Along the way, I started watching Mormon Stories videos and other exmormon podcasts, reading things that I had previously put off reading because, well, they might be of the devil. Reading the CES Letter was a key event for me in putting my faith crisis in perspective. I finally gained the assurance that I wasn't alone in my faith deconstruction journey. - Andy's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/andycwilson/
When my wife suddenly and unexpectedly passed in 2022, for me, part of grieving was realizing that I needed to let go of many things in my life that no longer served me. It was scary, but necessary for my future well-being. Now, I was free to approach my life in completely new and authentic ways. - Andy's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/andycwilson/
I had reached a point where the only thing keeping me in the Church was my wife's unwavering faith, in which I noticed a few small cracks appearing post-COVID. I didn't want to hurt her or our marriage of 40+ years, so I kept quiet and acted like a faithful member. I didn't like my own inauthenticity, but figured I would eventually come clean when the time was right. Besides, I still appreciated the support and community aspects of the Church, and 90% of my friends and family were all active members, so I played along. Then she died. My world was shattered. - Andy's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/andycwilson/
I had questions about many aspects of Church history, doctrine and practices that often gave me pause from the time I was a young missionary, but, good Mormon that I was, I dutifully blamed myself for questioning the Church and the Prophet, repented and shelved the questions. My faith was shaken many times along the way as I grew older and started to realize there's no real, spiritual power in the Church, or in any religion made by men, other than what its members all agree upon, or, rather, what the leaders tell them they need to agree upon in order to please God, which often has the added benefit of enriching the Church through greater tithes and donations. - Andy's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/andycwilson/
I was raised in the Mormon faith. I come from Mormon polygamy stock on my Mom's side. Dad joined the Church when I was a 20 years old missionary in Taiwan. I graduated from BYU, married my wife in the temple in Laie, Hawaii, had five kids, nine grandkids. I served in many positions, and up until a couple of years ago I always held a temple recommend. I am a truth-seeker. I was a Mormon. - Andy's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/andycwilson/
This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/007shrimp/. There are stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by hundreds of users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
I live to witness the good, the beautiful and the true in this life which includes food, music, and intellectually stimulating conversations, and coming to understanding another's point of view. I can think for myself now. - Cameron's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/007shrimp/
The church taught great principles of honesty, integrity, hard work, the importance of family, and love. What got me questioning the church is the actions taken by church leaders since the beginning that were not in line with what I thought the church was. After doing some experiments, I concluded that as much as I wanted the church to be true, the church is indistinguishable from a fraud. - Cameron's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/007shrimp/
I was born and raised in Orem, Utah. My 7 brothers, as well as my sister grew up very active and although it was a very strict home with high expectations of conforming behaviors, rules, and discipline, there was always love in the home and we rarely fought. The Church was life. Baptism, receiving the Priesthood, going on a mission, and getting married in the temple were mile markers worth celebrating. I did all that, but ultimately I was disillusioned by the church. I was a Mormon. - Cameron's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/007shrimp/
This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/. There are stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by hundreds of users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
Losing faith in Mormonism was easy. Having the courage to fully detangle all the pieces of it in my life was hard. - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
What a lovely thing being out is. I kept going to church for 9 months after losing my faith just to observe. It was fascinating — well, it was at best boring and at worst disturbing. So many people internalize the most horrid things from this church. Why does Relief Society always devolve into trauma sharing hour? - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
I watched a Mormon Stories of Tim Kosnoff, and I was so repulsed by what he shared, I decided it was time. That fortuitously coincided with LDS Discussions series on Mormon Stories, and a month later, I was out. - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
I recognized there were things about the Mormon Church that I heard on the fringes but didn’t want to digest. Things that I knew that if I knew them, I’d have to act. I'd have to decide if this was all hogwash or not. Then came the Arizona abuse case. - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
I decided that would be the end of that and to love myself unconditionally. Funny thing is, when you do that, you give yourself room to disagree with everything that doesn’t fit with that message. So I was frequently hearing things at church and THINKING. A dangerous pastime, I know. - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
My deconstruction started in college when I realized every week so much of what people said was the same self-hatred coded in self-righteousness. People always found something to dislike about themselves to share with the class. And I did the same thing — praying every day to be better and always feeling I was coming up short. - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
