Hello from a recovering lurker

[rincewind]

I’ve been a NOM lurker for a few years, and felt like I lost my best friend when NOM 1.0 went down. I thank all those who created and maintain NOM 2.0. So, in response to Moksha’s call for more posters, I come out from my cave of introversion and write an intro. I’m a fan of Terry Pratchett’s Disc World books and came to relate to the character Rincewind, the incompetent wizard, after a serving a stint as EQP and never experiencing the promised magical “priesthood power”.

I joined the church in the 1970’s at age 17 after an atheist upbringing (long story), served a mission, MIT, EQP. My disaffection story is pretty typical. I wasn’t getting any spiritual nourishment at church and I finally considered the possibility that the problem wasn’t just me. My career path has lead me to technical problem-solving and forensic engineering, so turning over rocks and looking at the crawly things is what I do. Applying that type of examination to the church “broke my shelf”. My reading list included Rough Stone Rolling, Mormon Enigma, Quinn’s Mormon Hierarchy books, Charles Harrell’s This Is My Doctrine, and countless scholarly papers. The lack of historical corroboration of the church’s narrative is deeply disturbing to me, especially pertaining to priesthood. To quote Bushman, it “raises the possibility of later fabrication”.

I would consider myself a “Weak Theist” on the Dawkins Scale, and my current status in the church is “active, but disengaged”. My love for my (mostly) TBM family requires me to live at peace with the Church, so NOM is my life line to sanity. Meanwhile, I take my approach from the Penguins of Madagascar, “Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave”.

[Fifi de la Vergne]

I like your description of "turning over the rocks and looking at the crawly things". . . So apt a description of what it feels like to venture outside correlated LDS history. Glad you're lurking no longer -- I'm looking forward to hearing more!

[MoPag]

Hi Rincewind! I felt the same way about NOM 1.0. Those were a sad couple of weeks when it was gone. Glad you are here with us.

[MalcolmVillager]

Welcome officially. Lurk anytime, post when you can. We all get lazy and want to lurk, but that is only possible when posting happens.

[Hagoth]

Glad you came out of the shadows, rincewind. I've always been curious about Disc World but never quite made that journey.

[oximormon]

TBM family requires me to live at peace with the Church, so NOM is my life line to sanity. Meanwhile, I take my approach from the Penguins of Madagascar, “Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave”.

Welcome back, and thanks for coming out of obscurity - I think a few more of us lurkers need to step up

I love your quote from the Penguins, it accurately explains my approach too

Oxi

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

Excellent post, I enjoy it when lurkers turn to participators.

[moksha]

A hearty welcome for your participation, Rincewind!