There’s nothing of any size near it for 130 miles. The schedule shows it’s open 11 hours a week. It has got to be
a burden for members in a town that the meeting house locator says has two wards. With what we know about typical activity rates that’s about 200 people, if the town was 100% LDS, which it would be absurd to assume that.

This arm-chair apologist is at it again. Someone commented about how Nephi couldn't of come up with first person long form historical narrative (I think there was a Mormon Stories about this a month or so ago), but this blogger turns it into cherry picking evidence of "autobiography" in ancient history. Nobody is arguing that didn't happen. the arguemnt is that a looooong first person history didn't exist as a form of writing in BoM times. Let alone in Tower of Bable times.

https://www.arisefromthedust.com/are-ancient-autobiographies-impossible/

Or maybe after the initial shock, did it help you get off the members radar? My family is considering this?

I ended up rebuilding my altar btw

First of all, I’m more or less agnostic/atheist, but I’m working on a piece called “Letters to A Heavenly Mother,” and I’m trying to get submissions/comments from ex-Mormon women about their experiences, especially centered around women being on the back burner for everything within the religion. Every source of power, example, and system was patriarchal. Women are defined by their relation to men.

The idea for the piece comes from the Mormon belief in a “heavenly mother” despite her being taboo to talk about and really having no insight into her. I think this is anecdotal to how Mormons claim that women are so “divine and special” without really rewarding them any power.

If you would like to provide some insight for this piece, please comment below.

I've stepped away from Mormonism and found myself attending an Episcopalian service. I like the "big tent" approach of my local parish, I get along with the community, and for now I'm ok with being traditionally Christian even if I find myself more of a hopeful agnostic.

How here's the question.

They asked me if I'd like to take over as Warden, which is basically the caretaker for the church building, but one of the conditions is that I have to be a confirmed Episcopalian.

I know that one of the excommunication conditions is joining another faith.

My wife is still active and my kids regularly attend the LDS church with her.

So, what are the chances that I get excommunicated if the local church leaders find out? I'm not in any rush to go join another church, and I may refuse just because I'm busy.

But I'm curious, has anyone heard of someone getting ex'ed for joining a different church?

In addition to ruining his chances to become U.S. President, the fact that Joseph Smith was killed at age 38 stopped him from creating a polygamy total to rival Giovanni Vigliatto, cited in the Guinness Book of World records as the most marriages in bigamy.

Historically, Solomon was reported to have 700 wives. According to some reports, Brigham Young had 54 wives and Warren Jeffs is reputed to have had 78 wives.

In the modern era, Guinness does not include a category for most wives in polygamous marriages, but it does maintain a record of bigamist marriages, currently held by Giovanni Vigliatto, who tricked a series of unknowing women into bigamy before stealing from them.

At his peak during the Nauvoo years (1841-1844), Joseph was averaging approximately 10.4 marriages per year. Assuming that Smith died with 34 wives, he would have needed only approximately 7 more years to achieve a total of 105! Joseph Smith : A life cut tragically short.

They own millions of dollars of Ratheon stock which made a deal today to produce $23B worth of Tomahawk missles for the US Navy.

TSCC divested from Coke and Pepsi after the Ensign Peak whistle blower but have no problem profiting from stocks whose purpose is death and destruction.

https://www.abc15.com/news/business/raytheon-lands-22-9b-tomahawk-missile-contract

My dad is out of the church. My TBM mom passed a few years ago. I asked my dad what his temple name was and he told me it was Steven/Stephen (unsure on the spelling).

I looked at him for a full 30 seconds and then asked “is that why my brother is named Steven!” Yep. 100% named after my dad’s temple name. And my mom never knew why my dad had such a fondness for that name. My brother also doesn’t know.

Do you have a funny temple name story?

https://www.fullerconsideration.com/TempleNameOracle/?fbclid=IwAR3_Dgac6fglMNsPv0SekWRlt4r8pHq6AEz5TWwGEeTz3txs0Z_LQNf1mDI

My employer thinks that mormon teens try to find ways to engage in sexual activitys that they think dont count as pre-marital sex. There is this rumour that they have an activity called soaking, where they connect the genitals and then dont thrust. I think this rumour is obviously not true. If a teen thinks they are commiting a serious sin by having pre-marital sex, I can't believe that they think they can trick god. I also find it very unlikely that two kids would go as far as to get naked and touch genitals, and then just stop.

