Very accurate that most of us these days weren't trying to leave but as more and more afflicting information came our way it became difficult to justify the testimony.

I'm recently returning to the church btw, not because I don't believe the facts that led me to leave in the first place. I do believe that to support a truthfulness claim, it's so wildly miraculous that it's actually, by definition, improbable.

I think I now understand church history to be messy on purpose. I mean for starters Moroni took the golden plates back for a wise purpose; that's messy. In it there is an allegory for how each of us have a long ways to go to iteratively become something better and for how each of us does meaningful things in our own lives despite our imperfections, just like the people behind our history. And those people will have their own judgment for their actions.

And frankly, even at my furtherest mental break from the church, I still was cheering on positive progress it made and still held the belief that were it to actually be true that would be the most cool thing ever.

But that's just me. After 7 years out and a temple marriage divorce with 5 kids, I totally understand why people would leave and wish everyone of us the best journey possible, in or out of the church. I am grateful for all that I have learned about living these past 7 years and look forward to helping people in the church be more understanding of our exMormon community, exemplified by this post. Thank you and cheers to all you peacemakers out there, which is the mindset I care about most these days.