If you're looking for more reasons to Stay LDS (even though you don't believe in the Church anymore) (or if you kind of still sort of kind of believe in the Church) then go to www.staylds.com.
I'm only one guy. I do my best to offer different perspectives, but I can only do so much. And maybe some of you are turned off by my politics. (I'm an unapologetic tea-party Republican.) If you want more opinions by more people, go to www.staylds.com. StayLDS is a website and forum that can help you with your faith crisis, and can help you process the information on MormonThink and FAIR and other websites like that. There's a lot of really nice people and a lot of really good information at www.staylds.com.
There are a lot of people on StayLDS who have been through a lot of tough times. They've read a lot of books. Some of them still have traditional testimonies of the Church. Most have non-traditional testimonies. Some are pretty much non-believing, but they hang around the Church for their families, and they like the culture or whatever. You can chat online with them. Tell them about your problems. It will be therapeutic.
It's comforting to know that there are many other people in your boat. Right now you may feel like you're alone. Well, I'm here to tell you that you're not alone. It's hard to find other Mormons like you in real life, because there are so few of them, and because a lot of questioners/doubters/skeptics/non-believers are silent about their their concerns. Me, for example, I'm pretty much silent in Sunday School, and I skip it a lot. It helps that I have a baby that cries, so I have a good reason to hang out in the lobby.
Why am I silent in Church? And why do I write this blog as misterfake371, rather than show the world my real identity? Because I don't want to be excommunicated. I want to stick with the Church, even though I no longer believe in a literal Restoration.
And so... I turn to the Internet. And on the Internet we find Mormons like ourselves, who are grappling with all the ugly history of the Church that the Internet has disseminated. The Internet giveth and the Internet taketh away.
One last plug: www.staylds.com
you're awesome. thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteSo serious question. You lie in your temple recommend interview? How do you rationalize that in your brain? I just can't do it. I don't even have a desire to try for a recommend.
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is, yes, I lied in my temple recommend interview. I'll lie again next month when my recommend expires and I have another interview. I bet the apostles lie in their temple recommend interviews. If the apostles can do it, I can do it too.
ReplyDeleteThe long answer is: the questions are vague enough to allow me to still honestly say yes to all of them... kind of sort of. The temple recommend interview is discussed in this essay: http://staylds.com/docs/HowToStay.html It explains how you really can answer yes to all the questions even though you have a non-traditional testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration.
Also, I'll say to you, anonymous, that I went without a temple recommend for a year and a half due to my lack of traditional testimony, but then eventually I was just like, "If I'm gonna stick around, and do callings, and raise my kids in the Church, I might as well get a temple recommend." I've prayed about it and I feel fine about it. So, maybe if you let some time pass, and you explore your options, you might arrive at a place where you feel comfortable "lying" in your temple recommend interviews.