Further Light and Knowledge

MASS RESIGNATION FROM THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS
ENSIGN DOWNS PARK (at the base of Ensign Peak)
SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2012 AT 10:00 A.M.
Have you had enough? Are you ready to come out into the light?
When your courage is ready to match your intellectual integrity, it’s time to take a stand.

Come stand with us and feel the light of freedom.


Please come to the event if you are supportive of the cause, whether or not you are currently resigning from Mormonism!
http://resignmormon.blogspot.com

When your courage is ready to match your intellectual integrity? lol, c'mon, really? Guilt-tripping people into resigning? Don't get into a guilt trip contest with the church they'll always win.

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He never said it would be worth it; He only said it would be easy.

Srsly. If you want to sponsor a lot of people doing this, then I'm all for ya. But I haven't resigned, I have my own reasons for not resigning which I won't bother to recount in full, and they have nothing to do with my balance of courage and intellectual integrity (or lack thereof). To believe that I must go through their rigamarole of resigning in order to show courage and/or integrity is playing their game. I've faced down god in my head and he's dead, Jim. The corporation is just really nuthin by comparison to that contest.

I'm all for people needing and wanting to do this and who knows, I may decide to myself someday. But meanwhile, well, you're OK and I'm OK.

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The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less. ~ Arthur Miller

I think it's great - too bad I can't resign again. I guess I could take the discussions...

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my blog

I think everyone has their own reasons to resign or not resign. John L. has said for years that he didn't feel the need to resign because it would acknowledge the power of the church. Now, he's going to resign.

I have no illusions that any such actions will give the church leaders pause, or make any noticeable change in LDS church policy or culture.

That said, I am planning on joining the Larsen's on the 30th. But, it is largely for personal and symbolic reasons.

(Short version of the story: Been mentally inactive for years, but stuck around for wife and family. Quit attending completely last summer. The past 3 months have been an emotional roller-coaster with my wife and family. I need to resign just to get it out there.)

I need a closure, a termination. A point at which I can say, "I'm done and I'm never turning back."

But, I don't need anyone else to resign to validate my needs. One of the things I've been working on over the past year is to not entangle my personal decisions with the personal decisions of others. If my wife is upset because I go do something fun while she's at church, that's her decision. My decision is to be bothered by it or not. I'm sick of being bothered by it. I'm also not going to sit at home and watch paint dry while she's at church. Hell, I could do that at church.

Sorry, I shouldn't make this about me. It isn't. I'm just saying that each needs to make their own decisions and I wouldn't judge anyone for a decision as personal as this. (I love John and Zilpha who are resigning and I love Belaja who isn't.)

That is all.

Aw, mcarp. I'm glad you're doing this - for your reasons, for your needs. I really am glad.

And I love ya back.

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The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less. ~ Arthur Miller

Agreed.

Almost thou persuadest me to resign. This is the only thing I've ever read that provided any real motivation to resign. To me, it has nothing to do with integrity or intellectual honesty, although I respect the viewpoint that others feel it is. I do like mcarp's take on it. I'm completely out intellectually, but still feel partially in. I've chalked this up to being a cultural mormon and being surrounded by mormonism. But perhaps resigning would provide the closure I'm assuming I need. I don't know, I'll think about it some more.

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He never said it would be worth it; He only said it would be easy.

Not to derail or hijack the conversation, but I had dinner and an interesting conversation last week with a couple that I recently "met" via facebook when they stopped in Boise on their way to visit family in Eastern Idaho and Utah.

Long story short (and by long I mean that we sat at the restaurant talking from 6 pm to 9 pm then went home and talked until after midnight), he grew up in the church, served a mission, married in the temple, had kids, became disaffected with the church ("having 3 girls made me a feminist"), became inactive, eventually resigned from the church (name removed from the records).

Shortly after that, divorced his LDS wife, several years later met his current wife, they got married. She's a spiritual wanderer -- everything from Episcopal to Native American spiritualist -- and she eventually wandered into his Mormon past. They went to church, she liked it (said, "I think I could do this") and eventually he was rebaptized and she was baptized.

The fascinating thing for me was to listen to her perspective of an outsider looking in. In multiple stories she said, "I don't think Mormons realize how offensive some of their doctrine is." (They told her that her children could not be with her in heaven unless they also converted.)

Anyway, to bring it back to the mass resignation thread, if you change your mind, you can always be re-baptized.

So what has changed to make him okay with the sexist doctrines?

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What other people think about me is none of my business.

I don't think he's really in it with much heart. He has not received the priesthood (or had his temple blessings restored) and he plays the piano in Primary, but nothing else. I think he's in it for the community/social aspect and it is possible that he thinks that his wife will get tired of it and give up.

I think the fact that his children are grown takes the sexist part out of his face, although in his wife's first RS lesson they talked about the priesthood and she said, "I have a problem with the priesthood..." and was pretty vocal about the sexism and men trying to boss her around using the priesthood as their weapon. (After talking to her, I have no idea how she's made it a year in the church, but that's just me.)

Every time I see a Portland Post-Mo announcement, I think about you and miss you. You are one of my favorites.