Something That Kept Me in the LDS Church

First, some updates. I've gotten some great Patriarchal Blessings from people, thank you so much. I'll do a post sometime soon, it's in the works. As I said, there may not be anything too interesting, but I'll try to make it so, lol. A friend is in trouble with the honor code office and his atheism has been brought up, though not discussed. So I've asked him if he'll be willing to write a little about his experience. We'll see where that goes. I will get Collision in the mail anytime now, and Nature of Existence from Netflix, so I'll review those a little after I see them a couple times.

I say all this cause I only have 5 posts for this month. I am sorry. Far too few posts for the New Year. Not that I'm not thinking about being entertaining or have any thoughts, but I just haven't had too much to post on, and when I do, I end up writing it all at once in long posts. So I need to go back to spreading out topics. That and then nobody comments on my long posts and I feel sad :(
Lol.

So I went to SHIFT with a couple friends today and it was a really good discussion today, or at least I thought my comments were really good, lol. And something was brought up about Mormonism that wasn't exactly correct and made me think about an issue that comes from the outside.

I understand Mormonism far better now than before, but only because I had been in it to begin with. People who are never in it or never spend time truly delving into it, which would be volumes of books and teachings (1 or 2 books is NOT teaching you about Mormonism very well), these people sometimes try to fight against it without really understanding their enemy, and then say stupid things that any TMB knows is not true.

And that keeps them in their faith. It did for me.

And this can be said of any cult-like atmosphere, religion, or dogmatic society. They are entrenched in the culture and saturated with the doctrine and most know a thing or two about their own beliefs. So when an 'anti' comes along spouting off some anti-Mormon material that is either fabricated, untrue, or exaggerated, the common member will know it is and just think that the anti person is another tool of Satan. My favorite example is one from Rough Stone Rolling in which Oliver Cowdery was supposed to have said that he never truly believed Mormonism and it's false. Some anti-Mormon organizations still use this supposed newspaper clipping or whatever. The problem? The newspaper never existed. In fact, the town didn't exist till the 1900s, lol.

How are lies supposed to help? Regardless, a lot of this propaganda can be attributed to the liars for Jesus, other-wise known as evangelical Christians, who then wonder why so many postmos become atheists. You know why now? We see you lying to us all the time! Sorry, I spent my mission in the south and very few things thrown at me ended up being true in any way.

I bring this up cause I'm about truth, and even if I don't like something I think trying to tear it down through lies or half-truths is worst then allowing it to continue. These things only strengthened my resolve to remain in the church, they did not help. So, like today, I always try to correct misinformation, even if it holds religion or the church in a better light. I think demonizing a faith or helping to progress a lie, even if unintentionally (which is often the case), is harmful. I know plenty of people will or do agree with me on this, and I personally know plenty of return missionaries who think exactly like I do, some of which who use it as their testimony to Mormonism. So in that sense, don't lie in front of me.