Have you been blessed by leaving the church?

[drumdude]

I've been watching recent stake conferences on youtube. There's not really anything noteworthy in them, unfortunately. Most of the speakers at the end of the meeting, the highest priesthood holders, have only one thing to say. That being in the church offers unique blessings that you can get no other way.

Is this true for you who have left Mormonism? Have you lost your blessings? Has your life gotten harder, has the joy been removed?

[MG 2.0]

I've been watching recent stake conferences on youtube. There's not really anything noteworthy in them, unfortunately. Most of the speakers at the end of the meeting, the highest priesthood holders, have only one thing to say. That being in the church offers unique blessings that you can get no other way.

Is this true for you who have left Mormonism? Have you lost your blessings? Has your life gotten harder, has the joy been removed?

51 looks so far. No comments. Interesting.

Regards,
MG

[Poly G Porter]

Brother Em Gee,(MG)

Sister Wendy is wondering, "Whatcha been up to?"

[toon]

My life is just as much of a crap show now as it was when I was in. The difference is I feel no need to hide it anymore.

Apparently, crap gets edited as crap, because as we all know, crap is the better feces.

[toon]

“F”.

Just testing to see how that gets edited.

[Jersey Girl]

“F”.

Just testing to see how that gets edited.

Disable your word censor.

[IHAQ]

Blessed? That word is very Mormon in the context it’s used in the OP. But here are some differences I’ve noticed:

I now see my charitable donations being used to help people rather than to build another unnecessarily ornate edifice or top up an already eye-wateringly large hedge fund.

My relationships are genuine and don’t carry the fakeness that comes with the conditional nature of a “friendship” with a non related Mormon.

When I’m asked to do things the requests don’t contain passive aggressive guilting.

My standing with a deity no longer depends on money nor my adherence to the judgemental instructions of people who don’t practice what they preach.

Blessed? I’m certainly happier and feel infinitely more satisfied in my interactions and relationships with other humans. I’m a better person for being removed from that toxic institution.

[drumdude]

I've been watching recent stake conferences on youtube. There's not really anything noteworthy in them, unfortunately. Most of the speakers at the end of the meeting, the highest priesthood holders, have only one thing to say. That being in the church offers unique blessings that you can get no other way.

Is this true for you who have left Mormonism? Have you lost your blessings? Has your life gotten harder, has the joy been removed?

51 looks so far. No comments. Interesting.

Regards,
MG

Unfortunately here's no bishop here staring at us to guilt-bear our testimony.

[Tator]

Besides the old joke of a change of underwear, a 10% raise and Sundays off, I have been blessed by leaving with peace of mind. I really don't live much differently than before except for the absence of the guilt imposed by the cult.

[honorentheos]

One of the biggest blessings of leaving is learning to nest in the gale of uncertainty. It is ok to not know, that uncertainty is honesty, that most answers to tough questions are just the best we can do for now.

Along with this is the blessing of learning how to evaluate the strength of evidence logically.

Not having to squeeze information through the Japanese Game Show holes of Mormon beliefs and then figure out how they fit together? A huge blessing.

We joke about getting Sundays off and 10% of our income back but that's actually been pretty valuable to me. If work just gave me an extra day off every week and a 10% raise I'd be embarrassed at their generosity.

I think there is something beautiful if sobering in having the anthropocentric worldview of western Christian belief removed so one can see the world and cosmos in it's amazing vastness and variety without the conceit it is all for us.

It's far better ethically, and a blessing for more than me, to lose the belief that cosmic justice will balance out the ills of the world. It's on us to do as much good as we can, to prevent as much evil, and know that evil - intentional harm not just tragic events - is not due to the influence of some outside force but rather the product of humans mistreating others.

It's a blessing to not default to everything happens for a reason or that God has a plan. Things happen for reasons but they are just the consequences of countless event leading up to them. People aren't killed in car accidents because God wanted them home. People don't lose their jobs because God has something bigger planned for them. Bad things happen to people because. And if they struggle to deal with it or recover from it, it's on us to recognize things aren't deserved or their burden to carry that God knows they have the strength to bear. They can very easily be dealing with way too much that could crush them and it's on me to do what I can to help if possible.

There are more but I have things to do this morning.