Because i have hard cold facts that disprove a religion, does that make me a religion basher?

Question

I was raised a mormon. My Dads whole side of the family is Mormon. There is like 50 of us. Growing up in the Church you are strongly encouraged to Bare your testimony before the Congregation. This is done the first sunday of every month. People volunteer to go infront of the Congregation and say why they know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder saints is the only True church. With the only living Prophet, and that Joseph smith was the First True prophet of the Church. And that he helped restore the church and essentially turn it into what it is today. When i was 14 or so i went infront of the congregation and bore my Testimony. I said i know that This is the only true church, that joseph smith was a prophet put here by god, and that i know the Book of Mormon is a true testiment of Jesus visiting the Americas. Then a couple of weeks later i went to Birmingham to be Ordained into the Melchezidik Priesthood. I was interviewed by one of the Top dogs. and he sat me down and before

the interview started he said there is no point in lieing because i will be able to tell by the power of the Holy Gohst if you are lieing or not. He asked me about 30 questions. 75% of my answers were lies. That doesnt make me any better that i lied. But the following sunday. my name was announced to be ordained into the Priesthood. After that i started doing research on our church. and i disproved everything i bore my testimony about. and everything else that people bore there testimonies about. So i wouldnt consider myself a Basher as much as a Mormon enlightenest. That is funny how the mormon church has Appologist for all of the things that are wrong with there theology. or lack there of. And facts that joseph smith was a fraud, liar, and a deciever. but that is my thoughts on it. what do you guys think . educated thoughts and opinions please.

Answer 1

I agree with your statement and ideas. However, I would have to say that the question should be phrased in a more cohesive way, otherwise it's likely to be disregarded by the general population.

Email me if you'd like to discuss disbelieving Mormonhood.

Answer 2

You have no hard cold facts. At least you haven't shared any. I know all the stories and I haven't seen any yet that were convincing.
What I read in your missive is a common falacy with nonbelievers. You lack spiritual understanding. First, you were not interviewed for the Melchizedek Priesthood at age 14. That doesn't happen until you are preparing for a mission or marriage or are old enough to take on more leadership roles, usually at 19 or above. The fact that you state it the way you did tells me that you don't understand the workings of the Church. When you have not felt the Holy Ghost working in your life, you are easily led by the false stories that have circulated for the past 180 years. Your leader was correct in stating that the Holy Ghost can reveal truths. The fact that he did not discern your lies either indicates that he was not in touch with the spirit or that your whole story is made up to begin with.
I have a son that is following your path. He has disavowed all organized religion as a sham on humanity. I can understand this position when you are trying to reason things out using your own understanding and not learning to listen to the Spirit. The truth is that my son never gave the gospel a chance to enter his life and neither have you. All he did and all you have done, throughout your short life as a Mormon was to parrot what you had been told by your parents and leaders without studying, pondering, practicing and praying for your own revlatory answer. As a result, you allowed the negative side of life to overcome your positive side. You cannot understand the Church without the influence of the Holy Ghost. You never sought it and never received it. I ask you to go back and read the Book of Mormon with an open mind, ponder its message and then ask God in the name of Christ, in all humility and sincerity, if it is true. If you do as requested, you will feel the soothing comfort of the Spirit seep into your heart and into your mind, telling you that what you just read is indeed true. When that happens, you will also know that the source of that book, Joseph Smith, was indeed an inspired man to produce such a work. He could not have done so on his own. I have read his own journal writings. He is not that smooth and polished when writing on his own. Only by the influence of the Holy Ghost could he produce the Book of Mormon.
You lied to your church leaders, others have lied to you and now you are lying to yourself. You need to see the bigger picture and realize that there is a spiritual side to life that puts all else into perspective. Only with the eternal perspective can we make sense of all that goes on in mortality.
Best wishes on your continued growth and maturity.

Answer 3

Well, if this is how you truly fell, then good of you!

You MUST do what you feel is right. If you feel a closer connection to God "in another religion, or no religion at all" (LDS know what this quote came from [hint: it came from a very early prophet in the church]), then maybe Heavenly Father meant for you to practice this "other" religion. Then again, maybe you've been fooled. I'm not to say this however. Only you and your creator can determine this.

On a side note, you haven't given any "evidence" of you "proving the church to be untrue", so with all due respect, I'm really not taking your statement serious as a member of Christ's restored church. But still: Action carrys more weight than does speech. If you can be a good person, if you can serve your fellow man, if you can love everyone as you love yourself, then God will find a way to save you. I know this, in the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN.

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Cashelmara: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints IS NOT a Protestant church. We are a church that practices fasting. We do believe in the importance of the eucharist which is why we take it weekly. We have ALL of the same sacraments of the Catholic church except we call them by different names (usually):

Catholic -------------------- Mormon

Baptism -------------------- Baptism
Confirmation -------------- Confirmation
Eucharist ------------------- Sacrament
Anointing the Sick ------- Anointing the Sick (Priesthood Blessing)
Penance ------------------- Repentence (& Confession if serious)
Matrimony ----------------- Celestial Marriage
Holy Orders --------------- Ordination (& Setting Apart)

The difference between Catholic Sacraments & Mormon Ordinances is that US MORMONS HAVE THE REAL UNITY!
Every LDS church in the entire world uses the exact same prayer for the sacrament in the same manner (Catholics are not in unity in HOW they celebrate the mass). Every LDS baptism is performed in the same way (in the trinitarian formula BY IMMERSION) by a member of the priesthood. (Many Catholics have never been baptized Catholic! They claim their previous Protestant baptism is valid). My cousin was originally raised Non-denominational Christian. He was baptized by a woman and immersed in water. He is now Roman Catholic but hasn't had a different baptism. When I was baptized Catholic (as a baby), I've been told that it was by a male priest with the sprinkling of a water/olive oil blend. How is this unity?

