How Mormon Dialogue & Discussions crushed my testimony

[_lostindc]

We laugh at the absurdity of the city creek mall, and we both laughed when we both did not feel like laughing, such as last night after discussing her pain over losing her faith, when I showed her the thread on Church service missionaries having service missions at a Church operated for-profit hunting reserve.

That was me, in this thread: http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/500 ... -apostate/

You're welcome.

I very much empathize with your experience. In my case, though, I lost faith in the modern LDS Church, and the current leadership first. I actually still believed in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's alleged prophethood for a brief time after that. It was after I determined that the modern LDS Church is a vapid corporate shell that I came to the realization that Mormonism was never true to begin with.

Thanks, it feels good to laugh at the insanity of this whole mess.

[_lostindc]

Thanks for sharing, ldc. I'm sorry for your pain and your struggles, but glad to hear you and your family are united in this decision and continuing bravely on. That's more than a lot of "apostates" can say.

You really are fortunate that your family is together in this. I was divorced before I lost faith in Mormonism. I later found out that my ex and I had lost our faith independently of each other. I've seen many people talk about losing their faith while still being married to a believing Mormon, and I'm sure that adds an order of magnitude to the problem.

EDIT: "You" = lostindc, not CaliforniaKid.

I agree, I feel very fortunate. She followed after me but she had her doubts for quite sometime.

[_lostindc]

Dear LostinDC,

I remember you from the MAD Board, and I think you and I locked horns on a few occasions. If you are the same lostindc, and if my memory is any good, you struck me as pretty orthodox at the time and not very willing to look at alternative views.

I was surprised in encountering a very different kind of lostindc on this board some time later.

I like this lostindc better.

For what it's worth.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

thanks sir, yes I fought very hard even when my doubts were rather high. I apologize for my actions. I feel quite duped over the whole mess.

[_lostindc]

You people were "on your way out already".....

You all need to stop fooling yourselves that it was FAIR, or Mormons, or Mormon Apologists that caused you to loose your testimony.

It's a perfectly natural phenomena that when you start to become an enemy of others, you also become their enemy.

Christ was tolerated and accepted for a time, but eventually the "lines" were drawn between the believers and the haters/doubters.

Don't blame us for YOUR unbelief..... You are entirely responsible for yourself.

Far from the truth. I wanted nothing more than for my belief system to be validated. I wanted to serve all my days in the Church. Still to this day, I believe I would be at much greater peace if I never encountered the issues discussed by apologists. Ignorance is bliss.

Your consistent hate filled discourse is a big hinderance to the LDS faith. It is better that you never talk than attempt the work of an apologist or missionary. The less you talk the less the Church suffers. You, Will, and others have led many folks out of the Church. The harm has been great.

So if you want to spread the Gospel, your best course of action would be to tape your mouth shut, lock yourself in a room without any technology and never leave. The less of you the more likely current members will stay.

[_Darth J]

It's a perfectly natural phenomena that when you start to become an enemy of others, you also become their enemy.

Another natural phenomenon is that when you start to sit down in a chair, you also sit down in a chair.

Ldsfags, if you love your fellow believing Latter-day Saints, stop causing them the excruciating embarrassment and guilt by association that results whenever your incoherent gibberish is subjected to the "Submit" button.

[_Kishkumen]

Hey, lostindc-

Thanks so much for sharing that. All I can say is that I believe I have felt a lot of those feelings, and I know something of how hard it can be. After all of these years, I have not fully healed from it all. I hoped that apologists would have answers for me. What I got was bullying. Worse, they really did not have answers for my legitimate concerns, or even admit that I had legitimate concerns.

Hang in there.

[_thews]

Well, really…not the end. Right now my family and I are wandering. My wife has basically lost her belief in the Church (in the last half year or so) and we have young children that will likely not be members as they are young. We get stressed over losing our belief system and facing her pioneer heritage family and the few members in my family but we try to laugh.

Walking outside Plato's cave isn't just seeing what's real for what it is, it's seeing how the shadows intentionally lied to you. When you mention losing your belief system, the way you concluded this was to gain knowledge of the truth. The truth is the truth and your perception of what's true is concluded only by you and not what some other human tells you is the truth... or the ramifications of failing to live by their version of the truth. I hope you aren't jaded by the people who lied to you. The teachers to itching ears pretend to believe, and when the jig is up they'll turn on you for failing to play along. The safe conclusion is to side with facts that can be proven and place faith in science, but understand the scientific method is held to the existing universe and doesn't answer infinite questions. Your kids are free to think for themselves and this is a good thing. The host of holy horrors is the fear the dogs use to instill fear, so without it, the teachers to itching ears lose the bogey monster they like to call Satan. I'm very happy for you.

To the teachers to itching ears, I always think of you when I hear this song being dragged down by Joseph Smith's seer stone:

From Pink Floyd Animals... Dogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o62nD9aFdSc

Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) 17:06

You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need.
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street,
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed.
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight,
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.

And after a while, you can work on points for style.
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake,
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile.
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder.
You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you
get older.
And in the end you'll pack up and fly down south,
Hide your head in the sand,
Just another sad old man,
All alone and dying of cancer.

And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown.
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone.
And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw
around.
So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone,
Dragged down by the stone.

I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused.
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used.
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise.
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this
maze?

Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend.
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
And everything's done under the sun,
And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer.

Who was born in a house full of pain.
Who was trained not to spit in the fan.
Who was told what to do by the man.
Who was broken by trained personnel.
Who was fitted with collar and chain.
Who was given a pat on the back.
Who was breaking away from the pack.
Who was only a stranger at home.
Who was ground down in the end.
Who was found dead on the phone.
Who was dragged down by the stone.

[_SteelHead]

It's a perfectly natural phenomena that when you start to become an enemy of others, you also become their enemy.

Another natural phenomenon is that when you start to sit down in a chair, you also sit down in a chair.

ldsfaqs, if you love your fellow believing Latter-day Saints, stop causing them the excruciating embarrassment and guilt by association that results whenever your incoherent gibberish is subjected to the "Submit" button.

Almost but not quite as supernal as the BC "money where you mouth is" reply.

[_Rollo Tomasi]

Fact, if I never encountered FAIR LDS and the Mormon Dialogue board I would likely still have a testimony. Maybe not a strong one but I am sure something would be there. If posters and notable apologists answered questions with: ‘I don’t know,’ instead of providing lacking speculation I believe many members would be retained. If the hatred and need to fight halts, I believe positive results will occur.

For a long time I've believed that MAD hurts the Church more than it helps (at least as individual members are concerned). I'm frankly surprised that the Church (i.e., the institutional Church) hasn't applied pressure to either shut or tone MAD down. Once MAD purged the "undesirables" (myself included), it became an even nastier place, in my opinion.

[_Infymus]

Fact, if I never encountered FAIR LDS and the Mormon Dialogue board I would likely still have a testimony. Maybe not a strong one but I am sure something would be there. If posters and notable apologists answered questions with: ‘I don’t know,’ instead of providing lacking speculation I believe many members would be retained. If the hatred and need to fight halts, I believe positive results will occur.

This exactly why I send anyone questioning Mormonism to FAIR, FARMS, NWI. Because I know they'll turn right back around and come back when the community they thought would help them - turns around and stabs them in the back.

There is no better anti-Mormonism than the apologetic sites. And ldsfaqs's response is 100% typical and completely in line with this. It is your fault, not the Cult.

If you want a better place to express your feelings and find those who are in the same situation - similar situations - or have gone through this, I would suggest you register on the Ex-Mormon Forums and post there. It's a safer environment than this one - free from people like ldsfaqs.