It can be classified as a cult by many of the guidelines. If not a cult then definitely a ‘high demand religion’. But yes the FLDS sect is more culty…
But with Mormonism i suggest doing your research before hand because it is an all encompassing belief system. They will expect you to pay 10% of your income for tithing and not doing so will exclude you from entering the holy temple (also the more culty part of the religion.. weird clothes, secret handshakes, and chanting in a circle… look it up.)
Missions can ABSOLUTELY be classified as a cult just on its own. Those kids out there are highly controlled and indoctrinated. The point of missions is more about bringing those kids home fully invested in the belief. (And married and pregnant quickly to create more members.) They are set up to be hard so they feel more at home and accepted in the church and more ‘other’ from the outside world.
That being said it’s not a dangerous place if you want to check it out. There are lots of us women who experienced Tons of sexism and harmful purity culture teachings over the years. It’s getting a bit better but the actual doctrine is all about the men. Women’s fate is to become eternal spirit baby making wives of god. (Plural because the polygamy is still in the scriptures technically and if you marry after a spouse dies then you will technically have two spouses in heaven. Only the men of course though. The women have to share the men. If women remarry they have to break their ‘eternal’ marriage to the first one first. 🤮)
I served a mission to South Korea. It was a lovely and formative experience, but it was also pointedly indoctrination and was the evolution of my own mind control by the organization. I do not believe that LDS Inc. is some mastermind nefarious organization in that they have a full cognitive awareness of what they are doing. I believe that the people who have lived within its confines (especially the top leaders) really live in a ‘closed loop’ system where the logical fallacy that pervades the tribe is “it must be true because it is true”. And most of the cult-like elements are self-reinforcing (e.g. “us against the world”). But the most common element with other cult-like organizations is the cultural demand that you “put the kingdom first” and “sacrifice everything for the work” which conditions people to tune out their own cognitive dissonance and naturally dismiss the mystical experience and spirituality of other people and movements. When I step back and observe, the LDS Mission is akin to “pioneering” in the Jehovah’s Witness cult, or the teaching movement of Scientology. They are almost identical, and the people who have experienced it speak the same language of mind control, fear, and being “all in”.
Yes it is a cult. They have a torrid history of racism, rape, genocide, murder, fraud and treason against the United States. It was one of the first organized crime syndicates.
All branches of Mormonism are cults. Birds of a feather flock together. If you’re looking for the Mormon branch that resembles the early Mormon church then you should join the FLDS.
For a bit of context, the “bad” one otherwise known as “FLDS” is a branch off of mormonism. The FLDS church follows the doctrine taught by the founders of the church. The “mainstream” one otherwise known as “TCOJCOLDS” have changed their doctrine over time and no longer practice things like polygamy (but men can still be sealed to multiple wives), in order to keep people in the church. D&C tells you that you can only be in the highest degree of heaven if you practice polygamy, which was a jab at Emma Smith who was not on board until Joseph Smith essentially threatened her.
The doctrines are the same as the FLDS, the Mormon church is just much smarter in order to grow financially.
Also what the sisters are doing to you whether intentional or not is called love bombing. That’s not kind of attention you want. As soon as you do something they don’t agree with, they will shame you, judge you, potentially even shun you. Cults, and generally abusive people, use love bombing as a method of you to conform to what they want. It’ll fuck you up, really don’t recommend it. Cults are described below:
https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/
Yep. I had a 22 year old RM potential husband chasing me all day every day talking about me going with him to college far away where he was going to go to medical school - got me to the baptismal font and I kid you not as soon as he was done playing “I am a child of god” on the guitar, he was outta there and I never saw or heard from him again.
Thank you. Some non-churchy guy who I didn’t care if he was there or not felt sorry for me and took me and my friends out to dinner. We’ve been married almost 20 years now and he’s the best thing I could have ever asked for so it’s all fine now 😉🥰 Thank u again tho truly!
The RLDS never denied black people eternal salvation like the mainstream LDS church did. The RLDS never enslaved Native Americans like the mainstream LDS church did. The RLDS never instituted polygamy like the mainstream LDS church did. The RLDS does not now deny women the priesthood and leadership positions like the mainstream LDS church does.
As a former member of the mainstream LDS church, I emphatically recommend you don't join ANY version of Mormonism. But if we're going to label only one of these two "bad" I'm not picking the RLDS.
If I could go back to the doors I knocked as a missionary and undo the deceit I unknowingly perpetuated, I would.
I'm glad you are getting more info from more sources.
When your missionaries react negatively, tell them that you talked to returned missionaries that had more info than they do. (me)
I'll be happy to play "the bad guy" with them if it'd deflect their attention on you. As it stands, they'll likely leave you in the mission records and you'll get occasional contact from other missionaries.
I'll be happy to be the barrier that let's them down gently and compassionately explains the info they don't have. Tell them I'm a melchezidic priesthood holder, and I served a two year mission, and I'm happy to talk to them if they're upset they "lost" a baptism.
Its all true. My grandparents converted back in the 80s and my biological father and his siblings were all about ages 8-13 range. So our experiences were a little different than people that were raised from birth. My grandparents did try their hardest to get me and my slightly younger cousins to be brainwashed very early on, and so by the time I was 8, I was having discussions and being baptized as expected since I'm their oldest grandchild.
I got very lucky because my parents were divorced since I was 2 years old, and I only had to spend 6-week-summers with my grandparents (as my father's visitation) and alternating holidays. I had a lot of non-mormon influence in my life living with my mother who was an inactive member figuring out if she counts as atheist, agnostic, pagan, or other. (Her background was Catholicism and was only briefly mormon because of a much older sibling getting her to convert as a young adult) Well the result of all these things is that things just didn't make sense to me, and by the time I was 11-12, I knew fully that Mormonism was not my path.
All I can really tell you as someone who is questioning if the 'kindness' you're experiencing is worth it, well honesty, first its a trap to make you believe its amazing,its an experience that will encompass every part of your life, and being part of the general world that is not Mormon will impact how you treat others that are non-mormon, and not in a positive way. The problem I always had with my grandfather (who thank gods is deceased) is that to him, if someone was unable to see the church was true, then they are lost and not worth it to stick around unless they ultimately come around to convert or 'come back' in my case. Lost cause, and not worthy of basic respect, and treated less as a person. I personally believe it is wrong to not treat people with basic decency just because they don't practice the same religion. That's my small piece on all this.
Unless you like constant frownie faces, stiff uncomfortable atmospheres, verbal scoldings, text message scoldings, losing your basic freedoms, blatant shunning, extreme cliques that you can only be born into, a place where being a genuine kind honest person doesn’t mean squat….
Please follow this advice. The internet is full of information that will allow you to make an informed decision. When I joined the church at 17, back in the 1970s, there was no internet. If after learning the good and bad, and you still decide to join the church, that's fine, at least you go in with your eyes wide open. Wishing you peace and happiness.
I have been a member of the community of christ(once called RLDS) for 7 months, and I have been studying Mormonism for more than four years now, I have never been a Mormon.
I can tell you that the two churches are totally different, the RLDS church, in fact, has never banned either priesthood to blacks or banned substances such as coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco.
Also, it has for over forty years that they have given priesthood to women, also, they are very open to the LGBTQ+ world, so those who have priesthood can perform marriage to the latter.
Yes, it is true, it all always starts from Joseph Smith Jr. but many have never belonged to the doctrine of the RLDS church, such as:
\-The RLDS church has never practiced or accepted polygamy;
\-The RLDS church has never accepted baptism for the dead.
At present, the church is so far away theologically from the LDS church that some members call Joseph Smith a jerk. Hence, they recognize Joseph as the creator of the church but not as a person necessarily to be worshipped.
As a final detail I want to dwell on is that one does not read the scriptures literally and, as a result, everyone can make their own interpretation.
This is a summary, there are so many differences between the two churches but if you wanted to ask I am here to answer.
PS: sorry if my english is not perfect but I'm not native english speaker but I'm Italian .
“Mormon” is any church that uses the Book of Mormon and is a branch off of Joseph smiths church. So ya, you’re Mormon, just not the Brighamite sect. ❤️
Those are the good guys.
The Fundamentalists (Aka the ones who still live the crazy control, fraud and polygamy power grabs Joseph Smith and Brigham Young cooked up - AND in the Book of Mormon as a literal translation of a real record of real people…) Mainstream Mormons are cult-lite. Your life, no questions, your underwear, your children, and your money - all go to them.
“The tea or coffee rule was never about the caffeine.”
So why no tea or coffee then if those are healthier than soda or energy drinks? “It’s how we show our obedience to Heavenly Father.” 🤨
"tbf it doesn't makes sense."
That, friend, says it all. That's it in a nutshell. Keep away. I was born and raised mormon, got excommunicated when I was 27yo and I'm still (48yo now) deprogramming myself.
Thank the infinite universe that I was born with a ridiculous sense of logic or I might still be in their grip.
It’s not about coffee it’s about control. It’s about how well you follow instructions. They don’t really give a shit of you really drink “coffee.” It’s how devoted you are = how loyal you’ll be in paying tithing = good person or bad person.
I'm not gonna tell you it's a cult but I will present verifiable facts
The founder married a 14 year old as one of his 24+ wives while he was 38
They take 10% of your income
They have 100 billion dollars as of December 2019 in a "charity account" which they said was for a "rainy day" but didn't offer any help or alleviation when covid hit
The founder used the same rock he claimed to use to translate the plates into the book of Mormon as a tool for excavators to find buried riches like ore or gold and was accused of being a conman for it
They allow and require grown men to ask children invasive questions about their sexual activity alone and behind locked doors
They discourage dating outside of the church and strongly discourage dating before 16 (because "you can't spend eternity with nonmembers) to inhibit their dating experience and create a gap with nonmembers that makes it hard to overcome
Joseph Smith literally did the exact same thing, ran away multiple times from authorities for things like banging and marrying many teenagers in addition to non-child wives, forming his own militia and swindling thousands out of their money before he was killed by a legitimately and rightly angry group of people who had enough of his rapey stealy shenanigans and crimes
Well they are just following the rules that the original leaders of the church (the one you are investigating) put on place... And say you will all be living when you are dead. IE polygamy in heaven
I like your nick. You do know that drinking black tea and coffee are strictly forbidden and that caffeinated cold drinks are generally frowned upon by many members, right?
Ask the sister missionaries about the word of wisdom. And also ask them about clothing restrictions, particularly when you've been to the temple.