I grew up in St Louis in a relatively small ward. So I didn’t really have members in my school. All of my ward experience after childhood has been a series of singles wards at BYU then in Orem. I knew I was ignorant of what Mormonism was. Then I decided it was time to learn. I was a Mormon. - Brooklyn's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/bparks898/
This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/. There are stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by hundreds of users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
There's so many things I've learned about the church that I had no idea. I was in the wrong for so long. The few issues mentioned are only the tip of the iceberg. Finally, my wife and I decided after all the facts, the Mormon church is not true at all and we started our journey as faithful and true Christians. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
When missionaries teach other people about Mormonism, they always leave crucial details out. "Preach my Gospel" does not tell missionaries to share about the 30+ wives Joseph Smith had, and as young as 14 years old, nor the 50+ wives Brigham Young had. They don't teach you about the actual reason why Joseph Smith was killed - that he burned down a press. They don't teach that Joseph Smith was a known treasure digger. All these details are just the tip of the iceberg and will show red flags to anyone trying to join this cult. All the characteristics of a cult are present in the Mormon church. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
The church is dishonest by not being upfront with everyone, members and non members about their past. They always change the church principles to adjust to the current world situation. It's pretty much up to the current president of the Mormon church to dictate what's the new standard. There's plenty of examples of this going on throughout church history. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
After almost a year of rewiring our brains from the brainwash caused by the mormon church we took one of the most important steps in becoming a true disciple of Christ. We got baptized!! This time we got baptized into Christ and not any church. Which is contrary to mormon teachings since you have to be baptized to be a member. We used the facilities of another non-denominational church to perform our baptism. Being baptized and being member of a church are two separate things, also contradicting the LDS view of baptism. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
A Community Church helped us a lot in deconstructing our faith and build it back again on the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We took a few classes about the Bible and we learned so much more about our Savior and true nature of God. We learned that there's only one God, eternally existing in three persons. Contradictory to Mormon beliefs that there are three Gods with one purpose. Mormonism is not Christian because it denies the basic and essential doctrines of the Christian faith. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
It was hidden right in front of our eyes. A contradiction between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. After learning this, it started to trickle all the questions we had about the church that were "put up on the shelf". After covid was a little bit more calm. We started going to a non-denominational church that was also a key in the reason why we left. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
The breaking point was GRACE. Reading in the Book of Mormon that Grace only comes AFTER all you can do (2 Nephi 25:23), made no sense when the Bible is teaching that Grace is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9) and not a result of our works. The Bible also teaches that we don't deserve it but Christ gave it to us and it doesn't matter what we do, we will still have God's grace. Paul says in the Bible that our salvation comes COMPLETELY from the grace of God, and is not dependent on works. To illustrate it in simple terms. Mormons believe in: Faith + Works = Salvation. Christians believe in: Faith = Salvation + Works. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
My wife and I made a 2021 new year's resolution to get closer to Christ. Covid was around, so we were not able to attend to church, thus leaving us at home reading and learning more about Christ and eventually church history. As we started to learn more about Christ, we noticed we were going in a different direction than the church had taught us. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
Hi, I'm Searjasub Lopez. I'm a Software Developer, love computer science and anything tech related. I'm a proud husband and father of 4. I was born into the church. I did everything that was expected of a brainwashed kid that didn't know anything else but what the church fed me almost daily. Baptized at 8, did 4 years of seminary, got both "priesthoods", served a mission in Peru Huancayo, and sealed in the temple with my wife, and held a variety of positions within the Church. I was a Mormon. - Searjasub's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/searjasub/
“Some people have to have a world of evidence before they can come anywhere in the neighborhood of believing anything, but for me when a man tells me that he has seen the engravings which are upon the plates... I am convinced. I couldn't feel more satisfied and at rest if the entire Whitmer family had testified.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
A Mormon acquaintance once pushed Mark Twain into an argument on the issue of polygamy. After long and tedious expositions justifying the practice, the Mormon demanded that Twain cite any passage of Scripture expressly forbidding polygamy. "Nothing easier," Twain said. "No man can serve two masters."
