Why did you leave? Tell your story or they will

Come tell your own story. Why did you leave the boat? Don’t let other people or the church tell it for you. They already preach a narrative about you and why you left (and it’s not flattering). By far, the narrative they tell is not the truth.

Image from the demeaning parable from the Renlunds about the rescued boy who complains about the chipped paint and stale crackers before demanding to be let off to fend for himself.

This is the story that is told currently, by an apostle of the church about those who choose to leave. He and his wife ridicule those who struggle and leave and compare their struggles to complaining about stale crackers.

But I imagine that someone who is “in the boat” will agree with him and not even notice the harmful rhetoric, while I come off as an angry person who “can’t leave the church alone” for pointing out that the message/tone is not welcoming. What do you think about his talk?

These feelings are not new. There are official church manual lessons about those who left throughout church history stories. Stories about leaving because a neighbor was scraping the cream off the top of shared milk, or because a mission call included a misspelled name. The real reasons these people left was more because they could see through the bull. They were made aware of deeply disturbing issues like polygamy.

Contribute your story and together we’ll create an honest collection of stories large enough it can’t be ignored or dismissed. The disaffected can leave the church alone, but we can also leave a testament to speak up continually.

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