Lana Del Rey - Can't Get Enough

Love her voice!

Mitt Romney is an AssHat

I guess i'm simply jealous of the people in the country who don't have to stress out and worry about how they're going to feed their kids on their husband's $300 paycheck, let alone pay thousands of dollars worth of hospital and dental bills.

Right, Romney. It's just jealousy. Has nothing to do with working our asses off so people like you can own 6 houses, and tear one down because it wasn't big enough. Has nothing to do with wanting to feed our kids at all!

Seriously?!

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/12/news/economy/romney_envy/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

Finding Forgiveness in the Strangest of Places

I spent the last couple weeks completely absorbed in the HBO series, Big Love. The historical accuracy and portrayal of Joseph's church (both the original [currently known as FLDS] and the altered, modern-day [LDS] as well as some other splinter groups) was impressive. The show really moved me. It actually helped me get to a place i've been yearning to get to for the past few months, one of forgiveness and healing.

While i can't say i feel anything other than pity and empathy for the LDS people for being falsely led, it's a step up from the anger and blame i felt for so many months. I knew intellectually that it wasn't their fault they've been misled by a man with outrageous claims, but i had yet to reach an emotional place of letting it all go.

Big Love helped me do that. Healing can be found in the most interesting of places. Cheers to that.

Cheers to 2012!

A Bishop's Resignation Letter - So Well Said

http://stevebloor.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/letter-to-ward-members-re-resignation-as-their-bishop/

This letter really touched me. He handled finding out the truth a whoooole lot better than i did.

Hating the Sin but Not the Sinner / Hating the Mormon Church but Not the Members

I don't like carrying around negative emotions like hate and anger. And yet, i'm struggling to find a way to not hate the Mormon church. It's not likely that i'll ever like that church, but i don't want to hate it.  And i certainly don't want to hate it's members who are following and believing it because it's what they've been programmed from birth to do. "Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, he knows the way!" It's not really their fault that their church destroys lives and families, so when a member of church engages in an argument with me about homosexuality and throws out that insulting and disgusting line: "I don't hate the sinner, just the sin," i need to remember to just hate the church and not the members. Right? Wait....

Another Gay Mormon ( LDS ) Suicide Attempt

A dear and much-loved friend of mine is lying in a hospital right now after swallowing two bottles of pills.

She is lesbian. She is not allowed at her parents' home because she's lesbian. Her father is a stake president in the mormon church. How embarrassing it must be for him to have an "abomination" in the family.

The rest of the family is invited to the parents' home for xmas, but not my friend. She decided to volunteer at a homeless shelter on xmas day instead, but as the days passed and xmas got closer, her will broke. I can imagine her pain as she thought of all her family (whom she loves and tries so hard to communicate with) spending the holiday together as she was excluded for being who she is.

Every child, no matter the age, wants, needs, and deserves unconditional love from their parents.

People with LGBT children/family: Go ahead and tell your child they can CHOOSE to not be gay. Shun them...that might fix 'em! Or maybe those bottles of pills will.

I'm trying to forgive Joseph and his long line of cronies for the lies, i really am. Things like this make it hard.

I think smoking in public should be banned, because it's proven to be bad for people. I feel the same about most religion.

Another One Bites the Dust

I've lost count of how many people i know whose spouse has left them because they found out the LDS church isn't true. A bishop "counseled" my friend's wife to leave him (despite the fact that they have a good marriage and children) because he (the hubby) found out the mormon church was founded on lies and deception and he can't be a part of it anymore. Rather than discuss with her husband the facts he's discovered (ever read Journal of Discourses, by the way? Scary shit!), the wife figuratively covers her ears and says, "NAHNAHNAHNAHNAHNAH." Childish or cultist? Yeah, okay, both.

What a sad shame.

On a positive note, though, there are marriages that have been saved because one spouse or both discovered the morg was a fraud. 

Why My Favorite Book at Deseret Book Store is Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling

http://deseretbook.com/Joseph-Smith-Rough-Stone-Rolling-Richard-L-Bushman/i/4983110 

I wish this book had been written years ago; it would've saved me a lot of wasted time and money.  But this post isn't about my journey out of Mormonism; it's about why i like this book so much. 

The reason is that it allows some Mormons a graceful dismount from their high horses.  The information revealed about Joseph Smith in this book is more than the vast majority of LDS church members have ever heard, since it's potentially damning, and the church has always swept it under the rug, made excuses for it, or glossed it over in a way that causes members to not question.  (It's a dangerous thing, not questioning). 

Why are Mormons on the high horse in the first place?  Because they truly believe they're led by a prophet, that Joseph Smith saw god and Jesus (and in the book they'll find out there were various versions of the "First Vision" story until the most dramatic and impacting was settled on), and that they are RIGHT.  (They JUST BELIEVE...love that song, by the way).  What some of them don't really seem to believe, observing their actions, is their own 11th article of faith which states that everyone should be free to believe what they want, worship how they may, etc. 

And that leads me to my love of the book affectionately nicknamed "RSR" in some circles.  I had the great fortune of being part of a discussion group for the book.  The group included true, believing Mormons who are active in church and hold temple recommends; Mormons who no longer believe the doctrine but choose to remain members for the social or service aspects or family tradition or habit; and ex-Mormons who believe Mormonism to be fabricated. 

I found, at first to my surprise (although i understood it later), that some Mormons continue to believe their church is "true" even after learning much of the disturbing history of JS and his church's beginnings.  And among that group, many were truly humbled and far less self-righteous than before they knew more of the truth.  That is what i would hope for; that they will stop shoving their beliefs down the throat of the rest of the world.  Stop doing things like illegally funding campaigns for laws that breed hatred, fear and inequality (Prop 8, etc.).

I wish Mormons would pause for ONE minute and think, "Okay, what if it ISN'T true?  Would i vote differently?  Would i behave differently?  Would i believe gays have the right to marry (basic human rights?!)?  Would i keep my faith and practices to myself and my own family and let others live their lives as they see fit?"

I would hope there would be a graceful dismount from the high horse and a motion toward true humility.  Because going about with the mindset that WE ARE RIGHT BECAUSE GOD SAID SO and EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG is REALLY MESSED UP and it CAUSES A LOT OF DAMAGE IN THE WORLD.