Have you heard this one: Your apostasy is about a rebellion against the church or god because things didn't go like you wanted.
Yep. True. The LDS leaders turned out to be a fraud and running a scam. Heaven and celestial promises of godly powers are just bait to get our tithing. I'm rebelling because these ass-hats are like the parents that abuse you.
I got that one so many times. What are they going to do? Go after that person and make him feel like garbage for "denying me eternal salvation"? Try to get my tithing money from him?
So many times with them it felt like I was calling my cable company to cancel and they were trying to keep me as a customer.
and decided, "Okay, I'll go for that!!!" I told my TBM daughter a while back--I'm a sinner. She cut me off mid sentence and I said to her, "Allow me to be a sinner. I was such a good girl for SO LONG."
I never rebelled. My siblings did--almost all of them--even my very TBM BIL rebelled big time--and I NEVER DID. All my cousins on my dad's side--wild. All my friends in high school rebelled. (And now all the above are perfect little mormons.) Not I.
Oh--how I love being a rebel FINALLY.
Idiots.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2012 10:08AM by cl2.
Funny how that works. Mormons are fine with you changing your mind regarding religious beliefs as long as you change to agree with them but not okay if changing your mind means that you now disagree with them.
It's funny, I've also heard it the other way around. A guy in my singles ward, one of the nicest guys I've ever known, was secretly a non-believer who finally couldn't handle it anymore and went inactive. It was right around the time he finished dental school.
One of the women in the ward said he quit church because things were going so well for him that he "no longer needed the church." I was biting my tongue on that one!
The church is infamous for pinning a destroyed relationship between the member and the church on the victim. "It's all your fault because your sins are xyz! thats why you fell away from the church! I am perfect, I cannot do anything wrong. If I relationship is destroyed it's because something is wrong with YOU, not ME."
Would you be in a relationship with a person like this? then why would you be in a church like this? If anyone or anything claims that it is "perfect"... RUN. There is no such thing as perfection in this world.
Ahem... back to the topic of rebellion. Why does rebellion get such a bad reputation? Rebellion is a way of saying,"You are expecting me to live up to your ideals, when I have my own that I want to live by. I disapprove of your attempt to rule over me." Order is important, dictation is unneccesary. When dictation overrides what was originally order, rebellion is necessary. However, sometimes rebellion is premature, this often comes from people who have too much pride. There can be evils on both sides... but I believe rebellion deserves a better reputation. America would not be what it is without it.
Yes my mama tells me this sometimes. "I'm rebelling against her and the church." I should also point out I'm 32 with a family of my own not a confused teenager
I get, "You're just angry," to which I reply, "What exactly am I angry at?" They don't answer, but they clearly have something in mind which must have made me mad.
and there is nothing wrong with that. I was a model member for the MORmONS until I found out just exactly how rotten and dishonest LDS leaders really were, and how they had abused my trust that had been extended to them.
"Here at least we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice to reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven..."
When I left, my mom told everyone I was going down a "destructive path". Hahaha leaving a cult is destructive? Uh okay? I could be doing drugs or stealing cars but noo, leaving an indocrinating, disgusting cult is destructive.
All such accusations are an attempt to belittle us, to paint us as petty and shallow.
When ANY such accusations are thrown out to explain your apostasy stop it right there and call it for what it is--a personal insult against our integrity.
DON'T try to refute it.
DON'T try to justify it.
DON'T try to explain it.
Stop them right there and point out that they are insulting your character. Ask them how they would feel if you told them they were JUST brainwashed or JUST weak willed or JUST anything.
I'd also ask them why they feel they have to engage in personal attacks in order to defend their beliefs.
The urge to explain, to defend, to reason, etc is very common for those in transition out of mormondom. But such things are pointless.
In the world's most perfect, universal, totalitarian "church" (aka co-dependency club) there is never a valid reason for leaving, and it is futile to argue to the contrary. Those who leave have "shirked" their responsibility to reinforce the faith of the membership.
Ultimately, a man's spirituality (or lack) is his business, and no one else's - and that is the best attitude to take under the circumstances ...
I have gotten that too, just not quite like you stated. Rather, I was "rebellious" because I was not living to the Church's standards under the assumption that "since everyone is Mormon (I'm in Utah), I need to be something different." I have realized my family won't dare ask me after my dad tried. And well, he is usually right about a lot of stuff, but when he inquired of me about why I don't attend church, I brought in evidence for my beliefs and he had nothing to say. I believe I threatened his way of thinking as a result.