This guy’s story is similar to thousands and thousands of others Mormons out there who decide to leave the LDS church:
1. He does a small amount of research into Mormon church history.
2. It’s hard to reconcile the information he finds with what he’s been taught.
3. He makes the painful decision to leave the LDS church and abandon a huge part of his life, family, and culture.

What’s telling is the reaction from his Mormon brethren to his decision:
1. You’re mentally defective there must be something wrong with you.
2. Somebody hurt your feelings.
3. You must be committing some sort of sin.
4. Your interpretation of the facts is wrong.
5. You’re not welcome anymore.

If there was a true church out there — an organization where God communicates directly with its leaders — what reaction would you expect from members of a society of great light and knowledge? Would it really be one of the prior rote, knee jerk, ostracizing, ad hominem responses?

There are thousands of similar experiences out there:
http://coventryrm.wordpress.com/about/
http://20truths.info/
http://wakeupmormons.blogspot.com
Mormonism Get Thee Behind Me
http://www.exmormon.org/exmoblogs.html

I say pedophile, you say prophet.

Analyzing facts regarding Mormonism oftentimes turns into a fuzzy Rorschach test. The person looking at the facts will see whatever they want to see. There’s no way to convince somebody of your interpretation when they have a completely different view (of the same set of facts). Disagreement is fine. What’s insightful is that Mormons get quite angry and upset when somebody views the facts differently from the Mormon interpretation and Mormons quickly turn the discussion into personal attacks (label people as mentally defective, easily hurt feelings, sinful, anti-Mormon, hate-Mos and so forth), and furthermore claim the Mormons are being unfairly persecuted, ridiculed, and mocked, only because somebody views the facts differently from the Mormon perspective.

Scientists think they might have found the answer in red wine: Substance in red wine shows promise in first human study

Note: No word yet from Utah on when the prophet will receive the same revelation that the French had on how to live long, healthy, and productive lives.

It explains, amongst other things, why BYU isn’t at top tier football team anymore, or why you shouldn’t fear or hate Mormons…

30 years later, in 1978: The LDS church prophet receives the same revelation from God, stating that Black males are allowed to hold the Mormon priesthood and African American families can fully participate in Mormon temple ceremonies.

In 2011: The U.S. military receives another revelation from God, the U.S. armed forces now allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military without fear of being banned from serving and protecting the country because of sexual preference.

30 years from now, in 2041: We prophesy that the Mormon church will receive the same revelation from God, and finally recognize that sexual orientation is not a reason to ban people from a religion.

Note 1: We attempted to interview several of the brethren, and there still is no word from Salt Lake City as to why the U.S. military receives revelations 30 years prior to the LDS prophet. One apostle, speaking on condition of anonymity, speculated “since the U.S. military technically is reponsible for defending Utah from attacks from foreign nations, it makes sense that military leaders may need to receive revelations before the prophet in Utah. We just don’t know why the Lord works in this mysterious way.”

Note 2: We exhort LDS members to contact their hegemonic heirarchy and place upward pressure on the prophet to receive the gay-rights revelation sooner. The people of Utah should follow examples set recently by the Egyptians and Libyans on how to effect a change in leadership.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stopped practicing polygamy in 1890.

The confusion surrounding the topic of Mormons and polygamy is caused by several factors:
1) There are groups out there that call themselves Mormons (different from the LDS church), that say they believe in the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and polygamy. There’s not just one group of Mormons. The term Mormon can refer to either the LDS church or these splinter groups (that still practice polygamy).
2) Members of the LDS church are often confused about the LDS church official stance on polygamy. When I was growing up in Utah, we were routinely taught that polygamy had been temporarily suspended, but would be reinstated after the 2nd coming of Christ, or polgyamy was practiced in heaven.
3) D&C 132, which is Joseph Smith’s revelation on polygamy, is still LDS canon.
4) Male LDS members are currently allowed to be sealed and married to multilple women (in the event the current wife dies or is divorced). This leads many male LDS members to state that they will have multiple wives in heaven, thus implying that Mormons believe polygamy will exist in heaven.
5) Many past LDS prophets have stated that polygamy is essential for getting into the highest degree of heaven.

So you can see why there is so much confusion on the topic of Mormons and polygamy. Even LDS church members are confused.

