ttribe

But...the Awkward Avoidance Viking...

Oh, please. Engaging in spirited discussion over doctrinal claims and practices on a board that is specifically for that purpose is hardly proselytizing people out of the church. That seems to be a bit of a knee-jerk reaction on your part.

This will go nowhere.

If by "woke" you mean - Believing in equal rights to all people, regardless of their religion, their skin color, their gender, or their sexuality, then I guess that makes me "woke." Never mind my fiscal conservatism and lack of party affiliation...I'm just an extreme leftist in your world, it seems. Margaret Atwood has a cautionary tale for you; I suggest reading it.

Yeah...that's it...I just didn't want to live the alleged 'Celestial Law' and be as righteous and holy as you. You can pretty much bet I take the posts you put up under your latest persona as seriously as I did the ones you made under all of your other names; which is to say, not at all.

Honestly, I don't really care what you think of my current destination. I don't say that to be snarky, I just really don't care. A sentiment was passed along from a believer about him hearing it said by ex-members that they don't go seeking to get others out because it was a painful process. I simply chimed in to express agreement with that sentiment. I no longer feel some deep abiding drive to get people to live their lives like mine (every ex-member a missionary for leaving isn't a thing). I have had a number of friends express that they see how happy I am in my current situation. That's enough for me. If they see that becoming an ex-member doesn't result in being "turned over to the buffetings of Satan" and that I'm not miserable the way they thought I would be, that's up to them. I am happy to live my life and let others do the same.

I am in a very good place, actually. However, I do not consider this board to be a safe place to discuss my journey, so I choose not to beyond the minimal details. As far as I can tell, all I've really said in this thread is that I don't go trying to get people out of the church. I would have been happy to leave my one post to stand alone.

Because of the harsh backlash that comes with cognitive dissonance. It's an emotionally charged circumstance in which people are being asked to give up (in many cases) a lifelong paradigm. I no longer make it a secret that I have left. I have, in some cases, extended the invitation to ask me questions if they so choose. But I will not go about actively trying to get people out of the church.

Because I've long since concluded that it is an individual journey that must be initiated and accepted by the person, not by persuasion.

For me? Yes.

I have said several times to friends and loved ones that I am not interested in trying to proselytize them out of the church. It was an incredibly painful thing to go through. I will answer questions, if they have them, but I won't actively try to send them down the path I went.

You don't KNOW this, at all. There is no empirical evidence supporting this claim. Indeed, given the atmosphere in the church for LBGTQ+ people, the amount of under-reporting of people who are LGBTQ+ would create an inherent bias in accurately measuring this, anyway. If you want to make it a numbers game, I'll just remind you of this - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/luke/15.4?lang=eng&clang=eng#p4

Why not address the issue, rather than the person?

Once would be more likely to follow the situation you suggest. A pattern is something different. For the record, I know from experience all members don't behave that way. Heck, I just testified in a case yesterday and the attorney who engaged me is now in the Bishopric of the ward we used to be in together. What I am tired of is these threads in which the arrogant presumption is that those who have stayed in the church get to tell me what my 'actual' experience has been. No one gets to tell me what my experience is, how I felt, or what I perceived.

Why on earth would I want anyone to tell me how to think? That's completely foreign to me.