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Stories of mormon faith transitions. Share your truth – own your story!

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Tag Archives: love

John Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

"These are some of my experiences with the Mormon brand. Some will blame my OCD and yes, that played some role but let's look at the authoritarian leadership style, the 'always right' hierarchical decisions, the high-control 'systems' like mandatory confession for forgiveness, courts of love, temple marriage in order to be with family, and control over knowledge and learning not approved by First Presidency." - John, https://wasmormon.org/profile/drjohn/

John was a golden convert. He found comfort in the certainty. He also found the authority of the church exacerbated his anxiety into a real OCD and religious scrupulosity. The high-control authoritarian system was incredibly unhealthy for him throughout adolescence and a mission. John acknowledges that some may blame his OCD, but he knows it …

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1984 Newspeak and the Church Handbook

Newspeak: a propagandistic language that changes the meaning of words, especially to persuade people to think a certain way and often includes euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings. - 1984 by George Orwell | wasmormon.org

The church has lately been making regular changes to church policy and the church handbook. Most of these changes are met with praise, such as 2-hour church services! Others seem to simply be bureaucratic noise. Retiring the Home and Visiting Teaching programs, only to replace them with a similar Ministering Program, a big push to …

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Tim Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

"Now I know the truth. And we all know that the truth sometimes hurts. But the truth is way better than a life full of ignorance and lies." – Tim wasmormon.org

In Germany, Tim was raised in an atheist family but was intrigued by the church. He met with missionaries and wanted to get baptized at 16 years old. At this age, he needed parental permission, which they did not give but he continued to investigate the church for two more years. He was baptized right …

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Putting Questions on the Shelf is Unhealthy and Doesn’t Work

"We aren’t good yet at talking about these issues in a healthy way. So we leave young people with two choices: to either shut up and accommodate, even though it hurts, or to leave and become a fierce critic of the church. Those outcomes to me are both tragic outcomes." Chad Ford, Author Dangerous Love | wasmormon.org | Look again at what he's saying, our current cultural practice of submission and avoiding the hard questions by putting them on the shelf lead to tragic outcomes. We're seeing it today. Since the church is incapable of healthy conversations about hard issues, we essentially give members two choices: shut up or leave the church.

In the Mormon community, the practice of putting questions on a shelf refers to the act of setting aside doubts or concerns about the faith in order to maintain belief and avoid conflict with church teachings. Mormons are encouraged to trust in the leadership and authority of the church and to believe that answers to …

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Jen Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

My daughter was on a mission and watching her suffer was one of the catalysts to start questioning everything I thought I knew was true. I left the church while my daughter was serving a mission. I was a mormon.

Jen supported her family through trials and desperately wanted to be together forever with her mother who passed when she was a teenager. But between experiencing sexism in the church, her son coming out as gay, and her daughter struggling with the corporate sales tone of her mission it didn’t add up. She struggled with …

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Jean Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

My second son left the church and I wanted to know why. He shared what information he had about the history of the church and before too long, I had read all of that and so much more. It was a terrible time for me and I felt quite suicidal. I didn't know who I was if, after 39 years, I was no longer 'Sister Bodie', the bishop's wife, the branch president's wife, the seminary teacher etc.

Jean was impressed with the ‘true religion’ as taught by the missionaries and joined the church with her young family. After serving faithfully for a long time and even serving a senior mission to South Africa, she collected a few issues onto her shelf. She questioned why she and the other missionaries weren’t better protected …

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Lehi’s Dream is Joseph Smith Senior’s Dream too

Lehi's Dream from the Book of Mormon is very similar to the dream Joseph Smith grew up hearing about which his own father had.

The story of Lehi leaving Jerusalem with his family and their struggles is central to the Book of Mormon. In the book (1 Nephi chapter 8), Lehi shares a dream with his family that is about a great and spacious building and a straight and narrow path, an iron rod, and a tree with fruit …

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Shawn Was a Mormon, an Exmormon Profile Spotlight

Shawn feels that in leaving mormonism he has discovered real unconditional love! “I love now for love’s sake (not a transactional hope of reward, or fear of a God that shakes his finger). My self-identity is no longer enmeshed in a church, which I once looked to in co-dependence for my emotional/spiritual needs.” shawnmatheson Read …

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Finding Personal Meaning and Purpose in a Faith Transition

In a faith transition many face feelings of groundlessness akin to crisis level vertigo. They may feel that their life is completely falling apart; that nothing is what it seemed and they struggle to cope with such a huge shift. They face reprocessing every principle, every value and potentially every reason for every thing in …

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Obi Wan channels a mormon faith crisis – The Chosen One and Betrayal

In honor of Star Wars day, I wanted to spotlight the moment of betrayal from Obi Wan and the parallel to my own faith crisis. Today is May the Fourth, also known as Star Wars Day – due to the “May the Force”, be with you pun. One thing we can learn from the prequel …

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LOVE: John Lennon vs Russell M Nelson

All You Need Is Love President Nelson gave a talk at General Conference April 2019. He called out some popular ideas and songs as false hope. He doesn’t believe Love will get us anywhere it seems. Many know the song, but it doesn’t mean what President Nelson thinks it means… The Beatles’ iconic song from …

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wasmormon.org

Though this site discusses mormonism, topics related to mormons, the mormon church and people who refer to themselves as unorthodox mormons, ex-mormons, post-mormons or any other form of wasmormon, it is not officially affiliated with or managed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or even the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop. They don't want to be called mormon anymore anyways. All of the content, stories or opinions expressed, implied or included in this site are solely credited to those sharing their own personal stories and not those of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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