So I posted on here a couple weeks ago asking for advice because my fiancé and I have been led on a wild goose chase so we could get married in the temple. Well, we both decided it wasn't worth it. And I want to thank all the people that posted them. I'm on my final leg with the church. I hope you'll be compassionate with me having a hard time leaving. I'm 26 and I've been really true to the church my whole life.
I'd like to know what finally did it for you? What was the final straw for why you left? I'd especially like to hear from those who had been members for a long time. I spent a lot of my time trying to justify a lot of the issues people have with the church. I would just like to hear what made you finally leave.

I had very deep and *obvious* questions that the church constantly told me it had the answers, for my entire life.

I went to church for 30 years. Still no answers.

I prayed for 30 years. Still no answers.

I went to the temple. Still no answers.

I "served" a mission. Still no answers.

I started a proper education by reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection. ANSWERS.

The church simply had nothing to offer but suffering and deceit. It was a parasite on my brain and on my life.

Keep thinking. Keep asking. Those are the things that made me happy.

I was BIC and very devout. I finally left when I realized the church leaders were lying. Local leaders had been very cruel and kept trying to cover it up, and lying about it. Higher authorities didn't care about the corruption and lying and did their best to make me shut up about it.

Cover-ups, corruption, Lying...at all levels of the church. It made me realize it couldn't possibly be the one true church of God.

I'm sure you can find much more info on reasons people left by reading the personal stories of leaving posted on other parts of this website.

I had been a faithful member since I can remember, BIC, and followed the morg's pathway for my whole life. I guess the defining moment for me was watching my wife slowly wither away from a long painful 6 year illness that included lots of blessings that promised her a full recovery. I watched her take her final breath and when she didn't take another one something inside of me changed. I realized that there was no gawd, no kind loving Father in Heaven who cared, and nothing of a divine nature that had any sway over me anymore. Even my wife, in her final hours, asked me, "what if it isn't true?"

Since then I have been asked why I don't come back to church. I simply ask, "why does gawd allow his children to suffer from pain, hunger, abuse, horrible diseases, and cruelty from other of his children?" So far nobody can answer me that other than one asshat who said that gawd is testing us.

Welcome back, sunbeep. I knew this had to be you even before I looked at your username. I sent you a quote by Epicurus. Did you read it yet?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2017 03:09PM by canary21.

Disillusioned Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd like to know what finally did it for you? What
> was the final straw for why you left? I'd
> especially like to hear from those who had been
> members for a long time.

Me: male, so priesthood, BIC (Born In the Covenant), RM (Returned Missionary), married in the temple. Paid tithing on gross. Not quite 100%-er with respect to home teaching, but I tried (though I never really enjoyed it, and always secretly wished I didn't have to do it).

Gave up TSCC (The So-Called Church) in mid/late 30's.

Why? I realized they're a business that uses sneaky, underhanded, even cult-like tactics to grow, to maintain brand loyalty and to prevent attrition. And they say they're not that.

They lied. They had taught me that honesty was a virtue. Confusion, cognitive dissonance swirling around in my head and my heart. They lied? Is it true?

They lied. My thoughts went something like "If they lied about not being a business, then everything else they say is probably a lie too. It's probably not true. I now realize I believed because that's what I'd been taught."

They lied. I left. Checked out mentally in the space of a few hours* having come to the above realization. Only took until my next paycheck to stop paying tithing. Took a few weeks to get comfortable with the idea of no longer attending.

Maybe someday I'll add "resignation" to the list of steps on my path out. For now, for me and my personal circumstances, it's enough to be "out" in spirit and in deed, even though I'm technically "in" on paper.







*A key piece in all the above is that all throughout my life, maybe from the time I was 10-12 or so up until I was gone, was my personal "shelf" of things that nagged at me about Mormonism. A conversation here, a thing slipped in there during some lesson or talk, etc. Shelf broke, then I was gone; it was the only thing that made sense to do.

What was on my shelf?

- just a kid: found out about Santa Claus (not technically related, but set a precedent)

- teenager: conversation with non-believing cousin who told me that he saw it like "So God and the Devil are fighting...why can't they just leave me out of it?"