Answer 4

Ordained into the Melchizedek Priesthood at the age of 14? Most unlikely. Based on that and more, your research has only defrauded a testimony that you had been seeking.

The choice is yours to take, but that doesn't mean you must bash Mormonism at every turn, trying your level best to disprove everything about it.

Yours is a sad state of affairs.

Answer 5

You have the right to point out the problems you see in a particular Religion. But, nothing in this world is perfect, including religions. That does not prevent a religion from working, and helping a lot of people with the spiritual energy generated by their common quest to connect more with the benefits God can provide. Perfection is not required in order for anything to work. A religion just has to work well enough for the requirements of the member of the church.

Answer 6

Nice post..Not exactly an question so much as a statement, but good for you for finding your own path. Unfortunately for you every member of the church will now look on you as an Anti-Mormon regardless of what you say and do. It's in their nature and their training. I think by sharing your story you are hoping to open eyes, but I've found that all it really does is close minds further..
The LDS church, just like any other holds onto it's members through guilt, repression and pseudo-truths, and no one can escape from that unless they want to.
I find that many members are good people, with honest intentions and although I believe they are being misled, I no longer believe it is my place or my right to deny them the beliefs they hold so dear.
For them I say live and let live, and leave the rest of us alone.
Unfortunately they just keep baptizing innocent children and training ignorant missionaries...
*sigh*

Answer 7

If so, you are in good company. Jesus corrected mistakes people had about God and Heaven. Paul showed errors in gnosticism.

I'm glad you did research.
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.

Keep using your mind.

Also, I hope you continued your research and figured out what is true. Just because some religions are false, not all are. Please consider what the true Jesus has to offer, if you haven't already.

Answer 8

Combined with your other questions, you are much too obviously a fraud. You may be an expert on heavy metal music, but not on the Church.

Answer 9

They must say that the Catholic Church is wrong or else why are they Protestants? Yet they must also admit that not one of their denominations has any right to declare itself to be the one True Church. And that, for the simple reason that Christ did not estab­lish any institution which could be known by men to be His Church.


They are all brought up with that impression and so they continue in religious matters to wander where they will, like people in a forest, who follow any line of tracks without bothering to ask where it leads. And they so love the risky adventure of experi­menting for themselves that they search Scripture for every possible text which they think will support them.


All Christians admit that Christ intended a unity of some kind to prevail amongst His followers. But we cannot deny for ourselves what type of unity must prevail. The "all going the one way" type of unity, whilst each goes his own way, is useless if it be quite foreign to the mind of Christ. Who can accept the in­vention of Protestants who, noting the numberless ways in which they are divided, define the unity re­quired to suit themselves in their present circumstances and in such a way that they may remain where they are.


Those who believed all that He had taught would at least be one in faith. Again, He demanded unity in worship. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," was to be the rule and baptism belongs to worship. The early Christians were told distinctly by St. Paul that participation in the same Eucharistic worship probably was essential to the unity. "We, being many, are one bread, one body; all that partake of one bread".
In other words, "The one Christ is to be found in Holy Communion, and we, however numerous we may be, are one in Him if we partake of the same Holy Communion."

Protestantism cannot preserve Christian standards in­tact. Articles of faith have gone overboard. Mortifi­cation and fasting are not required. The evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, with their consequent inspiration of monastic life are ig­nored. Protestant writings excuse, and even approve, laxity in moral practice. Protestantism has not pro­duced anything equivalent to the canonized Catholic Saint. Many of the Sacraments of Christ are not even acknowledged by Protestantism, whilst the heart has been torn out of its worship by the loss of Christ's presence in the Blessed Eucharist. Of spiritual author­ity there is scarcely a trace. The very clergy are not trained in moral law, and cannot advise the laity as they should, even were the laity willing to accept ad­vice. The prevalent notion, "Believe on Christ and be saved," tends of its very nature to lessen the sense of necessity of personal virtue.

Protestantism was a movement of heated dissent. Error and rebellion took the first Protestants from the Catholic Church, the various forms of error, or the various countries in which the rebellion occurred, giving rise to the various sects. But any goodness which the first Protestants took as doctrinal baggage with them was derived from the Church they left. And any apparent goodness in the teachings of Protestant­ism is still to be found in the Catholic Church. Where, in the Catholic Church, cockle sown by the enemy is found here and there amidst the wheat, Satan was wise enough to allow some wheat here and there to remain amidst the cockle of Protestantism. And it is the presence of this wheat which accounts for the con­tinued existence of Protestantism. But the wheat does not really belong to Protestantism. It is a relic of Catholicism growing in alien soil. A Catholic is good when he lives up to Catholic principles, refusing to depart from them. A Protestant is good when he unconsciously acts on Catholic principles, departing from those which are purely Protestant.

Answer 10

Having facts does not make you a "basher". How you use those facts determines that. I would advise you against hurting peoples' feelings, but to be true to yourself. Pretending to believe something you don't is a form of dishonesty. I avoid institutions (religious or otherwise) that expect me to blindly believe whatever they tell me to.