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The fact that no one came to ask if you were ok or anything after your testimony and they instead just ignored you is really telling

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt giving 10% of your money to us."

I taught U.S. history for 12 years. I am also an ex-Mormon. Every year, I would say the same thing to my students: "If you read the history of the United States and never come across anything that upsets or distresses you, then you aren't reading history... you are reading propaganda." The same is doubly true about the history of religions... and triply true about the history of the Mormon church. Mad respect for that professor.

My Dad has served faithfully in the church, serves in the temple, pays his tithing, always willing to help anyone! One of the MOST Christ-like person I know! Never got called to be in leadership, never. Growing up, this did not sit well because he was so dedicated, he would have made a great Bishop, but never got called.

Later learned that leadership in the church is mostly based on how wealthy you are, successful, etc. My Dad was a blue-collared worker. It's hard not to make some sort of connection there why he wasn't called. THAT sat on my shelf heavy!

When I lived in Seattle there were two boys on their mission who were in my area. I would always invite them in and feed them because I knew they weren’t getting enough to eat. I’d let them use my laundry room because it cost them money to do theirs. I’d let them try to convert me knowing full well they couldn’t, but I guess I was good practice.

At the end of their mission one of them asked me why I was so kind to them if I didn’t believe in God and when I answered “I do the right thing and help people that need help because that’s what needs doing, not because I’m afraid of what will happen after I die if I don’t. I can feed you and help clothe you, so I do. Because I couldn’t live with myself if a stranger in need came to my doorstep and I did nothing. No one commands me to but myself.”

One looked confused and one looked furious, but not at me.

I’ve wondered what happed to them for the last 18 years.

The exact moment you stopped believing was because no one in the church was willing to acknowledge your crisis of belief. It's because they can't. The moment they acknowledge holes in their belief system, everything falls apart.

We feel so awful because we did not know.
My little sister was assaulted by someone in a calling, my parents realised something was wrong and went to the bishop, who saw my sister alone and (I don’t know how to put this) did worse.
Nothing was done.
Eventually she told a teacher at school, who saved her.

My faith evaporated with it all.
Also, everyone lied about the gold plates, book of Abraham and polygamy.
“Spiritual eyes” — my a***

As a never Mormon, after listening to Mormon Stories for many months it becomes apparent that the people who leave are the smartest and most self-confident of the bunch. Best wishes to all who question the (sleazy) faith. They will flourish!

Once you see how a magic trick is performed, you can never unsee it.  The illusion is shattered!

Former evangelical here ….. here’s my moment. Long story short.  

Our teenage daughter died.
Went to church types for help.
Their version of empathy was “I totally understand. My son is gay and I don’t talk to him. So I totally empathize”

It got worse during the same meeting when another church type said “I have a gay son too” then they commiserated together about losing their 100% still alive sons. I cried. Finished my meal and walked out.

For me, it was overnight that I lost my faith. I had previous doubts, but then one night at things came to a head, I read the CES Letter and stayed up into the early hours of the morning just reading everything and contemplating my entire upbringing and feeling betrayed. I am so glad that I lost my faith. It has actually made me into a more loving and thoughtful person, and I also began to love myself more.

I’m a 62 year old dude. Grew up Baptist, joined the Mormon church at age 21. Served a 1-1/2 (extended it to 2 year) mission in Nagoya Japan. Went To Rick’s College, transferred to BYU. Married in the Manti temple. I joined the Church because I thought I had found the TRUTH. It alienated my family from me. I payed for my own mission. I was ON FIRE for “the restored gospel”. My shelf broke after 13 years. It alienated my wife from me. I joined in 1983 and became a “Latter Day Aint” in 1996. Couldn’t go to other Mormons with my doubts and wouldn’t go to non Mormons with them either. No internet to research all the lies that are the foundation of the restored gospel. I just didn’t believe it any more and stopped going, not sure if I was flushing a perfectly good eternity down the toilet or not. I just knew I could not go back. I lived for almost 30 years thinking I may have damned myself. A little over a year ago I found Mormon Stories and binge-watched several very long episodes. I finally felt liberated, knowing deep down that I had shrugged off a cult and was better for it. It leaves its mark though in many subtle and some not so subtle ways. The sad thing to me is that many ex-Mormons no longer believe in Christ. They have thrown the baby out with the bathwater (so to speak). What boggles my mind is that many mormons have come to the realization that they have been living a lie and they still choose to remain active in the church. I just want to know the truth. Show me the truth and I am all in. Tell me a lie and all you will see is my tail lights. Mormonism is a lie being concealed by wholesomeness. In my book that’s the same as a candy-coated turd.

