Monday, August 4, 2008

Generations Past

For 178 years, the LDS church has been spreading it's lies and keeping millions of people in mental bondage. I wonder exactly how many people have been Mormon since it's conception... maybe 20 million.

In comparison to the rest of the population of the world, that's not really very many at all. Thank goodness. I wonder how many of them had a testimony and believed it was true but secretly felt weighed down and overwhelmed by all the demands.

Given just a little bit of real church history, I wonder how many of them would have told the so called church to take a hike?

As I look back on my very TBM family, I see a very interesting pattern. Both sides of my family are very Mormon at least as far back as my grandparents, and very likely even further. When my dad left the church years ago, that was absolutely unheard of. The entire family was in major shock.

Other than my father, all of my living aunts and uncles are actively engaged in the LDS cause. Up until recently, apostasy just didn't happen very often. Sure, it happened, but not nearly like it is now.

People just didn't question, but more importantly, they didn't have information. As I look at my TBM family, I see many of their children (my cousins) telling the church to take a hike. Back in the day, one child going astray was unusual, but nowadays, it is getting more and more common for half the children to leave the church.

Literally within the last 10 years, something has happened that has triggered mass exodus out of the LDS church. I believe that something is information.

Up until now, the church has had many well hidden secrets. But the internet has made massive amounts of information available to to the computer literate people of this generation. We are on the verge of a massive revolution, one which the LDS church might not survive more than a few generations.

It wasn't just 10 years ago that if someone requested their name be removed from the records of the church, the church would ex-communicate them. Apparently, someone sued the living shit out of them and now it is estimated that the church processes 250,000 resignation letters each year! Up until the internet came along, no one even knew what to do to get their name removed. People like my father are truly pioneers in bringing about this movement.

If people continue to fall away from the church like they are, I wonder if the church will survive. I wonder how long it will be before they are forced to come clean about their past. Someday they will have to and when they do, even more people will leave. This is why they just run things as if nothing is wrong. They know that if people find out the real truth, they will leave by the millions. Yet, on the other hand, if they come out and admit that they made huge mistakes, it will discredit their "only true church" which is guided by Jesus himself.

It makes me laugh because no matter what they do, it will end up hurting them! Frauds!

It may not be in my lifetime, but eventually the church will have to come clean. That will be a beautiful day. I do hope I'm around to see it.

4 comments:

Ray Agostini said...

It wasn't just 10 years ago that if someone requested their name be removed from the records of the church, the church would ex-communicate them.

This option was actually available around the very late 1980s, possibly 1990. I asked for name removal in 1988 (my story is rather complex though), and received a letter to attend a high council court a year later (that's how hesitant they were to proceed, until I requested it a second time). I was later told by Lavina Fielding Anderson (though snail-mail correspondence) that the name-removal option was available, if not in 1989, certainly in 1990. But it has been in effect definitely more than ten years, though very few members were aware of the option.

I'm uncertain of the full circumstances that brought about this change, but many were critical of the Church for not offering it. They still don't publicise it, and most members who want to exit have to go to non-Church websites to get information.

There isn't a great difference between name-removal and excommunication, except that name-removal avoids the ominous-sounding "Church court", or "disciplinary council", as if the member is being tried by a court. Name-removal is in effect self-excommunication, and the procedure to get back in, should one desire that, is no different than for excommunication.

Mormon411 said...

Thanks for that information. It really doesn't surprise me that the church would have the option for name removal but doesn't make it easily available to the members. And it's sad that people have to learn how to resign from the church through different sources... but of course that is how we found out about all the junk in the first place.

They will happily show you how to get in, but you've got to fend for yourself if you want to resign.

I have not resigned yet for personal reasons. But let them call a "court of love" for me. I don't give a shit. And there is no way I will even bother going; I no longer recognize their authority over me.

Anonymous said...

A couple of points -

How do YOU know how many people are leaving the church? I mean, that's one of the many numbers they don't publish, so where do you get the idea that it's like 250,000 a year? WHO estimates it's that high??

Also, I could not agree with more that the increase in loss of membership is due to the internet. Anything that allows people to communicate and not feel isolated (which is exactly what the church does, isolates people from those with differing opinions)

Unlike the previous comment, I didn't wait until they decided they could exercise that last bit of control over me and decide my membership for me.

Mormon411 said...

I didn't claim that I know that 250K people resign each year. It's just an estimate. But I got that impression from reading several articles over on the MormonCurtain. It could be way off.

But the very fact that the church does not provide exit numbers only goes to show that they again are witholding information from the general public. It is because they 1) don't want members to know that people exit on a regular basis (they want everyone to think that an apostasy only occurs here and there) and 2) any type of negative number on a report makes the church look bad, and they just can't have that.

As far as your personal resignation comment, to each their own. For personal reasons, which I won't divulge, I can't resign now. When the time is right, I certainly will. It's not like I'm just waiting for them to decide my fate and exercise their last bit of authority over me. I couldn't give a damn either way, if they do or don't.