I realized over the past few weeks that it's been 3 years since I left the LDS church. It will be officially 3 years in Augus of this year, but it was around this time in 2012 that I composed my resignation letter to the Church, so in effect that is when I was out of the church.
there may be some people in the church who thought that I had made a mistake and that I would see the error of my ways and eventually return. This is not going to happen. I have never been more convinced that leaving the LDS church was the right thing to do. I went through all the stages from anger at the church to anger at myself, depression to eventual acceptance that I had made a mistake in joining and there was nothing I could do about it.
I guess the gist of this blog entry (I haven't made an entry for about 6 months) is that the church will always be a part of my life--there's nothing I can do to change it--but I have moved on. In 3 years I have finally realized the place the church will hold in my life. it will be part of my past and cannot be changed but I can leave it behind in the past.
Right now, I just wish that some people who are still in the church would see the light. but again, there is nothing that I can do to make this happen. any attempt to show them that the church is a fraud will fall on deaf ears because as members of the LDS church you are conditioned to ignore non members attempts to sway you away from the truth. They believe they have the full truth of the gospel and everyone else is wrong. this is part of their cult conditioning. Because we have to remember that the LDS church is a cult, and a very manipulating one at that. Any attempt from friends or others to "rescue" people from the cult won't work because members are conditioned to ignore the "help".
So I don't even try. There is no point, it just causes hurt feelings. For many people, especially older people, the church is all they have and it's their whole life. To take that away from them would be cruel, some would say. And I would agree. I guess really I don't want to take that "security blanket" away from them. They have to shed the blanket on their own, no matter how painful that would be. I just wish there was a way to convince them that the church is based on a lie (many lies actually) and that it is a fraud. (President Hinckley practically admitted this in a conference talk years ago, but most members miss it) Once that concept becomes "possible" in their field of vision, then they can start to move on and come to the realization that the church is not "true"and is based on lies.
So I do the only thing I can do. Just live my life and show others that I'm happy without the church (Many in the church think this is impossible). I personally think that the internet will be the church's downfall. I can see in the future the internet being a major focus of the church leaders, flooding it with false information to counteract the really true information that is becoming more and more readily available. But I do believe that the church will crumble. It has to. It's a fraud. it's growth is already slowing which is a good sign. it might take many generations, but the church will not survive forever. I can take some comfort in that.
