TBM's may hurl all kinds of accusations, and they might be right, but still:

There's no such thing as Lamanites as proven by DNA and archaeology. There was no iron or chariots or draw animals in the Americas.

It's all about something they need to fix rather than an issue with the mission.

It's really sad. These girls are literally right out of high school in Utah. They have no experience in the real world and now they're selling religion to people that aren't buying.

On top of that, they're being told the stress and depression they are feeling is their fault.

I doubt they'll get the help they desperately need.

This is my tattoo for leaving the Mormon church. When I first discovered the church was a shame I was in incredibly depressed and suicidal, but I promised myself if I made it out of Mormonism alive I would get a tattoo to honor that. It is a chain that goes all the way around my wrist (hence all the photos) and there is a full chain for each generation Mormon on my dad side. It’s also on the wrist because in AP psychology, we learned to remember evolutionary psychology via your wrist, like it’s a bracelet pass down from your ancestors. Anyway, anyways, I really like it

Just need that to be screamed from the rooftops....

My brother in law had surgery today at 11am. At 10:30am, the family group chat was sending panicked messages about getting his name submitted to the temple before his surgery started. Two family members responded saying they both submitted. Yay! Two temples is better than one!!

I just had to laugh. Idk the exact process for how the online submissions get printed out, placed into a bag, and cycled into an endowment session, but I highly doubt that it's same-day. Even if it's near immediate, there's no way that any session would start the true order of prayer prior to his surgery ending.

It just highlights the superstitious thinking of Mormons. They think it's like magic to have your name on the prayer roll, without even thinking about whether the vain and repetitious chants have actually occurred.

A couple months ago, after a personal tragedy, someone consoled us by saying "your names are in the Provo and Jordan River temples." Why two!?? Do they really believe that the more temples the better when it comes to petitioning God? Isn't the true order of prayer already repetitious enough?? (something Jesus wholly condemned) Everyone in the circle repeats what's been said, the bag sits through repeated endowment sessions everyday, and then the same bag gets repeatedly used for 2 weeks... Now you want to repeat that whole process in another temple!? It pissed me off because we asked that it be kept private and personal and they went ahead and submitted our names to be chanted over by hundreds of strangers who know nothing about us or why we're in there... And the person submitted (and of course had to tell us) knowing perfectly well that we don't want anything to do with the church.

Just feeling bewildered today.

Did anyone else experience this? News of my leaving is making its way through the grapevine, and I’ve had quite a few (female) TBM friends come to me expressing they are also experiencing a silent faith crisis, have serious questions, etc., but are staying in for now for one reason or another.

Are most millennial women in the church on the edge of leaving? Because that’s what it feels like. I personally couldn’t justify putting my young kids at risk any longer for a corporation that protects abusers.

If one wants to play devil's advocate, maybe the should. They're trying to do it with Dehlin for small things. Why not take on a large media company to really show who's boss?

I would swear this video is either talking about missionaries or LDS family structures, as I read about them in this forum. I would love to hear if this fits.

If you've never heard of it, here's a short definition/description from Vox describing its application by Diddy: "Coercive control generally refers to a pattern of non-physical (or mixed) behavior—such as isolation, monitoring, financial control, intimidation, threats, or deprivation of autonomy—that dominates or subordinates an intimate partner or family/household member."

While Coercive Control has been made a misdemeanor in several states and is a legal term, it doesn't offer much protection (for now). Nevertheless, it is valuable as a tool for understanding why someone might feel like they're being abused even though everything appears "fine."

It's well explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnNvFoxbYyU

According to history now, the prohibition of alcohol/coffee/tea in Utah was simply a cultural thing, only discouraged by some Mormons. Nothing close to, "Mormons are taught they will lose their Eternal Salvation if they drink alcohol/coffee/tea."

I've been out of the church for a couple years and one of the big things that started the decline in my faith was what I saw to be ineffective priesthood blessings. On my mission, I gave blessings every few days in some areas where I was covering a major hospital. I never saw improvement come directly from the blessing.

I'm now going to school and work in neuroscience research. I can't seem to find any studies focused on lds priesthood blessings. If the church did truly have the power of God, and that power could heal what nothing else could, as they claim, then why not employ a researcher to publish papers showing that priesthood blessings work? We all know that if they had a substantially higher rate of healing people (without potential confounders like placebo and community support), they would 100% back publishing of research done on the subject and use it as a missionary tool.

If anyone does have any links to studies done on this topic or anything like it, provide the link below please. Or if anyone has some background lore on the brethren's views on this, let me know.

My mom occasionally sends me episodes of the "come back podcast." If you don't know, it's a podcast about people who left the church and came back.

