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I’m new here obviously. I just wanted to start out by saying thank you to everyone that participates on this forum and for those that run and maintain it. I am so grateful that I have found a website where members of the church are striving to live good lives and follow the commandments but are not doing it blindly or without thought. It is so refreshing to see a group of people ask why they do something or how an organization like the church can improve. I’ve been lurking here for a while and I’m glad that I finally got around to registering. So I’m a 23 year old male from southern Ohio and I attend BYU in Provo. I’m not currently going through an all-out faith crisis other than the continuing struggles of a regular person. The biggest faith crisis in my life was immediately following my mission. Two weeks after I got home, I quit attending church and stayed away for a year and half. I wouldn’t say my absence was so much due to a lack of faith in the Gospel as it was a complete aversion to the culture of the church and the lies that we spread as members. I just can’t stand the culture that this church seems to not only generate but encourage. It seems like it is complete taboo these days to question anything about the church or to mention the not so desirables such as the misery of a mission, the negative parts of the church’s history or the difficulties of some programs like home teaching. I’m all for having faith and moving forward into the dark but I’m not about to withhold my questions from the Almighty about His will.
Anyway! I’m active again and am trying to do my best. I love the temple and have had the privilege of being an ordinance worker on Monday and Friday mornings before class. I think the only reasons I currently attend church is so that I can partake of the sacrament and keep my temple recommend. I don’t much care for the preaching. I’d rather sit in the temple and talk to the older workers and hear about their lives than be told what to do by kids my age. BYU is an awfully hard place to keep the faith, at least for me. The culture and pressures here are almost unbearable at times but I’m receiving a wonderful education and I don’t want to give that up. So I do my best to be myself and continue to develop my personal relationship with my Heavenly Father which is all that matters anyway. I don’t need a church or a bishop or a prophet to have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior.
So all in all, I am grateful for this website and the things that I have read that have increased my faith and understanding. I’ll try my best to encourage and help all y’all in the same ways that y’all have helped me.
raygun, I lived in southern Ohio for 12 years, and at least one of our participants still lives in southern Ohio. Welcome from an adopted Buckeye (state, not necessarily university). 🙂 Please send me a PM and let me know where in Ohio you live(d).
My daughter is a registered Democrat, philosophical socialist / libertarian, wicked sense of humor, no inhibitions or sexual hangups type of person who lived in Provo student housing and attended the mega-building just south of BYU for a few months. Some of her stories of shocking her friends simply are hilarious. She is used to playing her saxophone among the piccolos.
😆 She’s serving a mission in Germany right now (just started).
Anyway, welcome. I’m glad you found us and hope we can help.
Thanks for the note and update – and welcome to the site! raygun wrote:I wouldn’t say my absence was so much due to a lack of faith in the Gospel as it was a complete aversion to the culture of the church and the lies that we spread as members. I just can’t stand the culture that this church seems to not only generate but encourage. It seems like it is complete taboo these days to question anything about the church or to mention the not so desirables such as the misery of a mission, the negative parts of the church’s history or the difficulties of some programs like home teaching.
Hello, raygun. I’ve got to say that I picked up on these few sentences because they really resonated with me. So often I read comments from people who doubt (or outright disbelieve) so many of the core doctrines of the Church, but who remain active in the Church specifically becausewith of the cultural elements that bind the members together. Based on their statements, I have often felt even more isolated from the Church than every, because I do have a testimony of Mormonism’s core doctrines. I love the LDS understanding of the Plan of Salvation and our concept of the nature of God and our relationship to him, as well all of the more peripheral doctrines that tie into them. What I have a hard (and that’s an understatement, let me tell you) time with is LDS culture. I feel as if I can never say anything the slightest bit critical about a Church policy or program without having everyone within earshot look at me in horror. There are a myriad of cultural aspects of the Church that absolutely make me nuts, and here in Utah, they’re probably worse than elsewhere. I don’t think I would ever leave the Church, because without the meaning its doctrines give my life, I really don’t know how I’d exist. But if the LDS culture doesn’t eventually drive me stark raving mad, I’ll be surprised. So, it’s nice to hear from someone who seems to see things the way I do.Katzpur wrote:Based on their statements, I have often felt even more isolated from the Church than every, because I do have a testimony of Mormonism’s core doctrines. I love the LDS understanding of the Plan of Salvation and our concept of the nature of God and our relationship to him, as well all of the more peripheral doctrines that tie into them. What I have a hard (and that’s an understatement, let me tell you) time with is LDS culture. I feel as if I can never say anything the slightest bit critical about a Church policy or program without having everyone within earshot look at me in horror.
I completely agree with you. I have a strong testimony of important Gospel doctrine such as the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation but I don’t see anything wrong with disagreeing with how things are done in the church (other than ordinances in my opinion). The church isn’t necessarily the Gospel and I mostly see them as different. The church does its best to represent the Gospel but the culture is really slowing down our progress and inhibiting the acceptance of new and different members. I’m grateful for the church and for the work it does but there can always be improvements made. But I guess those decisions are above my pay grade haha.
Welcome, raygun. Hopefully this board will help you aim away from innocent Mormons when you fire. (It’s OK with me if you fry a few of the over-the-top members. 🙄 )I’ve had my own run-ins with LDS culture along its borderline with doctrine. From the little I’ve heard from people who fled the Y for a little more sanity in education, I think there might be more over-the-top cultural issues there than elsewhere in the church. I don’t claim expertise, but I’ve wondered if a few Y alumni might agree with me … might be fun to know if I’m all wet or not about the topic.
Two immediate suggestions — First, keep a fire extinguisher handy. (I’ve heard a couple of stories – probably exaggerated, but so what – about student housing nearly being set on fire by someone trying to dispose of the marks from old garments.) Second, if you want some distance between you and your fellow students, verbally attack BYU’s mascot because of its suggestive symbolism. Currently, dyed-in-the-wool BYU devotees have no good bullet-proof comebacks for the topic.
Welcome to the board. I agree that Mormon culture often stinks. I’m less held in by its culture and more by my Mormon community (my close friends and family).
Added to that, I also appreciate the ‘big picture’ doctrine that is, for me, a better expression of the meaning of life than anything else I can find.
mackay11 wrote:Welcome to the board.
I agree that Mormon culture often stinks. I’m less held in by its culture and more by my Mormon community (my close friends and family).
Added to that, I also appreciate the ‘big picture’ doctrine that is, for me, a better expression of the meaning of life than anything else I can find.
Very well said! +1
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