Exposing Deceit;

STORY OF THE WEEK

2012-02-24T17:38:00.002-08:00

Thanks to a lovely youtube subscriber for giving me permission to share this profound story. REMEMBER, SEND ME YOUR STORY ON LEAVING MORMONISM OR ANY CULT!

I was born of goodly parents. Raised in the church, I was the kid who knew the answers to every question in Primary. I loved singing the songs and from a young age gospel knowledge came easily to me.

I grew up in the south, where Mormonism was very much the minority religion. I think it works best as a minority religion, to be honest. My best friends were not members or even religious, so I became known as the guy who didn't drink, swear or watch R-rated movies. I was an Eagle Scout and seminary class president.

Now at this point I'm probably sounding a little bit like Nephi, writing page after page about how awesomely righteous I was. I wasn't perfect, I'm just trying to lay the groundwork here. I wasn't what people would've thought of as 'apostate material'.

Though there weren't many Mormons my age, I was lucky enough that the only cute Mormon girl in the ward liked me and we dated through high school. Unfortunately, after two years, an awkward stumble to second base caused us no end of humiliating conversations with priesthood leaders and pretty much smothered our young love with divinely sanctioned guilt (the best kind of guilt!)

I served a mission in Europe, where I eventually figured out how to speak French and became an office elder, then a zone leader. This is about where I started to wonder if something was wrong here. I thought Mission Presidents were divinely inspired. But I wasn't a great missionary. I was serving a mission because I literally believed that God wanted me to do it, but that was my only reason. I really didn't want to be there. I hated tracting. I loved teaching people who were interested but I hated shoving my sales pitch in the face of people who weren't. I overslept. I didn't study every day. I even saw the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at a member's house. Why was the mission president raising me up through the 'ranks' as it were? I had always been charismatic but I thought that there must've been more 'diligent' missionaries that could've done the job.

I returned from the mission to BYU. This is where I discovered that I hate Mormon culture. I had never been around so many Mormons, and there were so many little things that seemed annoying or weird about the lifestyle. Still, I was determined to get married at the ripe old age of 24 and start my own little Mormon brood.

It never happened. I dated a few girls that I actually liked, but inevitably they would turn out to be somewhat unstable (though in retrospect the bizarre dating atmosphere in BYU probably makes everyone a little crazy). I ended up graduating single, a sin at least as bad as sloth in Mormon theology.

Still, all was not lost: I could go to grad school at BYU! Lo and behold, who should walk in to my first class of grad school but a beautiful single girl who had transferred from another university to get her masters at the Y! We hit it off and were inseparable. God was finally answering my prayers, after the trial of my faith!

Except...my faith wasn't exactly great. Sure, I still believed it was true, but I found church to be boring and was annoyed by the constant mission stories in singles ward Sacrament talks. (Helpful hint to all the overzealous RMs: it usually isn't necessary to say "When I was an AP in Argentina" before you begin your story). I usually left before the full 3 hours were done. I did my hometeaching faithfully, but reluctantly, and at the end of the month (it seemed as much an inconvenience for the people I visited as it was for me). I didn't read the Book of Mormon every day (I had read it 10 times on my mission, and really felt kind of like I had found everything there was to find in it). I wasn't even praying every night, morning, and meal! Oh! And of course there were other discretions that I won't name in mixed company, but suffice it to say it is worse than a disease according to every Priesthood session ever.

Naturally, this 'last chance' at marriage made me recommit to be the good Mormon priesthood holder. I went at it, to borrow the over-used Mormon cliche, 'with every fiber of my being'. Unfortunately, this girl suffered from borderline personality disorder, and after a heartbreaking rollercoaster of a relationship, we eventually went our separate ways.

So there I was, 27, single, and almost ready to graduate with a Masters from BYU. I was a pariah AND a menace to society (although it doesn't seem fair that Brigham Young would label single men a menace when he was taking all the women. If he didn't have more than 50 wives, maybe there would've been enough for all the menaces to society to have one too!). At this moment of despair, at my weakest point, Satan, the great tempter, that old liar, chose his moment to attack.