“The [Book of Mormon] seems to be merely a prosey detail of imaginary history with the Old Testament for a model followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint old fashioned sound and structure of our King James translation of the scriptures. The result is a mongrel, half modern glibbness and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained, the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern, which was about every sentence or two, he ladeled in a few such scriptural phrases as, "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc. and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass," was his pet. If he had left that out, his bible would have been only a pamphlet.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
“All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few, except the elect have seen it or at least taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
"How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!" - Mark Twain
“The [Book of Mormon] is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
“[The Book of Mormon] is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle. Keeping awake while he did it, was at any rate. If he, according to tradtion, merely translated it from certain ancient and myteriously engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out of the way locality, the work of translating it was equally a miracle for the same reason.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows." - Mark Twain
“Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed.” - Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation | Those in the Telestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms will lack genitalia, while those in the Celestial Kingdom will retain theirs for eternal procreation. Leading to the term “TK Smoothie,” which alludes to the smooth, featureless region of those in the lesser Telestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms, likened to a Barbie or Ken doll.
"Mortality is a master class in learning to choose the things of greatest eternal import. Far too many people live as though this life is all there is. However, your choices today will determine three things: where you will live throughout all eternity, the kind of body with which you will be resurrected, and those with whom you will live forever." - Russell M. Nelson, LDS Church President, October 2023
Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation Volume 2, Page 288 - “Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be ... neither man nor woman.”
Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation Volume 2, Page 287 - “Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be ... neither man nor woman.”
“Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be ... neither man nor woman.” - Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation Volume 2, Pages 287-288
"The celestial law requires one-tenth of all a man’s substance which he possesses at the time he comes into the church, and one-tenth part of his annual increase ever after. If it requires all a man can earn to support himself and family, he is not tithed at all. The celestial law does not take the mother’s and children’s bread." - Orson Hyde, LDS Apostle, Millennial Star, January 1, 1847
"DON'T SPEAK EVIL OF LORD'S ANOINTED. There is one thing that the Lord has warned us about from the beginning and that is not to speak evil of the Lord's anointed. He has told us that any member of the Church who indulged in this is liable to lose the Spirit of God and go into darkness. The Prophet Joseph said time and again that it was one of the first and strongest symptoms of apostasy." - George Q. Cannon, LDS Apostle, October 6, 1896. Deseret Weekly
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do , because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” - Susan B. Anthony
“He said there were many that had a great deal to say about the ancient order of things as Solomon and David having many wives and concubines, but it is an abomination in the sight of God. If an angel from heaven should come and preach such doctrine, some would be sure to see his cloven foot and cloud of darkness over head, though his garments might shine as white as snow. A man might have one wife but concubines he should have none.” - Hyrum Smith, Levi Richards Journal
“Joseph told associates that an angel appeared to him three times between 1834 and 1842 and commanded him to proceed with plural marriage when he hesitated to move forward. During the third and final appearance, the angel came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully.” - Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo, Gospel Topic Essay
“A grand and glorious principle had been revealed, and for years had slumbered in the breast of God’s Prophet, awaiting the time when, with safety to himself and the Church, it might be confided to the sacred keeping of a chosen few. That time had now come. An angel with a flaming sword descended from the courts of glory and, confronting the Prophet, commanded him in the name of the Lord to establish the principle so long concealed from the knowledge of the Saints and of the world—that of plural marriage.” - Heber C. Kimball
“[Joseph Smith] received the revelation in 1837, but he was himself afraid to promulgate it until the angel came and stood beside him with flaming sword and bade him do the command of God. Not until then did Joseph enter into polygamy, or get any of his disciples to take plural wives.” - Eliza R. Snow
“Joseph told me that he was afraid when the angel appeared to him and told him to take other wives. He hesitated, and the angel appeared to him the third time with a drawn sword in his hand and threatened his life if he did not fulfill the commandment.” - Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner
“This angel, [Joseph] states, stood over him with a drawn sword prepared to inflict the penalty of death if he should be disobedient.” - Helen Mar Kimball Whitney