A friend shared an experience he had as he left the Mormon church. I find it interesting. Several years ago when I first learned of the troubling truth of the Mormon story, I found very few willing to discuss the concerns my learning had encountered. When I first stumbled across troublesome accounts of the Book of Mormon witnesses, achronisms in the Book of Mormon, Smith�s illicit practice of polygamy, non-harmonious accounts of the alleged First Vision, Masonic origins of the temple ceremony, I was a bit startled. Prior to this experience, I had never looked deeply into church history, although I considered myself fairly knowledgeable about church history. I understood that �anti-Mormons� had grievances but I had always assumed that their problems with Mormonism were based on ignorance or a bias against my faith. I had also assumed that their concerns could be easily explained, answered or understood. In my mind, I had expected their issues to be �Why do Mormons have horns?� or �Why do Mormons have drunken orgies in the temple?� (I had actually heard these as a Mormon from obviously misinformed people). So when I began reading actual concerns I was taken aback by the tone, intelligence and maturity of others� problems with the LDS church. However, I was still confident that the questions merited answers which, with some in-depth research, would leave me more fully aware and understanding of my existing immature faith. In other words, the questions were more serious than I had imagined, yet my faith and testimony assured me that I would come out with a deeper and richer understanding of it. However, the more I read from knowledgeable sources, the more my despair grew. A quiet uneasiness began to develop. I began to feel panicky about what I was learning. The case for Mormonism was shrinking, not growing. After I researched on my own, I began to seek out those whom I respected for help in finding answers which would result in me finding a way to stay within the church. These people included my father, the bishop I was a counselor to, and others such as historians, and a former mission president. Most were active members. Among this group I found two sorts, the ignorant and the affected. The �affected� knew everything I knew and more and had either left the church or had decided to play along with the charade. The ignorant were unwilling to research or discuss my concerns. Eventually I was told by those I trusted the most to stop researching and to stop discussing my concerns. During this process, one relative called and asked me to have an �open mind.� (That�s what got me to research my concerns in the first place). I told her that I would keep my mind open and asked her to do the same � to keep an open mind. She told me she wouldn�t. When I asked her why she expected me to keep an open-mind when refusing to do the same, she replied because she knew she was �right!� Since I decided to �leave� the church, I sometimes come into contact with those unwilling to fathom my departure from the church. All of these people avoid discussing �why� I left. No one who approaches me wants or is willing to speak to the merits of my concerns. Why? I suspect these people are afraid of the truth, of the real truth. I suspect that they would rather choose faith based on ignorance than truth obtained by challenging assumptions. So, to these people I say you have your faith; please find a way to deal with your doubts by not attacking those who approach the issue with integrity for truth.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 02:02:41 +0000
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