My cousin and I were discussing things about the church we both didn't approve of. I was in full apologetic mode, using chiasmus and other rhetorical nonsense to defend the faith of my fathers. To me, there was a great deal wrong with the CULTURE of the Church and with some of the PEOPLE, but the doctrine itself was true. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and everything else that came from that had to be true.

My cousin informed me about the Book of Abraham, that they'd found it, translated it, and it was nothing at all like what we have in the Pearl of Great Price. I finally decided to research this myself and suddenly it all fell into place. All the things that seemed weird, or wrong, or unsound about Mormonism...what if Joseph Smith had just made it up?

I needed to read more. I devoured Rough Stone Rolling, An Insider's View of Mormonism, and many other books. I probably read more about Mormonism that semester than I did for my master's thesis.

When I finally admitted that it was all a con, I was free. I wasn't a bad person because I wanted to skip church or thought it was boring. I wasn't a bad person for not reading the scriptures every day. I was free.

There's more, of course, but to make an already long story somewhat shorter, I took a job in Korea and got out of Utah. I live the life I want and no longer feel guilty about imaginary things. And in a weird way, not getting married young was a blessing (or would have been a blessing if I still thought a bearded immortal alien was handing those out). So many of my friends who go through this same journey are having to do it while trying not to ruin a marriage with a still-believing spouse. I got to do it as a free-roaming bachelor, and that has made it far easier.

That is my story. Sorry it is so lengthy, but I've never actually sat down and typed it out before. No one has ever asked for it. For anyone wondering if people can still find 'joy' as apostates, the answer, in my case, is "Yes, in fact, I've never felt better about who I am and what life is all about."

NEW VIDEOS SOON

2012-02-24T17:32:00.000-08:00

Hello my beloved heathens! :)
I apologize for slacking on the videos. This semester has been quite interesting with all grad level classes, moving, and switching jobs. BUT, I have started making some new vids and they will be up asap.

PLEASE CHECK OUT MY NEW POLL AND VOTE :)

YOUR STORY

2012-01-08T12:47:00.001-08:00

If you have been brave enough to leave mormonism, scientology, JW or any other cult, I want to hear YOUR story. Feel free to message me on youtube or leave a comment on the bottom of my blog. Thanks everybody. :)

for "Mormons and the weird crap they believe"

2012-01-08T12:13:00.000-08:00

(Youtube wouldn't let me put this in the description because it's too long.)

Alright mormons, you want scripture reference? Here.

Book of Mormon Racist Scriptures

1. 1 Nephi 11:13 (Mary) ". . . she was exceedingly fair and white."

2. 1 Nephi 12:23 (Prophecy of Lamanites after Christ) ". . . became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations."

3. 1 Nephi 13:15 (Gentiles) ". . . they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people [Nephites] before they were slain."

4. 2 Nephi 5:21 ". . . a sore cursing . . . as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."

5. 2 Nephi 30:6 (Prophecy to Lamanites) ". . . scales of darkness shall begin to fall . . . they shall be a white and delightsome people." (Changed to pure and delightsome in 1981)

6. Jacob 3:5 (Lamanites cursed) ". . .whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins. . ."

7. Jacob 3:8-9 ". . .their skins will be whiter than yours . . . revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins . . ."

8. Alma 3:6 ". . . skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion. . ."

9. Alma 3:8 (Cursed) ". . .that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren . . .that they might not mix . . ."

10. Alma 3:9 ". . . whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed."

11. Alma 3:14 (Lamanites cursed) ". . . set a mark on them that they and their seed may be separated from thee and thy seed. . ."

12. Alma 3:19 (Amlicites cursed) ". . . brought upon themselves the curse ..."

13. Alma 23:18 ". . . [Lamanites] did open a correspondence with them [Nephites] and the curse of God did no more follow them."

