The belief system you were born into and raised to believe half of the story. The faithful story that ignores the bottom half of the barrel where upon a deeper dive, you learn crazy things that contradict what you once thought was normal. Things like peep stones, and sinking treasures, toads and salamanders, polygamy, step sisters, 14 year old house helpers, and long john underwear designed to keep unscrupulous relationships a secret. A massacre blamed on indians, a religious tyrant with over 50 wives, polygamous stop-start-stop (for real this time) manifestos and 99 other changing doctrines designed to prop up the never changing simple Gospel. Add in splinter groups that still believe the fundamental teachings of Mormonism whom are rightfully paraded in the news as an abusive cult sect that preys on child brides. Add in a reality TV show that features the daily lives of a goofy haired polygamist and his four individual sized (small, medium, large, and pregnant) wives.
What kind of people has this "religion" created? People who judge you harshly if your shoulders are showing regardless of the fact that your vacationing in Hawaii and a tank top is considered normal by the rest of the human population. People who think you've lost your soul because you found a new interest in a coffee bean, a mild barley drink, and a few good movies that happen to be rated R. Parents who call to check on your underwear, donation habits, and calling status updates.
What kind of monster has this "religion" created? An organization that continues to discriminate against classes of people who desire to love differently. An organization that whined about the definition of marriage when monogamy was wrong and continues to whine about the definition of marriage now. The same organization that writes carefully worded essays, and pounds the pulpit in outcry when former members accuse them of hiding history.
A faith transition is a funny thing! When did we become the broken, displaced, faithless losers who betrayed our history and heritage of weird and crazy things? Weird and crazy things like initiatories and costume play in multi million dollar movie theaters and celestial waiting room lounges in buildings funded by the widows mite! Weird and crazy things like bi-annual interviews with your neighbor to determine if you wear the authorized pattern while you mow the lawn. Or sending your children to confess to the same neighbor if they ironically broke the law of chastity via self abuse or self exploration.
A faith transition is a funny thing! When did we become the lost, the lonely, the angry people who left the church because we could no longer believe? When did we become the crazy people for NOT BELIEVING when reality requires a high level of crazy thinking TO BELIEVE the Mormon story. As Alanis Morissette would sing, "Isn't it ironic, a little bit ironic, don't you think?"
