My farewell to StayLDS

I’m posting this farewell in the “Spiritual Stuff” section because I think it’s the most fitting.

It looks to me like the behind-the-scenes, tech transition of me finally being able to fully step away from this community is done. You guys are in GREAT hands. Thank you to everyone over the past decade who has contributed their time and spirit to support each other here. The community is what makes it happen. No matter what anyone else says in your life, I’m telling you that you all are some of the best Mormons in the religious community you inhabit.

If you want to stay in the LDS Church, you should stay, and you should get all the love and support you need. The Church does not know yet how to deal with and minister to our sisters and brothers who are different. I wish the church did this better. I have always said from the beginning that I hope the church put us “out of business” by making sites like this irrelevant. But until they do that, and take care of the mess and harm they cause, keep on being true to the spirit of the ideas in Mormonism that are so beautiful and healing. Keep on making the kinds of supportive communities we wish existed. Be the change, and love the people in leadership positions who need help seeing these changes are necessary. I did what I could. I did my part. And now with love, I say goodbye. All things have their season.

I moved on a while ago. And I don’t want that to be a taken as negative thing, but everyone tells themselves the stories they want to hear. I followed Mormonism to my own logical conclusion, and I have no regrets about that. I believed in the powerful ideas, did everything I could, I followed the spirit that Mormons talk about, and I have seen God and met Jesus Christ. That experience is not what most believing Mormons today think it is, but it is also just as important and profound as they believe it is. Everyone will have this experience, whether during their life or at the end of it. So don’t worry. It’s there. I also fully acknowledge that what I just said is considered insane by most people, and most ironically by the very people in the church that told me my whole life I should have this experience. Every single person on this planet is “worthy” enough right now in this moment or at any moment. You are all OK, or will someday be OK. More people than you might think have this experience (and Mormons are a minority, sorry). The vast majority just go on quietly living their lives because it’s both one of the most profound experiences you can have, and yet on a practical level, meaningless in its own special way.

The last advice I will give here: Love each other. Love the people around you. Make the world a better place, one small step at a time. Whatever you can do, no matter how little, it matters. Life is not a zero sum game. Please believe in that. If we are collectively and individually judged by a higher power, which is only metaphorical, it will be by how we treat the least of those among us. They are your Savior, if you want one.