I used to be mormon?

Question

I used to be mormon, now I am atheist. I left the church about 6 years ago. The funny thing is, I still have always have the overwhelming urge to defend the religion whenever I hear anyone say anything bad about it. Am I brainwashed, or what?

no, no one hammered atheism into me, exactly the opposite I had religion shoved down my throat I became atheist after I started thinking for myself

Answer 1

No you are not, nor were you ever brainwashed. The reason you have an urge to defend the LDS church is simply not because you necessarily believe what the church teaches, but that you recognize that a lot of the bad things that people say about the church simply is not true. It is your desire to defend truth regardless of personal belief. The reason you see the lies that others spread is because you experienced what the church is like first hand, unlike the many critics that rely on the twisted and distorted views that opponents of the church spread.
It would be no different to having lived in a foreign country for several years and getting to know the people and although you are not one of them if you hear an outright lie about them you would speak up in their defence, simply because your own integrity cannot allow you to remain silent when you hear a slanderous injustice.
You are able to recognize the lies simply because you have knowledge of the subject, if you didn’t have knowledge of the subject may find yourself keeping quiet. If you heard somebody teaching others that had never heard of a zebra that a zebra had pink and purple stripes, you would speak up and say that is not true, because you know the truth that the zebra has black and white stripes. It is the same with your defence of the church when you hear a false statement and you know the truth, you defend what is true regardless of what you believe personally.

Answer 2

First off let me congratulate you for thinking for yourself. I think that's great. Maybe, you need to look at what you are defending. The Mormon Church like the Catholic Church has good parts to it, but also has some serious bad parts, like the Inquisition, witchhunts, The Crusades, in which many millions of people lost their life. The Mormon Church too, has it's bad parts, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Polygamy, excluding the Blacks at one time, excluding family members in weddings, etc, etc and so forth. Some people have the right to be angry for something the Church may have been responsible for, yet not coming out and taking ownership and asking for forgiveness in what they did and didn't do. Maybe just trying to understand what the other side is saying before defending everything Mormon. There are usually two sides to every story and both sides should be listened to and taken into consideration.

Answer 3

No I don't think you are brainwashed! I think that you defend the Mormon religion because you have opened up your mind and realize that everyone is and should be allowed to believe as they choose!! You once were a Mormon so you still have a connection with this religion and I am sure you still know people that are Mormons. You have an open mind and respect others way of thinking, this is a good thing!

Answer 4

You've left not only a church, but an entire lifestyle and culture that determines not only what you believe, but how to dress, act, eat, think, and even down to the intimate details of bedroom life.

Incredible pressure is on you to always be 'worthy', look like you're 'worthy', and buy things to make it look like god has blessed you. Conformity is entrenched, individualism is quashed. If you 'don't feel the spirit', you've obviously sinned, and the whole friggin' 'worthiness' carp begins again.

You've been 'enlightened', but there's always a cost to freedom and liberty. You do not need to criticize the church if you feel it is not necessary. For others, it is a form of release, and perhaps a little justification as well.

I feel a little antipathy for J Smith, but I also recognize he was in also an impostor of sorts, much like Ted Haggard: He espoused godliness and virtue, yet tried to justify his base desires with 'revelation'.

"Brainwash" is a cruel term, but the techniques employed by the lds church (and other cult-like groups) are remarkably similar to what we might call "Extreme Behavioral Control".
Find a 'release' mechanism - writing about your thoughts and impressions help a lot, and reading "anti" church (meaning not published in Salt Lake) is very enlightening.

Answer 5

I am Mormon and used to be atheist and Catholic. I have the overwhelming urge to defend those beliefs when false claims are made about them. I think there are valid reasons to not believe in them, and making silly claims distracts from those actual claims. I anticipate that you are similar, seeing that most claims made against Mormons are false, and having been one for a while, you know that.

Answer 6

As much as people want to believe that Mormons are weird or have weird beliefs or my personal fav. Mormons are a cult... you have the knowledge that this just isn't true. How can a religion that teaches that God is our eternal Heavenly Father and that Christ paved the way for us to return to him and that the Holy Ghost is here to bear wittiness to us in our decision making process, that honesty, courage, service, respect for your parents, respect for our families, respect for others and to share with others be a bad thing.

How can anyone see these principles as being bad? You may be going through a rough patch in life where not all the answers were given to you right away... maybe you need time on your own to develop your own testimony. Take the time... but I think if you look at it hard enough, perhaps you are defending what you know to be true.

Answer 7

No, I think you are just being fair. Deep down, you know that, even tho YOU don't believe anymore, that many many people still hold our beliefs as sacred, and you know when people are being unfair towards our church.

I left the protestant church I was raised in to become a Mormon, but if I heard someone dissing my former church and telling lies and all, I would staunchly defend them.

Answer 8

I don't think you were brainwashed. Maybe you still have people who are close to you who are still Mormon, so it means something to you to defend the religion. When I wasn't an active Mormon, it usually bothered me when others attacked it.

gw

Answer 9

If you look at my profile, I am a fairly hard critic of the LDS Church. I don't agree with the doctrines, the representation of "history", the practices of leaders past and present, or the control exercised over the lives of members.

However, knowing many mormons and understanding them to be (generally speaking, of course, since there are oddballs in every religion) quite honest and God-fearing people, I tend to defend the character of the Mormon people through and through. I will never call the LDS Church a cult, and I will be the first to speak up when another critic or anti-mormon says something that is based in falsehoods (Ed Decker and SaintsAlive, for example).

Those who believe in the doctrines are generally people of integrity trying their best to lead lives worthy of exaltation and "worlds without end". They hold the Mormon Code of Conduct (it's not called that and doesn't have a name, except "Church Standards") to be the most important dictation and identification of who they are. It is very admirable. Of course, as with the JWs, it does border on 'scary' every once in awhile, but it's generally just weird, not dangerous by any means.

Don't feel 'brainwashed' or anything, most anti-mormons are able to break the 'brainwashing' (if you call it that... I prefer to call it a mindset) within six months of leaving. It's just something that has been a big part of your life and helped shape who you are. When you see that being attacked, of course it's going to hurt. Like me, you probably just want people to have an accurate picture of the Church, and not one that is distorted and corrupted by the quickly drawn opinions of the uninformed.

Answer 10

I don't know if Mormon's brainwash, Catholics do not.

You might still have some fond memories of that time in your life, and the peace that faith gave you.

You might just not like it when others bash what they do not understand, some of those bad things they say may just not be true.

Good Luck in your quest!