Featured I used to be a Mormon: AMA

Until about a year and a half ago, I was a practicing Mormon (member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). Since leaving, I now attend a local Baptist church whose chimes I could hear from my back porch since moving here four years ago.

Some background:

• Served a two year mission
• Married in the Mormon Temple
• Served in multiple leadership roles
• Taught Sunday school for a decade or so
• Left when I woke up to it being a pack of lies

Anywho, I've noticed in the church I attend now that there are a lot of misunderstandings about Mormons in general. In the spirit of sharing and helping folks understand the perspectives and paradigms of the LDS people, ask me anything!

 

100%. Signs are all there, except to those raised in it (as I was). On my mother's side we go back.... five generations to the 1840s. How no one in my family figured it out before now is beyond me. Some of the stories passed down are just.... phew, not good.

Edit to elaborate:

1) You're not allowed to question authority.
2) The "ordinances" they practice are a form of brainwashing.
3) You are shunned for even questioning any points of "doctrine"
4) You are told that if you leave, neither you nor anyone in your family (should they choose to exit with you) will ever go to heaven.

In a nutshell.

 

I'm not sure how you expect me to prove my bona fides other than doxxing myself. Did you want to see my Temple Recommend? My (shrinking) bookshelf of collected books on Mormon doctrine? The letter calling me on a mission or consequent name tag? I'm a total rando on the internet, so I guess you'll have to take it on faith that I wouldn't out myself as a former cult member if a) it wasn't true or b) I didn't think there was something other people could learn from the experience. Sorry, I just really don't know how to provide you some form of validation on this point.

Per Question #2, I'll have to start with a caveat: I can't claim to know what all Christians believe about Jesus. From my understanding, there are minute differences of opinion between denominations as regards points of doctrine. But there is probably more cohesion in their beliefs when you compare it to something so starkly different such as Mormonism.

I'll also add that I've had to try and flush nearly everything I believed about Jesus and the nature of God out of my head and start over from scratch. I couldn't trust anything I had learned from Mormonism. You'll see why momentarily.

To be clear, Mormonism is so much more about programming you and twisting/interpretting Bible verses to support their narrative. It was really truly difficult to know what was actually true any more (after discarding Mormonism, that is). I had to start over from scratch, literally. And ironically it was reading the Bible more intensely that helped me arrive at the conclusion that what I had been taught was complete garbage.

With that out there, here's what Mormons believe about Jesus:

• He is Jehovah of the Old Testament
• He is Satan's spirit brother (albeit the eldest - not just of Satan but all of God's children)
• He is a polygamist (Mary and Martha being just two of his known wives)
• He is the literal offspring of a god they call Elohim literally procreating with Mary ("divine sireship")
• He created the whole world, under the direction of Elohim and with the help of Adam/Michael (same person to them)
• After dying, he came to the Americas to teach a lost tribe of Jews.
• Despite forgiving the Romans for crucifying Him and pardoning sinners on the cross, Jesus wiped out literally half the population of American Jews because they should have known better than to go being naughty. This is all in the Book of Mormon.
• He called 12 disciples in America from among the ancient Jews, gave them "priesthood power", then zipped off to visit other lost tribes.
• He visited Joseph Smith (along with his doppleganger, Elohim), told him all other denominations of Christianity were false and wicked, and promised to restore the same church He established in Jerusalem.
• He appeared periodically to Joseph Smith to reveal new truths and grant new powers.
• He told Joseph that the New Jerusalem will be in Jackson County, Missouri.
• His death and resurrection solve for physical death (all men will be resurrected as a consequence), but heaven or hell is actually more of a works-based scenario ("by grace ye are saved, after all ye can do").
• He needs an enormous hedge fund to sponsor his Second Coming.
• He still leads the Mormon church by talking directly to the Prophet of the church and the (oddly) 14 other apostles.

Whew, well, there's a starter course. Jesus, albeit the most important factor in Christianity, is only the tip of the iceberg as regards abnormalities in belief and practice.

 

Sure, easier question:

• Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Reliance on Him is the only way.
• I'm saved by grace, not by any checklist of works. His grace is sufficient.
• The Bible is the only word of god through which I may learn of Him.
• There are no middlemen talking to God for me. I can talk with Him myself through prayer.

Apologies if that's a bit simplistic, but like I said, I'm doing a lot of rebuilding here.

 

In a word, yes. No personal revelation you may receive from God can be valid if it contradicts anything said by the 15 apostles, and more primarily the Prophet/President of the church.

 

No Man Knows My History, by Fawn Brodie. Yup, read it. What's funny is most of the stuff in that book used to be viewed by the Mormon church as apostate. Now they kinda have to own that it was accurate, "just misunderstood". What's funny about Fawn though is that her uncle was an apostle and became the Prophet/President of the church. Kind of embarrassing for him I suppose.

If you leave the Mormon church, you are typically dismissed as being a "lazy learner" (you just didn't study your scriptures and conference talks enough), some form of sinner (you only left because you wanted to drink coffee or tea, or *gasp* something far worse), or just flat out deceived. In short, you may as well be dead.

 

Utah sect.

By Missouri, I suppose you're referring to the "Community of Christ" group. They used to be called the RLDS - Reorganized Latter-Day Saints, and were founded with one of Joseph Smith's surviving sons. They've kinda morphed with the ages and white washed all the icky bits out of their brand of Mormonism. That's the "progressive" branch. On the other end of the spectrum are the Fundamentalist LDS - the polygamists with their own prophets and such.

The Utah sect is the biggest one, and was supposedly the continuation of Joseph Smith's work (although he didn't get people to start calling him Prophet until like four years after Joseph was killed). My great-great grandparents came across the plains with that sect. Yee-ha.

 

Why don't you tell me?

I don't deny there are some beliefs shared by both Mormons and Christians, but I'm not sure which group of Christians you want me to describe. I could tell you about the church I attend, but they aren't very prescriptive in their interpretation and are probably different from the church across the street. Pastor M in his sermons tends to say things like "Some think it means this, and some think it means that. The best I can tell you is this is what I think it means." Not of the absolute obedience variety, by any means.