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Hi, StayLDSers. I’m Kupord Maizzed, and I am not struggling with my testimony. I am, however, struggling with staying in the church. I have concluded 5 years after my conversion (my “popping out” experience) that my lot in life, or my corner of the garden, if you will, is to remain in the LDS Church. A Jewish friend of mine taught me that Tribe is Tribe, and you don’t just leave your tribe. I feel that deeply. But it ain’t always easy or fun.
As I poked around this fledgling site, I saw potential here. But I wondered whether there is a place here for me. The about page says the site is oriented toward people who “have questions, concerns, problems and issues that led them to change their views about their faith”. All that sounds rather negative. But I view my journey as positive. I don’t want to get into a game of “my testimony is bigger than your testimony” with more fundamentalist believers, but I see terms like “struggling testimony” and “issues” as dismissive of the expansive, progressive, and irreversible nature of my new view. Forward I hope to go; backward I hope not.
Is this also a place for those “whose experiences are leading or have led them to change their views about their faith”? A place not for the straying but for the journeying? A place not for the ailing or convalescing, but for the healing? Can I be happy here with my religion as it is today even as I await what it may be tomorrow?
Look upward amazed.
kupord maizzed wrote:
Is this also a place for those “whose experiences are leading or have led them to change their views about their faith”? A place not for the straying but for the journeying? A place not for the ailing or convalescing, but for the healing? Can I be happy here with my religion as it is today even as I await what it may be tomorrow?
I sure hope so.
Ditto, absolutely, yes, welcome! Quote:Can I be happy here with my religion as it is today even as I await what it may be tomorrow?
That’s a pretty good description of me, fwiw. One of the things I love most about the Gospel is the incredible scope of its theology.Welcome. 
I also view my journey as positive. The “tribal” connection is one of the many good reasons to stay. I like my tribe too. The site is here to build a community of people working on the goal of re-building a new faith in the LDS Church. There’s no destination, so I totally agree with calling it a journey. It sounds to me like you fit.
Welcome to the forums!
I am not hurting or convelescing. I am happy to be on the journey of a lifetime. Plan on staying in the lds church even though my faith has drastically changed from what it was years ago. I am happy where I am and intend to grow more and more loving and responsive to the world. I like this place, as it is a posetive place to be on the lds message boards. The best one so far for me. The most posetive that I have found. WELCOME!!!! Valoel wrote:re-building a new faith in the LDS Church.
I don’t have a good knee-jerk reaction to this. It’s that word “in”. I have no aspiration to have faith in the LDS Church. Does that make me fit ill here? I do wish to continue serving and attending weekly, though not to the temple any more than necessary.
Of course I don’t mind having as much faith in the LDS Church as I have in the United Nations.
kupord maizzed wrote:I have no aspiration to have faith in the LDS Church. Does that make me fit ill here? I do wish to continue serving and attending weekly…
I assume you have a faith or desire for faith in something? Can that faith be ‘compatible’ with activity in the church? It sounds like you intend to remain “active”, do you look at that as a reluctant activity or perhaps a personally satisfying activity?
Personally I see some coming to SLDS saying “well I’m going to be in church, now how can I get something positive out of it?”
How about “Re-building a new faith [as a member with]in the LDS Church.” I think I know what you mean about having faith in the Church. The Church is just a church. You might not have faith in the institution itself, like one might have faith in God, Jesus Christ or “the Gospel.”
We’re talking about the crossroads of faith and the LDS Church on some level. Our meetings are held in a humble little building somewhere near that intersection.
Well, I guess since this thread is about me Faith I do have, if by that you mean a belief in the afterlife. My great and glorious reward for a lifetime of seeking and knocking, the very conversion experience that made the church just one among the rest for me five years ago, was a reality experience, a mystical experience, a grand transcendence, a whole new world.
Faith I don’t know if I have, if by that you mean acceptance of things that seem wrong to me. I am willing to learn and grow.
There is certainly more going on around us than meets the eye.
I see my continued activity in the church as including the following:
1. Some loneliness
2. Learning from the people
3. Service
4. Some frustration until I learn perfect love and vision
5. Good companionship
6. Fun
7. More learning
8. Some support in moral living
9. Lots of support in parenting
10. Lots of beauty and good music
It’s funny, but I never thought before of continued church affiliation in terms of what I could get from it. Once I decided not to convert to another religion, I have only thought of the altruistic reasons for staying.
I am Kupord Maizzed. OK. Good to know. What prompted you to change identities? Did you want to use your real name? Yeah. I also want to go to New Order Mormons (where I haven’t been for ages) and say Justin Martyr/Justin Morning/Jacob Marley/JM is me.
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