14. 3 Nephi 2:14-16 ". . . Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites . . . became exceedingly fair . . ."

15. 3 Nephi 19:25, 30 (Disciples) ". . . they were as white as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness . . . nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof . . . they were white, even as Jesus."

16. Mormon 5:15 (Prophecy about Lamanites) ". . .shall become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us . . ."

Mormon 5:17 "They were once a delightsome people . .

African Americans were not allowed to hold the priesthood until after 1978 when God supposedly had a revelation.

The Devil Residing within the water

". . . [T]here are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially hereafter; For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the waters; yea, and especially upon these waters. Nevertheless, all flesh is in mine hand, and he that is faithful among you shall not perish by the waters. . . . Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters; but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters. Wherefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the waters. And it shall be said in days to come that none is able to go up to the land of Zion upon the waters, but he that is upright in heart. And, as I, the Lord, in the beginning cursed the land, even so in the last days have I blessed it, in its time, for the use of my saints, that they may partake the fatness thereof. And now I give unto you a commandment that what I say unto one I say unto all, that you shall forewarn your brethren concerning these waters, that they come not in journeying upon them, lest their faith fail and they are caught in snares; I, the Lord, have decreed, and the destroyer rideth upon the face thereof, and I revoke not the decree. I, the Lord, was angry with you yesterday, but today mine anger is turned away."

(Doctrine & Covenants Section 61)

Mormons becoming Gods

The Doctrine & Covenants states:

19 And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, ...Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; ...and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, ...and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.

20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.

21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my law ye cannot attain to this glory.

22 For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me. (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-22)

Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.2, p.39:

SONS OF GOD BECOME GODS. If the faithful, who keep the commandments of the Father, are his sons, then they are heirs of the kingdom and shall receive of the fulness of the Father's glory, even until they become like the Father. And how can they be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect if they are not like him? . . . And if they receive his fulness and his glory, and if "all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs," how can they receive these blessings and not become gods? They cannot.

Journal of Discourses, Vol.2, p.85 - p.86, Orson Hyde, October 6, 1854:

When the servants of God and their wives go to heaven there is an eternal union, and they will multiply and replenish the world to which they are going.

Journal of Discourses, Vol.22, p.125, George Q. Cannon, October 31, 1880:

Every man and every woman who prays unto the Father, who is in the habit of doing so, expresses that desire in his or her prayer--that we may be counted worthy to receive celestial glory and exaltation in the presence of God and the Lamb. ... When we talk about celestial glory, we talk of the condition of endless increase; if we obtain celestial glory in the fullest sense of the word, then we have wives and children in eternity, we have the power of endless lives granted unto us, the power of propagation that will endure through all eternity, all being fathers and mothers in eternity; fathers of fathers, and mothers of mothers, kings and queens, priests and priestesses, and shall I say more? Yes, all becoming gods.

****Note, video correction. God resides NEAR the star Kolob. I apologize for the error.

Masonic Acts in the Temple

http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/masonicsymbolsandtheldstemple.htm

See this website for images of the symbols used by masons BEFORE Joseph Smith began using them as well. (the beehive, all seeing eye, garment markings, apron, anointing with oil, moon, new name given, star and sun symbols, blood/death oaths, five points of fellowship, etc)

Masonary = cult

The beheading and disembowelment gesture I did in the video are from the endowment ceremony pre 1990. The endowment ritual has undergone a number of major revisions in the 150 years since it was first introduced by Joseph Smith. The most drastic revision was in 1990, when major parts of the earlier forms of the endowment were removed, perhaps because even Mormons found them too offensive. As these Masonic rituals were performed, this is what was stated by patrons:

“All this I most solemnly , sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steady resolution to perform the same, without any hesitation, mental reservation, or secret evasion of mind whatever, binding myself, under no less penalty than that of having my body severed in two, my bowels taken from thence and burned to ashes, the ashes scattered before the four winds of heaven, that no more remembrance might be had of so vile and wicked a wretch as I would be, should I ever, knowingly violate this my Master Mason’s obligation, So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.”

