ldsalpha

Feminist Atheist Anti-Mormon Rant: We will Only Deal with this Once

01 Feb 2012 2 Comments

by Ives in Mormon Tags: anti-mormon, feminist, Really?

After I read a horrible article linked up from several of my friends on Betabook, I realized that I needed to continue my work.  I took a long break from this horrible blog for “relationship” reasons.  After I read  this article and the first 50 or so comments I realized that my work needed to continue.

Some apostate girl wrote this article and wrote the usual tripe that former members of the church reference.  She even tried to spend the first paragraphs pretending to show balance before she got her rant underway.  Even more pathetic than the typical rant of this apostate were the responses by the nice guys in the comments.

Important side note: Due to the fact that Mitt Romney will be the Republican Presidential Nominee and most likely be the next President of the United States, the church will face a lot of negativity and slander over the at least 10 months, but most likely over the next 4 years.  Please note that I do NOT support Mitt Romney, I support Ron Paul.  Most “cultured,” “sophisticated,” intelligent,” and “moderate” people will start to attack their Mormon co-workers and neighbors.  On a positive note about this soon to take place persecution; church attendance will rise, church unity will rise and conversions will also rise. 

Without further waiting let’s deconstruct this obnoxious rant.  Over the next several months, there will be many pathetic rants just like this.  Since most people will try to act nice and kind and show that we are good people and beg all of the anti’s to like us, I will be the jerk for the group and say what all of the girls secretly wish at all of the guys would say to people like this writer.  We only need to deconstruct this one article, all of the rest are the same:

We oYes, Mormons love families. But the family-values facade applies only if you stay in the fold. Former Mormons know the family estrangement and bigotry that often come with questioning or leaving the church.

Note the use of the word “facade” implying that Mormons only appear to love their families.  Also note how because she had problems with her family, she assumes that all Mormon families that face similar problems are exactly the same.  Note how she believes that Mormons only love family members who stay in the fold.  I hate to bust her but most families love each other, but have problems that create serious conflict.  Things like choice of religion, choice of political affiliation, choice of spouse, lifestyle choice, even career choice can cause serious problems in a family.  Most families get a long in spite of these problems.

If the different parties choose not to act civil in a dispute, then families can fragment over the problems.  I wonder how many Sunday dinners she ruined by bringing up the fact that she no longer liked the church?  I bet after she ruined enough Sunday dinners, the rest of her family told her to either be polite and respect the family’s beliefs or that she should stay away until she learned some manners.  As we can see from her screeching attitude, she chose to continue to ruin Sunday dinner.

The church I was raised in values unquestioning obedience over critical thinking. This caused trauma and cognitive dissonance when I questioned church doctrine and official history. In online forums and support groups, former and questioning Mormons gather and offer comfort. Some of us are prominent, such as Steve Benson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist, or singer Tal Bachman. Most of us are quiet dissidents who wish to lead conscientious lives.

Unquestioning obedience over critical thinking. . . what does that even mean anyway?  We have standards that we all must follow to maintain status as members of the church in good standing.  What, you didn’t like it when the church didn’t support you in whatever things you did that the church didn’t approve of?  You found out that the early church leaders weren’t perfect like you were told in primary?  Congratulations!  You probably think that America is horrible because our nation’s founders weren’t the perfect people that you were taught in 2nd grade.

Online forums and support groups.  Hangout with all of the former Mormons and bash the church together.  Real original.  Hanging out with people who think just like you, what a deep search.  I bet you learned your talking points like “unquestioning obedience over critical thinking” in that forum.  Tal Bachman, writer of Beta Song of the Century.  Sadly I bet that he learned all of his Betaness in his years as a member of the church.  I now kind of feel sorry for the guy.

But I struggled after realizing that Mormonism’s claims about anthropology, history and other subjects contradict reason and science. While many faiths’ irrational claims are obscured by centuries of myth and rubble, the LDS church lacks the moderation and scholarship of its older peers. It also stifles efforts to openly question church pronouncements, labeling such behavior as satanic.

Critics of Mormonism include geneticists, Egyptologists and even the Smithsonian Institution, which stopped Mormon apologists from claiming the institute viewed the Book of Mormon as a factual document.

Contradicting reason and science?  Now we get to the meat of her argument.  She starts in on the general atheist arguments against religion in general.  Note that she also bashes other religions, in the paragraph.  Why does she have so much respect for scientists?  They claim that the world is overheating and that we are all about to die unless we accept Socialism, with them telling us what we can and can’t do.  We now know that man made global warming is a hoax.

Science and reason that she worships in her atheist world. . .  Science and reason gave us The Terror in the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, Stalin’s purges, the Cultural Revolution and the Pol Pot regime among other great worshipers of science and reason.

Worshipers of science and reason have killed over 100 million of people over the last 2 centuries.  How many have backward unintelligent and unevolved Mormons killed?  I think that a few nuts killed a few dozen people at Mountain Meadow over 150 years ago.  Let’s weigh a few dozen at Mountain Meadow and through in a few more in weird individual acts of crazies against 100 million.  Yeah, you worship science and reason girl.

