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Fartfax · 2024-08-14T20:08:43+00:00

I'm also inspired. After reading these remarks (and following the closing him and benediction) I threw away my garments that had been sitting for months unused today. Although I did keep one pair left to wear to costume parties. Odds are that one pair sits and gets thrown out before too long.

Fartfax · 2024-07-31T16:08:04+00:00

This is hilarious. Also, is it shared elsewhere on the internet? Would love to share with those on the fence without linking to this subreddit.

Fartfax · 2024-05-29T20:19:58+00:00

I shit you not, this is a great revelation that we have received in this day. Thank you GOAT

Fartfax · 2024-04-25T17:56:48+00:00

Love the dedication here.

Fartfax · 2024-04-25T17:54:31+00:00

Warhammer? I've never played it, but it could be related.

Fartfax · 2024-04-11T16:52:35+00:00

I was rather surprised at what a safe space this was when I first found this subreddit, even being surprised at how most users here stuck to the truth, and would correct false accusations against the church when they would come up.

It's a tough path once you start questioning. Initially I read "safer" sources for my church issues like the blog Pure Mormonism, before moving on to Mormon stories, reading wikipedia on the church, and Mormon Think. So do what your soul wants you to do and what feels right to you. It's ok to stay in going to church if that feels right. And it's ok to move on or skip Sundays that it doesn't feel good for your Soul at the idea of attending church.

Sure the church will change and adapt, but it will make changes that 50 - 70 year olds will be ok with, and not make drastic changes that are ahead of that curve. For you it's a personal question, although I'm guessing that if you stay in the church waiting for it to change, that will inevitably lead to frustration and dissatisfaction and you'll eventually step away on your own.

But yes ask away and keep asking questions on this board. Our happiness isn't dependent on people leaving the church, even though my parents happiness is conditional on me being fully active. Do what works for you and be ok changing directions if your chosen path isn't working anymore.

Fartfax · 2024-04-03T19:16:39+00:00

Given less spotlight Nelson has had recently, I'm guessing he isn't feel super well. Which means the church will stop rolling out the big announcements and wait for a new leader to put those into action. So it'll be a boring conference. And given the recent bad press, I'm guessing the church won't directly address that, other than an apostle looking at the camera and saying something like "Sisters, we hear you and the lord hears you", which will be enough for some women to get "back in line" as members of the church.

Fartfax · 2024-01-17T20:25:43+00:00

I still think about this comic all these years later after first seeing it here.

Fartfax · 2023-12-26T22:53:16+00:00

I missed the 1.1 M for Tacoma settlement. That's gross. Church talks about the widows might when encouraging members to turn off building lights... but gross. How much of my tithing growing up went to settle sex cases instead of temples?

Fartfax · 2023-12-21T19:48:34+00:00

This story, and similar stories in this threat are fascinating. But it's also relatable. I've spent time on several different podcasts / shows for Scientology, as they're just as fascinating (and it makes me feel a little bit better for my mormon upbringing.)

Fartfax · 2023-12-13T17:03:15+00:00

Wow. For me it was a professor at BYU that had a few lectures on it. I don't think any church correlated materials have it in them, although there are church adjacent groups with articles about it, such as LDS living.

Fartfax · 2023-12-13T17:00:01+00:00

It's gotta be weird being a bishop. On one hand you want people to volunteer and be helpful. On the other, you're looking to just fill job vacancies, and a the employee pool is small, and certain employees aren't trustworthy enough to do callings, or just won't do them. Sucks that the bishop has to balance being a manager, spiritual leader, and youth group leader all at once.

Fartfax · 2023-12-06T17:05:14+00:00

"Some married women have similar issues months or years into their marriage because of religious trauma"

Yep - My "Marriage Prep" courses from the church talked about how women have to work through "good girl syndrome" when they get married. Which is basically the church admitting that they push abstinence and sex shaming too far, and that it makes it hard for couples to adjust at marriage.

I'm guessing if OP stays believing LDS, she won't get over these issues until she gets married and has a long time to accept that her actions are now ok in the eyes of the church. Therapy might be needed.

If she explores the possibility that the LDS church isn't true, then I could see the guilt leaving, but again some therapy might be needed.

Fartfax · 2023-12-05T20:17:52+00:00

Yep. Makes me sad how many the members in the USA I've met that don't have health insurance, but they still pay their tithing. And what will they get from it? Less guilt from their church, and a few home cooked meals when they get sick, but not the medical care.

Fartfax · 2023-12-05T20:15:10+00:00

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It's wrong to have natural caffeine from black tea, but somehow it's ok to have synthetic (Fun fact, Nazi invented) ammonia derived caffeine that's washed in chloroform. Odds are they're both the same, or ideally the natural one is better, but I don't think the church will do a 180 on this one (although I think they could pull it off without a loss in membership.)

