"If you've left the church why do you care?"
When asked why I "can't" leave it alone I ask have you ever left a bad review of a restaurant, or complained about work you had done on a house, car, or anything else? The answer is always yes. I ask why you can't just leave that alone and not worry about it? Most people say something like "Those are completely different". I say, "Yes, they are, one only matters a little bit and is a matter of a some money wasted.
The other is a group that has threatened me with going to a hell of some sort for not doing what they tell me I have to do. It attempts to control life. It destroys lives and protects child predators.
So yes, there is a humongous difference, and I will not leave it alone."
There are so many reasons. Here are a few.
1. It’s my heritage. What if you said to an Irish American, you are no longer allowed to talk about Ireland or being Irish.
2. If you woke up one day, and realized your entire world view was a lie, do you think you could just let it go? Or would it take a while to process? Just pretend in your mind that you were capable of believing that Joseph Smith lied about the first vision, lied about the plates, lied about the priesthood restoration, lied about translating the Book of Abraham, lied to coerce young girls into sexual relationships, and that ALL OF YOUR MAJOR LIFE DECISIONS are based on direction from men wielding power over you based on that lie.
Among these decisions based on this erroneous information are
1. Abstinence from sex before marriage,
2. Abstinence of partaking in substances that could have enriched your life and connected you to other people (eg, let’s go out for a coffee, let’s go out for a drink),
3. Keeping you from wearing clothes that allowed you to feel pretty, how many times have I looked in a mirror trying on clothes and been SO FUCKING SAD having to fit them over garments? All that joy of looking nice spoiled. Now I shop with such JOY!
4. Affected who you married or even thought about marrying .
5. screwed up every major and most minor friendships you have had due to the obligation you can’t enjoy people, you must convert them!
6. Influenced your children to lose YEARS OF THEIR LIVES on missions.
7. Stole often many hours or more of every week of your life in stupid church service not limited to cleaning their buildings—the single richest church in the world steals your down time so you can’t develop outside relationships EASILY.
8. Made your children mentally ill.
9. Conditioned you to sit in front of sexual predators and place your children in front of potential predators alone and not think twice about it.
10. Terrifies your family that you will be cast out of heaven for not going to the same church, and tells them to never stop trying to save you, thus destroying healthy boundaries.
ALL BASED ON LIES. How the HELL DO YOU LEAVE THE CHURCH ALONE WHEN EVERY DECISION YOU MADE FOR over 40 YEARS WAS BASED ON LIE AFTER LIE??? if you can find out you were part of a cult, and not need time to process, especially when your family members are still a part of it, then you are not human. Any more questions?
Really, I’m going to be processing the spiritual and emotional trauma over what I described above for the several years. The general opinion is that it takes as many months to process as years you were in it. Can I add that even marrying at 19, causing me to leave my college and lose my four year scholarship are traumas caused by the Mormon church that I didn’t fully process until this year? So many huge life choices in an attempt to live faithfully in a religion based on SO MANY LIES!
Let’s not forget 10% of all my money since I was working if I had invested, it would be worth a lot.
And the trauma of going through the temple in 1987, making covenants with death threats that I wasn’t even informed about before I went in. Talk about lack of informed consent! I had to make covenants to give EVERYTHING THE LORD WOULD BLESS ME WITH NOW OR IN THE FUTURE TO THE BUILDING UP OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD UNDER THE PENALTY OF SLITTING MY THROAT OR DISEMBOWELLING MYSELF to even TALK about it with another person! This is religious trauma I am processing. And consent issues, and cover ups. And I’m supposed to leave it alone when I find out it’s all based on LIES?
