Dissension In The Church Leadership

There's an old expression "don't step in the leadership". This might well be the new motto of the LDS church. I recently read a story of a high ranking official in the LDS church in Europe who is currently having a crisis of his faith. This is wonderful news to us PostMo's. Could some of the high ranking church officials be finally starting to see the light? 

I'm convinced that some of them in Salt Lake already have seen the light but are turning a blind eye as they are too heavily engaged in the church and would have too much to lose ($$) if the truth ever came out. 

It's only a matter of time before the church will have a major crisis. I think it's already starting. This area authority in Europe was only trying to get answers from church leadership in SLC for some members in his area who had some questions. He was basically told to not bother with questions like that. This area authority was not able to get a straight answer from his superiors and went to the Internet to find answers. And find answers he did indeed!  

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I can sit on the sidelines and watch the church crumble from a safe distance. It's going to be one hell of a show!

The Church's Imminent Demise

Just thought I would check in for June. Not much has happened in the last while. I try not to think about the church too much.  I mainly go on the Postmormon website to see if any dramatic has changed in SLC.

One thing that did happen is I hooked up with a former missionary on Facebook. He lived upstairs from me back in 1997 while he was serving his mission. He had returned home from his mission, got married in the temple and had 3 kids. I just found out He's no longer going to church. I hope he resigns his name. The exodus from the church is continuing. As more and more people come to the realization it is a dangerous cult the exodus will continue. In this age of the Internet it's getting harder and harder for the church to cover up the lies and keep the real truth from its members. Something drastic has to happen in the church soon or it will crumble. I know it will. 

My own personal observation is that the same gender attraction debate and the church's stance on this subject will eventually lead to the church's downfall. It might take a long time but it will happen. 

I'm just glad I got out now so I can watch the fireworks from the sidelines. 

Live And Let Live

I'm back. I've been pondering the church and its effects on me since leaving last year. One thing the LDS church did for me was totally destroy my concept of God. I need to relearn everything from the ground up. Who is God?   Is there a God. Does he care about me? I have no idea

I went through a rebellious period after I left the church where I started drinking coffee and alcohol. Watched R rated movies and listened to music with language in it. Thru all that I realized a few things. A) I'm not that different after doing these things I'm still the same person. Only with a lot less guilt. B) I'm not a bad person because I do these things. C). I'm not (or try not to be) a judgmental person. The LDS church teaches not to judge. But they do. All the time. Every day. That's one thing about myself I like more since leaving the church. Live and let live is my new motto. 

A Thought For Easter

I try to post something every month on this blog. It's the day before Easter Sunday and I've been thinking lately about how the LDS church looks at the Christian holidays. Christmas and Easter specifically. Most Christian churches have special services for Good Friday and Easter, but not the LDS church. I always thought that was odd but never questioned it. There were so many "special" services throughout the year (conferences) that by the time these Christian holidays came around the church was too burned out to have a special service. Or maybe they thought if they pushed another "special" service on its members they might rebel. That would never happen though because the LDS never rebel. Against anything. So I don't know why they didn't have special Easter services. Well actually I do. It's because the LDS aren't really Christians.

And Something Else..,

Since I'm on the topic of absurd beliefs another one would have to be baptism for the dead. The LDS church believes that everyone needs to be baptized or they cannot "inherit the kingdom of god". Or in other words, get into heaven. This is a brilliant plan the church has, because where do you do these baptisms? In the temple of course. And how do to get the opportunity to go to the temple. With a temple recommend. And what do you have to do to get a temple recommend? Pay tithing of course. Everything is centered on the temple because you need to be a full tithe payer to go there (among other silly requirements). The main activity in these temples is, you guessed it. Baptisms for the dead. And once they are baptized then you have to do their endowments for them. For DEAD people. Come on, really? But I believed it for many years and I baptized lots of dead people and did endowments for many dead people. And yes I do realize how ridiculous that sounds. But it didn't think it was ridiculous when I was a member of the LDS church. I thought it was a perfectly normal thing to do.
Now don't go thinking "holy crap, you dug up dead people and took them to the temple!" No there were no graveyard raids sorry to tell you. We did the baptisms and endowments in proxy. In the temple we would get their names and do the ordinances for them.
That would be kinda cool though. Digging up corpses and baptizing them. The LDS church is a master of making the ridiculous sound perfectly normal but I don't think even they could pull that one off.

Things I Can't Believe I Believed In...

I was reading the PostMormon site again tonight and something caught my attention. Someone mentioned how absurd some of the church's beliefs are and I got to thinking...how I used to believe some of most of this crap. Take the Word Of Wisdom. I followed it to the letter for years. I never drank a drop of alcohol or coffee/tea. Everyone was under the impression that it was the caffeine in the coffee. But there is caffeine in cola drinks and they weren't prohibited. Coffee and tea were called "hot drinks" but hot chocolate is a hot drink and its OK. Iced tea was not allowed but it was not hot it was cold. Talk about convoluted nonsense. One of the top health concerns today is not alcohol or caffeine. It's sugar. Pop is loaded with sugar and poses a serious health risk. But there's no mention of that in the word of wisdom. If it was so "inspired" as a health code there should be some mention of it. But there's not. Like I said. Convoluted nonsense. And I believed it for many years.

New Year Without LDS

Well it's a new year. 2013 is the first year since 1992 without the LDS church in my life. (Granted, most of 1993 was without it. I joined on December 12 of that year). My resolution this year is to try and forget about the church. That will be difficult. Maybe a better resolution would be not to forget because I will never forget, but resolve instead to leave it alone. I've already decided to stop going on the postmormon website. I need to put the church behind me and move on. I don't know where this year will lead. Not sure if I will go to another church or not, but the journey will be an interesting one, that is certain.