These were done as a warning to members. Those who revealed the secrets of the temple would be beheaded and disemboweled by God.

The Mormon Church and Money

While some tithing is used for welfare for members and some is donated to charities, a large portion of tithing money goes unaccounted for.

Note: The Mormon Church is more interested in shopping malls and cattle ranches than in helping the poor. By its own admission, the Mormon Church gave $60,000,000 in humanitarian aid last year. It is spending 15 times that for shopping malls.

In Jan. 2006, from the Church PR department, (Deseret News Publishing Company): Edgley said, “that since 1984, the LDS Church has donated nearly $750 million in cash and goods to people in need in more than 150 countries.” That averages to 37.5 million per year or about $3-$4 per Mormon member went to the poor. The total of $750 million in 22 years spent in cash in goods to people in need is less than HALF what the church is spending on these malls. Less than half!! The Mormon church is spending less than 1% of its income to help the poor. Is the Mormon church really a charitable organization?

City Creek Mall is SLC, Utah, completely church funded, will exceed 4 billion dollars. That is YOUR tithing money at work to help the needy people of the world. Really???

Baptizing Jewish Holocause victims

(Taken directly from jewishgen.org, a Jewish website obviously very hurt and angered by the lds church baptizing Jewish holocause victims.)

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to as the LDS or Mormons) has spent millions of dollars microfilming, indexing and cataloging nearly every document known to man from every country on earth -- including millions of Jewish records. Church members are encouraged to find the names of ancestors to baptize by proxy, which they believe gives the dead the opportunity to embrace the faith in the afterlife. They say that those who are dead retain their identity and free will and therefore can either accept or reject the rites performed for them. A hands-on proxy baptism ceremony, called an ordinance, takes place in a Mormon temple, and includes full immersion to wash away sins and commence church membership. It is supposedly performed, commentators say, for people who had believed in Christ, but had not had a chance to be baptized. To be baptized is to publicly acknowledge one's faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. Originally, the practice was reserved for ancestors of church members, but over the years many other people have been baptized posthumously.

From the founding of their religion in 1830, Mormons have respected Judaism as a religion. Thus in 1994, Jews were outraged when it became known that members of LDS were posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims and other Jewish dead. Many followers of Judaism find the practice highly offensive, something akin to the forced baptism of Jews practiced for centuries in Europe during the Middle Ages. Some see the practice as an implicit bias, an act of intolerance.

The wrongful baptism of Jewish dead, which disparages the memory of a deceased person is a brazen act which will obscure the historical record for future generations. It has been bitterly opposed by many Jews for a number of years. Others say they will never stop being Jews, simply because there is a paper saying they had been baptized, that the act of posthumous baptism is unimportant and should be ignored. We think this to be a narrow, parochial, and shallow view. We will continue opposing this wrongful act which assimilates our dead to the point where it will not be possible to know who was Jewish in their lifetimes.”

God having a body of flesh and Bone

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also, but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us" (D. & C. 130:22).

One reason the LDS teach that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones is because they believe that is the way Joseph Smith saw God in 1820 (see P. of G.P. J. S. History 1:16-17). LDS also believe that God became God through the process of "eternal progression," and that men today can become gods

Missionaries and getting married quickly

In spite of these fears, returned missionaries are encouraged to seek a wife. “Every person should want to be married,” said Elder Spencer W. Kimball. “There are some who might not be able to, but every person should want to be married because that is what God in heaven planned for us. …

“Missionaries should begin to think marriage when they return from their missions. … There seems to be an increasing number who abandon the idea of marriage. …

“There will be many excuses, of course: ‘I could not support a wife and go to college.’ … ‘I thought it would be proper to wait a few years for my marriage and my children.’ What the Lord will say to these excuses we can only imagine. We are sure he will at least say, ‘You have not placed first things first.’”

(Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982, pp. 291–92.)