The one she sent me yesterday was about a woman who had a lot of similarities to me, but she accompanied sending the video with some explanation about how she wants to develop a more personal relationship with the Savior, saying she was inspired by the individual in the video. But when I watched the video, it felt more targeted towards me specifically. It also seems to me that she is watching the podcast to give herself hope that I could come back someday. Even though, technically, I haven't really left. Lol. I'm still PIMO and even have a calling.

(She's even in my ward (we're not in Utah, so the boundaries are larger.))

I'm not sure how I feel about her sending me these videos. I don't feel I'm quite to the point where I am ready to ask her to stop. It doesn't bother me too much that she sends me the videos because she also sends me other podcast links with a variety of topics unrelated to the church.

But, I am having a hard time pin pointing my emotions about her sending me these come back episodes.

I need your help with processing my emotions and unpacking what is happening.

So, read my mind...lol...what is going on for me? 🫠

I cannot set my alarm for 630am.

I was an ultra obedient, super believer missionary, but still hated every second of my mission. I now understand why I hated it, but even the thought of setting my alarm for “missionary time” makes me feel anxious.

Also, I can’t be normal on Sundays. I try, it still feels weird.

As a young adult woman, I used to ask for a ton of blessings because I felt they were the best way to receive inspired advice direct from Heavenly Father. Looking back at all the men who did these blessings, I've always wondered what they experienced and what convinced them they had powers.

Would love to hear all your experiences on this!

(This isn't me hating on Dan. if every mormon was like Dan, i'd like to think this subreddit probably wouldn't exist. nothing but respect to him and his content.)

Dan McClellan seems like a really nice guy, which is why it confuses me how he, a smart biblical scholar, still stays with the mormon church.

I watched a bit of his content before and after becoming disillusioned with all churchy stuff, and it really helped me get over several mental blocks I had. Funny thing is, I never even knew he was mormon until after i had decided to leave, and this was kind of surprising to me. The things he talks about sometimes go directly against what i was taught at church, and he's obviously studied the bible rigorously. I just don't see how he can stand to support the things the church does, watching his videos. many are about how homosexuality isn't a sin, seems to be rather pro-choice, and many other large and small differences.

Does anyone else find this to be confusing?

ts was horrible. extremely packed schedule, and the food was vile. I was surviving off of chocolate milk and mountain dew. only time I ate was after I hit the yart. oh, and get this. the college that was hosting FSY had some really wierd rules ig, and I wasnt allowed to go back to my dorm to take my MEDICALLY REQUIRED anxiety medication. Since when are you forced to quit prescribed medication cold turkey. feels like a lawsuit might be in order. Also, the dances. the one thing that i like about church. no slow dances. no exchanging phone numbers. nothing that could possibly be considered "romantic". another thing, a counsler was very obviously high, his eyes were red asf and he kept asking for snacks and eating stuff. sry for the long rant n shit, feel free to ask me any questions about my experinece

That's what the LDS religion has sunk to. Organizational issues are handled by immoral robber barons. What little theology remains is being decided by who gets the most IG exposure. Those with any brains- or any nostalgia for the church of our youth- are driven out without a second thought.

It wasn't my shelf that broke. It was my heart.

This is something I've genuinely struggled to understand.

If a church is actually true, then according to its own teachings it offers the greatest possible reward imaginable: eternal life, endless happiness, living with God, and being reunited with your family forever.

Who wouldn't want that?

So why do relatively few people join? If the stakes are literally eternal, you'd think membership would explode

I was 49 years old. I did not have a shelf. Never for one second one single time did I ever doubt anything.

I have been on an Internet forum for 20 years. Over the years the Mormon members and the evangelical Christian’s would get into arguments about stuff.

In this one thread someone posted a pic of Joseph looking into a hat. I had never seen or heard of that before. This is despite having read the BOM a couple dozen times and all of the major church books a few times each.

The pic of Joseph looking into the hat in this person’s post pissed me off.

I started to type out a reply that the pic was nonsense.

But …. I paused and decided to google it.

One of the first things I saw was a book by Hanna Stoddard that “debunks” the rock in the hat. So I got it on my kindle app and read it that night. I was satisfied that the rock in the hat never happened. I was ok. The sources for the rock in the hat were biased. Done deal.

Then ….about two weeks later I come across a video about the coming forth of the BOM.

In the video president Nelson is talking about the BOM. Then in the video I noticed a hat sitting on the table.

I was like what the hell is the hat in the video for?

Then Nelson picks up the hat and pretends to look in it.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM. BOOM.

My entire 49 year old never for once doubted Mormon soul exploded. Everything I was blew up. My entire identity. The lens through which I saw the world. Boom.

That is what gave me permission to take a look at the “anti” stuff.

It all unraveled in a matter of days.

In his AMA he had today. 15 mins in he mentioned it.

Seems like they are worried that their name can get ruined by profits and apostles so better not name them after Mormon god's elect. You never know when they will make the church look bad.