Sunday, January 23, 2011

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.

6 comments:

  1. Creepy picture. I thought that when I saw it as a certain person's profile picture, but even creepier here.

    It makes me sad when I'm listening to Irreligiosophy and they say something about Mormonism that isn't quite right and that any long time member or former member would know is wrong. I always wanted to say "Wait! That's not quite right! Don't say that! You don't sound as credible when you say that!"

    Looking forward to your patriarchal blessing post. :) And your exit story.

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  2. I agree. The same goes for attacking people personally. If the only thing you can say is "well you're clearly stupid/evil/selfish," what have you, then the person is better off not hearing anything from you. Your insults will only insulate their faith in Mormonism.

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  4. Yeah, I totally agree with all that's been said here. People really do take opposition as confirmation of their beliefs. I had a young men's leader who said that there were evangelical christians protesting outside of some Temple one time he was there so he walked up to them and said, "Thanks, you just strengthened my testimony", because obviously anything that is so vehemently opposed must be divinely inspired. By that logic NAMBLA must be divinely inspired because they sure face a lot of opposition.

    Oh yeah! And Irreligiosophy! I love them but I hate it when they get things wrong. I wish they had payed more attention when they were still believers.

    Lol J-Dog, "it was a really good discussion today, or at least I thought my comments were really good, lol." Awesome.

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  5. Definitely agree. When I lived in California, all the strange things people asked me just confirmed my faith that the "Outside World" was ignorant and wrong.

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  6. heretic - we discussed that elsewhere

    carla - exactly. i find most friends are open to discussing why i left so long as i tell them they may not like what i say. so far those friends have all kept in touch, though some much less, lol.

    benny - NAMBLA hahaha. i know about boy/girl lovers in europe, i didn't know we had one in the usa. another example closer to home would be the westboro baptists, or even closer the fundamentalist mormons. what logical fallacy is that ... non sequiter?

    emily - the story of my mission

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