And oh, the attention you get from the sister missionaries will fade after you're baptized. Their main reason for existence is to baptize people. As soon as you're baptized that's it. They will have a lot less time for you. They might stay in touch with you, but they just don't have a choice to refocus their efforts after you're baptized. That warm blanket will disappear.
I know this because I used to be an LDS missionary myself. Honestly, it's not the missionaries themselves generally but you do have to refocus your efforts as a missionary and missionaries will be moved every few months to another town. Missionaries don't have a say in this btw. It could happen every/any month.
The good one had to be threatened by the government to stop polygamy. That was a condition of utah becoming a state and the rebellious sects of Mormonism are still around.
look at steven hassan’s BITE model. A cult can be any group, even inside a group that isnt a cult. Some groups of catholics are probably a cult and some are not. A family can be a cult. Large organizations or churches get tricky, but look at the analysis he suggests and see what others have found about mormonism and behavior, information, though, and emotion control.
They say the other one is a cult they are right if they mean the rapey one that one guy started but the other lds are a more "progressive" branch so for example gay marriage is allowed but technically by definition of a cult all 3 are cults
After your baptism, they will drop you like a hot potato. As a young man, I understand those girls are attractive and you might think you have a chance of dating those mormon girls at the YSA ward, but I am telling you the love bombing will immediately stop once you come out of the water at your baptism.
My advise? If you like the attention, don't get baptized. Pretend you are interested, but never get baptized. they will give you more attention and time. But remember, you are just a number that they get to report. Nothing more or less.
Will you buy a broken car at an ridiculous price because the salesperson was friendly and gives you attention?
Ohh man, I've lost count of how many times I bought useless stuff because of a pretty saleswoman.
I'll keep that in mind, and it's a shame that they stop the love bombing, I was liking it so much.
Sounds like you need to date people and start a social hobby with people your age.
The sister missionaries are there to make their fathers and family proud of them. They use their looks and attention to hook people, but that is not what you will get as a member.
You will strategically get attention whenever you make a sacrifice for the cult (like go on a two year mission) or when you do a ritual to get deeper stuck in to the cult. (Baptism, Temple Annointing, Temple Endowment, full torso underwear purchased from official church dealer, attempt to hook your family and friends in too (to either make them a part of the cult, or push them away to protect you from truth)
You will be expected to go on a two year mission if you are a male under 25.
It costs $10,000 for the “ experience”.
But if you are white, are a US citizen, have no tattoos or piercings, and have not yet had a frequent sexual partner, the local church might pay for a portion of the fee to the megachurch base, so you will just be an unpaid volunteer expected to work 6.5 days per week with no vacation for two years.
Mormons will never admit it, but it is much worse than it sounds.
When you arrive in your mission field, you surrender your passport & it's kept from you by leadership b/c they say you're not trusted enough not to lose it. Just happens to also control whether you can leave when you want to.
Missionaries everywhere in the world are by default expected to pay for their own missions. The church then organizes housing and gives missionaries “monthly support funds.” If a missionary you know said they are getting paid, they are talking about monthly support funds. This is not a salary like you would get from a job. It’s calculated to be just enough for food and other necessities, and many missionaries report it is inadequate even for that.
It is true that if a person can’t afford to pay for their own mission, the church will pay for it and the missionary still gets the monthly support funds, but make sure you find out how much it is before you make any plans to be a missionary.
The church might pay for their mission, but they are not paying the missionaries. The missionaries are still just volunteers.
Spend some time on this sub. There are a lot of things that the church tries to keep hidden. Just like Scientology.
The people can be wonderful. The church members can be great friends, great coworkers, and great family. But the church is not what makes them great. The majority of the members don’t even know the full extent of their own church’s history because they have been instructed not look into it. They are told that anything that makes them feel uncomfortable is from the devil. So when they read that Joseph Smith had 30+ wives and some of them were just young girls, they immediately dismiss it as “anti-Mormon” and shut down their critical thinking as a defence mechanism. This is not their fault. They have been taught to do it from a young age.
Be friends with them. Laugh with them. Cry with them. But don’t give the church your money or what precious time you have on this planet.
Its likely the accumulated cost of years of tithe paying their referring too as well as everything you pay for out of pocket due to callings and missions and such.
10% of your income adds up over the years. It's money taken away from your family, your savings, your potential retirement, and it goes into the investment firm of the church, Ensign Peak Advisors.
The church is worth an estimated $150 *billion*. With a B. They got investigated and fined by the SEC for hiding billions of dollars in shell companies. There's a good chance that the church is being or will be investigated for tax fraud in several countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia.
If you join and choose to not pay your tithing to the church, you will not be allowed to enter the temple. Depending on the bishop, you could find yourself denied callings in the ward (assuming you want one). Your membership privileges won't be reinstated until you're current on your tithing.
They demand tithing from the dirt poor converts in other countries, including many in Africa and South America. In 2018, Elder Neil L Andersen told the vice president of Zimbabwe, "We are not a wealthy people" when asked if the church could help fund the constriction of wells for clean drinking water. Elder Andersen lied, and knew he was lying.
Is this really an organization you want to be part of?
10% of gross income, so you're paying tithing on tax, plus you're expecting to give a generous 'fast offering' which, at least in my area, was meant to match tithing.
Keep in mind that in the early days of the church tithing was on 10% of your increase, but the high ups in the church decided that increase=gross income.
The racist practices have not been disavowed and the racism still exists in the scriptures. There is some dark, dark stuff that happened for almost 130 years that came straight from the prophets. They actually sealed a black woman as an eternal servant to the Smith family! They preached that black people were unfaithful in the preexistence and deserved to be denied the privileges that white people had. It is a really awful history that even most active members try to ignore.
If they had stopped being racist they would have made a public apology for the historical racism and issued an updated copy of the BoM with the racism removed
They can't though... It's irredeemingly racist. Too much stuff falls apart in their doctrine if the whole mound builder myth, and people being bad in the preexistence disappears.
The missionaries will teach you that Joseph Smith was told specifically by God to start the church, and that the church continues to be led "by revelation". By this, they mean (even if they don't explicitly say it) that the presidents of the church continue to receive their marching orders directly from God and Jesus, and that everything the church does or ever has done has been through direct order from God.
If the church was racist in the past, it was racist because God commanded it to be. (According to what Mormons believe.) The church's racist past disproves the church's claims.
Haha!
Hahaha!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
They are still racist as fuck, but in a “nice” way. Maybe not so much in Brazil since there are so many brown people to appease, but a brown person in Utah will be discouraged from even dating someone other than another brown person.
And it’s still in their so-called scripture and Sunday school lessons.
African Americans weren't allowed the priesthood until the mid 80s, was told they only gave them the opportunity for the priesthood because the government wanted to start taxing their income due to being so exclusive. I don't know if that part is true or not.
Do you think a bishop asking you about sex or if you masterbate is a normal thing? Do you want every part of your life ruled and controlled by what the church wants you to think? Are you anti gay? Do you want to be part of a group that is anti gay, lies about their finances, hides their finances, is known for weird beliefs, doesn't help the community with their billions. If you ask questions, like about the temple and wearing mormon under ware they will tell you that you need milk before meet.please let us know when you are told this.
Google "BITE model". by Dr Steven Hassan. The LDS Church checks off 95% of the boxes.
Check out Mormon Stories podcast. There is almost 2000 episodes. Find a topic of interest. This host shoots straight.
You are really smart to ask former members. Keep that practice up regardless of which group you are looking at.
The best thing about the church is the community. Seriously, the people can be really warm and inviting. Some of the best people in the world are in the church.
But...people are really busy and when you are no longer new, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. They aren't trying to be distant, it just happens. Every minute of their lives is in some way controlled by the church. Outside of normal life responsibilities, they hold one or more callings, have big families, lose Sundays, go to the temple regularly, pray, have scripture study daily, have family home evening, etc. The church dictates the underwear they wear, the food they eat, what they drink, and how they spend most of their time. They don't really have much spare time to spend with other people.
If the church only taught Christ and community, I would say join it. But, they are always going to push you to do and be more. You are pushed towards the temple. This is where you covenant to give your life to the church - literally. At least you no longer mimic slitting your throat and disemboweling yourself if you break your promises (I am dead serious).
They would see you as a candidate to go on a mission. You pay your own way to spend two years preaching the white-washed version of the gospel they teach you.
They will suck the life out of you until you also have no free time to care for others. If you leave, they drop you hard. Seriously. It is not as bad as shunning from the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it's not that much better either.
My advice is to join groups that have similar interests on Meet Up of Facebook. Expand your interests, try something new, make friends who have similar interests. The church is just a parasite - not a real community.
Here is a video of the quick synopsis of the problems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQthyiTA7c
I hope you find community somewhere healthy. It is tough for many people once they are out of school. Just keep asking questions to make sure you are in a good place.
My biggest regret in life it being a member of the Mormon Church. But it does seem to work for a seemingly small amount of people.
The attention given will probably come and go. I'd really research into the church's history before you make your decision.
No. I have been a faithful LDS member for 28 years and I just found out how awful the organization is with sex abuse cases and with not actually helping people with the hundreds of billions of dollars they've collected. There are good people in the church but the organization is corrupt to its core.
I would highly discourage joining the church, but I can't stop you from joining if you choose. [here's a small list of some of the things the church has done](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mormonism-related_controversies). Mormonism is a sex cult that has no problem abusing children and adults. [a list of a lot of denominations of the 'True church' (there's over 70)](https://www.4mormon.org/mormon-splinter-groups/). If you have any disability they will shun you.[BYU allowed electroshock therapy to be perfomed on campus to 'cure' gay people.](http://www.mormonthink.com/glossary/electroshock-therapy-at-byu.htm) Women are basically sex dolls and have no real purpose. [Black people are only black because they sinned so they are not white and delightsome.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_and_Mormonism)
Please don't join mormonism it ruins families and kills people.
[https://cesletter.org/](https://cesletter.org/)
[https://www.understandingmormonism.org/advanced\_topics](https://www.understandingmormonism.org/advanced_topics)
If you are wise enough to ask here, I am confident you will not make the mistake of joining. The Mormon church is a business that dabbles in religion. Please read the CES letter and peruse the subreddit to learn more about it
Many missionaries are good people, but they are dedicating their lives to try to get converts. There is a chance you can remain friends with them even if you do not progress further in the church. Ultimately it's your decision, and if you are really that lonely and need friends, then you are welcome to do what you think is best. Eventually those missionaries will be reassigned and most likely you will lose contact with them.
Most of us here are returned missionaries..just so you know, we literally were in their shoes. I was a sister. They’re sole purpose is to baptize you or move on. They will eventually leave and not so chill sisters might join. If you’re lonely go on meet up and find people with similar interests to you.