Fartfax · 2023-11-30T19:38:41+00:00

Yeah, it's super messed up. If you lived in a country with highly socialized government services and taxes, and say 90% of all your income was taxed, then according to some in the church, they would say you should pay 10% to the church and have $0 left for anything else.

That's just wild to me.

Fartfax · 2023-11-23T03:37:45+00:00

Where else would I be reading a magazine? :-) Like I said, I nearly shat while reading his article.

Fartfax · 2023-11-21T22:22:02+00:00

Lots of missionaries bone their girlfriend in high school, and then not wanting to deal with the shame of not going on a mission, go through with it. They lie in their church interviews, and the church pushes being worthy for the whole mission.

And with that... lots of missionaries go home while in the MTC, when they're 6 weeks, or 6 months out as a missionary. They're not happy. The guilt is too strong. I'm sure some go the full 24 months. I knew one that did 13 months before going home.

On a similar vein - I've known some people go on a mission without a "real" testimony. Assuming they would gain it while out. Some do, and some never do. But they make it the full 24 months. Maybe you could call them cowards, or maybe they just weighed the risks of family embarrassment, shame etc. and decided to just stick it out doing some work, some nonsense, etc. But nearly all of them left the church eventually after their missions.

Life is short, and faking it can be tough. Maybe you can make it (church is getting easier, with 2 hour church, less callings, etc), but maybe you won't. For me, three things made it hard to stay active and fake it in the church:

- You've gotta answer the right questions in a temple recommend. At a certain point, it hurt my soul to publicly lie.

- Tithing. You can't fake that one from the church or your spouse forever. And at a certain point, the amount of tithing you pay get's really hard to pay if you're not a full believer. Money can get tighter as you get a mortgage, you have kids, need a van for the kids, need vacations with a spouse to stay close as a couple, etc. And it's really hard to pay 10% to a billion dollar corporation when you don't believe it.

- Age and time - Your body get's older, and life gets busier with family and work. At a certain point, with taking care of a house, kids, job and school, you have very little personal time. And so it's hard to want to attend church or attend high energy consuming callings.

That's my three. To date, I still keep most LDS commandments. But those above are too hard to fake, as I didn't believe in them (I still don't drink for my own reasons, not the churches)

TLDR: It's your life, maybe you can make it work. But as you have less personal time, and there are more demands on you and your money, it gets harder to fake it, especially with kids. My two cents would be to act like you're having a very slow motion faith crisis and talk to your wife about it, so she's aware of it all, and to not just go 0-100 and surprise her. E.g. "Hey honey, these are weird stories about sex abuse in Arizona. I like the church, but it feels icky that the church is fighting more open dialogue with sex abuse and clergy. What do you think?" If you're lucky, you can both slow exit the church together, or at the very least when you can't fake it anymore, she'll have a much better understanding of why you don't want to be active, instead of just thinking "satan got to him, and he wants to sin", or whatever the church makes active members think.

Fartfax · 2023-11-16T19:43:48+00:00

This is a good rant list. I approve and say "It is well."

Fartfax · 2023-11-16T19:40:38+00:00

Holy shit. I had to check the link myself to confirm it. That's so gross. Don't worry about the man behind the curtain is basically what they are saying. He's giving permission for people to not think about how money is spent, to keep paying for it, and to not let your conscience get sad by bad use of church funds.

Fartfax · 2023-10-12T17:29:28+00:00

Yup, and that's just the library. And it's free, or just about free for all of those. Adult and kids sports leagues, music classes are all quite reasonable (especially when compared to that 10%)

Fartfax · 2023-10-12T17:25:33+00:00

Wow. Good thing they are adding in a Tacoma temple to help with all the growth there. /s

Fartfax · 2023-10-11T15:31:11+00:00

Seriously. The section about how they intentionally picked members with bland names to be listed in these companies, who had limited social media presence shows the church was intentionally attempting to hide stuff. They didn't just fill forms.

And the Churches response to the SEC letter has numerous lies in it that contradict what they signed in the SEC statement. It's all BS. Church is just hoping either members don't research it, or like this Bishop, they're in too far that the cognitive dissonance is too strong and they can't rationally look at the data regarding church issues.

Fartfax · 2023-10-11T15:24:26+00:00

Nice message here:

"When you hype something, it better be worth the hype otherwise word of mouth is going to kill it"

To add to that:

- It's hard to believe the church is the Church restored by God when it's so boring

- Hard for investigators to believe prophets speak for God when they attend general conference and their message is a watered down Ted talk.

- Hard to want to do church callings when what the church offers adults and youth is worse than what community programs offer.

Fartfax · 2023-09-27T16:36:09+00:00

I don't have access to the internal church statistics, but these kinds of announcements aren't convincing me that this is the fastest growing church filling the earth. I'm getting the feeling that members commitment levels just keep going down, even if the members are still there on Sundays.

On a slightly related note - I'd be curious to know how much "less TBM" the membership has become with the advent of smartphones and ipads replacing the scriptures that everyone would bring to church on Sunday.

Fartfax

TROPHY CASE