I'm new to this whole forum concept so I hope I'm posting replies correctly, I know I've repeated an answer already once, i'm sure I'll be making more mistakes the more I get on here lol. Sorry newbie mistakes Have any of you successfull gotten a friend or family member out of mormonism? If so can you share some of what you did that was successful?

Sounds like a pretty profitable business. Many Catholics and Mormons, approaching death, do the same...make donations of money and real estate to their church...I guess it provides them each with a certain measure of comfort, to 'feel' that they will be well looked after in the hereafter....kinda like some Mormons, buying their own entry into their own kingdoms..amazing similarity in outlooks/behaviors.

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"When authority masquerades as a power, a simple question will unmask it."

"Just because you think, feel, or believe something is true, doesn't make it true!"

"The doubt of your faith, is not God testing you, but truth trying to emerge and free you."

Almost as good as having your servants killed and buried in your pyramid with you.

Peace

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I resigned from the Church of THE Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Feb 2011)

"For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." - Luke 8:17

You might want to let new questions be new posts/subjects. It will keep the conversations more focused on what you are asking.



My wife is the one who got me started. She convinced me to look but had the wisdom and kindness to not force me to look in any specific way or subject. I went off and did my own research, compared historical LDS scriptures to the modern version of them and was very careful not to wonder off into the "evil" anti-mormon stuff. In time I would look at outside sources if I could cross reference their material and verify a sampling of their references ( I own a copy of "The History of the Church" and some other books and have referenced some things on the BYU website). As I studied it became evident that there were some serious errors and the outside sources I was using were pretty solid.

I convinced myself by my own research.

Peace

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I resigned from the Church of THE Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Feb 2011)

"For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." - Luke 8:17

Good point ProductofChoice.. again newbie mistakes lol

My sister left before me, becoming a traditional Christian.
My mother is the only one still believing even partly.
We were duped.
Teach your children at a young age what the Bible itself says and teaches, independently of the doctrinal elaborations put on it by different denominations. Then, when any missionary of any religion comes knocking, your children will be better prepared to evaluate their presentations.
I don't believe much anybody says any more.

We don't really pray, we postulate. Which is really like putting positive thoughts and hopes of what we want to happen out there in the "universe" . That's our way of praying lol

Ex-S, what is Tom Cruise's REAL role in the church ?
Does he just serve as a puppet to attract new people in, or does he have like some "powers"

Wishful thinking? It it anything like "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride?"

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"When authority masquerades as a power, a simple question will unmask it."

"Just because you think, feel, or believe something is true, doesn't make it true!"

"The doubt of your faith, is not God testing you, but truth trying to emerge and free you."

Every religion, or at least every cult, loves a celebrity, Latellag.
When Eldredge Cleaver came on the scene after returning from the communist paradises he was hiding out in, and taking care of his legal business, the Mormons and Moonies were in quietly fierce competition to woo him over to their side. The Mormons won. Big PR victory.

Tom Cruise, whatever else he is, - big PR value.

Tom Cruise, whatever else he is, - big PR value.[/quote]

I'm not sure how much PR value he has these days.. seems like the poster boy for scientology is losing face a lot these day. This divorce may give him an opportunity to wake up and smell the coffee, if he chooses to do so. I hope he takes a long hard look at his "faith" in light of recent events. I'm not holding my breath though.

You didn't mention how scientology keeps people in line. The social aspect w/ shunning & losing friends when you leave Mormonism is the same. Arguing w/ folks still towing the party line is futile & a total waste of time. As for us, we have Bishops & higher authorities which hold church courts to discipline folks as they deem fit for rule breaking. Shunning informally works & many stay even when they're questioning & sinning out of fear of rejection

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"Obtained a restraining order against all truebelieving LDS Sept. 2012 since, after all, there really is life after leaving Mormonism & I'm never returning"

I'd like to make a suggestion.
If the last post of a thread is more than 30 days old, let's start a new thread on the topic, and leave the old thread to rest in peace.

OK! Will moderators be in charge of terminating threads & starting new ones? Or will each of us have to look at the date on every thread to decide?

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"Obtained a restraining order against all truebelieving LDS Sept. 2012 since, after all, there really is life after leaving Mormonism & I'm never returning"

Since we aren't Mormons, the thinking is not done for us.

Look at the date of the last thread.

Anyone can start a new thread, I think.

We don't terminate many threads. Some have to be locked because of trolling or other wickedness.
Most are just left open. I guess if a really important thing came up, it could be appended to an old thread.
Now and then someone describes what is happening in their life, leaves for a while, and comes back and reopens that thread to give a personal update. If it isn't "my" thread, that is if I didn't start it, then I probably wouldn't re-open it. This isn't a hard and fast rule. Things change. And the way that old threads have been handled has been somewhat flexible in the past.

But there are probably plenty of current things to talk about. If no one is talking about it, then that might be a good topic to start a thread with.

Introductions usually don't continue more than, what?, maybe less than a month. Some only a couple of days. Posts on major events, like Prop 8, or a "I don't know that we teach that" kind of statements, might go on and on because of all the connections that can be made, and all the personal experiences many of us have had dealing with the same attitudes that produced those.

I'm not getting on your case, BornAgain. Just trying to smoothen out some hiccups in our threads.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts in new threads you start.
I haven't said welcome yet. You got here and "multiplied" while my back was turned.

So, Welcome to thee, matey!!!! Lay on, and cursed be he who first cries, "Maybe the church is true after all."

Wow! I guess that's why only rich celebrities like Tom Cruise are Scientologists! Do those donations help Scientologists progress spiritually in the afterlife like Mormon's good works supposed do or are they strictly for the betterment of mankind now? Are you guys atheists since you don't pray?

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"Obtained a restraining order against all truebelieving LDS Sept. 2012 since, after all, there really is life after leaving Mormonism & I'm never returning"