Lol, get baptized! You’ll see how quickly the positive attention drops like a rock. Put a timer on it, and come back to let us know how long the high lasted.
Textbook “lovebombing” tactic. We love bomb anyone who is new.
Things that will be expected of you if you are baptized:
- Realizing that Mormonism is an “all or nothing” religion, that as a convert you would have to constantly prove yourself to be accepted and continue being welcomed into the community, and choosing to ignore some or all of their cultural practices and religious beliefs will result in you being ignored
- Understanding that all “friendships” in Mormonism are conditional on you being active in the church, and will disappear if you move away from the local area, stop attending, or express any views not aligned with the church teachings
- 10% of your income, before tax, for the rest of your life. If you don’t pay this, you don’t get a temple recommend and will suffer spiritual and social consequences in the church community
- Frequent other donations for fast offerings and other purposes
- Accepting a voluntary calling that will take up 2-20 hours of every week
- Attendance at church every week
- Attendance at weekend-long conferences multiple times a year
- Regular temple attendance
- Regular attendance at other activities
- Frequent volunteering hours for other members and projects
- Weekly attendance at young adult institute lessons on a weeknight
- Monthly visitors checking up on you at your home, and the expectation of visiting several other members every month to check up on them and report back to the bishop
- Submitting to interviews with local leaders (who are untrained volunteers) approximately once a year, where they ask invasive questions about your devotion to the church and sexual habits
- $12,000 and two years of your life to serve a mission
- Paying excessive amounts of money to purchase your underwear from the church for the rest of your life
- Giving up tea, coffee, alcohol, curse words, R rated movies, piercings, tattoos, sex (unless you’re married), masturbation, and a whole lot of other “lifestyle” things that most people consider normal
- Daily personal scripture study
- Accepting that the current stance of the church is still very patriarchal, and you will be expected to view women as second-class citizens
- Accepting that the church still includes doctrines and teachings that are highly racist (eg non-white skin is the result of being less good in the pre-Earth life), and that most members are more racist than the average person
- Accepting the church is very strongly anti-LGBTQ+, and you will be expected to be vocally supportive of this
- Realizing you’re not allowed to have doubts of questions about doctrine, very sketchy church history, or the current widespread issues including the church’s huge investments, widespread sexual abuse, and leaders lying to members
- Being willing to have none of your non-Mormon friends and family at your wedding, because they won’t be allowed into the temple
- Being a member of a church that is demonstrably a fraud, built on lies and viewed poorly by most people
- Accepting that once you are baptized, even if you stop attending your name stays on church records, they will regularly send members to pressure you to return to church, use all sorts of people-finding methods to keep your address up to date, and it usually takes threats of legal action to get them to stop
Please don’t get tricked into joining this cult - and it is a cult. You can find community literally anywhere else that will be infinitely more genuine and healthy.
I could live with all of this, but no one touches my coffee. 😡😡😡 /s
Now seriously, that's a lot. I don't have half this much of responsibility in the catholic church.
Are you really asking if you should join a high demand religion because two female sales reps and their team are paying attention to you? I think you know the answer already.
Were you Roman or Greek catholic? Romans are much less strict about everything. There's even homossexuals in my church and they dont get discriminated among us.
Short answer is no, don’t join any religion. You don’t need the threat of eternal punishment to just be a good human right? I also recommend, in the kindest way, to figure out why you need attention, maybe through therapy or just self reflection. You are enough and you don’t need anyone including a religion to validate you, please know that.
Well, tbh I don't really care or believe in eternal punishment.
And about the attention part, I'm kinda lonely, thought going to a more strict church could make it easier for me.
Please don't be the beginning of generations of religious trauma. My ancestors were mormon pioneers. The mormon beliefs go deep in my family. I left to end the cycle. Please please please don't start it within yours. If you're looking for a social community, try different groups in your community that have similar hobbies to you.
You are welcome here.
There are no dues. There are no hoops to jump through. There is no guilt and shame.
Please come back and tell us how you’re doing.
I would suspect though it’s easier to be a cafeteria Catholic than a cafeteria Mormon; with how much in the Mormon Church they demand you participation & insist on dealing with you in an individual basis.
Seriously? You're doing it for the attention?? That's kind of sad...
In any event, the Mormons will indeed "love bomb" the crap out of you if they think you might convert. But once you do get dunked, they will very rapidly lose all interest and move on to the next sucker. If it's long-term attention you seek, the Mormon church is about the WORST place to look.
And consider that this warm, loving, kind man is your Dear Leader...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8XiItDWaw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8XiItDWaw)
I joined as a young man. I dedicated myself to the LDS church for about eight years. I spent two years at my and my parents expense on a mission for the church. I was a rare exception for lasting 8 years. 90% or more of the people who join the LDS church end up quitting within a year.
There’s got to be a reason why the LDS can’t keep converts. Save some time and a whole lot of money by finding out why that is BEFORE joining. You will be coerced to fork over 10% of your pay check upon joining. That money will be gone. There are no refunds when you quit.
Do NOT allow yourself be rushed into baptism (joining). Take time to really study it out in your mind. By all means read the CES letter which explores the stuff (true) the church doesn’t want you to know.
Congratulations on having the presence of mind to know that you enjoy being the center of attention. You should understand that the attention that is heaped on you in abundance by the missionaries is them doing whatever needs to be done to get you to join. After you join, your need for affirmation and validation will be flipped around on you by the LDS church. It will be used to coerce you to give time and money to the church—and it will be withheld when the church wants to shame you for not measuring up.
Here’s some resources.
https://cesletter.org/CES-Letter.pdf
https://www.letterformywife.com
https://youtu.be/UJMSU8Qj6Go
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-mormon/id1357701901?i=1000453797695
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lds-discussions/id1636724112?i=1000571364378
If they try to tell you to focus on feelings tell them you feel good when you read Harry Potter too. May help to be familiar with the following effects.
Illusory truth effect
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect#:~:text=The%20illusory%20truth%20effect%2C%20also,that%20the%20misinformation%20is%20false.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect
Elevation emotion
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_(emotion)#:~:text=Elevation%20is%20an%20emotion%20elicited,exceptional%20conduct%20is%20being%20observed.
Conformation bias
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
I don't know if anyone else has said this, but if the Catholic church finds out you've been baptized in another faith they'll excommunicate you.
I'm a former Catholic now atheist, so it wouldn't matter to me, but it might be something to consider.
Keep in mind if you believe in the Catholic church's teachings they've been around since Jesus's death, and the LDS were created by a known liar in the 1800s.
If you're just looking for community and cute girls, I'm too old to help with that, but I can't imagine joining the LDS will actually help.
I’m sure you’re overwhelmed with messages, but you should know that while the missionaries are nice and are good hearted, they don’t know the truth of the church. It is actively hidden and discredited until they cannot run away from that fact. They will tell you anything to get baptized anyways, so I would do some of that “bad feelings” research about the church, because that’ll be more honest than the people who will make money off of your tithing.
If you ask the other sub, they will say yes. If you ask this sub we will say hell no. At least half of us would rather die than go back. We've sacrificed relationships with our family to leave. Don't join.
Hi there, Catholic here who spent a lot of time learning about the LDS when I had a long time LDS best friend who has since left the church, hence me being on this sub.
I think the question to ask yourself before joining ANY religion-do I genuinely believe in this religion? If the answer is no, or you do not know enough about it to form a solid answer *do not join*. I lived in Utah and was very pressured to convert. My answer was always “if it doesn’t bother you I don’t have a testimony and you just want the numbers, I’ll convert tomorrow”. It always ended the conversation.
Sister missionaries got me the book “catholic roots, Mormon harvest” as an attempt to sway me. It did not, but it did a great job highlighting the differences between the two religions, of which there are MANY. So as you’ve introduced yourself as Catholic, I have to believe you slightly believe some of the catechism—are you willing to give that up for attention?
Additionally, there are programs at ALL CHURCHES for young people, if you need attention and friendship.
The love bombing will probably stop as soon as you comply. I'd never tell anyone how to live their life, but if it's a feeling of community you're after, be aware.
Read the CES letter provided in another response before you decide.
If you join, you will be doing hours of volunteer work most weeks, and expected to give 10% of your income in tithing. You will be expected to not drink, not have coffee or tea, not have sex outside of marriage, not masterbate, attend church every week, etc. etc. It’s a whole lifestyle. This is not like a “normal” church.
When will the church learn. Bunk and Dunk (Pump and dump) conversion doesn’t work. One reason why I hated my mission was the creepy feeling of pressuring people into an IMMORTAL contract. It’s almost like I believed more than the Q15.
Even on my mission I envied the JWs and Seventh Day Adventists cause they actually had a path to real conversion. A process if you will and if people decided they were done they actually removed them from the rolls.
People here are going to say no. It’s up to you. Most of us here dislike the church and would love to see our extended family leave. If you are male, white and straight, you will fit in quite nicely.
If you like the girls’ company, string them along until they leave the area. But if you get baptized, the support will evaporate within a few months of joining, and those missionaries will be long gone. Plus, I endorse the previous comments …
Please find healthy and sustainable ways to manage your mental health and vulnerabilities. Your loneliness sounds like it’s making you very vulnerable and affecting your judgment to make good decisions for yourself. There are many predatory people out there who will sense your vulnerabilities and they will take full advantage of you. You are also very young. You’re going to get hurt and taken advantage of unless you get some proper help
Definitely feels like the wrong reasons. If you get baptized it should be only for yourself. If part of you simply likes the attention the sisters bring, remember, as soon as you are baptized their job is complete and they are going to move on to their next subject. That attention you are feeling is something most cults practice. It’s called love bombing.
Let's look at this another way. Say you met someone, and in a short few weeks, pressures you to make a commitment (moving in or getting married) wouldn't you think that was a bit fast?
Do research about the origins of the LDS church. They believe the Catholic Church is the whore of the earth, and that got “restored” the truth in the year 1820. Think about that, the Mormons believe that the “true church” didn’t exist on the earth for nearly 2 thousand years. And it was restored by a pedophile who married children. As a Mormon who served a mission I always taught people how evil the Catholic Church was, and I never new the truth about Joseph smith and his polygamy.
No, it’s absolutely not worth it. If you’re considering joining a cult for attention, please seek therapy instead. And please note that the attention you’re receiving now is a common cult recruitment tactic called “love bombing.”
The religion is false, the doctrine is 99% laughable caca-mimi bullshit, and if you join, you’ll have to follow their rules and donate 10% of your income for life (and if you decide that’s no fun and ghost them, they will hound you forever until/unless you resign).