The LDS church can fix this by:
1) Admit that Joseph Smith made a mistake regarding polygamy, and that other LDS prophets that followed him also weren’t receiving direction from God regarding polygamy. Polygamy was a huge debacle for Mormons. Sometimes prophets think with their other head, just like all other guys. They’re human, people will understand that.
2) Completely denounce the practice of plural marriage. Take D&C 132 out of LDS canon.
3) Stop allowing males to be sealed to multiple women in the temple (providing that the current wife is dead or divorced). Just stop that, it doesn’t look good when you say the LDS church doesn’t practice polygamy, yet you still allow this to happen.
4) Utah needs to hire some Texas-like prosecuters who will actually put people in jail for practicing polygamy.
5) If the LDS church is still telling members that polygamy will be reinstated after Christ comes again, stop that. It confuses the LDS members as to whether polygamy is good or bad or whether it is an everlasting teaching.

If only Emma Smith had read a few bodice rippers, the whole polygamy issue would have never gotten off the ground.

In reality, the romance novel genre is widely misunderstood. Here are the top five romance novel myths:

Myth #1: Romance novels are a form of literary pornography.
Wrong. Yes, there often is sex in romance novels, but it includes character arcs, realistic emotions, feeling good about a monogamous sexual relationship, bonding, cherishing each other, and growing in character. Furthermore, some romance novel sub-categories do not include any sex. Some romance novel categories emphasize abstinence and sex only after marriage. Romance novels are far cry from the junk soft-porn fiction stereotype.

Myth #2: Romance novels are for uneducated, sit home Moms, who are sexually repressed (either redneck or Mormon), and watch Oprah.
Is it just criminals who read crime novels? Or people with special powers who read super hero comic books? Or astro physicists who read science fiction. Nope. Readers of romance novels come from a vast spectrum of social, educational, and economic backgrounds.

Myth #3: Anybody can write a romance novel.
According to one editor I talked to, getting published in romance is one of the hardest categories to break into. If anybody can write romance, why doesn’t everybody do it? Try it if you think it’s easy.

Myth #4: Romance novels give women unrealistic expectations about life.
Romance novels center on character arcs and overcoming fears, and resolving problems. Modern romance novels are nothing like the bodice ripper stereotypes that many people think of. Women are strong, independent, and thinkers in modern romance novels. There’s nothing unrealistic about that.

Myth #5: Romance novels are full of cookie cutter, stereotypical characters, and simple prose.
Nope. Romance novels are full of unique, sophisticated, and inspirational characters. Romance novels are character driven; the characters have to be strong and resourceful. The language to describe these characters has to be creative and oftentimes complex. Go read reviews on Amazon of recently written romance novels. These reviews reveal the depth and breadth of this literature genre.

From the article, here’s some hard-core advice on how to start a pornography conversation with other Mormons:

• Tell me about your experience with pornography over your lifetime.
• Is there a history of pornography use in your immediate or extended family?
• How do you define pornography? Follow-up: What are the major categories of porn? Valid answers include gay, hard-core, soft-core, fat on fat, lesbian, animal on human, and so forth. Ask for specific examples to ensure they understand the category.
• Does gay or lesbian porn turn you on? If it’s your son-in-law, consider that lesbian pornography is perfectly natural for him to want to watch.
• How have you healed from the impact of pornography on your life?
• Who helped you overcome your problems with pornography?
• How do you currently protect yourself from pornography?
• Do you have a preference for porn media such as magazines or DVDs?
• Have you ever wanted to stop viewing pornography, but couldn’t?
• Have you or anybody in your extended family ever been a registered sex offender? Follow-up: If yes, what is their address?

From the article, here are some answers to take note of:

• Admits that he used to look at pornography, but says that he stopped doing it, but fails to explain how he was able to stop.
• Claims he overcame the problem on his own without any help from others.
• Won’t admit he occasionally masturbated furiously while viewing porn.
• Hasn’t said anything to his girlfriend/fiancé about his history with pornography.
• Vague about where he keeps his porn stash (acceptable answers are like “under mattress” or “bottom of dresser drawer”).
• Admits he used to have a problem, but doesn’t define what exactly that problem was.
• Admits to the use of back door vibrators while viewing gay porn.
• He insists that he’s never even seen pornography and appears “too perfect” in his responses.