Educators?  Really.  Like this guy?  Why does she put so much importance on a group of people who only live to indoctrinate kids on socialism and steal money for their pension funds while acting condescending and morally superior because they work 8 months a year from 9am to 230 pm with a 1 hour lunch break and 1 hour preparation break?

While studying at Brigham Young University, I spiritually imploded after learning these things and other facts outside official church curriculum. Disturbed, I met with a high-ranking Mormon leader who told me to quit reading historical and scientific materials because they were “worse than pornography.” BYU’s dean of religious education wouldn’t answer my growing list of questions. Other leaders told me that questioning is acceptable so long as it’s done secretly. I became distraught. For years my faith was an unshakable part of my identity, and if I openly voiced my concerns I risked rejection from the community I loved. Since Mormonism is highly centralized, without the local doctrinal flexibility that exists in Judaism and many Christian churches, I had no place to live a moderated, reformed existence.

How are those moderated and reformed Christian churches doing?  Not good.  They are losing members all over the place and they will soon be out of business.  When churches accept your idea of “moderated and reformed” the vast majority of members leave.  Sorry, you are the only one who wants that kind of a church.

Salt Lake City’s male gerontocracy told me to avoid books and marry, but I could not stomach all their teachings. For example, mainstream Mormons banned polygamy in 1890 to obtain Utah’s statehood, but they continue to perform temple ceremonies that “seal” one man to multiple women in the hereafter. My idea of heaven did not involve a husband whose love could be shared with many wives.

Gerontocracy?  What the hell is that?  I hate to bust you, but adding big words that people have to look up in a dictionary to understand is not the sign of intelligence, but is the sign of a person trying to act smart by using big words.  Incompetent university professors use this technique to fool students and funding boards.  Real knowledge and wisdom comes from the ability to take complex subjects and boil them down to simple and understandable concepts.

Told you not to read books?  Really?  Considering that Mormons love to read I doubt it.  When you slander people at least try to make it sound plausible.

Staying in the church meant I would have my family, but I couldn’t pretend to believe. And it was difficult to live a fulfilling life without Mormonism. My parents shut me out of their home for nearly five years because of religion, and some former friends shunned me.

Tradeoffs, it’s what economics is all about.  You can’t have your cake and eat it too.  After you ruined how many Sunday dinners?  And your friends shunning you?  Guess what?  People like to associate with similar people.  Since you were different, you and your friends had nothing in common.  Hence no relationship.  But hey, you picked up a whole lot of new trendy enlightened friends.  Can’t you at least be grateful for the new friends you found?

Many other dissident Mormons find themselves discouraged from voicing doubts and ostracized if they do. Those whose spouses leave the church are sometimes encouraged to get divorced and remarry a faithful Latter-day Saint. Non-Mormons are not allowed to attend family members’ weddings in Mormon temples. Many gay Mormons have been driven to suicide, deeply conflicted about whether acting on their sexuality is, as the church teaches, a sin.

I wouldn’t want to marry someone, have the person make major changes that I disapprove of and expect me to stay married.  Most people feel that way.  Choice of religion is major.  Mormons try to take their religion very seriously.  Changing religion in the middle of a marriage is major.

The temple?  Really?  Do we really have to discuss this?  This is the way that we do things.  1st Ammendment.  Deal with it and get over it.  Mormon weddings are boring anyway.  I wish that half of the slander about us was true, it would make the weddings a lot more exciting and interesting.  Do you have any idea of how boring Mormon weddings are?  You should be grateful that you are not allowed to attend.

Now on to the poor oppressed gays.  Do you know that lots of homosexuals struggle with their lifestyle choice and that a larger percentage of homosexuals commit suicide than the general population across all groups?  The homosexual life style is a super hard way to live.  There is a reason that we discourage it so much.  It is called the path of least resistance.  Life is hard enough already, why make it harder on ourselves?

So what do we learn from this diatribe?  Not much.  What does this teach us about girls?  Nothing new.  We see from this that at some point she decided that she didn’t want to be Mormon anymore.  We can ask all kinds of questions about why she didn’t want to be Mormon anymore, but they really don’t matter.

What we see is that after she no longer wanted to be Mormon, her rationalization hamster kicked into gear and all of the sudden she had all of these questions that nobody could answer.  We even see that her hamster worked her into such a lather that she ruined her relationship with her family for 5 years.  Just shows that the rationalization hamster is all powerful and will guide female actions until the end of time.

To a large extent this article is one big crap test.  Look how she complains and asks for attention and understanding.  Look at all of the nice guy Betas in the comments section.  Look at the things that they say.  Things like: we are tolerant, come to church outside of Utah, we will be nice to you.  You can see the Betaness on these guys.  After reading their words of Betaness I almost didn’t blame her for leaving the church.  What do they hope to accomplish?  You can just see it in their writing, the whole attitude of: let me worship you oh holy woman.  I imagine that she just laughs at the nice guys kissing up to her.

Overall just the usual slander from anti-Mormons mixed with the rantings of a girl seeking attention and getting it.  I guess I failed her crap test just by responding to her.  Oh well, life goes on.