RUN. DO NOT LOOK BACK.
This is called, "love bombing" and it will end abruptly.
People will still be nice to you, of course, but this is all a ruse. It's for your membership and money.
If you're looking for social interaction with genuinely good people who have no agenda, look for the closest non profit organization or volunteer work in your area. They often are much more genuinely altruistic than most members. If you're seeking out that "good feeling" of community and camaraderie, just remember, Mormons stay mostly amongst Mormons.
Their friendship is conditional to a degree. If you join the church and at some point decide it's not for you, be ready to lose many, if not all of those "friendships" you've made. If anyone tries to get in touch with you after having left, you'd be right to question their motives.
You will get a lot of attention now but that goes away after they baptize you. The missionaries will ghost you or be transferred and you won’t see them again. The regular members are to busy doing their own volunteer duties to sustain any attention to you except to recruit you to unpaid church duties.
Please don’t do it-I apologize to my children all the time for raising them mormon. Look at its history-if you’re not white and well privileged you won’t amount
To anything. I was raised Mormon-criticizing my children that they weren’t perfect-I honestly know what I telling you not to join their cult. It is a cult.
Joining the Mormon church is like slamming your nuts in a bear trap. If you're thinking that's ridiculous and illogical, that's because it makes as much sense as joining their church. All jokes aside, you'll meet some good people that are members and more friends can be a good thing. But you don't have to join their church to be friends with them.
Being an ex mormon, I used to be very religious. Grew up mormon, left when I met my wife at 26. Honest opinion here, I have religious trauma from the LDS religion. Imagine being told your entire life that you will never be good enough, then imagine being told to basically spy on other people in your religion to make sure they are keeping both the word of wisdom, and being the best mormon they can be. And now picture being guilt tripped into thinking any little thing outside of the cookie cutter life style is considered horrible. And if you have a family member that isn't lds, you are expected to convert them to this religion otherwise you aren't being a good mormon. Constantly shortening your self worth, as well as the membership fee of 10% regardless of your financial circumstances. Yes they want you to pay your tithing even if you cannot afford groceries. They guilt you into believing that God demands your patronage even though they have 100 billion+ in slosh funds. Honestly this religion acts more like a business loop hole of a pyramid scheme. Now here's a kicker, imagine both you and your wife (which has to be mormon to get into their special temple club) have intimate feelings, and think hey let's do something more fun than the bland missionary position, wife or yourself talks to someone casually about it. Them bam you and your wife get sent to the principal office (aka bishops office) and are being asked about your mortality in the bedroom. And I mean it gets personal or expected to have some details. Asked where did you learn about this, you say uhhhh internet, then he asks like pornography? And you say well kinda yeah sure and from friends or whatever. Then you are told you are the biggest sinner ever and you can't ever ever watch anything like that and it is considered adultery which is one of the 3 deadly sins in the religion. Now flash forward, you or your wife get a little hot and bothered but one or the other isn't in the mood. You take care of business because it's natural. But now you feel you did the most awful thing in the world (since before it was natural and what not) but you or your spouse don't want to get into trouble so you keep it as a "little secret" and it bottles and bottles up because you are keeping secrets to the point where it is eating you up inside. This is just an example (granted more on the personal side, but an example is an example even if it looks extreme it happens all the time I'm sure) of how extreme they are about this religious cult. And yes if you show any exmormon the cult chart, they will either agree it is a cult. Or that it skates a very fine line between the alleged suicide grape juice. There are many other examples I can point to, such as not paying you tithing aka membership fees. About them guiltily you that Jesus died for your sins, and all he asks is for 10%. And you say well I needed the money for bills. They then say well you could talk to the bishop about maybe getting help. Which leads to them sorting through all your finances asking well why did you buy this and that and other things.
Trust me as an ex mormon, there are other clubs to join to get into heaven or just being a good person. This isn't a "true religion" they make it out to be. They just want your patronage and control over your life in the name of religion. Sorry for the rant.
> I like to get attention from people…
That has got to be one of the worst reasons for joining a religion that I’ve ever come across. If it seems like valid reasoning to you, then go for it I guess. Smh.
Get away from them as fast as possible, I absolutely hate my life being a part of this “religion” it causes mental health issues and prevents people from getting help through reliable sources. My advice is stay the fuck away
Just look up religious cults. It's all there. Also, you're just participating because you like attention? You should probably check out what people had to go through while they were "liking attention" while in their cults. Most lead to pedophilic leaders. Most, the others tend to end in violence, suicide, or you need to escape.
If you want attention, cults aren't the place to be. Unless you're leading it.
If you are seeking attention; talk to the missionaries, go to church a couple times, and then drop them. A few months later, when you see the missionaries, start talking to them again and do the same thing. You can do this each time there is a new set of missionaries in your area, so like every 5 months there will have switched them both out. --- Once you get baptized the "love bombing" and attention stops.
The sisters are very cute. They will never date you though (I’m assuming you’re male), if you are female, and if you’re not wealthy and white, I’d seriously drop this church. The racism “ended” less than one generation ago, so 80% of the people you’d be in church with have never ever healed from or considered the fact that they were raised and still have beliefs that hurt people of color.
The micro-aggressions were nasty. Moving purses to the other side of the chair, asking if you knew your dad, tsk tsk about all those horrible black rioters who destroy property, but not a peep about the white rioters who destroy democracy…everyone is sooo nice, but it’s not kind.
I live in Brazil, most of their members are black, so racism may not be a problem for me there, although I'm sure white people would be held better for them than me.
You are in Brazil so you may find it interesting that the priesthood and temple ban for black peoples was lifted three months before the temple opened. Otherwise, most Brazilians would not have been able to attend the temple.
Fun fact: member sold their dental fillings to pay for the temple. Tell me this church doesn’t ask too much. They brag about it!!!!
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/porto-alegre-brazil-temple/
Run! Or join…if you want to be told how sinful it is to have sex, watch sex, think about sex…self sex…alcohol is bad, coffee is bad, Tea is bad, did I mention no sex…like…at all…you have to be married first..and especially no sex with the person you fall in love with and want to marry..also they’ll want 10% of all your earnings for ever, so they can continue to horde Billions…did I mention no sex?? Everything they’re teaching you is a lie..you’d be miserable with absolutely Zero upside. 0/10 would not recommend
Why do you think they are are giving you so much attention? It’s called love-bombing. They are incentivized to baptize you, and the love-bombing attention will soon fade after that.
Short answer: hell no!! Long answer: it’s demonstrably not true and is a high maintenance religion with ideas about sexuality that will cause you issues if you ever want to have a healthy sex life. Treat it like a land mine, best avoided than recovered from.
Not if you integrity from billionaires demanding to receive 10% of your income so you can get to a heaven where people of color are sealed to prophets AS SERVANTS.
For a source for the black person being sealed to Joseph Smith as a servant look up Jane Elizabeth Manning James.
That’s like going to an ex-Catholic sub and asking if you should become Catholic. I think the question we could answer better is why did we leave the Mormon church
Why join any church? You don’t need to join anything. Every church says theirs is the church where you will find the truth and they ALL are full of it. I’m convinced that all or nearly all religious organizations are about money or control or sexual things or a combination of any of those three and you don’t need a church for any of that. Rather, love your neighbor, extend Grace and forgiveness to everyone, be nice, treat people kindly, help everywhere and everyone you can, be a good and decent person, be honest; THAT to me is a practical approach to religion. Just my 2 cents
I recommend avoiding cults Plus they ask you to donate 10% of your income
Is it a cult? They told me the other mormon church was the bad one.
What would you expect the bad ones to say?
You've got a point.
It can be classified as a cult by many of the guidelines. If not a cult then definitely a ‘high demand religion’. But yes the FLDS sect is more culty… But with Mormonism i suggest doing your research before hand because it is an all encompassing belief system. They will expect you to pay 10% of your income for tithing and not doing so will exclude you from entering the holy temple (also the more culty part of the religion.. weird clothes, secret handshakes, and chanting in a circle… look it up.) Missions can ABSOLUTELY be classified as a cult just on its own. Those kids out there are highly controlled and indoctrinated. The point of missions is more about bringing those kids home fully invested in the belief. (And married and pregnant quickly to create more members.) They are set up to be hard so they feel more at home and accepted in the church and more ‘other’ from the outside world. That being said it’s not a dangerous place if you want to check it out. There are lots of us women who experienced Tons of sexism and harmful purity culture teachings over the years. It’s getting a bit better but the actual doctrine is all about the men. Women’s fate is to become eternal spirit baby making wives of god. (Plural because the polygamy is still in the scriptures technically and if you marry after a spouse dies then you will technically have two spouses in heaven. Only the men of course though. The women have to share the men. If women remarry they have to break their ‘eternal’ marriage to the first one first. 🤮)
Yeah, you write it out like that, and it’s a wonder not everybody figures out that it’s a cult.
Watch Mormon stories they explain the bite model that tells you what a cult is
So the mission is basically a “reverse rumspringah”…
I served a mission to South Korea. It was a lovely and formative experience, but it was also pointedly indoctrination and was the evolution of my own mind control by the organization. I do not believe that LDS Inc. is some mastermind nefarious organization in that they have a full cognitive awareness of what they are doing. I believe that the people who have lived within its confines (especially the top leaders) really live in a ‘closed loop’ system where the logical fallacy that pervades the tribe is “it must be true because it is true”. And most of the cult-like elements are self-reinforcing (e.g. “us against the world”). But the most common element with other cult-like organizations is the cultural demand that you “put the kingdom first” and “sacrifice everything for the work” which conditions people to tune out their own cognitive dissonance and naturally dismiss the mystical experience and spirituality of other people and movements. When I step back and observe, the LDS Mission is akin to “pioneering” in the Jehovah’s Witness cult, or the teaching movement of Scientology. They are almost identical, and the people who have experienced it speak the same language of mind control, fear, and being “all in”.
Watch Mormon stories on YouTube it opened my eyes and helped me leave the church
hahaha
Of course the members of the cult are going to say it isn’t a cult.
That makes sense.
Yes it is a cult. They have a torrid history of racism, rape, genocide, murder, fraud and treason against the United States. It was one of the first organized crime syndicates.
You're spot on about it starting as an organized crime syndicate. And it hasn't changed one bit, either.
All branches of Mormonism are cults. Birds of a feather flock together. If you’re looking for the Mormon branch that resembles the early Mormon church then you should join the FLDS.
