Ollo, I’m Brooklyn.
I knew I was ignorant of what Mormonism was. Then I decided it was time to learn.
About me
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. Boring.
On my shelf
On the Mormon Spectrum
# Why I left More stories of 'Why I left' the Mormon church
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 did the same thing — praying every day to be better and always feeling I was coming up short. Well, 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. Fast forward six years, and 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. Have to decide if this was all hogwash or not. Then came the Arizona abuse case. 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. And what a lovely thing that is.
Questions about Mormons My Answers to Questions about Mormonism
#Link to this answer of 'How/why did/do you stay in the pew?' by Brooklyn Parks How/why did/do you stay in the pew? See more answers about 'How/why did/do you stay in the pew?'
I kept going to church for 9 months after losing my faith just to observe. And because losing faith in Mormonism was easy. Having the courage to fully detangle all the pieces of it in my life was hard. It was fascinating going — 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?