I've been asked a couple of times as to exactly why I want out of Mormonism, and I've been thinking over the weekend, exactly what it is...
The Blacks and the Priesthood thing really bothers me, but I've known about the problems with that for most of my life and it while it is definitely part of it, it's not the main reason.
Proposition 8 happened mostly after I made the decision to leave, and all that did was to cement my feelings.
Polygamy is part of it too, but I'll be completely honest here... I used to be a real chauvinistic male pig - hats off to my wife for marrying me in spite of that. I've known about polygamy most of my life as well (Well, at least the approved Church version - helping out widows, no sex and that kind of thing). And continuing with the honesty track, the idea of multiple sexual partners, sanctioned by God, wasn't exactly unappealing to me. Understanding the real story behind it, and the problems with it now, I'm very much against it now.
But none of those things are what I would cite as the main pivotal reason in my wanting out...
The reason is simple... I don't like being lied to, and for most of my life, a religious organization and those responsible for my education and care have lied to me. In many cases, the lie was just something that the person sharing had been told themselves and was simply passing on, but the more I looked into Church History, the more I realized that more people that I would have suspected knew the truth, and yet they still continued to perpetuate the lie. They might claim their intentions were good, but when is lying ever a good thing?!?
So that's my key issue, I was lied to by people who knew they were lying, and I don't like being lied to.
Makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I've tried the "lying is of the devil, it says so in your scriptures" thing. In my family, they just don't care. Cause I'm an "anti". Anything that makes sense is still disregarded. My little sister (26) decided that the awful things JS did were just his "dirty laundry" and that who would want their dirty laundry aired? So she doesn't "judge" him for it.
ReplyDeleteI got given the "Church is Perfect, Members are Not" speech by my bishop yesterday... And I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt when they make mistake - because I've made more than my fair share.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is though... When you claim to be a prophet of God, and allow the illusion that you are infallible - as the prophet today allows to happen, you set yourself as one who lives a higher standard, and if you're going to do that I think it unreasonable to expect people to just let you off by being just a man who makes mistakes.
I'm not perfect by any means, but I'm not bonking 14 year old girls behind my wifes back. I'm also not making up some crap about God commanding it to do said bonking either.
I'm also not taking billions of dollars, donated by people who think they're giving it to God, and making bad real estate investments and financing discriminatory political movements.
I have however found out that it's useless discussing any of this with Mormons... They don't care what the issues are, they just don't want to be wrong, and if that takes lying, ignoring the truth or twisting your words to achieve that, they see it all as fair game.