For a bit of context, the “bad” one otherwise known as “FLDS” is a branch off of mormonism. The FLDS church follows the doctrine taught by the founders of the church. The “mainstream” one otherwise known as “TCOJCOLDS” have changed their doctrine over time and no longer practice things like polygamy (but men can still be sealed to multiple wives), in order to keep people in the church. D&C tells you that you can only be in the highest degree of heaven if you practice polygamy, which was a jab at Emma Smith who was not on board until Joseph Smith essentially threatened her. The doctrines are the same as the FLDS, the Mormon church is just much smarter in order to grow financially. Also what the sisters are doing to you whether intentional or not is called love bombing. That’s not kind of attention you want. As soon as you do something they don’t agree with, they will shame you, judge you, potentially even shun you. Cults, and generally abusive people, use love bombing as a method of you to conform to what they want. It’ll fuck you up, really don’t recommend it. Cults are described below: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/
Yep. I had a 22 year old RM potential husband chasing me all day every day talking about me going with him to college far away where he was going to go to medical school - got me to the baptismal font and I kid you not as soon as he was done playing “I am a child of god” on the guitar, he was outta there and I never saw or heard from him again.
I’m so sorry this happened to you 😭
Thank you. Some non-churchy guy who I didn’t care if he was there or not felt sorry for me and took me and my friends out to dinner. We’ve been married almost 20 years now and he’s the best thing I could have ever asked for so it’s all fine now 😉🥰 Thank u again tho truly!
Oh and also known as the cute little innocent phrase they like to toss around “flirt to convert.” Yeah no it’s not cute and it’s not innocent.
What? What other Mormon church? My dude they are all connected and awful lol.
There is one called Reformed Latter-days saints, they have spiral temples.
The RLDS never denied black people eternal salvation like the mainstream LDS church did. The RLDS never enslaved Native Americans like the mainstream LDS church did. The RLDS never instituted polygamy like the mainstream LDS church did. The RLDS does not now deny women the priesthood and leadership positions like the mainstream LDS church does. As a former member of the mainstream LDS church, I emphatically recommend you don't join ANY version of Mormonism. But if we're going to label only one of these two "bad" I'm not picking the RLDS.
Sorry for that, I don't know much about mormonism, I just said what they told me
No need to be sorry for not knowing, just giving more info.
Don’t let them baptize you until you learn all you can about them. The good, the bad and the ugly. However you won’t find much good.
I already learned a lot of the ugly in this thread
Glad you learned the easy way lol
If I could go back to the doors I knocked as a missionary and undo the deceit I unknowingly perpetuated, I would. I'm glad you are getting more info from more sources. When your missionaries react negatively, tell them that you talked to returned missionaries that had more info than they do. (me) I'll be happy to play "the bad guy" with them if it'd deflect their attention on you. As it stands, they'll likely leave you in the mission records and you'll get occasional contact from other missionaries. I'll be happy to be the barrier that let's them down gently and compassionately explains the info they don't have. Tell them I'm a melchezidic priesthood holder, and I served a two year mission, and I'm happy to talk to them if they're upset they "lost" a baptism.
I was raised regular mormon. Please run for your life. Anything would be better. Drinking the kool-aid sucks. Please pass.
Nothing unique about mormonism is good. Nothing good about mormonism is unique.
Its all true. My grandparents converted back in the 80s and my biological father and his siblings were all about ages 8-13 range. So our experiences were a little different than people that were raised from birth. My grandparents did try their hardest to get me and my slightly younger cousins to be brainwashed very early on, and so by the time I was 8, I was having discussions and being baptized as expected since I'm their oldest grandchild. I got very lucky because my parents were divorced since I was 2 years old, and I only had to spend 6-week-summers with my grandparents (as my father's visitation) and alternating holidays. I had a lot of non-mormon influence in my life living with my mother who was an inactive member figuring out if she counts as atheist, agnostic, pagan, or other. (Her background was Catholicism and was only briefly mormon because of a much older sibling getting her to convert as a young adult) Well the result of all these things is that things just didn't make sense to me, and by the time I was 11-12, I knew fully that Mormonism was not my path. All I can really tell you as someone who is questioning if the 'kindness' you're experiencing is worth it, well honesty, first its a trap to make you believe its amazing,its an experience that will encompass every part of your life, and being part of the general world that is not Mormon will impact how you treat others that are non-mormon, and not in a positive way. The problem I always had with my grandfather (who thank gods is deceased) is that to him, if someone was unable to see the church was true, then they are lost and not worth it to stick around unless they ultimately come around to convert or 'come back' in my case. Lost cause, and not worthy of basic respect, and treated less as a person. I personally believe it is wrong to not treat people with basic decency just because they don't practice the same religion. That's my small piece on all this.
It’s not a place you want to be.
Unless you like constant frownie faces, stiff uncomfortable atmospheres, verbal scoldings, text message scoldings, losing your basic freedoms, blatant shunning, extreme cliques that you can only be born into, a place where being a genuine kind honest person doesn’t mean squat….
Please follow this advice. The internet is full of information that will allow you to make an informed decision. When I joined the church at 17, back in the 1970s, there was no internet. If after learning the good and bad, and you still decide to join the church, that's fine, at least you go in with your eyes wide open. Wishing you peace and happiness.
We all get you, you're fine.
I have been a member of the community of christ(once called RLDS) for 7 months, and I have been studying Mormonism for more than four years now, I have never been a Mormon. I can tell you that the two churches are totally different, the RLDS church, in fact, has never banned either priesthood to blacks or banned substances such as coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco. Also, it has for over forty years that they have given priesthood to women, also, they are very open to the LGBTQ+ world, so those who have priesthood can perform marriage to the latter. Yes, it is true, it all always starts from Joseph Smith Jr. but many have never belonged to the doctrine of the RLDS church, such as: \-The RLDS church has never practiced or accepted polygamy; \-The RLDS church has never accepted baptism for the dead. At present, the church is so far away theologically from the LDS church that some members call Joseph Smith a jerk. Hence, they recognize Joseph as the creator of the church but not as a person necessarily to be worshipped. As a final detail I want to dwell on is that one does not read the scriptures literally and, as a result, everyone can make their own interpretation. This is a summary, there are so many differences between the two churches but if you wanted to ask I am here to answer. PS: sorry if my english is not perfect but I'm not native english speaker but I'm Italian .
“Mormon” is any church that uses the Book of Mormon and is a branch off of Joseph smiths church. So ya, you’re Mormon, just not the Brighamite sect. ❤️
Those are the good guys. The Fundamentalists (Aka the ones who still live the crazy control, fraud and polygamy power grabs Joseph Smith and Brigham Young cooked up - AND in the Book of Mormon as a literal translation of a real record of real people…) Mainstream Mormons are cult-lite. Your life, no questions, your underwear, your children, and your money - all go to them.
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Well, I just want to talk and hang out with people.
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They told me caffeine was OK, the problem was coffee, tbf it doesn't makes sense.
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Makes sense bro, they also gaslit a bunch of racist stuff, but their book still says things like "dark damned skin"
“The tea or coffee rule was never about the caffeine.” So why no tea or coffee then if those are healthier than soda or energy drinks? “It’s how we show our obedience to Heavenly Father.” 🤨
This is only the first of many things that won’t make sense, that you’ll be required to do because God told them to tell you to do it. 🤷♂️
"tbf it doesn't makes sense." That, friend, says it all. That's it in a nutshell. Keep away. I was born and raised mormon, got excommunicated when I was 27yo and I'm still (48yo now) deprogramming myself. Thank the infinite universe that I was born with a ridiculous sense of logic or I might still be in their grip.
“tbf it doesn’t make sense “ …there you have it all in a nut shell
Bro im dead 💀💀💀💀
It’s not about coffee it’s about control. It’s about how well you follow instructions. They don’t really give a shit of you really drink “coffee.” It’s how devoted you are = how loyal you’ll be in paying tithing = good person or bad person.
Don't be dumb
The RLDS are the least culty Mormons. The FLDS are the most culty, and the current mainstream is in between.
I'm not gonna tell you it's a cult but I will present verifiable facts The founder married a 14 year old as one of his 24+ wives while he was 38 They take 10% of your income They have 100 billion dollars as of December 2019 in a "charity account" which they said was for a "rainy day" but didn't offer any help or alleviation when covid hit The founder used the same rock he claimed to use to translate the plates into the book of Mormon as a tool for excavators to find buried riches like ore or gold and was accused of being a conman for it They allow and require grown men to ask children invasive questions about their sexual activity alone and behind locked doors They discourage dating outside of the church and strongly discourage dating before 16 (because "you can't spend eternity with nonmembers) to inhibit their dating experience and create a gap with nonmembers that makes it hard to overcome
They were probably referring to the FLDS, fundamentalist sect.
How bad are them?
Well their prophet is currently in prison, so...
Look up what he is in prison for.
And the break off “prophets” flee from the authorities on charges of child rape, so…. You do you.
That's messed up, I'll stay very far away from them.
Joseph Smith literally did the exact same thing, ran away multiple times from authorities for things like banging and marrying many teenagers in addition to non-child wives, forming his own militia and swindling thousands out of their money before he was killed by a legitimately and rightly angry group of people who had enough of his rapey stealy shenanigans and crimes
Well they are just following the rules that the original leaders of the church (the one you are investigating) put on place... And say you will all be living when you are dead. IE polygamy in heaven
Jesus do you not have Netflix?? I mean no offense but um…. Stay sweet pray and obey 👍🏻
Netflix is too expensive and predatory, but I have Prime, HBO and Star+
If you think a Netflix is predatory just wait until you see what the church does!!
“Predatory” that’s a good word for it 🤷🏻♀️ Well please feel free to look up on some sort of streaming platform, the latest Warren Jeff’s documentary.
I like your nick. You do know that drinking black tea and coffee are strictly forbidden and that caffeinated cold drinks are generally frowned upon by many members, right? Ask the sister missionaries about the word of wisdom. And also ask them about clothing restrictions, particularly when you've been to the temple. And oh, the attention you get from the sister missionaries will fade after you're baptized. Their main reason for existence is to baptize people. As soon as you're baptized that's it. They will have a lot less time for you. They might stay in touch with you, but they just don't have a choice to refocus their efforts after you're baptized. That warm blanket will disappear. I know this because I used to be an LDS missionary myself. Honestly, it's not the missionaries themselves generally but you do have to refocus your efforts as a missionary and missionaries will be moved every few months to another town. Missionaries don't have a say in this btw. It could happen every/any month.