- pre-mission college - learned about the temple death threats while debating born-again dorm mate who was trying to witness to me (I, of course, prepping to go on a mission, had to bible-bash him, because I Knew So Much from seminary)

- missionary - So. Much. Crap. you see on your mission...I could write a book; let it suffice to say that for every person who said "No" to us and our Special Message(TM) -- and there were lots of those -- it was like a pebble was added to my shelf

- post-mission college - I'm so horny! (well, that applies to most of the above too, but after the mission it's like the gate's been opened and you're off to the races)

- post-college work life - you know your boss, the pretty successful and overall decent one? he threw the office a holiday party, and there were drinks, and "Hey, I work with these people, they're all OK" and (mostly) not alcoholics who failed at life like I was taught if you took even one drink you're on a downward spiral

My shelf started gathering materials when I transferred to BYU; I had been a convert of one year. Three things were starting to congeal--1. BYU religion course content, 2. Not being a RM with the Y's social structure, and 3. No one told me that jacking off was a sin.

1. Pearl of Great Price class -- mummies circulating around the Midwest show up for Joseph Smith to translate. Why would Hebrew Scripture (Book of Abraham) be on Egyptian mummies written in Egyptian? It would be like a missing part of the Koran showing up in a Bob Dylan song.

Doctrine and Covenants class--D&C 132, 76, and the United Order. Fuck! I have to give my stereo to my bishop so he may, or may not, give it back to me!

2. I could get 2 dates before the woman lost interest in me. I finally learned about the, "I always dreamed about marrying an RM," when I became interested in a woman only to find out she was engaged (she had a ring she didn't wear). I joked about putting masking tape around my lower thighs so when the woman did a garment check there would be a ring around my jeans. I'm probably the only guy who went to BYU who never got any Levi-loving.

3. No one told me. Hell, I lettered in it in high school! I went in for a worthiness interview with a member of the stake president after promising my BYU bishop I'd never do it again (blue balls for three months, then, "I slipped"). The SP member proceed to create hostile environment by having me call him once a week. When he'd see me he'd stare at me (he told me he could tell by just looking at me). I finally moved to get out of that BYU Stake.

A couple of years later, Mark Hofmann's forgeries unscrewed three molly bolts on my shelf.

About a year later I was doing a live temple session. The kid next to me was going through for the first time, he was scared shitless. (This was back in the slicing and dicing bloody oaths temple ceremony). He was so scared walking up to the veil. I had to tell him someone at the veil, would help him.

I was sitting in the Celestial Room watching him as he entered. He had a look of confusion and terror when he entered. His family went up to him and he started calming down and smiling as they all congratulated him. I looked around and said to myself, "Holy fuck! I'm in a cult." My shelf collapsed, and I told my wife I no longer believed in the church. WWIII started. She told me the marriage would be over if I left.

I did leave, but I'm still married in name only. It's complicated because of health insurance, children, and grand children. I'm also an old fart.

Because all of this happened long before the internet, I had never read anything critical of the church. The last time I reread the Book of Mormon, all the issues jumped out at me--it was a 19th Century American book that fit well within its historical context.

Very best wishes, wanker!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2017 12:12PM by BYU Boner.

Topping with a response for dp.

Is it just you or is your fiance also questioning and wanting out?

Both of us. Her belief system is very unique and she doesn't need a church to continue her beliefs. She's only there for me right now

I was worn out from rationalizing too many things that did not make sense. The last straw was some Book of Abraham issue that came up--suddenly my shelf crashed and busted in a thousand pieces. That was two years ago, and I have never turned back.

What finally did it for me was I finally trusted myself. You can look at all the facts and all the evidence, and you can see the church splitting up families, and the bigotry, misogyny and homophobia, that we were indoctrinated to accept as the way God works, but it really comes down to trusting yourself more than what the Mormon church is telling you. Somewhere much deeper than where our testimony ever was, is pure conscience.