I married into a devoutly Mormon family (my husband is NOT an active member and never will be). This Bishop who agreed to officiate at our backyard wedding gifted us with the BOM, D&C and The Pearl of Great Price. He made me promise to read all three books and pray for God to give me a testimony. My husband was in the military and our first year of marriage, he was deployed for 8 months so I took the opportunity to read the BOM due to all the free time I had.  After reading it as instructed, I remember thinking, "I can't believe I considered joining the LDS church." I found so many inconsistent statements, plagiarized portions taken from other authors of the day as well as the Bible and Shakespeare. Parts of it directly contradicted the Bible and had God changing His mind about what was a sin and what wasn't. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever read. When my sister-in-law left the LDS church, I asked her what changed her mind.  Basically, it boiled down to the church not being transparent about everything they believed about God, Jesus and Satan. It also seems pretty slanted towards men getting all the say--getting elevated to the status of god and being given a planet of their own with as many wives as they want. It was all too silly for me.

Prayers for me, still have 2 years left at BYU to get my degree and get out 😬💀

I didn't grow up in the church. I joined when I was 23. After I joined, my parents did, and so did my older sister. After 40+ years, I left. My husband did not leave. He still attends. Leaving was a complete shock to me. I wondered about some things, but I felt such a strong love for the church that the night before I left, I would have promised you that I would never leave. So why did I?

It was right before we went back to church after the covid shut down. I heard my husband on the phone tell someone that no, his parents weren't members because his mother hated the priesthood ban on black men. So she wouldn't even allow the missionaries in the house.

That got me curious about the ban. I joined the church in 78, so it was after the ban was lifted, and no one talked about it anymore.

I went to the church website and looked it up. I got some church magazine articles to read. Reading those I found out the ban was instituted during Brigham Young's time. That it lasted through 10 or 11 prophets, I think it was about 110 years.

That's all I read. I didn't need any more. I suddenly knew that there was no way those men were prophets because God never would have let his church do that! Not for that long! There is no way he wouldn't have pulled one of those prophets aside and told him to knock it off! Because God would never create His children just to condemn them! Of that, I was certain! Suddenly, I knew the church and its gospel were all wrong. All fake!!

I got off my bed and went and told my husband what I had discovered, expecting him to see what I saw. But he didn't!

My husband is okay with it. He doesn't nag at me, and I don't run to tell him every time I discover something. He has to decide he wants to know, I can't decide that for him.

Out of our 8 children that were all raised in the church,  0 still attend. Ididn'tt do that to the. They all stopped going years before I did.

Where am I  now? I'll be 70 in March. My husband still goes to church, I don't, and that's okay. He pays his tithing on his social security check and pensions, and I do not donate mine to the church. I do try to bless others with it, though. I sometimes use it to buy yarn to make warm clothing and blankets for the homeless. Sometimes I give it to homeless people on the street or to a special school program at a grandchilds school, etc.

My garments I took off and put them all in grocery bags and threw them in the garbage. I thought about doing it the "proper" way but quickly decided that anything worn like underwear didn't really deserve anything special. I was a temple worker, so I also took my temple clothing and threw it all out. I also forbid my husband from burying me in temple clothing if I died before him.