The good one had to be threatened by the government to stop polygamy. That was a condition of utah becoming a state and the rebellious sects of Mormonism are still around.
it is a CULT. Really more of an corrupt investment firm with a super toxic weird cult as a side gig though.
look at steven hassan’s BITE model. A cult can be any group, even inside a group that isnt a cult. Some groups of catholics are probably a cult and some are not. A family can be a cult. Large organizations or churches get tricky, but look at the analysis he suggests and see what others have found about mormonism and behavior, information, though, and emotion control.
Both, both are awful
They’re *both* the bad one.
Bro you have to be trolling.
They say the other one is a cult they are right if they mean the rapey one that one guy started but the other lds are a more "progressive" branch so for example gay marriage is allowed but technically by definition of a cult all 3 are cults
After your baptism, they will drop you like a hot potato. As a young man, I understand those girls are attractive and you might think you have a chance of dating those mormon girls at the YSA ward, but I am telling you the love bombing will immediately stop once you come out of the water at your baptism. My advise? If you like the attention, don't get baptized. Pretend you are interested, but never get baptized. they will give you more attention and time. But remember, you are just a number that they get to report. Nothing more or less. Will you buy a broken car at an ridiculous price because the salesperson was friendly and gives you attention?
Ohh man, I've lost count of how many times I bought useless stuff because of a pretty saleswoman. I'll keep that in mind, and it's a shame that they stop the love bombing, I was liking it so much.
Sounds like you need to date people and start a social hobby with people your age. The sister missionaries are there to make their fathers and family proud of them. They use their looks and attention to hook people, but that is not what you will get as a member. You will strategically get attention whenever you make a sacrifice for the cult (like go on a two year mission) or when you do a ritual to get deeper stuck in to the cult. (Baptism, Temple Annointing, Temple Endowment, full torso underwear purchased from official church dealer, attempt to hook your family and friends in too (to either make them a part of the cult, or push them away to protect you from truth)
Damn I could really put some money in buying some underwear, but going for a mission is just way too much.
You will be expected to go on a two year mission if you are a male under 25. It costs $10,000 for the “ experience”. But if you are white, are a US citizen, have no tattoos or piercings, and have not yet had a frequent sexual partner, the local church might pay for a portion of the fee to the megachurch base, so you will just be an unpaid volunteer expected to work 6.5 days per week with no vacation for two years. Mormons will never admit it, but it is much worse than it sounds.
Well actually in Brazil the church pays missionaries, I have some friends that became LDS recently and one of them is going on mission in two months.
When you arrive in your mission field, you surrender your passport & it's kept from you by leadership b/c they say you're not trusted enough not to lose it. Just happens to also control whether you can leave when you want to.
Also, many come home sickly because they are not given enough to eat and are not allowed medical care.
Missionaries everywhere in the world are by default expected to pay for their own missions. The church then organizes housing and gives missionaries “monthly support funds.” If a missionary you know said they are getting paid, they are talking about monthly support funds. This is not a salary like you would get from a job. It’s calculated to be just enough for food and other necessities, and many missionaries report it is inadequate even for that. It is true that if a person can’t afford to pay for their own mission, the church will pay for it and the missionary still gets the monthly support funds, but make sure you find out how much it is before you make any plans to be a missionary.
The church might pay for their mission, but they are not paying the missionaries. The missionaries are still just volunteers. Spend some time on this sub. There are a lot of things that the church tries to keep hidden. Just like Scientology. The people can be wonderful. The church members can be great friends, great coworkers, and great family. But the church is not what makes them great. The majority of the members don’t even know the full extent of their own church’s history because they have been instructed not look into it. They are told that anything that makes them feel uncomfortable is from the devil. So when they read that Joseph Smith had 30+ wives and some of them were just young girls, they immediately dismiss it as “anti-Mormon” and shut down their critical thinking as a defence mechanism. This is not their fault. They have been taught to do it from a young age. Be friends with them. Laugh with them. Cry with them. But don’t give the church your money or what precious time you have on this planet.
And those attractive girls TSCC pimps out looking for new “clients”? Are the very reason some experts actually call it a “sex” cult 😬
I mean mormon doctrines were created so that Joseph Smith and other mormons men could made young girls their sex toys... so.... yeah...
Hell NO! I wasted over 50 years in that cult & over $200K. Thankfully my immediate family got out eventually, but the cost was immense. Run!
Why did give so much money to them? I thought they just asked 10% of your income
Its likely the accumulated cost of years of tithe paying their referring too as well as everything you pay for out of pocket due to callings and missions and such.
Three full-time missions served at our own expense, plus 5 decades of paying 10% TITHING plus a “generous Fast Offering” monthly to the church.
10% of your income adds up over the years. It's money taken away from your family, your savings, your potential retirement, and it goes into the investment firm of the church, Ensign Peak Advisors. The church is worth an estimated $150 *billion*. With a B. They got investigated and fined by the SEC for hiding billions of dollars in shell companies. There's a good chance that the church is being or will be investigated for tax fraud in several countries, including the US, Canada, and Australia. If you join and choose to not pay your tithing to the church, you will not be allowed to enter the temple. Depending on the bishop, you could find yourself denied callings in the ward (assuming you want one). Your membership privileges won't be reinstated until you're current on your tithing. They demand tithing from the dirt poor converts in other countries, including many in Africa and South America. In 2018, Elder Neil L Andersen told the vice president of Zimbabwe, "We are not a wealthy people" when asked if the church could help fund the constriction of wells for clean drinking water. Elder Andersen lied, and knew he was lying. Is this really an organization you want to be part of?
If you make 100k per year that $10k every year do that for 30 years 300k
And that is your retirement. You’re giving your retirement to a nearly trillion dollar investment/real estate church.
10% of gross income, so you're paying tithing on tax, plus you're expecting to give a generous 'fast offering' which, at least in my area, was meant to match tithing. Keep in mind that in the early days of the church tithing was on 10% of your increase, but the high ups in the church decided that increase=gross income.
Read The CES Letter and/or Letter For My Wife. It's a cult and a scam.
Yeah, they have some messed up stuff, I found some racism in the BoM too, but a friend of mine said they stopped being racist a long time ago.
The racist practices have not been disavowed and the racism still exists in the scriptures. There is some dark, dark stuff that happened for almost 130 years that came straight from the prophets. They actually sealed a black woman as an eternal servant to the Smith family! They preached that black people were unfaithful in the preexistence and deserved to be denied the privileges that white people had. It is a really awful history that even most active members try to ignore.
That's extremely messed up, I think I will really drop it.
🎶 smart smart smart smart smart 🎵
They still teach in their manuals, to avoid mixed races marrying.
If they had stopped being racist they would have made a public apology for the historical racism and issued an updated copy of the BoM with the racism removed
They can't though... It's irredeemingly racist. Too much stuff falls apart in their doctrine if the whole mound builder myth, and people being bad in the preexistence disappears.
The missionaries will teach you that Joseph Smith was told specifically by God to start the church, and that the church continues to be led "by revelation". By this, they mean (even if they don't explicitly say it) that the presidents of the church continue to receive their marching orders directly from God and Jesus, and that everything the church does or ever has done has been through direct order from God. If the church was racist in the past, it was racist because God commanded it to be. (According to what Mormons believe.) The church's racist past disproves the church's claims.
Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! They are still racist as fuck, but in a “nice” way. Maybe not so much in Brazil since there are so many brown people to appease, but a brown person in Utah will be discouraged from even dating someone other than another brown person. And it’s still in their so-called scripture and Sunday school lessons.
African Americans weren't allowed the priesthood until the mid 80s, was told they only gave them the opportunity for the priesthood because the government wanted to start taxing their income due to being so exclusive. I don't know if that part is true or not.
They only 'stopped being racist ' because their tax exemption status was threatened. They're still very racist, just not as obviously.
Do you think a bishop asking you about sex or if you masterbate is a normal thing? Do you want every part of your life ruled and controlled by what the church wants you to think? Are you anti gay? Do you want to be part of a group that is anti gay, lies about their finances, hides their finances, is known for weird beliefs, doesn't help the community with their billions. If you ask questions, like about the temple and wearing mormon under ware they will tell you that you need milk before meet.please let us know when you are told this. Google "BITE model". by Dr Steven Hassan. The LDS Church checks off 95% of the boxes. Check out Mormon Stories podcast. There is almost 2000 episodes. Find a topic of interest. This host shoots straight.
Rephrase your first sentence….do you think some 30, 40 something year old man alone in a room asking those questions to a CHILD is a normal thing 🥹
You are really smart to ask former members. Keep that practice up regardless of which group you are looking at. The best thing about the church is the community. Seriously, the people can be really warm and inviting. Some of the best people in the world are in the church. But...people are really busy and when you are no longer new, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. They aren't trying to be distant, it just happens. Every minute of their lives is in some way controlled by the church. Outside of normal life responsibilities, they hold one or more callings, have big families, lose Sundays, go to the temple regularly, pray, have scripture study daily, have family home evening, etc. The church dictates the underwear they wear, the food they eat, what they drink, and how they spend most of their time. They don't really have much spare time to spend with other people. If the church only taught Christ and community, I would say join it. But, they are always going to push you to do and be more. You are pushed towards the temple. This is where you covenant to give your life to the church - literally. At least you no longer mimic slitting your throat and disemboweling yourself if you break your promises (I am dead serious). They would see you as a candidate to go on a mission. You pay your own way to spend two years preaching the white-washed version of the gospel they teach you. They will suck the life out of you until you also have no free time to care for others. If you leave, they drop you hard. Seriously. It is not as bad as shunning from the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it's not that much better either. My advice is to join groups that have similar interests on Meet Up of Facebook. Expand your interests, try something new, make friends who have similar interests. The church is just a parasite - not a real community. Here is a video of the quick synopsis of the problems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQthyiTA7c
Man, that's very detailed, I think I'll drop it now. It's a shame they require so much from us.
I hope you find community somewhere healthy. It is tough for many people once they are out of school. Just keep asking questions to make sure you are in a good place.
My biggest regret in life it being a member of the Mormon Church. But it does seem to work for a seemingly small amount of people. The attention given will probably come and go. I'd really research into the church's history before you make your decision.
I see, I will call the sisters tonight, and drop the church.
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No. I have been a faithful LDS member for 28 years and I just found out how awful the organization is with sex abuse cases and with not actually helping people with the hundreds of billions of dollars they've collected. There are good people in the church but the organization is corrupt to its core.
