Guest BibleThumper Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Okay.. I'm a new member, here's my story: Back when I was four or five years old, my mom was an infrequent visitor to the Mormon church in my neighborhood. I faintly remember going with her, but for the most part I was too young (the memory that stands out best is getting my hand slapped for grabbing a handful of the sacrament bread ) My mom eventually went inactive, up until when I was in Grade 3-ish (too lazy to do math to find my age) When some missionaries visited and got her back into going. She went regularly for a few months, then decided to invite the rest of the family into going. My dad is a 100% smoking, drinking, cursing atheist, so he's never even considered, but being the young stupid person I was, I decided that it would be fun to go back to church again, under the promise that I could stop going whenever I chose. I got baptized, gained the priesthood, and looking back on it now, a bunch of other hollow, ritualistic crap to make me feel important while keeping one hand in my wallet with tithing. Tithing was purportedly an "optional" thing, even though I was forced to pay it by my mom, and the church leaders constantly interview their members, with one of the questions being "are you a full tithe payer?" so that when you say no, they can lay a sinner guilt trip on you (but remember, it's still "optional"). A few years later, I told my mom that I didn't want to go anymore, but apparently she had a "discussion" with the bishop, and now not forcing me to go to church would make her a negligent parent (Apparently staying to your word is a virtue only until it gets into the way of the flow of money into the church). Some of the teachings that made me laugh hardest were the "Members who later deny God get to burn in hell" (gotta keep them scared stiff so they won't leave) and the whole concept of punishing a short mortal life of wrongdoing with an eternity in hell is lost on me, since isn't the purpose of punishment to correct a person? Too bad it's too late? A working theory that I have against the church is: 1. All people are created equal 2. We are on earth to be tested 3. A great deal of testing comes from dealing with "sinners" Now, you could argue here that sinners are a vital part of "God's Plan", since they are the ones that are doing the testing. Sinners burn in hell. there fore firstly, sinners are important in the master plan, and secondly, not all people can be saved (since sinners are necessary), therefore all people are not created equal under god's omnipotent eyes. Anyways, i'm currently 18 years old, looking forward to moving out so that I can get away from my mom's Christian "iron fist" that's keeping me going to church. She suffers from a great deal of depression, and I don't think it would be the best course of option to tell her that "I'm not trying to change your faith, i'm just changing my own", because she would probably take it very seriously and treat me like shoe-poo forever. Religion is effectively tearing my family apart, since my dad is very athiest and my mom is very religious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 The truth will set you free. No matter who says it, it's the truth. Sounds like folks in that church haven't heard about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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