NOM

Thank you!

Thanks for these suggestions.

The deception is for me a sure-fire indication that this was a sinful enterprise. But people find mind boggling justifications.

I try to think about ways to illustrate the horrors of polygamy while talking to my spouse/friends who just aren’t bothered by it. Lately I’m wondering about the when early converts from England and Scandinavia were told about polygamy. I just read that by 1890, about 91,000 British and Scandinavian ...

As the church tries to run away from its foundational intentions the temple makes less and less sense. The weird thing is that at the same time it is becoming more and more the focal point of the church. I agree. And once I had my feminist “awakening,” even though I’m not one to play the gender card ...

They shouldn't have let the Church off the hook. The LDS Church owns this - their founder started the depravity, and the Church has yet to denounce, renounce or condemn that depravity. They wouldn’t even have had to dwell on it. Just one question to whatever spokesperson the church chooses: “Is pol ...

I turned it on for a little bit this week during work, so I didn’t pay as much attention to it as needed. I’m mostly through the first episode. It talks quite a bit about Rulon Jeffs and all of his wives. Pretty disgusting actually; creepy for sure. There’s a still photo of Rulon Jeffs kissing one o ...

Nelson also said people who leave the church don’t deserve judgment any more than people who stay in the fold deserve criticism. “If friends and family should step away from the church, continue to love them,” he counseled. “... Let your skeptical friends see how much you love the Lord and his gospe ...

I take it to mean that you should doubt anything that creates emotional friction when it rubs up against correlated faith-promoting happy thoughts about the church and its authority structure. But how much room do you have to set those boundaries for yourself? This is what it’s about for me now. I g ...

Hey everyone, But basically we found out that one of our adult children probably came out of their church experience with religious trauma syndrome. Not sexual abuse or anything like that but basically traumatized by the excessive emphasis of purity culture. Modesty. Shame-based and fear-based ...

I'm always interested in these updates. It sounds like a pretty tough slog, at least at the moment. Your last comment, about how much the job can take and take, triggered a memory. I was good friends with both the wife and the adult daughter of the man who was bishop during my last active years ...

I had a checkup yesterday. My doctor highly approved of my coffee habit and said, "keep that up!" He also gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up for psilocybin. Now I have both medical and religious validation. What did he say the benefits are? So much of what I read about tea and coffee conflicts. I’d l ...

Whenever I bring that subject up I’m always met with: No one is barred from the celestial kingdom in the hereafter. Everyone will have an opportunity to accept the gospel. Everyone will have the chance to marry and be sealed, etc. As long as they abandon every aspect of who they are. “But we’ll see ...

Whenever I bring that subject up I’m always met with: No one is barred from the celestial kingdom in the hereafter. Everyone will have an opportunity to accept the gospel. Everyone will have the chance to marry and be sealed, etc.

One man claims to see God and convinces other people he is a prophet. They follow him and start a church. He eventually claims God has chosen him to begin sexual relations with women in his congregation. This is a pattern that has played out numerous times within numerous religious beginnings. What ...

I’m fascinated by this whole thing. I’ve quietly opted out of anything that requires speaking or teaching because I can’t figure how I would steer around the gaping holes in my “testimony.” Good luck to you and I hope you’ll keep posting.

Thanks for your story. It’s wonderful that you’re happy now. I guess that I do imagine a life where we‘ve both distanced ourselves from the church, which could turn out to be not pretty. But, like you said, I’m careful about what I wish for. At this point it is nothing more than my spouse’s mild inte ...

Just out of curiosity, what at the parts that you think were not made up? For instance, I can believe that he had a powerful experience in a grove of trees when saw/sensed a deity, and then was filled with relief and love when his sins were forgiven. But that’s about it - not the rest of the a ...

I think an indicator for Mormonism acceptance is rejecting the idea that Joseph Smith made it all up. If he didn't make it all up, then the angels, gold plates, polygamy, the Garden of Eden being in Missouri, Moon Quakers, and the three-dollar bill can all be believed. Many of us have tried to ...

I can’t find episode 4 on YouTube. Could someone link to it? Thanks.

Why would he say such a misleading thing, knowing full well that God doesn't work that way. It's a conscientious misrepresentation. It falsely raises the hopes and expectations of church members and then leaves them depressed, disheartened and in pain when experience teaches them the seemingly ...