I was TBM to the hilt the whole time. But this was long ago and I knew of none of the real facts--the smoking guns. But just before I left, it just didn't feel right. The last time I went to church I arrived uncharacteristically late and I just stood in the back looking for a minute and listening to the speaker bear testimony and out of the blue I just could not be there another minute. I couldn't even tell myself why. It felt so wrong. I left and never went back.

I was reading a book by one of the prophets just a few weeks after that when the light bulb lit up. I was done that second.

Many years later I got the real dope on the church and that was very nice to know. But I didn't need it.

I was very TBM but I lost my belief in the church after reading the book Mormonism -Shadow or Reality. I realized that the church was not being honest about the history and realized there were serious problems to the foundational claims of the church. I finally reached the conclusion that Joseph Smith was a con man, the Book of Mormon was a work of 19th century fiction, and the church was never led by God.

If you need some help solidifying your confidence the church is not what it claims to be, I suggesT googling The CES Letter and Mormon Think.

I second that. The CES Letter came way after I was out, but it really would have helped!

I also HIGHLY recommend this video by Chris Johnson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj9uLK-Z1MM

The church takes so much time and money.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1949858,1950283#msg-1950283

A lot of things but the leadership were not prophets obviously and the endowment cult ritual slice your throat stupid handshake bullshit and then they all had the nerve to call it sacred.

My story is well known here. I was never a TBM but just went with the flow and my final moments as a Mormon was when I hit "send" to submit my resignation after I'd had enough of an old asshole HP pestering me to come back to church.....and then as soon I did the deed I told my wife and it felt soooo good.

my parents without any warning. He just told me he told them I had confided in him that Im gay. He didnt ask me if it would be okay, he did it against my will.

When I came home I did keep attending for about a year, but that feeling of betrayal was the seed

You "confided" in him, meaning you told him something in "confidence", meaning the thing said was "confidential", meaning he's not supposed to tell anyone else.

I always knew I believed different than the people I knew who are LDS. I was very devout. The most devout of my parents' children, if not in the whole family. My parents couldn't believe I left. They used to argue about how it happened, who caused it. My dad wasn't all that ctive when I was young, so obviously it was his fault?!?

Gay/straight marriage. More than that, dealing with leaders before we got married. If you search my screen name, you'll probably find a lot of my story. I won't rehash as so many board members have read it time and time again. The LDS leaders nearly destroyed me as a person. We finally got married to get the voyeurs out of our lives. He left me 10 years or so into the marriage with a set of twins to finish raising.

I somehow survived. The last moment, the very, very last moment of my beliefs happened when my best friend's daughter was getting married. If something would go wrong with her plans, she'd say, "The church is still true, so what does it matter." I thought about that for days. I was out walking at the middle school track and it hit me, "IT MATTERED TO ME."

My parents had watched my life fall apart. Even my siblings said, "This couldn't happen to Colleen." Most of my family is out. My daughter is the only TBM of all the grandkids and greatgrandkids. When I left, my parents listened to what I said as they were SO SHOCKED. My mother accepted it well and my dad told me all his problems with the lds church, like the temple. He got married in the SL temple in 1952. He told me it was the most bizarre thing he had ever experienced. He never went back to the temple until my older sister got married 25 years after his marriage.

If you read here long enough, you'll see that MOST of the posters on here were very devout mormons.

Nothing specifically offended me, although I had concerns about the general safety of thought control. I grew up with the BoM being the keystone of our religion. It was the foundation of everything. No BoM, no church. Without the BoM, the whole thing crumbles as it should.

The BoM has been proven to be a fraud by many unassailable means of analysis. Likewise the BoA, although the latter is easily debunked. The official answer to the complete debunking of the BoA is "well, you just have to pray about it". Yeah, while I'm at it I'll ask the Lord if I'm married to a supermodel.

What happens when you see things that can't be unseen is that you find yourself outside the Mormon bubble. Then the world looks much different.

