I left the church on my own at 12. I just had too many questions for teachers, priests and bishops that were never satisfied by just reading the scriptures more and praying.
I did study the scriptures but I also studied all the scriptures from every world faith. I regularly read the Bagavad Gita and the Koran. I don't subscribe to them but I find immense value in them as well as the Dammapada, which is Buddhist scripture.
I have few issues with restoration theology. What I take issue with is the leadership of the LDS church. Dallin H.Oaks said in an on camera interview "It is wrong to criticize the leaders even if that criticism is true."
And no GA corrected him.
And then there's the duplicitous stance on LGTB issues. The church run and sanctioned site mormonsandgays.org is very accepting if not also harmful in its supposed "new policies."
And yet that is the opposite attitude at the ward level or even in general conference. Where Elder L Tom Perry referred to gay people as counterfeit with a smile as he said it no less. And there was a wave of suicides after that address. But those people weren't real so does it matter to the church as leaders or as a community?
Being left handed is a sin mentioned 25 times in the Bible. Do we ostracize them or do we maybe get over that? Every football fan should know touching a dead pog(football) makes one unclean and working on the sabbath is grounds for death. If we truly lived by every word of the Bible our society would be quite barbaric. So when others stop cherry picking their favorite buys of scripture maybe I will too.
I have one gay daughter and one transgender son. They are not counterfeit, they are not fake, they are not living a comfortable lifestyle. They are children of God created in His image and they are who He created them to be. I trust Him more than I trust those who call them counterfeit.
So I had issues with Prop 8 as it violated perhaps the keystone principle of the restoration movement which is free will or free agency. And now the church is diggin its heels in even more so than it did with Prop 8. And so many people are being excommunicated for disagreeing with the brethren. If this is the hill they want to die on then so be it. Or maybe when the brethren say it's God will and it can't be changed maybe they mean they'll do an about face and accept gay people whole heartedly and reinstate the membership of those excommunicated for taking a stand just like they did in 1978 after the priesthood ban was lifted and all that talk of Gods will turned out to be nothing more than the opinions of men or at least that's what the new church produced essays say about the priesthood ban.
I have faith in God, I have faith in Christ I just have no faith in the brethren. I don't want to support any church run by men like them. At least the Catholic Church has the Pope! If we had a president of the church like that, I'd still leave because putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change the game for me in any way.
And let's talk about how women are treated in this "Christ-centric" church. Women are told to be subservient to men and their husbands especially. A woman must cater to their husband. A woman cannot make her own decisions in church regarding her calling without the approval of a man. Because penis, oh, I mean because priesthood.
Since when do managerial decisions require the priesthood. I never thought of the priests in Jerusalem micromanaging every action or deed because the priesthood needed to be invoked for every decision and every managerial choice.
I support women having the priesthood. I don't think you qualify for it simply because penis. What if we made having the priesthood more about one using the power of God to bless lives, to inspire, to heal and less about whether or not one has a penis?
Or here's another reason I'm not going back, what we spent more time focusing on how to be faithful, to be of service or to be inspiring, to bear one another's burdens than we do on what people wear?
Or if women wear pants or (gasp!) show off their pornshoulders?
How much better off would we be if you being a good person mattered more than your standard of dress or grooming up to BYU standards? Which Jesus and Brigham Young would fail to live up to and this would not be allowed to attend, teach or speak on campus. That's just plain weird.
I see more of the ethos of outward righteousness, legalistic thinking and manufactured piousness than I do anything resembling Christlike love and acceptance in our leaders and in our church culture.
So I will continue to blog but I am out of the patience to deal with these constraints and contradictions.
If you still attend them God bless you. I can still respect that and I can still respect all of you but I have had my fill. I'd like to be excused now....
