Saturday, November 22, 2014

Leaving the LDS church

I'm going to try to keep this as simple and civil as possible. I was born and raised into the LDS religion, baptized at 8, and around 19 years old I became "inactive". This means that I still believed in the church and would defend it but also struggled with my testimony and participating in church or church related activities. I went through periods where I would go to church and then periods where I just stayed home because with children too young to go to the nursery, I spent the entire 3 hours in the hall and gained nothing from going. Also I hated to lose a rare Sunday with my husband. A couple years ago I finally decided I needed to renew my testimony and reconvert myself. Either commit or don't, basically. I never read any "anti - Mormon propaganda". My goal was to commit and give my life to the church. I really fact checked and made sure to follow links and information straight from LDS.org or released directly from the church. As I dove into the church's history, I found many things that didn't add up and that I could not defend or justify. Evil acts that took place in the early church that leaders and members of Jesus's true church could NEVER participate in. I looked at it from every angle and gave it a lot of thought. I had a moment of peace when I finally realized that it was not true. I was a little sad, but overall my life is happier and much more logical since I started studying the church in depth a couple years ago. My lifestyle hasn't changed much over the past 6 or 7 years. I'm the same person, just able to be myself without guilt and to live life the way I believe is right. I plan to remove my name from the church records soon. Anyway, that is a vague overview. If you would like more details I'd be happy to try and talk about it.