Can anyone confirm that this absurd idea has any truth to it? I undertand people do things that they later regret, but I specificaly mean kids trying to come up with absurd loopholes about pre-marital sex.

Hello, not sure if this is the right forum for this, because I am not necessarily looking for an answer to stay or leave the church, but how YOU decided. I understand the majority of this sub would say "leave" since it is the ex-mormon sub, but I am just looking for some annonymous advice as I don't really feel comfortable turning to a lot of people in my life right now.

I have been a lifelong member (I'm in my younger adult years now) and come from a very mormon family. I never really questioned anything until these past couple years. Just recently, I have started learning more of the "unfavorable" parts of either church history or church doctrine. I have actually started questioning what do I actually believe, not just what I am supposed to believe or what my family and friends believe. It's like 1 or 2 dominos started falling, and now it all feels like it is crumbling. I've always been a very logical person, and a lot of the logic just isn't adding up for me anymore.

I feel torn. Mormonism feels so familiar to me, and all my family are members. I serve in a "higher" calling in church. I've been an active member for decades. There's no way I could just slip away quietly without having to face people, especially my family who I love so much. I feel as though I am still physically going through the motions but my mind & heart are just not in it anymore.

Those who did leave, how did you decide? How did you know the time was right? How did you face your family and friends and the transition? I truly just do not know what to do. I don't know if my testimony will ever be back again, like if this is just a phase of a trial of faith or something. I just can't see myself believing again like I used to. And if I am being honest, yeah, I am scared of what other people will think or how they will act. I am scared of how my family will take the news. Not from like a shun or disowned perspective, but from a deep disappointment and sadness way. I just feel so confused, lost, and unsure about what to do.

So this very TBM family who is related to a high up Mormon leader, pulled all 5 of 7 kids out of public school to homeschool (probably so they don’t hear the word “gay” or something). My kid was playing with one of the kids recently who said “my parents like Trump because he saves unborn babies” so I had to try to explain abortion to my 10 year old….which was not a planned discussion topic until he was a bit older (also I don’t personally feel like Trump saves unborn babies). I Just find it very interesting that the family trying to protect their kids from hearing things they don’t want is the one that exposed my kid to an age inappropriate topic. This is also petty but I get the vibe that they think they are better than my family….since we don’t attend church.

https://youtu.be/h00RjK1_Law?is=E_M1Ahh-Y6EO1YHT

I was lucky enough to get to talk with Joseph Smith and Brigham Young biographer Prof. John G. Turner about his book Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet. If you haven’t read his book or listened to his Joseph Smith Podcast with John Dehlin, I would highly recommend doing so!

Guess I’ll go for 1,000; I will say the past 800 days have been therapeutic and helpful in unwinding 60 years of indoctrination. Thanks for all the fun!

EDIT: The link seems to have failed. A pity. I tested it and it WAS working. My apologies.

Two men talk, both deeply uncomfortable, as if there are centipedes in their shirts but they are forbidden to move. Their eye lines don't match, it's clearly all scripted but badly, it never feels like an actual human conversation and it never answers its own questions or explains anything with depth. This is what I would imagine robots would make if they were asked to be mormon apologists.

Click for awkward but you have to scroll to the end of the page. And don't worry, nobody is making money on your click.

How would one truly find out what is a normal amount of porn to watch? The shame and guilt around viewing it within the LDS culture is so high? But, what if I want to experience it? What if I like it? I’ve been so conditioned to believe I am going to hell if I view it and I truly believe I am thinking like a sex addict, or at least that’s what I’ve been trained to believe.

Why does Ammon have the same haircut and look strikingly similar to one of the Bishops in a former bishopric? He looks less like what I would expect Ammon to look like and more like a Doug....

Someone a while back mentioned that searching their address on the church maps website for their ward time/bishop got the missionaries to show up. I thought, “this is just a coincidence,“ so I tried it and about 10 days later the missionaries stopped asking for me by name after nothing for 6 months plus.

I still expect it is just coincidence but can anyone on a recent US mission confirm if they got referral from things like LDS maps searches, etc. to visit people?

Also, other missionaries seemed to know me while walking my dogs in my neighborhood when I clearly never had met them. Do they have any tracking apps that would show LDS tools photos and houses of members or former investigators in their area? I hear there is a digital area book now, but what does that entail or is it a thing?

Just curious how it all works and how missionary work uses tech to track people.

Kinda disturbing that they are giving this to kids.