Going solo on the Mormon Express

[AlexB]

I stopped attending Church a While ago, although it had absolutely nothing to with doctrine per-se. During one Sunday Sacrament meeting, while we were all hanging around prior to going to the next lesson, I overheard a woman say to an investigator that she only joined the LDS to get married in the Temple. This made me “investigate” other member’s motives. I was surprised at how many had reasons other than Christ for being there. It was a surreal moment to realise all these folk who had helped me when I was new had in fact been lying to me about how Christ had blessed them, when the truth of the matter was half of them didn’t believe in what they were hearing in the first place.

Disgruntled with this basic fact of Church, and, for a while, wondering if anything else was true, I put the LDS on the back burner. Strangely enough I began to miss General Conference and the Book of Mormon, so I picked up were I left off but without the involvement of the Church. This even boiled down to performing the Sacrament at home.

I cannot imagine being without the Church, but I can certainly do without attending the chapel.

I hope I can be of assistance around here, having struggled with doctrine and “the truth” quite often, but I take Dr. Dan Peterson’s view that there’s nothing that can’t be resolved with a bit of common sense.

[Anonymous]

Welcome. I hope we can help each other.

If I’m being totally open, I have to wonder why you equated joining for various reasons with lying – and why you discounted apparently good people whom you say had helped you and who, apparently, were attending because they wanted to attend. There is nothing in your post that would lead me to think harshly about any of the people you mentioned, so I wonder why you stopped attending with them – and, again, why you think of them as liars.

Do you think it’s possible that they joined for various reasons but stay for largely the same reason – to be with people they like and love and serve those people in a rewarding way? I don’t know (really, I have no clue), but, based on my own experience with things like this over the decades, I lean toward giving them the benefit of the doubt.

[Anonymous]

Hi Alex,

I believe that most active members joined the LDS church because they were born Mormons. At least that’s how it worked for me. I was born Mormon, in a Mormon family, in a Mormon community. I think that I would have made a good Muslim, Catholic, or Jew – each have deep heritage and tradition (that I admire). But that’s not how it turned out. Instead I am a dyed in the wool Mormon boy through and through.

Welcome!

[Author]

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