Why don't you leave the mormon church alone?

It didn't leave me alone. And it still won't leave me alone. So why should I leave IT alone?

bakiraka01

The question of why not just leave the Mormon church alone is one I've wrestled with for many years and one I continue to wrestle with even as I write this. I know full well that many people find comfort in religion, and I also know that people don't always appreciate it when someone shows them that they've been bamboozled. They'd prefer their blissful ignorance over a painful reality. The desire to not offend Mormons by telling them my beliefs is the reason I've stayed silent for so very many years, even while they freely push their beliefs on me. But now I think it's time to speak up.

My first response to the question of why not just leave the Mormon church alone is this... I'm definitely NOT suggesting that people shouldn't be allowed the option of being Mormon. I'd never say that. In fact, if the government were ever to outlaw Mormonism (or any other religion), I would stand side-by-side with my Mormon friends and fight FOR their right to be Mormon (or any other religion). I'm just saying that when there's a lull in the fighting and my friends and I are sitting down together catching our breaths, it's entirely reasonable that I should be allowed to ask them questions that will make them think, just like they've been asking ME questions for over sixty years now that they hope will make ME think.

My second response to the question of why not just leave the Mormon church alone is to remind you that the Mormon apostle J. Reuben Clark once said, "If we have the truth, it can not be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed." If someone is upset that I'm talking about facts which Mormons find inconvenient, then I take that as an admission by that person that they (maybe only subconsciously) already realize that Mormonism is not true. They just don't want to admit it. Is that what a person with integrity would do?

I have a few more thoughts in response to the question of why not just leave the Mormon church alone, when that question is based on the premise that even if Mormonism is wrong, we shouldn't "attack" it because the church is a source for good in the world and/or, if nothing else, at least it provides comfort to people.

Anyone who thinks religion does more good than harm hasn’t studied history. When I say that to my friends, they sometimes reply, “OK, I'll admit that the Inquisition was bad, but that just a one-off event.” NOT IT WASN'T! The Inquisition is just one tiny example of the many MANY times religion was used to commit horrible, inexcusable atrocities. Mass murder and mass stealing of people’s properties was widespread and religion was the way the perpetrators justified their atrocities and motivated their followers to commit those atrocities. Slavery was a common practice that was justified by the use of religion and the bonds of slavery were strengthened by forced religious indoctrination. There’s a very good reason why Europeans sent priests alongside their warriors during the inappropriately named “Age of Exploration”. (It should have been named the “Age of Genocide”.) No, I’m not at all convinced that the good done by religion even comes CLOSE to outweighing the evil which religion has caused throughout human history.

My reply to friends who say, “But churches don’t do that any more” is to ask them to please read up on current events. The crimes committed in the name of religion might not be as blatant and far-reaching now as they were in the past, but they’re every bit as real. Consider the women in Islamic-run countries (and also in Hildale Utah and other polygamist enclaves) who are essentially just property of men. The men who treat women like cattle are allowed to do that because it’s done in the name of religion and "we’re not allowed to criticize a person’s religion". Consider the women here in America who may not be treated as property, but they are still forced to give birth to their rapist’s baby or they are denied critical medical care when their baby miscarries, because doctors fear they’ll go to jail if they take any action which the religious zealots in the government have outlawed. Consider the people who don’t fit the “binary gender model”, and as a result are denied the same rights that other people enjoy, again because the religious zealots make the laws, not the people who rely on reason. The Mormon church is especially guilty in this regard. If you're not familiar with the Mormon church's role in California's Prop 8 fiasco, Google that. A distressingly large number of LGBT people have been disowned by their Mormon parents and some even kicked out of their homes while they were still in high school. Depression and suicide rates among LGBT people in Utah and Idaho are alarming, and anyone who says that's not made worse by the Mormon church's teachings than it otherwise would be is fooling themselves. No, I’m not at all convinced that “churches don’t do that any more”.

