So at night to unwind I listen to testimonies on YouTube.  Lately as is probably pretty obvious, I’ve been following a lot of Mormon testimonies (YT:   Ex Mormon Files).

The deeper I get into understanding mormonism, the more I am appalled.  I had no idea.  I thought it was a bunch of super-nice people that followed an off-gospel.  And while the super-nice people is correct, the message of mormonism has devastating effects.

For example, mormonism is all about “being worthy”.   It’s an important theme in mormonism.  Worthiness is based on if you pay all your tithe, go to church regularly, don’t drink coffee/tea/caffeinated drinks, can get a “worthiness” stamp of approval and go to the temple.

Worthy.  Worthy.  Worthy.

Last night I was listening to a testimony about a woman who became a mormon, then she fell in love with a mormon man.  In mormonism, to be sealed for “time and all eternity” which is to be married eternally, one must marry in the temple.  Or at least it is highly, highly desirable.

But anyone who is not a “worthy” mormon can’t attend.  In this testimony, this young woman who was very close to her mother got married, but her mother who raised her alone was not allowed to attend as her mother “wasn’t worthy.”. Her mother was devastated.  I’ve heard this scenario more than once.  Grrrr.  A woman who raised her daughter is deemed “not worthy” and banned from attending her daughter’s wedding?!  This is not of God.

Then I was reading a book about one woman’s journey.  Her son Lance was highly pressured to go on a mormon mission for 2 years.  That pressure is real.  But he ended up having a total mental breakdown as he didn’t have a testimony, a “burning in the bosom” experience.  And he completely lost touch with reality.  The pressure to have a testimony and be worthy is real.

I was also reading that the suicide rate is high in Utah.  No wonder.  With such pressure to be the perfect mormon and to be worthy is incredible.  That and they are told only apostate mormons go to hell.  All others, Hitler included, go to one of the three heavens.  And the lowest heaven is so amazing that it is said “if you knew how good it was you would commit suicide to get there.”. No wonder the suicide rate is high.

My blood boiled with anger.

And then I read of the court case with the dad who murdered his children.  He wasn’t a mormon but of the other major faith that starts with an “m.”.

A few years ago I spent about a year and a half studying this faith and was stunned by what I read and learned.  Truly Ice-Is is not radical but a fundamental expression.  The upside/downside  is most people in this faith do not have any idea what their religious writings profess.  Thankfully as many are the most wonderful people you will ever meet, although lost.

But a man killed his daughters.  He shot them multiple times in a taxi cab.  It was horrific.

My blood boiled again.

How we understand God has consequences, both good and bad.  Even if you are an atheist and agnostic.

Truly it made me appreciate the gospel of Jesus Christ on a richer level.  And make me long even more to share that message.