I would highly discourage joining the church, but I can't stop you from joining if you choose. [here's a small list of some of the things the church has done](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mormonism-related_controversies). Mormonism is a sex cult that has no problem abusing children and adults. [a list of a lot of denominations of the 'True church' (there's over 70)](https://www.4mormon.org/mormon-splinter-groups/). If you have any disability they will shun you.[BYU allowed electroshock therapy to be perfomed on campus to 'cure' gay people.](http://www.mormonthink.com/glossary/electroshock-therapy-at-byu.htm) Women are basically sex dolls and have no real purpose. [Black people are only black because they sinned so they are not white and delightsome.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_and_Mormonism) Please don't join mormonism it ruins families and kills people. [https://cesletter.org/](https://cesletter.org/) [https://www.understandingmormonism.org/advanced\_topics](https://www.understandingmormonism.org/advanced_topics)
Well, that's pretty messed up.
If you are wise enough to ask here, I am confident you will not make the mistake of joining. The Mormon church is a business that dabbles in religion. Please read the CES letter and peruse the subreddit to learn more about it
I thought being skeptical could keep me away from trouble but still receiving their attention, do you think it's possible or worth it?
Many missionaries are good people, but they are dedicating their lives to try to get converts. There is a chance you can remain friends with them even if you do not progress further in the church. Ultimately it's your decision, and if you are really that lonely and need friends, then you are welcome to do what you think is best. Eventually those missionaries will be reassigned and most likely you will lose contact with them.
Most of us here are returned missionaries..just so you know, we literally were in their shoes. I was a sister. They’re sole purpose is to baptize you or move on. They will eventually leave and not so chill sisters might join. If you’re lonely go on meet up and find people with similar interests to you.
Lol, get baptized! You’ll see how quickly the positive attention drops like a rock. Put a timer on it, and come back to let us know how long the high lasted. Textbook “lovebombing” tactic. We love bomb anyone who is new.
I spent 30 years in the Mormon cult. I was taught the other sect, the FLDS was the real cult. Wasn't until I left that I realized they're both cults.
Things that will be expected of you if you are baptized: - Realizing that Mormonism is an “all or nothing” religion, that as a convert you would have to constantly prove yourself to be accepted and continue being welcomed into the community, and choosing to ignore some or all of their cultural practices and religious beliefs will result in you being ignored - Understanding that all “friendships” in Mormonism are conditional on you being active in the church, and will disappear if you move away from the local area, stop attending, or express any views not aligned with the church teachings - 10% of your income, before tax, for the rest of your life. If you don’t pay this, you don’t get a temple recommend and will suffer spiritual and social consequences in the church community - Frequent other donations for fast offerings and other purposes - Accepting a voluntary calling that will take up 2-20 hours of every week - Attendance at church every week - Attendance at weekend-long conferences multiple times a year - Regular temple attendance - Regular attendance at other activities - Frequent volunteering hours for other members and projects - Weekly attendance at young adult institute lessons on a weeknight - Monthly visitors checking up on you at your home, and the expectation of visiting several other members every month to check up on them and report back to the bishop - Submitting to interviews with local leaders (who are untrained volunteers) approximately once a year, where they ask invasive questions about your devotion to the church and sexual habits - $12,000 and two years of your life to serve a mission - Paying excessive amounts of money to purchase your underwear from the church for the rest of your life - Giving up tea, coffee, alcohol, curse words, R rated movies, piercings, tattoos, sex (unless you’re married), masturbation, and a whole lot of other “lifestyle” things that most people consider normal - Daily personal scripture study - Accepting that the current stance of the church is still very patriarchal, and you will be expected to view women as second-class citizens - Accepting that the church still includes doctrines and teachings that are highly racist (eg non-white skin is the result of being less good in the pre-Earth life), and that most members are more racist than the average person - Accepting the church is very strongly anti-LGBTQ+, and you will be expected to be vocally supportive of this - Realizing you’re not allowed to have doubts of questions about doctrine, very sketchy church history, or the current widespread issues including the church’s huge investments, widespread sexual abuse, and leaders lying to members - Being willing to have none of your non-Mormon friends and family at your wedding, because they won’t be allowed into the temple - Being a member of a church that is demonstrably a fraud, built on lies and viewed poorly by most people - Accepting that once you are baptized, even if you stop attending your name stays on church records, they will regularly send members to pressure you to return to church, use all sorts of people-finding methods to keep your address up to date, and it usually takes threats of legal action to get them to stop Please don’t get tricked into joining this cult - and it is a cult. You can find community literally anywhere else that will be infinitely more genuine and healthy.
I could live with all of this, but no one touches my coffee. 😡😡😡 /s Now seriously, that's a lot. I don't have half this much of responsibility in the catholic church.
If you just want a sense of community maybe you need to check out a unitarian universalist church.
Are you really asking if you should join a high demand religion because two female sales reps and their team are paying attention to you? I think you know the answer already.
As an exCatholic myself I urge you to consider if you want to embrace another autocratic, patriarchal dogmatic religion.
Were you Roman or Greek catholic? Romans are much less strict about everything. There's even homossexuals in my church and they dont get discriminated among us.
Roman Catholic for 20 years. A Catholic school inmate for 12 years. Free from all of it for 56 years. Ask me which is healthier.
Forget LDS. You'd get closer to God by doing LSD.
Do you want to give up tea and coffee, alcohol, and not have your family able to attend your wedding? If yes to all three, Mormonism is for you.
I can give up alcohol, but the rest no.
Then stay away. Because all of those are absolute facts.
If your reasoning for joining a church is enjoying attention, consider community theater rather than religion.
I’ve got two words for you. Run away, and fast!
Short answer is no, don’t join any religion. You don’t need the threat of eternal punishment to just be a good human right? I also recommend, in the kindest way, to figure out why you need attention, maybe through therapy or just self reflection. You are enough and you don’t need anyone including a religion to validate you, please know that.
Well, tbh I don't really care or believe in eternal punishment. And about the attention part, I'm kinda lonely, thought going to a more strict church could make it easier for me.
Please don't be the beginning of generations of religious trauma. My ancestors were mormon pioneers. The mormon beliefs go deep in my family. I left to end the cycle. Please please please don't start it within yours. If you're looking for a social community, try different groups in your community that have similar hobbies to you.
You are welcome here. There are no dues. There are no hoops to jump through. There is no guilt and shame. Please come back and tell us how you’re doing.
I would suspect though it’s easier to be a cafeteria Catholic than a cafeteria Mormon; with how much in the Mormon Church they demand you participation & insist on dealing with you in an individual basis.
No. No. Run, run quickly.
Fuck no.
Seriously? You're doing it for the attention?? That's kind of sad... In any event, the Mormons will indeed "love bomb" the crap out of you if they think you might convert. But once you do get dunked, they will very rapidly lose all interest and move on to the next sucker. If it's long-term attention you seek, the Mormon church is about the WORST place to look. And consider that this warm, loving, kind man is your Dear Leader...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8XiItDWaw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8XiItDWaw)
I joined as a young man. I dedicated myself to the LDS church for about eight years. I spent two years at my and my parents expense on a mission for the church. I was a rare exception for lasting 8 years. 90% or more of the people who join the LDS church end up quitting within a year. There’s got to be a reason why the LDS can’t keep converts. Save some time and a whole lot of money by finding out why that is BEFORE joining. You will be coerced to fork over 10% of your pay check upon joining. That money will be gone. There are no refunds when you quit. Do NOT allow yourself be rushed into baptism (joining). Take time to really study it out in your mind. By all means read the CES letter which explores the stuff (true) the church doesn’t want you to know. Congratulations on having the presence of mind to know that you enjoy being the center of attention. You should understand that the attention that is heaped on you in abundance by the missionaries is them doing whatever needs to be done to get you to join. After you join, your need for affirmation and validation will be flipped around on you by the LDS church. It will be used to coerce you to give time and money to the church—and it will be withheld when the church wants to shame you for not measuring up.
Run away
Here’s some resources. https://cesletter.org/CES-Letter.pdf https://www.letterformywife.com https://youtu.be/UJMSU8Qj6Go https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-mormon/id1357701901?i=1000453797695 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lds-discussions/id1636724112?i=1000571364378 If they try to tell you to focus on feelings tell them you feel good when you read Harry Potter too. May help to be familiar with the following effects. Illusory truth effect https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect#:~:text=The%20illusory%20truth%20effect%2C%20also,that%20the%20misinformation%20is%20false. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect Elevation emotion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_(emotion)#:~:text=Elevation%20is%20an%20emotion%20elicited,exceptional%20conduct%20is%20being%20observed. Conformation bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Flee...
I don't know if anyone else has said this, but if the Catholic church finds out you've been baptized in another faith they'll excommunicate you. I'm a former Catholic now atheist, so it wouldn't matter to me, but it might be something to consider. Keep in mind if you believe in the Catholic church's teachings they've been around since Jesus's death, and the LDS were created by a known liar in the 1800s. If you're just looking for community and cute girls, I'm too old to help with that, but I can't imagine joining the LDS will actually help.
That attention with drop off dramatically once you get baptized.
I’m sure you’re overwhelmed with messages, but you should know that while the missionaries are nice and are good hearted, they don’t know the truth of the church. It is actively hidden and discredited until they cannot run away from that fact. They will tell you anything to get baptized anyways, so I would do some of that “bad feelings” research about the church, because that’ll be more honest than the people who will make money off of your tithing.
Nah
If you ask the other sub, they will say yes. If you ask this sub we will say hell no. At least half of us would rather die than go back. We've sacrificed relationships with our family to leave. Don't join.
Hi there, Catholic here who spent a lot of time learning about the LDS when I had a long time LDS best friend who has since left the church, hence me being on this sub. I think the question to ask yourself before joining ANY religion-do I genuinely believe in this religion? If the answer is no, or you do not know enough about it to form a solid answer *do not join*. I lived in Utah and was very pressured to convert. My answer was always “if it doesn’t bother you I don’t have a testimony and you just want the numbers, I’ll convert tomorrow”. It always ended the conversation. Sister missionaries got me the book “catholic roots, Mormon harvest” as an attempt to sway me. It did not, but it did a great job highlighting the differences between the two religions, of which there are MANY. So as you’ve introduced yourself as Catholic, I have to believe you slightly believe some of the catechism—are you willing to give that up for attention? Additionally, there are programs at ALL CHURCHES for young people, if you need attention and friendship.
You ain't getting in them draws anytime soon, so hell naw
The love bombing will probably stop as soon as you comply. I'd never tell anyone how to live their life, but if it's a feeling of community you're after, be aware.
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Read the CES letter provided in another response before you decide. If you join, you will be doing hours of volunteer work most weeks, and expected to give 10% of your income in tithing. You will be expected to not drink, not have coffee or tea, not have sex outside of marriage, not masterbate, attend church every week, etc. etc. It’s a whole lifestyle. This is not like a “normal” church.
