips]

For me to have gone through the doubts and skepticism I have over the last 5-6 years, being as TBM as I was, I feel like ANYONE in church could be a closet doubter. I sit in Sacramento meeting and look around, knowing that there are probably at least 10 other folks just like myself, hidden behind the mask.

[_consiglieri]

You sly devil you. This is just your method for outing those evil apostates who are acting as wolves in sheep's clothing. Don't let Will know about this or NOM's will be outed left and right. :)

I have the bishop on speed dial.