Hi, I’m Michele
I enjoy hiking, camping and four-wheeling. I was a mormon.
About me
My parents were baptized into the Mormon church when I was six. We were active my whole life. Mormonism encompasses one’s entire life, the way we dress, what we eat and drink, the way we live our lives fulfilling callings and raising children and being Mormon. It’s not just a religion, it’s a state of being.
# Why I left More stories of 'Why I left' the Mormon church
This all started with a search on polygamy. After becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the sorry state of families I see in polygamy in my workplace, I had to know about the real origin. How did it come about.
Now I know.
It’s a horrible practice that I cannot even fathom came from the Lord. No God who loves his daughters would command that they submit to a life so bereft of dignity, companionship and honor. And if the Mormon god truly commanded it—and will yet make the “saints” adhere to it in any future, I want NO part of it, or that god.
JS had at least 33 wives. Many of whom he told, “The Lord appointed you to me.” And, “An angel commanded me with a drawn sword and the threat of death if YOU do not submit...” Ugh.
Reading these first hand accounts from some of these women’s journals makes me physically ill. So I continued to read and search.
I no longer believe that JS was a prophet. And Brigham Young is just this side of evil to me.
People don’t say “God”, thinking that’s taking the Lord’s name in vain. Nope, I think that reference is reserved for those of JS and BY’s ilk—claiming “Gods work” to explain all sorts of nefarious and despicable acts. How can one preach agency and then take it away from young women concerning one’s choice of mates? Eeeewww. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Blood atonement preached alongside of “love thy neighbor” is the most putrid kind of blasphemy as far as I’m concerned.
If it ended—or didn’t even start—with JS, where does that leave us Mormons? We—they—are a good people. They have good morals and values, they uphold the law. Now. They serve others. They have blind faith. Which brings me to my opening statement—faith is for things NOT seen.
And I’ve seen so much Mormon history that doesn’t jive with what we’ve been told for many generations.
From polygamy, I read about the Kinderhook plates, in which JS was caught in a lie—he “translated” fake plates. A neighbor constructed them with fake hieroglyphics. Then from there I learned about the 1967 papyri find in the NY Met. Thomas Ferguson was so excited to finally have proof that JS was indeed able to translate “reformed Egyptian”. Nope, he didn’t get a word correct, and even identified what are clearly women, as men in one of the facsimiles. The book of Abraham is a fraud.
Google has made research sooooo much easier.
It took two days of reading for me to decide. I was horrified.....and relieved.
And now I’m happier than I’ve ever been outside that cult, I can think for myself