I Finally myself to think:
What if Joseph and Brigham appeared on the front porch and I investigated them as I would a new television, mutual fund or used car?
My investigation then led to polyandry, plural marriage to 14 year old girls by 37 year old men, Book of Abraham absurdities, racism, Book of Mormon anachronisms, sexism, mysogony, First Vision contradictions, homophobia, the Kinderhook Plates and a billion dollar mall.

I honestly don't think there was one defining moment that did it for me. It happened gradually until I just couldn't pretend to believe any more. It began with my questions about polygamy. As a teenager I began to question why polygamy was ever allowed and why it is currently believed that men can and will be married to several women in the afterlife. I was never able to receive an answer to this question that made any kind of sense. After high school I went on a travel study program through BYU Idaho and I learned a great deal of church history that I found to be pretty strange at the very least and a bit disturbing. I learned things about Joseph Smith that I found creepy and unsettling that I had never heard before. Even with my many doubts, I tried to stay in the church for quite some time. However, the more I learned about the church and their previous and current policies and beliefs, the harder I found it to believe. When I finally decided to stop attending church and I got away from the brain washing...I found the concepts that the church taught me were sounding more and more ludicrous. I also realized that the church has a fairly strong history of promoting prejudice and treating certain groups as second class citizens. Best of luck to you. I know this process can feel overwhelming and daunting. I hope that you can find the answers that you are looking for and wish the best for you and your fiancé.

There were plenty of straws over the years that led me to go inactive. I guess the final one was this asshole bishop I had while at BYU. One night I had an Ecclesiastical Endorsement meeting with him where he started yelling at me from the get-go and threatening to have me kicked out of school because I had missed too much church. At that point church was not a priority for me at all, especially since my mom had been confined to her bed after some major surgery plus the development of bad arthritis in her knees, requiring me to go home on the weekends to care for her while my dad was out of town on business. But this guy wouldn't even deign to listen to my explanations.

Afterwards I realized that his attitude was really stereotypical of all of Mormondom, because I had known too many people who prioritized the Church far above family or education, and I couldn't stand for that. It reminded me of a kid I knew in my teens who had been kicked out of his house when he was 16 for telling his parents that he was atheist. Shit like that completely blows my mind; how can anyone hold religion in higher regards than their own child? After that night I knew that I was done. I had been toying with the idea of leaving church behind me since I was about 12 or 13, but that night sealed the deal.

The final straw that caused me to actually resign about 10 years later was the church's policy banning the children of gay couples. Their aggressive fight against marriage equality and the LGBTQ+ community had rubbed me the wrong way for many years, but I never thought they'd actually come out and label gay people as "apostates" -- and then punish children for the so-called "sins" of their parents. At that point my passive dislike of the church morphed into active loathing and I couldn't bear to have my name associated with such a bigoted and hateful institution anymore, even though I knew it would hurt my mom very much to see me resign.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2017 06:21AM by oneinbillions.

I think the final moment, or last straw for me was reading the CES letter and seeing the drawn picture of Joseph Smith sitting on some stairs, holding his hat in both hands with his face down in the hat. That was such a strong image, that it felt like a shock to me!

I awoke elated and never returned.

GBH went on TV a couple of times and came off like a damn fool. Yet, his statements somehow embarrassed me and threw the members under the bus. I was appalled at how these supposedly wise brethren in my ward thought GBH did just fine and handled the press like a pro. He all but admitted to being a fraud.

Me to...I was a missionary when he had his first big TV appearance. Then at the next gen. conf., IIRC, he joked about it, trying to tell all the members not to worry about the "milk" he fed the nation while we all could smirk knowing about the real "meat" of TSCC.

I lost my tolerance for loud and stupid people.

BoA. Papyri were 2,000 years too young to be written by Abraham, and we can now translate the text. It has no resemblance whatsoever to what JS claimed it said. That was enough for me, since I already thought the BoM myth was pretty dicey itself.

I lived as a cult member for almost 50 years. There were things that niggled away at my brain, that I pushed aside. I always figured I was the one at fault. My 16 year old daughter was assigned a Sacrament Meeting talk on Celestial Marriage.