I don't know if God is real. I think I tend to believe he isn't. I'm just afraid to admit it. I was raised Episcopalian, and sometimes I go to church there. My aunt and uncle are 88 and they like it when I join them there. I can tolerate the Episcopalian church because they are rather liberal accepting women and the LGBTQ+ to hold all positions at church. I've even had a transgender priest there. No one cares, but it is the reason the church has lost so many members.

I drink coffee and enjoy every drop. I support my husband still being in the church, and he supports me not being in it. We have a good life together, enjoying our children and 15 grandchildren. We also support eachothers hobbies even when they get a little expensive. Since leaving the church, I can honestly say that I'm happier than I have have ever been!

I vividly remember my shelf break moment. My husband was in the bishopric at the time. We had a 5 year old and a newborn. There was a “member” or investigator who was a convicted child sex offender who was embraced and allowed to wander freely in the building. The attitude of the leadership seemed clear to me. They wanted to protect this person’s feelings over protecting Primary children in the halls, rooms, and bathrooms. I spoke to  the bishop about how inappropriate this was. He basically defended the creep. My shelf was already overburdened and I was not going to put up with the crap any longer. Don’t get me started on the creepy temple…..

I'm 32 now, and my shelf breaking was when I was 18. It had crept up on me, and I'd say I lost my faith around 16, but staying in the church trying to believe for almost two full years. Doing and saying all the right things. But those last two years, I met a guy who made me happy. He was sweet, funny, and (most importantly - sarcastic) wanted to go on a mission. We started dating and did and said all the right things, yet there were little moments both of us were like 'but we love each other, why can't we do physical things that feel good to show we love each other? We're going to get married, so why should it matter?

Anyway, he was a little late going on his mission, closer to 18, and we did the 'I'll wait for you' conversation. I'd put my everything into this relationship for two+ years. I'd stayed in the church for this man, and kept my faith because I needed to be that perfect woman for him. A future wife and mother that was godfearing and church going and testimony bearing. We emailed every week while he was away (we're in Australia, he got called to Leeds, England) and made the same promises and I noticed his tone changing. He was very focused on church and attendance and would often implore me to keep praying, keep going, that my doubts would only lead me to Satan.

About a year in, I got the last email. It was a paragraph, not even, and was him saying (basically), 'you're not righteous enough for me anymore, we're breaking up. Don't contact me anymore.'

Well fucking great. That was 3 years of my life gone. To the man who I thought was going to be my future. All because I wasn't going to church every Sunday (we were raised in it, and by this point, only my Dad and I were still going. My mother and siblings were not going anymore). I said 'fuck this, I'm out'. None of my church friends EVER reached out. Never. Not once. These people who supposedly cared for me unconditionally. The minute I stopped going to church... they wanted nothing to do with me. Validating as hell...

And I haven't looked back. Since then, I've realised how much of an ICK so much of what the church did and taught gave me; the fact you can say in this video the words of a testimony and I know I said THOSE. EXACT. WORDS. SOOO many times. I can still sing whole hymns that will never, ever be removed from my brain. AND OMG TWO WEEKEND DAYS IS AMAZING! Swearing is a great outlet! I don't like the taste of coffee, but a casual drink at dinner with friends every once in a while is nice! I'm also very gay, so I mean, that was also something I realised I'd been denying for YEARS. I realised actually, no, I actually don't ever want kids (my #1 goal in life for so long).

Fun fact, I found out later the guy came back from his mission and went off the grid. Disappeared. Hasn't been heard from since. This was pre-Covid. No clue. He could be dead. I've looked for him, for closure, and since given up.  

Anyway, no clue who's gonna read this, but it feels good to say. And C, if you're out there and you see this and you're not dead or living in the middle of the desert, thank you for giving me the courage to LEAVE by being kind of an asshole.

Can you please do a video going in depth about the CES letter?? That would be so interesting and I (and I’m sure many others) would love to hear your insights.

That preisthood blessing thing is a HELLVA way for a parent to tell a child what to do in school.