I'm looking for a concise 1 or 2 sentence response.

I was recently in a mostly LDS meeting, but there were obviously some non-mormons there. Someone made a derogatory comment about some people who "fell away from the church." LDS people frequently let this phrase roll off the tongue with NO thought as to how bigoted and nasty it really is, and how it must come across to non-mormons or ex-mormons.

What? I don't think it's okay to classify all people who leave their religion as lost and fallen? That's right I don't.

I want to remind people that they are in mixed religious company and talking about other people this way shows their own intolerance and ignorance. The phrase "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" comes to mind.

How can I respond quickly, in 1-2 sentences?

Better to fall away from the church's teachings than to fall FOR the church's teachings.

+1,000

I say, "I didn't fall away. I walked away."

Or, "I didn't fall away. I escaped."

Oh? Why did they climb out?

The scales fell away from their eyes and they saw the truth

Just read this in one of the comments of the abc4 article that truthseeker posted:

"I didn't fall away from the church, I rose above it."

I think I like "I didn't fall away, I RAN as fast as I could away!!!"

"Do you mean to say they escaped?"

I always use the words 'rose/rise away from' or no long 'involved with.'

For example, 'she's no longer involved with Mormonism.'

Or, 'my family was able to rise away from Mormonism.'

And, 'I feel badly for kids that are involved with drugs or Mormonism.'

Frame Mormonism for what it is; a disadvantage or handicap.

They woke up!

So many good ideas . . . keep them coming!

The TRUTH pushed them away from the church. The more truth the further it pushed them.

"Good for them."

Dude, I can't believe you still fall for it!

The way I look at it is, I fell away from the BULLSHIT!!!that is Joe Smith and his fake Book Of Mormon!

"Fell away" makes me really mad. I usually say, "To where? Ya mean they disappeared? Or, did you just lose track of them." Or something like that. Falling away really means that the vanished people no longer exist in the Mormon world. It is Outer Darkness, only not after they die, but right now, imposed by the Mormons themselves. Nasty!

"I left Mormonism behind." (in my progression.)

I told my bishop, "I want to follow Christ."

"We returned to the Lutheran church." (Meaning, that is where we have always belonged. Mormonism was just a momentary lapse, but now we're back on track.) Our ancestors were Lutheran, until a few of them apostatized into polygamy. "We've gone back to our Lutheran roots."

If I'm really pissed off, I say, "We go to a Christian church, now."

I love to say, "I'm not involved with that." I am proud to not be a Mormon.

I'll try to remember these and use them next time I'm stuck in Utah.

People have a right to leave and only a cult doesn't.

Fell away? No, I made a sober and conscious decision to permanently end to my self delusion.

Correction: "to permanently end my self delusion"

Love it!

It strikes me that when people stop attending a normal church, they just stop going, and their own unfrought, typically offhand, normalizing response is along the lines of, simply, "I stopped going to that church." Sometimes they'll add, very briefly, that they didn't agree with the pastor's politics, or views on women, or something pretty easily pinpointable and conveyable like that.

If someone from a normal church is asked about someone who doesn't go to church, they'll typically say something along the lines of, "I don't know. I haven't seen him at church." Or, if they happen to have any actual information and insight about that particular person's circumstance, they'll say something respectful and decidedly not expansive, like "he's working things out," or "I don't know what she believes right now," or maybe "I think he's into X now."

Generally, in normal churches, people don't know why other people aren't coming. They typically assume they are simply doing other things, and beyond that they don't think about it because it's none of their business. They definitely don't judge them unless they have a bone to pick with that particular person. And they don't say stupid, presumptive, momentous sounding crap like, "She fell away," as though the person died or got cancer or ended up in a psyche ward. How culty is that?

So the response? "What? Did he die? Did he have a falling accident?" Or, "No, I didn't fall over. I started to question it and left."



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2013 09:09AM by derrida.

"Fallen away, ran away, so long as they are away, it's a good thing".

Fell away like a twelve-year-old falls off his mama's tit.

A variation on "Mormonism . . . isn't it . . . about time?

"So they finally figured it out, eh?"

"They got out of the speeding handbasket?"

"I guess they decided it was best for them. That takes a brave and honest person."

"I walked away after finding out the church isn't what it claims to be. And, no, it's NOT a healthy environment to raise a family. Nothing in it is unique, and it has some ugly baggage. I can explain further if you like...."

Usually it ends there.

We all fall away when the bubble of delusion pops.

"God has circumcised The Church (or X,Y Z...)from her/his life." swiped that from an Evangelical. useful anytime one needs to blacklist someone or thing

I just tell people I learned how to read.

Reading comprehension... Then took appropriate action.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2013 10:54AM by oldklunker.

Instead:


"They flew away - finally free!"

Didn't fall, I jumped.

I just say that I "graduated from mormonism"

Maybe

If you value Truth

"Seems they fell forward"

Maybe...

"They didn't fall away from Mormonism; they stopped falling for it."