She researched on church websites and in the huge cache of church books I'd inherited. She was greatly disturbed and postponed her talk, and spoke to me. I feared for her and worried she was "being led astray".

I suggested she write a letter outlining her questions to my parents old mission president and church history teacher from BYU, C. Max Caldwell, thinking surely he would give her the answers she needed.

He wrote a disparaging, mealy mouthed, down-putting response to her sincere letter. I was shocked and appalled. She gathered all her materials and notes in an organized and again sincere manner, and booked time to speak the the ward bishop.

He too was dismissive and scornful, and then completely changed the subject and talked about his favorite topic of finances, while she sat there angry and frustrated.

She and her slightly older sister sat down with me and told me very calmly and explicitly some things that I had been peripherally aware of (for instance, I'd known about the Kinderhook Plates in a church history class, and pushed that onto a shelf). They laugh now, when they say I immediately went to this website, and searched online for all the "Anti" stuff I could find. They, on other hand had been careful to use church approved resources!

That was it. Done. In very, very short hours.

All three daughters and myself, out. Then came the part about telling my siblings, and the feeling of the world having been yanked out from under my feet: friends, activities, value as a person, etc. But that's another whole story. And as Chris Johnson (I know him and his family from our TBM days) says in the video link that someone referenced above, it just keeps getting better. There is a really big world out there. And this may be all we get. So living is even better.

Greater than fifty years in. Being bishopric started my downfall. Reading BOM over and over- no longer made any sense.

Now reading No Man Knows My History- two thirds way thru. You need to read this book...

Gatorman
Fed up with it all



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2017 02:06PM by gatorman.

I was totally done after a very short time of only 4-5 months... I was shunned because I actually got a JOB. My story was posted here a few months back, and I was shunned almost immediately (I was hired for a full time yet lower wage retail job (no tithing was EVER going to happen), and I HAD to work on Sundays, I have a Jewish husband, no time for church callings and other BS... I got dirty looks just because of my 'Cynful' personal license plates... the list goes on and on, however I am so grateful that I only wasted a few months. What the hell was I thinking? Well, like many folks here, they caught me at a very vulnerable time, and as soon as saw TSCC for what it REALLY was (a mind fucking, manipulative cult) which was ALL about $$$ only. No, no and no... I walked out forever and never went back. Never for all time and
in a trillion years would the thought EVER cross my mind.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2017 05:16PM by cynful.

I had just returned from my 2-year mission to France, where I'd been slowly but surely realizing that none of it was true.

When I got back, right after I did my "homecoming" speech (after which I was admonished for not being "enthusiastic" enough about the glories of serving a mission), I essentially went inactive. Mormon friends and family that asked why they hadn't seen me in my "home" ward on Sunday were told (yes, I lied to them) that I had been going to a singles ward in another stake.

Finally about three months after I got back, I went to my home ward, to see another "homecoming" talk from one of my high school friends who had gone on HIS mission. After Sac. meeting, the bishop grabbed me, and asked me to come into his office. He asked me why he hadn't seen me, and I gave him the same lie. Then he said he would like to call me to teach a sunday school class -- to the boys (and girls, but they didn't matter to him) who were 16-18, as I could really inspire them to make going on a mission their main priority.

I sat silent for a moment. And then, right there and then, I realized that I didn't believe any of it. Not a single bit. And I realized that I had no desire to lie to kids, and convince them to go on what I considered a waste of two years of my life.

So I told him "no." He was shocked. He asked me why.
I told him I didn't believe anything about mormonism was "true," and that I wanted no part of indoctrinating teenagers to go waste 2 years of their lives, and I wanted no part of mormonism any longer.

Of course, he immediately assumed I'd "sinned."
He asked me if I'd been in some sexual situation since returning home, something that brought Satan in to influence me and draw me away from the church. I hadn't (though I did so indulge shortly after!), and said so. He asked if someone had "offended" me -- I assured him nobody had. He persisted...why, then, would I want to leave?
"Because it's a pile of bullshit, and you know it," I said.
And I walked out.
Never to return.

