After years of talking with current and former mormons, I am well aware that the reasons for people leaving and becoming disaffected are as different as snowflakes. Everyone has a different story and takes a unique path. I didn’t get a chance to listen to John Dehlin’s mormon stories podcasts…
Category: Holy Ghost
Hellmut’s Deconversion
I have been miserable at Church ever since my mission. I still couldn’t get out because I had to act on my testimony even though I experienced Church as toxic every Sunday. To me, the mission experience was dehumanizing and sacrilegious reducing converts to trophies and missionaries to tools. Any…
I am Son of Perdition (And So Can You!)
As one of those ex-Mormons who has adopted the label Son of Perdition (SofP), I’d just like to toy with this a bit (continuing the discussion here). I think this label is a bit loser than some think. Here’s an intriguing post on BCC about those who would be considered…
Who knew the spirit is so smart?
I caught this Daily Herald summary of General Conference and one point stood out to me: Apparently Richard G. Scott is of the opinion that the “spirit” can reveal “absolute truths.” Here’s the quote from the news report: Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles discussed…
The Beginning of the End
Gluby and I had been married for 16 months when I finally pulled it out of him that he was having doubts. I knew something was up because he was always upset, angry, or aloof after church or “fulfilling” his calling as the ward mission leader. One day after church…
part 2: exorcising the Holy Ghost
This post follows an earlier one, the spirit. Check that one out first so you can get a segue into where I’m coming from. During my long process of questioning and exiting, I’ve re-evaluated just about everything in my life. I had a especially hard time explaining, defying, and reinterpreting…
part 1: the Holy Ghost
I remember the first time I felt one of my prayers was answered. How old was I? After baptism, but still a pre-teen. I had just learned to really love reading novels, and I picked one up from my parents’ library. It was a Tony Hillerman book, a murder mystery….
When Good Stuff Hurts
My sympathy to the bishops who have to deal with the anxieties of members who watched the Frontline documentary The Mormons. But lets face it, it’s going to get a lot worse during the presidential campaign. However painful, Helen Whitney’s work is affording Mormons a soft landing.
How Do You Know?
When we were younger, we threw the word “know” around a lot. We said we knew “with every fiber of our being” that X, Y, and Z were true. And we knew not because of reason or “evidence” but because of the witness of the spirit. This kind of knowledge…
Had a Weird Moment
by La I was putting my near-toddler son to bed, but I was at my sister’s house, so I layed him on my niece’s bed. He likes to go to bed with his bottle and classical music. My niece only had 1 CD in her stereo, and thank goodness it…