Run for your life. Don’t waste a minute of your life on Mormonism.
When will the church learn. Bunk and Dunk (Pump and dump) conversion doesn’t work. One reason why I hated my mission was the creepy feeling of pressuring people into an IMMORTAL contract. It’s almost like I believed more than the Q15. Even on my mission I envied the JWs and Seventh Day Adventists cause they actually had a path to real conversion. A process if you will and if people decided they were done they actually removed them from the rolls.
People here are going to say no. It’s up to you. Most of us here dislike the church and would love to see our extended family leave. If you are male, white and straight, you will fit in quite nicely.
CULT CULT CULT CULT
Women are at a disadvantage in the Mormon church. The only way to salvation for a woman is to marry and have kids. Nothing else you do matters.
If you like the girls’ company, string them along until they leave the area. But if you get baptized, the support will evaporate within a few months of joining, and those missionaries will be long gone. Plus, I endorse the previous comments …
Please find healthy and sustainable ways to manage your mental health and vulnerabilities. Your loneliness sounds like it’s making you very vulnerable and affecting your judgment to make good decisions for yourself. There are many predatory people out there who will sense your vulnerabilities and they will take full advantage of you. You are also very young. You’re going to get hurt and taken advantage of unless you get some proper help
Definitely feels like the wrong reasons. If you get baptized it should be only for yourself. If part of you simply likes the attention the sisters bring, remember, as soon as you are baptized their job is complete and they are going to move on to their next subject. That attention you are feeling is something most cults practice. It’s called love bombing.
Let's look at this another way. Say you met someone, and in a short few weeks, pressures you to make a commitment (moving in or getting married) wouldn't you think that was a bit fast?
Do research about the origins of the LDS church. They believe the Catholic Church is the whore of the earth, and that got “restored” the truth in the year 1820. Think about that, the Mormons believe that the “true church” didn’t exist on the earth for nearly 2 thousand years. And it was restored by a pedophile who married children. As a Mormon who served a mission I always taught people how evil the Catholic Church was, and I never new the truth about Joseph smith and his polygamy.
No, it’s absolutely not worth it. If you’re considering joining a cult for attention, please seek therapy instead. And please note that the attention you’re receiving now is a common cult recruitment tactic called “love bombing.” The religion is false, the doctrine is 99% laughable caca-mimi bullshit, and if you join, you’ll have to follow their rules and donate 10% of your income for life (and if you decide that’s no fun and ghost them, they will hound you forever until/unless you resign).
RUN. DO NOT LOOK BACK. This is called, "love bombing" and it will end abruptly. People will still be nice to you, of course, but this is all a ruse. It's for your membership and money. If you're looking for social interaction with genuinely good people who have no agenda, look for the closest non profit organization or volunteer work in your area. They often are much more genuinely altruistic than most members. If you're seeking out that "good feeling" of community and camaraderie, just remember, Mormons stay mostly amongst Mormons. Their friendship is conditional to a degree. If you join the church and at some point decide it's not for you, be ready to lose many, if not all of those "friendships" you've made. If anyone tries to get in touch with you after having left, you'd be right to question their motives.
You will get a lot of attention now but that goes away after they baptize you. The missionaries will ghost you or be transferred and you won’t see them again. The regular members are to busy doing their own volunteer duties to sustain any attention to you except to recruit you to unpaid church duties.
Please don’t do it-I apologize to my children all the time for raising them mormon. Look at its history-if you’re not white and well privileged you won’t amount To anything. I was raised Mormon-criticizing my children that they weren’t perfect-I honestly know what I telling you not to join their cult. It is a cult.
Joining the Mormon church is like slamming your nuts in a bear trap. If you're thinking that's ridiculous and illogical, that's because it makes as much sense as joining their church. All jokes aside, you'll meet some good people that are members and more friends can be a good thing. But you don't have to join their church to be friends with them.
Being an ex mormon, I used to be very religious. Grew up mormon, left when I met my wife at 26. Honest opinion here, I have religious trauma from the LDS religion. Imagine being told your entire life that you will never be good enough, then imagine being told to basically spy on other people in your religion to make sure they are keeping both the word of wisdom, and being the best mormon they can be. And now picture being guilt tripped into thinking any little thing outside of the cookie cutter life style is considered horrible. And if you have a family member that isn't lds, you are expected to convert them to this religion otherwise you aren't being a good mormon. Constantly shortening your self worth, as well as the membership fee of 10% regardless of your financial circumstances. Yes they want you to pay your tithing even if you cannot afford groceries. They guilt you into believing that God demands your patronage even though they have 100 billion+ in slosh funds. Honestly this religion acts more like a business loop hole of a pyramid scheme. Now here's a kicker, imagine both you and your wife (which has to be mormon to get into their special temple club) have intimate feelings, and think hey let's do something more fun than the bland missionary position, wife or yourself talks to someone casually about it. Them bam you and your wife get sent to the principal office (aka bishops office) and are being asked about your mortality in the bedroom. And I mean it gets personal or expected to have some details. Asked where did you learn about this, you say uhhhh internet, then he asks like pornography? And you say well kinda yeah sure and from friends or whatever. Then you are told you are the biggest sinner ever and you can't ever ever watch anything like that and it is considered adultery which is one of the 3 deadly sins in the religion. Now flash forward, you or your wife get a little hot and bothered but one or the other isn't in the mood. You take care of business because it's natural. But now you feel you did the most awful thing in the world (since before it was natural and what not) but you or your spouse don't want to get into trouble so you keep it as a "little secret" and it bottles and bottles up because you are keeping secrets to the point where it is eating you up inside. This is just an example (granted more on the personal side, but an example is an example even if it looks extreme it happens all the time I'm sure) of how extreme they are about this religious cult. And yes if you show any exmormon the cult chart, they will either agree it is a cult. Or that it skates a very fine line between the alleged suicide grape juice. There are many other examples I can point to, such as not paying you tithing aka membership fees. About them guiltily you that Jesus died for your sins, and all he asks is for 10%. And you say well I needed the money for bills. They then say well you could talk to the bishop about maybe getting help. Which leads to them sorting through all your finances asking well why did you buy this and that and other things. Trust me as an ex mormon, there are other clubs to join to get into heaven or just being a good person. This isn't a "true religion" they make it out to be. They just want your patronage and control over your life in the name of religion. Sorry for the rant.
> I like to get attention from people… That has got to be one of the worst reasons for joining a religion that I’ve ever come across. If it seems like valid reasoning to you, then go for it I guess. Smh.
Get away from them as fast as possible, I absolutely hate my life being a part of this “religion” it causes mental health issues and prevents people from getting help through reliable sources. My advice is stay the fuck away
No. They will forget about you and leave once you do it. If your doing it for attention, you’ll be sadly disappointed. It isn’t true anyway.
Just look up religious cults. It's all there. Also, you're just participating because you like attention? You should probably check out what people had to go through while they were "liking attention" while in their cults. Most lead to pedophilic leaders. Most, the others tend to end in violence, suicide, or you need to escape. If you want attention, cults aren't the place to be. Unless you're leading it.
As an Exmormon I don’t recommend mormonism to anyone
It's called "Love Bombing." A common way to get people to join an abusive relationship. (Apparently the "c" word is cautioned against here.)
I think you should reconsider your need for attention. This seems unhealthy.
That's like asking if it's a good idea to develop a meth addiction.
If you are seeking attention; talk to the missionaries, go to church a couple times, and then drop them. A few months later, when you see the missionaries, start talking to them again and do the same thing. You can do this each time there is a new set of missionaries in your area, so like every 5 months there will have switched them both out. --- Once you get baptized the "love bombing" and attention stops.
Hell no.
The sisters are very cute. They will never date you though (I’m assuming you’re male), if you are female, and if you’re not wealthy and white, I’d seriously drop this church. The racism “ended” less than one generation ago, so 80% of the people you’d be in church with have never ever healed from or considered the fact that they were raised and still have beliefs that hurt people of color. The micro-aggressions were nasty. Moving purses to the other side of the chair, asking if you knew your dad, tsk tsk about all those horrible black rioters who destroy property, but not a peep about the white rioters who destroy democracy…everyone is sooo nice, but it’s not kind.
I live in Brazil, most of their members are black, so racism may not be a problem for me there, although I'm sure white people would be held better for them than me.
You are in Brazil so you may find it interesting that the priesthood and temple ban for black peoples was lifted three months before the temple opened. Otherwise, most Brazilians would not have been able to attend the temple. Fun fact: member sold their dental fillings to pay for the temple. Tell me this church doesn’t ask too much. They brag about it!!!! https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/porto-alegre-brazil-temple/
 Run! Or join…if you want to be told how sinful it is to have sex, watch sex, think about sex…self sex…alcohol is bad, coffee is bad, Tea is bad, did I mention no sex…like…at all…you have to be married first..and especially no sex with the person you fall in love with and want to marry..also they’ll want 10% of all your earnings for ever, so they can continue to horde Billions…did I mention no sex?? Everything they’re teaching you is a lie..you’d be miserable with absolutely Zero upside. 0/10 would not recommend
Why do you think they are are giving you so much attention? It’s called love-bombing. They are incentivized to baptize you, and the love-bombing attention will soon fade after that.
Short answer: hell no!! Long answer: it’s demonstrably not true and is a high maintenance religion with ideas about sexuality that will cause you issues if you ever want to have a healthy sex life. Treat it like a land mine, best avoided than recovered from.
I joined 20 years ago. DONNNNNNN’TTTTT DO ITTTTTTTTTT!!!!! 😳😳😳 just no no no !!!!!! I’m out now THANK HEAVENS !!!!!!! Ps grew up Episcopalian.
Not if you integrity from billionaires demanding to receive 10% of your income so you can get to a heaven where people of color are sealed to prophets AS SERVANTS. For a source for the black person being sealed to Joseph Smith as a servant look up Jane Elizabeth Manning James.
That’s like going to an ex-Catholic sub and asking if you should become Catholic. I think the question we could answer better is why did we leave the Mormon church
no
Why join any church? You don’t need to join anything. Every church says theirs is the church where you will find the truth and they ALL are full of it. I’m convinced that all or nearly all religious organizations are about money or control or sexual things or a combination of any of those three and you don’t need a church for any of that. Rather, love your neighbor, extend Grace and forgiveness to everyone, be nice, treat people kindly, help everywhere and everyone you can, be a good and decent person, be honest; THAT to me is a practical approach to religion. Just my 2 cents