As you may have gathered, I’m some sort of ill-defined post-Mormon. I grew up a faithful, committed memebr of the Church. I went on a mission and worked hard. I married in the temple. I always tried hard to keep the commandments, etc. But in the end, I came to the conclusion that the Church simply is not what it claims to be, and I have been in the process of moving on for almost a year now.
In fact, growing doubts about Mormonism were what really started my spiritual journey in the first place. Unfortunately, I started this blog well after my wife and I came to the decision (after months of soul-searching) to leave the Church, which means that this blog is not necessarily a very complete record of why I left Mormonism.
However, I have gone back every now and then to comment extensively on my problems with the Church and to talk about how I left and why. Since I’m becoming more involved in the disaffected Mormon slice of the bloggerverse (Outer Blogness), I think it might be worthwhile to gather the most relevant Mormonism-related links into one place. Here it is. I have also added this post as a permanent page, soit will be perpetually accessible to newcomers.
(These are in more of a thematic order than a strict chronological order)
Why I Am Leaving the Mormon Church (The Short Version)
“Not Important For My Salvation”
The Fullness of the Gospel
Mormon Criticism Classics: Theology and Debate
Why It Was Easy To Leave, Introduction
Why It Was Easy To Leave, Part One
Why It Was Easy To Leave, Part Two
Why It Was Easy To Leave, Part Three
What I Have Gained And What I Have Lost
Disclaimer: This is by no means any kind of an exhaustive catalog of my problems with Mormonism. Like I said, most of my coming-out-of-Mormonism dialogue happened before I started this blog, so it never got written down.
Thanks for the listing, they have been a great read.
Interesting. I have a lot of Mormon cousins, so in some ways I am *way* too familiar with the theology, and in others, I am highly ignorant, but I am always happy to hear when someone is strong enough to leave, just as I was happy when a childhood friend left Scientology after 12 years of devotion. I’ll look forward to reading your blog to learn more.
Thanks K.
Excellent series of posts, I’ve been going through them one by one. The comments on ‘Not important for my salvation’ got interesting very quickly… you have some interesting readers…
I applaud your courage in journaling your experience of religious de-conversion, however it all turns out.
What you said in your “Why am I sailing?” post is true: it IS a big deal. In fact, I think you’ve actually lost a part of your self. I’ve experienced a similar thing. But ultimately that’s no reason for despair, though it feels like that now.
You might be interested in another ex-Mormon’s blog, Agnostic Mom.
Cheers, and good luck…
Juno
Hi there,
Thank you for your blog. I followed it from a link in http://www.daylightatheism.org I am the eldest of 5 siblings and my two brothers after me are serving missions in New Zealand and the Philippines. My father is a bishop in our ward with my mother in tow. I was an agnostic for a long time but recently came out and declared my atheism on my page (link above).
I received emails from family and friends alike pleading for me to come back into the fold and if I were to base my thoughts purely on emotion, I would go back in a heartbeat. Pity I put reason and logic on a higher shelf in my life. I look forward to reading the rest of your thoughts and others to come 🙂 I subscribed to receive updates.
Thanks and have a good day.
Gus
I have cruised through this list of posting. They are quite good, and I appreciate you taking the time to do it. I’ll read them again, a little, closer later, but I can tell you that you write familiar stuff. I relate.
I’m finding myself increasingly indifferent towards Mormonism, even as my wife is finding her way back to the Church (no worries; she positively encourages my Zen practice). I’ve said that before, only to have something make my Mormon angst flareup. However, my recent trip to Salt Lake really brought out my lack of feelings about the Church. I was perfectly content sitting in Temple Square while waiting for the wedding party to emerge. It helped that it was a gorgeous day out. The PBS show last week didn’t get much of a rise out of me, and I know it brought back loads of angst for some good friends of mine.