Your online Mormonism experience

[_sock puppet]

I am wondering if engaging in discussion of Mormon topics online with those of differing, even opposing views from your own, has made you more favorably disposed you may be towards Mormonism or less so, or had no effect on the level you had coming into the fray.

[_Blixa]

This is a really good question and one that I'm quite interested in hearing people's responses to. My own experiences have been significant in many, many ways. I have to run some errands, but I'll be back to answer more extensively later.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

It's absolutely made me more opposed to Mormonism.

Mormonism used to be something clear & unapologetic.

The Mopologists have made it something venal and ruthless. It's a shame, frankly.

- VRDRC

[_Drifting]

Train hard, fight easy.

This is a maxim used in the military to stress the importance of training before going into battle.

Based on what we see from the new posters arriving here to wage war against the supposed anti Mormon lies that get propagated here, the Church does a very bad job of educating it's members.

The Church encourages members to get online to preach the Gospel but more often than not, these valiant soldiers turn up here and have their eyes opened. They fire blanks.

My experience as been that Mormons who post here learn rather than teach...

[_DrW]

Train hard, fight easy.

This is a maxim used in the military to stress the importance of training before going into battle.

I believe this aphorism comes from a Chinese proverb:

"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."

This is just one of the little nuggets of wisdom that the Drill Instructors would scream at the young Privates of as we ran in the soft sand along the beach at MCB Camp Pendleton in the summertime carrying full pack and rifle. (Most of the other things they yelled at us, and the little shout and response routines they would lead us in, could not be repeated in polite company.)

They would run us until about 1/3 the platoon had dropped out. Those who finished the run got to go on weekend liberty. Those who did not did not.
__________________

Oh, and as to the question in the OP, I really think that the new apologists who come on the board are not seeking to improve their knowledge of the gospel (because what good would that do, after all?).

I think they come here to practice apologetic "skills" such as obfuscation, misrepresentation, denial, and the fabrication and use of red herrings, straw men, and when all else fails, ad hominem attacks. Some become guite good at it, actually.

[_Natsunekko]

Online Mormon discussion sites (Mormon Stories, to be exact, but I look forward to reading more here too) have made it possible for me to return to church. For years and years I felt SOOOO guilty about having these "wicked" thoughts and never really felt like I belonged at church. I was sure that if the other people at church found out anything about me, they'd totally kick me to the curb. I made myself go for decades, and then went inactive for around nine years.

Boards like this one have opened my eyes--not to the truth, but to the fact that there are many people like myself who can't believe the mystical stuff that is taught by the LDS church, but who do still choose to be part of the LDS community because there -are- good things about the culture. (Yes, there are certainly bad things about it too!)

I slowly started going back to church because I wanted my kids to experience the positive things--the fun youth activities, the service projects, the boy scout program, etc--and I'm able now to sit and listen without feeling like I must be a very wicked person to disbelieve.

[Guest]

Online Mormon discussion sites (Mormon Stories, to be exact, but I look forward to reading more here too) have made it possible for me to return to church. For years and years I felt SOOOO guilty about having these "wicked" thoughts and never really felt like I belonged at church. I was sure that if the other people at church found out anything about me, they'd totally kick me to the curb. I made myself go for decades, and then went inactive for around nine years.

Boards like this one have opened my eyes--not to the truth, but to the fact that there are many people like myself who can't believe the mystical stuff that is taught by the LDS church, but who do still choose to be part of the LDS community because there -are- good things about the culture. (Yes, there are certainly bad things about it too!)

I slowly started going back to church because I wanted my kids to experience the positive things--the fun youth activities, the service projects, the boy scout program, etc--and I'm able now to sit and listen without feeling like I must be a very wicked person to disbelieve.

Welcome to MDB, Natsunekko, or as Axl Rose might put it,

Welcome to the jungle, we got fun 'n' games
We got everything you want, honey we know the names... .

Interesting intro post. Reason is an anathema to believing without it, i.e. faith. Whatever "wicked" may mean, I am okay with it if it is a label from my choosing to place stock in that for which there is evidence and reason over that for which there is not.

I hope your children have the experiences in those Church auxiliaries as you are envisioning them. I enjoyed some in my own youth, found others to be banal.

ETC grammar

[_Runtu]

I read a lot of the apologetic stuff and see my past self, which is kind of painful. I twisted myself into knots trying to defend what on some level I had to have known wasn't true.

However, I don't believe I was ever as angry or caustic as a lot of apologists. The way I was treated didn't have anything to do with my leaving, but I suppose it serves as a reminder of where I might have been heading had I stayed.

[_aranyborju]

I am wondering if engaging in discussion of Mormon topics online with those of differing, even opposing views from your own, has made you more favorably disposed you may be towards Mormonism or less so, or had no effect on the level you had coming into the fray.

I don't walk away from any discussion online more favorably disposed towards Mormonism or vice verse. I think that like any organization, it is made up of individuals. I certainly wouldn't let a bad online experience (of which I have had many) negate the many positive experiences that I have had with the LDS church throughout my life.

What my online experience has done, is open my eyes to a whole host of discussions and issues that were raging around me, but that I was completely oblivious to. Having taught gospel doctrine and also seminary for several years, I considered my knowledge of the gospel and church history to be fairly definitive. I spent a lot of time reading and studying all of the church manuals other materials published by the church. When someone would bring up a theory in gospel doctrine, my immediate response was always that I would love to explore that more, but I will need to see where it was taught be a General Authority or published by the church before I can let the class discuss it for any length of time. I would constantly remind people "well Truman Madson made some great cd's but he isn't a General Authority" etc.

This isn't really the place to explain how I ended up exploring LDS topics online, but suffice it to say that I was shocked at the number of topics that were being hotly debated that I had never even considered before. I was also astonished at how many members were willing to disregard the Prophets, seers, and revelators, and turn to so called apologists, and use their theories as doctrine... flippantly referring to what the General Authorities teach as "milk."

[_sock puppet]

I am wondering if engaging in discussion of Mormon topics online with those of differing, even opposing views from your own, has made you more favorably disposed you may be towards Mormonism or less so, or had no effect on the level you had coming into the fray.

I don't walk away from any discussion online more favorably disposed towards Mormonism or vice verse. I think that like any organization, it is made up of individuals. I certainly wouldn't let a bad online experience (of which I have had many) negate the many positive experiences that I have had with the LDS church throughout my life.

What my online experience has done, is open my eyes to a whole host of discussions and issues that were raging around me, but that I was completely oblivious to. Having taught gospel doctrine and also seminary for several years, I considered my knowledge of the gospel and church history to be fairly definitive. I spent a lot of time reading and studying all of the church manuals other materials published by the church. When someone would bring up a theory in gospel doctrine, my immediate response was always that I would love to explore that more, but I will need to see where it was taught be a General Authority or published by the church before I can let the class discuss it for any length of time. I would constantly remind people "well Truman Madson made some great cd's but he isn't a General Authority" etc.

This isn't really the place to explain how I ended up exploring LDS topics online, but suffice it to say that I was shocked at the number of topics that were being hotly debated that I had never even considered before. I was also astonished at how many members were willing to disregard the Prophets, seers, and revelators, and turn to so called apologists, and use their theories as doctrine... flippantly referring to what the General Authorities teach as "milk."

I am sure, aranyborju, that many of those hotly debated issues are among the topics here at MDB. But if you wouldn't mind, I think it would be most interesting if you were to list out what you discovered the online issues to be that were beyond the manuals and Church published materials.