Posted by:
verilyverily
(
)
Date: December 11, 2014 10:50PM
It looks like I need to let folks in on the true story of my getting disfellowshipped at 15 years old. It was a few weeks after my 15th birthday, 1969.
My birthday, Christmas, and New Years all fall within 3 weeks of one another. At that time, it also meant that tithing Settlement was also between Christmas and New Years. Anyway, when I was 15, my "calling'" was ward organist. I really loved this calling (REALLY , as callings go this rocked because I got to play this far out pipe organ!)
Anyway, as the ward organist, I was scheduled to play some extra special music for the Sunday before Christmas, which was on Dec. 21st that year. This was back when they actually had a program on Sunday the week before Christmas.
I had some cool music planned including O Holy Night and Jerusalem. Then I had Silent Night planned for the end of the service. Each of these would have a butt kicking organ setting. I had a ball experimenting with the stops on the organ and making it sound different ways etc. Well I also played keyboards in a Rock band called Urge then. For some reason right after my 15th birthday, my band members and I decided to go to the church to practice our rock music. (I had keys to the church as the organist. They used to be more trusting.) We were a cover band for the Doors, Iron Butterfly, Santana, and some other bands that made use of keyboards a lot. (Don't worry extra young people if you don't know whose these bands are but they were good bands, but not the kind of bands to be approved by the cult to say the least, (what band is?)
Well while we were playing Light My Fire, the bishop and his counselor came in. The lights were all on in the chapel and you could hear the music outside. YES IT WAS LOUD. He came in and literally grabbed me by the hair from the organ. It was abuse, but of course I was too scared to say anything about it. He yelled these exact words "You're out of here but you still need to play for Sunday's Christmas show because it is too late to get anyone else." So I figured that was that. I played in the Christmas program. The bishop said I had to go to Tithing Settlement. At barely 15, I owed $34 based on gigs from the band and baby sitting. So I went to Tithing Settlement a few days after Christmas. I didn't go back to church since Tithing Settlement ever again except for family funerals etc. Now I have to back track a bit to get the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say).
In about Oct 1969 my SS teacher had told our class all about how JS had used a peep stone to translate the BoM. The SS teacher was a convert and didn't know that it was a secret (an outright lie until the essays!) Well this just rocked my thinking seriously. My parents had told me that if you don't use what God gave you, it would be taken away from you. I even vaguely remember some story about the talents that were taken away from someone who didn't use them. So I was thoroughly mad and confused. The previous SS teachers had said that he used the urim and thummin to translate.
Let me just say that at the time, I thought I was a fairly good TBM except for being in a rock band and taking some illicit drugs occasionally. I was never a real strong believer though even while young.
When I went into the bishop's office for Tithing Settlement I made up my mind that since I was kicked out anyway, I would ask about this discrepancy in the rock/hat vs urim thummin stories. When I asked him point blank why JS did not use what God gave him (urim and thummin), he really got angry and yelled at me claiming that I was "QUESTIONING THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH!" I didn't think I was doing that. I was just asking about JS's translating. But he saw it different. I asked again because his reaction was so insane that I thought he as was kidding. He wasn't. He said I was blatantly rude to "QUESTION THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH." I just left without any answer. Now they owe my an apology because I was right about the rock/hat. Because of my asking, the poor SS teacher got Ex'd so I had that guilt too.
Truth is stranger than fiction and this is the weirdest part. I didn't go back after the end of Dec 1969. But, until 2010, I thought I was disfellowed due to playing Light My Fire in the chapel. I was so into my study of the CULT in 2010 that I wanted to make sure that my name was NOT on their rolls. So I called the COB and asked them. The woman on the phone said that my name was on the membership rolls but listed as disfellowed. I asked her if it said that I played the wrong organ piece in church. She said that it did not say anything about that at all. What it said was that I was disfellowed due to questioning the authority of the church directly to a bishop! She said that they had set up a "repentance plan that I had not followed through on," and asked me if I wanted to go through with the repentance plan!! I told her to look at the date and the she got real quiet and said "Oh that was 40 years ago." I told her that I had not been back in 40 years and that I wanted my name off of their slimy rolls NOW.
I am not kidding. I know this sounds like I am making this up but I am not. My family knows and they were surprised that I got disfellowed in the first place at 15, but when I became an actual Apostate, I was the family scum bag.
Believe it or not, they actually told me I'd have to contact my bishop to get the resignation underway. I told her I did not know who the bishop was or what ward it was that I would be in or anything since I hadn't been there FOR 40 YEARS. She could not seem to get her mind around that. I did send in the resignation letter and then I got a note (with some GA's and Pres pics on it) telling me that "MY SALVATION WAS AT STAKE! and that I still had time to reconsider!" I sent in the letter and said "FUCK OFF AND DIE" literally. I received a confirmation letter saying I was off the rolls.
Has anything like this happened to any of you? I don't mean playing the organ but have any of you had letters about your salvation being at stake? The arrogance of the CULT is just amazing.
Sorry for the long story. Some of you have already heard about it but today being my birthday seems like a good time to repeat it with gratitude for getting out when I did.
THANKS sincerely for all the nice birthday wishes. My life was NOT in the CULT, HURRAY!!!!!!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2014 11:29PM by verilyverily.