greetings fellow apostates!

by SethMo 49 Replies latest jw friends

  • Quandry
    Quandry

    Welcome.

    Around the same time, in the 1800's, many new forms of "religious enlightenment" emerged. Seventh Day Adventists, from which sprang the Witnesses, Mormons, and others.

    It is interesting that another similarity between the two religions is, if I am not mistaken, God lives on some planet? I believe that CTRussell, the founder of the Witnesses, said that God resided somewhere in the Pliedes system. Of course, the average JDub of today has no idea of this teaching.

    I watched a documentary on the history of LDS church on PBS recently. Very interesting. Seems many of the early men made themselves quite busy with women. What an angle! God wants me to lust after many young women!!

  • changeling
    changeling

    Welcome!

    How interesting to have you here!

    changeling

  • SnakesInTheTower
    SnakesInTheTower

    welcome sethmo....glad to have a different application of what we as dubs went through. I have never spoken with a mormon for long about their religion, but have been curious about it.

    After a lifetime association with the dubs, in my mind now, there is no need for organized religion. It allows for mind control. Better for people with common values to get together and enjoy each other's company (ie, our Apostafests) with the ability to just accept each individual... to accept all the other individuals in our sphere of influence...and to do so without the shunning that we were taught as dubs? None of this us vs. them mentality. Thank goodness.

    Very interesting first post. I missed it initially when I was in Toronto. A link in a newer thread brought me here...and now my post will bring it to the top (bttt) for others to enjoy.

    Sure hope you stay around and share your insights on life with us...and just enjoy the company.

    Snakes ()

  • ninja
    ninja

    hey sethmo.....our god can beat up your god.........he he....kidding mate....welcome to the board

  • AK - Jeff
    AK - Jeff

    How interesting. Thanx for posting. Stick around if u like.

    Can you recommend one of the forums that cater to X-Mormons? I would like to take a look.

    Jeff

  • fedorE
    fedorE

    Hi SethMo Im glad u posted here. Im wondering if I can ask ...do Mormons REALLY NOT drink coffee when no one is looking?...I have a friend who when Mormons come to the door he invites them in for coffee and keeps insisting to the great displeasure of these visitors as they are unable to give a detailed answer as to why they cant stay for coffee and they end up leaving .... Whats are the facts with regard to coffee? THanks.

  • freyd
    freyd

    ".........the church is so obviously true, and lead by God, that the only way someone can lose that testimony is if they somehow are lead astray by Satan. Who wants to have anything to do with a guy who is under Satan's influence? Can we blame them? Yeah, from the outside, they're brainwashed fools, but from the inside, they're just protecting themselves from the wiles of the Devil."


    Greeting Sethmo, You said a mouthful. There was also that line about absolute faith in J Smith being called, being the underpinning of the whole structure. The dubs have the same mythology about an alleged FDS, like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz who, "has things well in hand," that one has to verbally acknowledge from time to time as a sort of litmus test of their loyalty to the organization. If one were to deny the Faithful and Discreet Slave, it would be like a kid denying Santa Claus. I was once, and for a very short time, one who brought into the technique of making a person one studies with repeat, "I know the Book of Mormon is true." And having become a jw years later I came to realize that Jehovah's name is on the last page. At any rate your story is interesting. Welcome to Christian freedom.

  • SethMo
    SethMo

    Howdy. Some questions were asked, so I'll try to get to them all in this reply.

    As far as my membership status, I'm still a member on the records of the LDS church. I was baptised into it when I was 8, and haven't been excommunicated or voluntarily resigned. I probably will someday, but for now I've been content, due to social reasons involving my wife and family, to just go "inactive" and stop believing in it. I'm intellectually and spiritual an apostate, but technically still a member. My bishop actually knows my current belief status, but my impression is that he's willing to just leave the status quo as is so as not to force my hand and possible result in my wife and daughter both not going anymore.

    If I were to go around spreading my apostate ideas with my local wardmembers (an LDS congregation or parish is called a "ward"), I would first be warned, and then be hauled in to a church disciplinary hearing and excommunicated for apostasy. As long as I remain unidentified and limit my public expressions of disbelief to the Internet, I think I'm safe. I don't think my bishop knows about my online apostate activity. I'm not going to volunteer that info though. I won't be hauled into a disciplinary action. If anything like that starts, I'll hand in a letter of resignation immediately.

    As far as the coffee goes, you'll always, in any church, have some people who don't toe the line 100%, but in the Mormon church, amongst those who are considered "active" in the church, you'll find that by far the overwhelming majority of Mormons really don't drink coffee, tea, smoke, or drink alcohol. It's not unheard of for some LDS to fall off the wagon, as it were, in High School, and then repent and go serve their missions and be card-carrying members for the rest of their lives, but the standard is for none of these things to happen, and quite often they don't.

    There are more ex-mormon forums and such than I know. I only participate in two Mormon-related forums. One is run by an ex-mo and one is run by a faithful Mormon. The mormon-run board is an apologetics site. You would at best get a very skewed view of what most Mormons actually believe from the apologetics site, because the more indefensible traditional Mormon beliefs experience a paring back of their claims when apologists get their hands on them. The ex-mo run site is www.mormondiscussions.com, and the mormon-run apologetics site is www.mormonapologetics.org.

    I've actually turned into an atheist. I don't proclaim that there is definitely no God. I just believe that there is no good evidence supporting the existing of a God, there's no good reason why there being a God is necessary in the universe, and absent evidence that one exists, and absent any questions which cannot be answered except by invoking God, I conclude that there probably isn't one. Having lost my belief in Mormonism, which I thought offered "the Truth" about God, and a conduit for personal revelation from God to the individual, I regard the claims of pretty much everyone to having some kind of insight into the existing and nature of God to lack any credibility. I don't think anyone on Earth has any credibility about the God issue. Which makes sense, since I've come to believe that human beings almost certainly invented God.

    God didn't make us in his own image. We evolved, and then created God in our image.

  • Sunspot
    Sunspot

    Hello Sethmo and welcome to JWD!

    I enjoyed your posts thus far and look forward to seeing more from your corner.

    hugs,

    Annie

  • The Oracle
    The Oracle

    And Greetings to you Brother Sethmo!

    I absolutely love the mormon perspective on things.

    Do watch Big Love? And if so - what do you think of it? I haven't seen it myself, but I hear that it also reflects a lot of JW culture.

    Once again - WELCOME!!

    The Oracle

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