My reply to friends who say, "False hope is better than no hope" is to ask them, "Is it really?" A meme I see frequently on the internet and with which I enthusiastically agree says, "The greatest threat this world faces is the widespread belief that someone else is going to solve our problems for us." This is true in both our personal lives and our global civilization. We need to wake up and recognize that some extra-terrestrial being is NOT going to solve our problems for us. Paying tithing instead of using that badly needed money to save up for a down payment on a home or some similar critical need is NOT going to bring you prosperity. The second coming of Christ is NOT going to save the world from our failure to stop global warming, pollution, and overpopulation.

I'll end with a quote from the Mormon Apostle, Hugh B. Brown. "The honest investigator must be prepared to follow wherever the search for truth may lead. Truth is often found in the most unexpected places. He must, with fearless and open mind, insist that facts are more important than any cherished, mistaken beliefs, no matter how unpleasant the facts, or how delightful the beliefs." If you believe those words to be true then you can see why people like me should not be asked to stay silent and just leave the Mormon church alone.

doug

They stole 24 years from me. They manipulated, abused, and trafficked me. They send other survivors of trafficking to my door to convince me I've made the wrong decision. I don't go to their homes to preach ex-mormon doctrine. I don't go to their meetinghouses to talk about my opinions. I share them online, and Mormons can choose to ignore it. I'm leaving them a hell of a lot more alone than they've left me.

elementalepistles

The authoritarian leaders inside of Mormonism are the ones most frequently asking this question. It is in their interest to tamp down any and all criticism or exposure of origins of and the real beliefs propagated within LDS/Mormonism. Their demands that we "leave the church alone" is like a bank robber telling the witnesses to be quiet, and not complain about or expose the heist. Of course having such an expectation is absurd in a world where one human being should be concerned with the well-being of any another human being and where all should want truth and justice to be the norm.

deserveliberty

Because there are people I love still in it. I watch them spend their free time and money on what I consider a greedy corporation, pursuing ordinances that I'm convinced are meaningless and I want to free them from the shackles they don't even know they have on.

bwilliams8492

I was asked this question by someone recently. They were divorced. I reminded them that they still brought up hurts and wrongs committed by their former spouse. Scripture and church leaders compare church covenants to a marriage contract where each side promises to be faithful.

The Mormon Church is not truthful. This deception should not be tolerated by disaffected members anymore than it is tolerated with an unfaithful spouse.

As long as the Church continues to cause harm because of its actions, and since they claim to be "the only true church" with "authority of the true priesthood restored to man" they are opening themselves up to comparisons. For instance, I was a Methodist for the first 20 years of my life. I frequently compared Mormonism to Methodism. In fact, Mormons did that all the time when I was a new member. They couldn't leave Methodism alone. They couldn't leave Catholicism alone either. It was common to hear the Catholics slammed in meetings as being everything but good.

If the Mormon Church wants to be left alone, they would have no converts. So they send missionaries out to the world to bother and interrupt people's lives uninvited. It's a 24/7/365 activity. Why doesn't the Mormon Church and its members stop acting like the victim because people who leave tell the truth about the church?

If you're going to make grand proclamations about how to live your life, and which church is going to bring your more happiness and eventual eternal life, then you have no business asking anyone to leave you alone.

Besides, how funny is it that millions of dollars were spent pushing "I am a Mormon" adds, website, and ads everywhere one year, and then a year or three later, Mormons want us to pretend we didn't see their well-placed, and expensive ads? Not in a million years. Me and my sixth grade friends used to say, "Don't dish it out if you can't take it." Weren't we wise??
I gave a presentation at the 2008 Exmormon Conference which can now be found on Youtube titled "Lying for the Lord": youtube.com/…

I also wrote Lying for the Lord which can be found at mormonthink.com/… as well as a pdf version mormonthink.com/files/…

kenclark

People like my kids don't know what they're agreeing to when they join the church. It's wrong to have someone agree to follow certain rules for their whole life when they don't know what it really means to pay tithing, wear garments, take time to go to the temple, clean the church, etc. for their entire life. My kids deserve to know.

darthyagi