That was 36 years ago. Best decision I ever made :)

Your story helps illustrate one of mormonism 's greatest pitfalls. Leaders never expect to hear a member respond with "no". Upon hearing it, leaders jump to the conclusion that it's because of sin or the power of Stan.

I was also a faithful TBM all my life.

I left for my children. I left to enjoy life and love in the here and now (not after death).

I don't think I ever fully believed all the JS stories. My ancestors were neighbors of JS, and among the earliest Mormons. Some were polygamists. I could never stomach polygamy, either. My ancestors left journals, which I read. There were some real horror stories in there, about JS's marriages to little girls. My own ancestor married his wife's sister (which began my line), but he had to wait until she was 16, but his friend JS married them at 14 and 15. The older sister and her baby died crossing the plains, but the sister survived, and raised all the children. My ancestor was very high up in the church, and he owned some prime land in the City Creek area, but when he died, the Mormon church took that land from his widow. In exchange, the church gave them some useless swamp land. The widow's son became a doctor, and made his way in the world.

The diaries of the high-up Mormon, the younger sister that he married, and the doctor son, stayed with the family. Soon after "consolidation", the Mormon cult tried to get these diaries from our family, but we refused. An old aunt borrowed the diaries, and was persuaded to loan them to the BYU library, to "share with everyone," so she gave them away. My cousin and I tried for months to view these diaries at the Marriott Library, until we finally realized that the cult either destroyed them, or permanently locked them up.

The Mormons had something to hide. I also knew a lot about the polygamous Mormons, that most Mormons didn't know.

Another of my ancestors, on my father's side, died right before the Mormons left to cross the plains. He and his wife had sold their home and everything they owned to buy a good quality covered wagon and team of oxen. The Mormons confiscated all of her equipment, telling her that a woman could not make the journey without a husband. She had 5 children. The Mormons left them at Winter Quarters, and they had to survive in a cave.

Sorry to ramble, but I grew up with these ancestral stories and diaries, so I never believed in Joseph Smith. Our whole family was Mormon, and I believed in Christ, so I stayed in the cult, anyway. What's the harm, right?

Fast forward to Salt Lake City, with me as the ward organist, and also a single divorced working mother. I was marginalized. Because we had no man to protect us, the Mormons tried to take over my position as head of household. We suffered home invasions, my sleeping children being pulled out of their beds, my little girl being molested at a church camp-out, and other abuses.

Final Moments of being a Mormon--at last! My children had been threatened to keep silent about the incidence of abuse. When they finally told me, we cried together, and I said, "We don't ever have to go there again." We all officially resigned together.

Ask yourself this one question: Do you want your children to believe in a hoax cult, support their hatred of gays and women, pay their money, lose their hope, lose their self-esteem, become janitors, and support the criminal behavior of their leader JS?

I left, and took my children away from all that. It's one of the best decisions I ever made. 9 years later, we are happy and successful!

Speaking of diaries, I read by GGfather's. He converted to Mormonism in England - late 1850's, and he emigrated to US, and walked to SLC in the early 1860s, many years before the transcontinental rail road was completed.

Upon arriving in Boston, he reported in his diary that John Taylor met the ship and stayed with the newly arrived Saints over the next week, "helping" them in their travel plans to SLC. Dear Bro. Taylor indicated that the walking portion of the journey to SLC was fraught with many dangers. Not just from Indian attacks, but "highway men" who would stop and rob wagon trains.

Dear Bro. Taylor convinced the new arrivals that the Church had a proven way to protect their money - gold and silver English coins and other specie - and told the saints to surrender their money to him. The Church would then return it to them upon SLC arrival.

I don't need to tell you that my ancestors never received any money upon arrival. That's right, the Church stole their money, and that's after they bought a wagon and oxen from Church outfitters.

GGfather and entire family were incensed and left the Church - They somehow found the resources to travel to Los Angeles area
and started life anew. Later, one of their children, my Great Grandfather became affiliated with the Church again, and that's how I got into the cult.

The Church has been taking innocent people to the cleaners since 1830.

