Attorney Friend Leaves Church--Shelf Nuked
Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 7:37 am
My attorney-Mormon friend just left the LDS Church.
We have spoken occasionally over the past year about issues related to Mormonism. He is very well informed and has definitely put in the effort to learn about his faith.
Almost nothing I said to him was news, but he would laugh at it while laughing at the church to which he has belonged since he was a kid.
Only recently he told me that he knew he was laughing at this stuff (I think it was the “Wrong Roads” podcast we were discussing) but he knew there a time was coming when he would actually have to deal with this stuff rather than just laughing at it. When we spoke, he estimated that would be several years down the road.
Looks like several years came faster than he thought.
Many things have bothered him over the years. He has loaded his shelf pretty high. It appears that one of the things he didn’t like was polygamy and 14-year old girls. For some reason, it bothered him that not only did Joseph Smith marry 14-year olds, but that this practice extended up through Lorenzo Snow.
He was in a church class a few weeks back and the subject of Lorenzo Snow going down to St. George to preach tithing came up; and that Lorenzo Snow went down there with his wife or something, like it was a strong nuclear family; and the only thing my friend could think was wondering whether he went down there with his the girl he married when she was 14.
I didn’t know about this until this morning, though, when I called him back after receiving a text from him Saturday.
“We need to talk sometime. I’m on date night tonight, but I read the Robert Ritner response to the church essay on the Book of Abraham and my shelf was nuked.”
I texted him back immediately, “I am here for you. Let me know when is a good time. Everything will be ok. Different. But ok.”
He texted back, “That warms my heart. Thanks.”
So this morning (Tuesday) I called him and we talked for about a half hour. He read the Ritner article Thursday and found that the Book of Abraham is a complete “fraud,” as he put it. He learned about the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and how the Book of Abraham is quite apparently an attempted translation from the papyri fragments that the church possesses. He found out that John Gee and the essay are all wet when they try to argue that the Book of Abraham could be from a different part of the scroll that wasn’t recovered.
He then got upset that the church doesn’t say this, but instead tries to talk all around the issue so the member doesn’t know. It wasn’t until he read the Ritner piece that he was aware of this issue. Of course, the essay doesn’t really talk about the KEP much!
My friend is/was the elders’ quorum president, and he didn’t go to church Sunday and sent his bishop an email explaining that he is resigning his position and won’t be coming to church anymore. He sent a one-sentence email to his stake president, as well, who is a new stake president whom he doesn’t know very well, as the SP was just called, though he lives in his ward.
This is likely to raise a host of issues, as my friend’s parents and in-laws (and wife and four kids) are all members. He thinks his siblings will be okay with it. His kids hate church already. His wife is being pretty good about it so far.
I spent most of the time listening.
One of his main problems is that the church will not allow somebody like him “space” to hold the views he holds (about homosexuality, etc.) and still be accepted as a full member of the church.
He likened it to a box that he was shut in and he was allowed no further growth. He felt some time ago that he had “plateaued” and that there was no further spiritual growth for him in the LDS church.
At the end of our conversation, I told him I wanted him to know two things: 1. He is doing the right thing for himself. He will find there is a big, beautiful world out there and that he will be able to grow exponentially all of a sudden. 2. I am there for him, and will be happy to listen more to anything he has to say and, if he is interested, I can share some of my stories that have led me to where I am in my life.
He hasn’t jettisoned Jesus, but wants to take his testimony of Jesus to maybe another church and see what happens. He doesn’t know where this will lead, but feels very much at peace with what he has done. He has never felt so right about doing anything in his life.
This is exactly what is happening all over this church. The very best and the very brightest Mormons are leaving. This is just one more snapshot to add to the scrapbook.
We have spoken occasionally over the past year about issues related to Mormonism. He is very well informed and has definitely put in the effort to learn about his faith.
Almost nothing I said to him was news, but he would laugh at it while laughing at the church to which he has belonged since he was a kid.
Only recently he told me that he knew he was laughing at this stuff (I think it was the “Wrong Roads” podcast we were discussing) but he knew there a time was coming when he would actually have to deal with this stuff rather than just laughing at it. When we spoke, he estimated that would be several years down the road.
Looks like several years came faster than he thought.
Many things have bothered him over the years. He has loaded his shelf pretty high. It appears that one of the things he didn’t like was polygamy and 14-year old girls. For some reason, it bothered him that not only did Joseph Smith marry 14-year olds, but that this practice extended up through Lorenzo Snow.
He was in a church class a few weeks back and the subject of Lorenzo Snow going down to St. George to preach tithing came up; and that Lorenzo Snow went down there with his wife or something, like it was a strong nuclear family; and the only thing my friend could think was wondering whether he went down there with his the girl he married when she was 14.
I didn’t know about this until this morning, though, when I called him back after receiving a text from him Saturday.
“We need to talk sometime. I’m on date night tonight, but I read the Robert Ritner response to the church essay on the Book of Abraham and my shelf was nuked.”
I texted him back immediately, “I am here for you. Let me know when is a good time. Everything will be ok. Different. But ok.”
He texted back, “That warms my heart. Thanks.”
So this morning (Tuesday) I called him and we talked for about a half hour. He read the Ritner article Thursday and found that the Book of Abraham is a complete “fraud,” as he put it. He learned about the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and how the Book of Abraham is quite apparently an attempted translation from the papyri fragments that the church possesses. He found out that John Gee and the essay are all wet when they try to argue that the Book of Abraham could be from a different part of the scroll that wasn’t recovered.
He then got upset that the church doesn’t say this, but instead tries to talk all around the issue so the member doesn’t know. It wasn’t until he read the Ritner piece that he was aware of this issue. Of course, the essay doesn’t really talk about the KEP much!
My friend is/was the elders’ quorum president, and he didn’t go to church Sunday and sent his bishop an email explaining that he is resigning his position and won’t be coming to church anymore. He sent a one-sentence email to his stake president, as well, who is a new stake president whom he doesn’t know very well, as the SP was just called, though he lives in his ward.
This is likely to raise a host of issues, as my friend’s parents and in-laws (and wife and four kids) are all members. He thinks his siblings will be okay with it. His kids hate church already. His wife is being pretty good about it so far.
I spent most of the time listening.
One of his main problems is that the church will not allow somebody like him “space” to hold the views he holds (about homosexuality, etc.) and still be accepted as a full member of the church.
He likened it to a box that he was shut in and he was allowed no further growth. He felt some time ago that he had “plateaued” and that there was no further spiritual growth for him in the LDS church.
At the end of our conversation, I told him I wanted him to know two things: 1. He is doing the right thing for himself. He will find there is a big, beautiful world out there and that he will be able to grow exponentially all of a sudden. 2. I am there for him, and will be happy to listen more to anything he has to say and, if he is interested, I can share some of my stories that have led me to where I am in my life.
He hasn’t jettisoned Jesus, but wants to take his testimony of Jesus to maybe another church and see what happens. He doesn’t know where this will lead, but feels very much at peace with what he has done. He has never felt so right about doing anything in his life.
This is exactly what is happening all over this church. The very best and the very brightest Mormons are leaving. This is just one more snapshot to add to the scrapbook.