So when the Church asks you if you are "clean", perhaps you can tell them "yes", just as my ancestors were "cleaned-out"

mine was always hearing the words " worthy " and " serving " all the time. Because of a social anxiety problem , I can't get in front of people snd talk, was uncomfortable if asked to give the prayer , was embarrassed to always say " no".
I felt like I was the only one who never served, or what they call " serving", do always felt like I wasn't worthy. My first ward was great, but then we moved a lot of times, each different ward, it all started all over again,
I had a few people sAying that it was selfish or a sin , that if I just did it the spirit would take over, etc
I finally stopped going when we moved again ( military), do no one knew I was LDS then, still got the Ensign and Liahora, and read my scriptures and lots of LDS books that I had
About a year ago I was thinking of coming back , and found this site, now I don't want to go back, know the truth, stuff that you questioned deep inside, turned out yo be true
The toilet cleaning thing was something new that I never heard before. I had to google it to read more about it, thought it was a joke or code got something, but no, it's actually cleaning toilets

Actually a HUGE eye opening moment for me was the GBH interview with Larry King when GBH was asked if he was a prophet if God. Now for two years I was told to boldly tell everyone I met that there was a true prophet alive today who was speaking for God, just like Moses and Peter of old; and that Christ had restored His church to earth again. I did so faithfully for two years, at my own expense. And, yet, what was GBH's response to Larry King's question when he had an audience of millions? It was, "Well, I'm sustained as such." WTF!!!!

If you can't find a reason to leave can you stay knowing it is a fraud.

Can you sit in front of a man who thinks god is talking to him and accept any job he wants to give you.

Can you sit through conference/sacrament talks listening to cult speak, wear garments, home teach, give blessings, teach lessons, go to the temple, pay tithing. AKA having your ass owned for the rest of your life, knowing it is BS.

Can you watch your children go through this all over again?

I'm 7th generation, very devout. Wasnt searching or angry but about 14 years ago the church filed a lawsuit against the family of Leonard Arrington after his death to keep some things from being made public. That is what collapsed what I thought was a strong testimony. It just didn't make sense to me that if you had truth that you had to hide or keep certain things hidden. For some reason, despite knowing most of the other information this was the issue for me.

Very simple, I do not want my kids to grow up being mind controlled and to be in a religion that is a complete fraud. As parents, we have the obligation to provide the truth to our own kin. A truth is something that can be verified. The Mormon church cannot nor will it ever be verified, quite the opposite it has been proven 100% false.

My parents converted when I was little and I went along just fine for years, but in my teens, as I also became aware I was gay, the whole charade started to fall apart. One day, aged 16, in the middle of sacrament meeting, someone started preaching about teh gays and giving us a bad rap. I had come out to my parents a few months before and had told them if they ever had to choose between me and TSCC they better choose me. I knew they were slowly coming around.

So when this holier-than-thou arrogant pr*ck started pontificating, I looked at my parents and noticed they took issue with him. Then I looked at my friends who I knew were falling away as well and a few of whom even knew I was gay. When Big Pr*ck said something along the lines of "if anyone disagrees with this, they have no place here" and two teens, a brother and sister, just stood up and walked out. Next I also stood up and walked out. And so did my friends and parents after that. In the foyer, we decided to go out for brunch together.

My family never went to church again.

Impressive and well done. I am curious. Did any of you resign or did you just go inactive?

To resign from a church that barely exists, even on paper, seems like a waste of time. I know it's different in Utah but in Europe most wards have more than a million nevermos.

I love these "last straw" threads.

I've been bottling up little things for the better part of a decade, initially just dismissing them as "me" problems and as the years wore on realizing that no, they weren't just me problems.

But the final straw on top of all these culminating things was the new Church Handbook Policy about children of gay parents. I'm bisexual, dating a women- they made it clear what they think of me or any future kids I may have/adopt. I haven't gone to church regularly for a few years anyway and not at all since the policy, plan to make it official with a resignation letter once I'm out of my mormon aunts house (thanks to advice I got on my own thread).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2017 07:55PM by kkdoodl.

Hitting "SEND".