Oh. My. God.

[stoney321]

I found my journal from my first year in college. In Mormon Utah. You know that picture that I want to be on the cover of my memoir/book? I just found where those two missionaries had written their names into my journal.

What the ever loving-

Like, they must have seen it on my desk in my dorm room (that's where that picture is from), taken it, and put their names and info in my FREAKING JOURNAL. Wow.

Also, I am completely embarrassed by my self-professed bravado and almost slavish dedication to my faith. I describe the attractive attributes of boys as them having "really strong spirits and testimonies." I was 20! I should have been checking out hot asses! And when guys chastened me with their superior intellect in all things spiritual, I called them "awesome studs" and remarked about "how much I have yet to learn."

GOOD GOD. Wow. I've, uh, come a long way since then. O_O

[ETA] OH HAIL NAW. I referred to this one boy as my JOHNNY LINGO. I could die. Never doubt that I was hard core LDS, haters. :(

Comments

[hartlyn.livejournal.com]

I've read most of your "Mormons" tags and haven't seen any specific "tipping points" in there (maybe there are archived posts I missed?). So maybe it will help if I list the most common ones, at least according to former Mormons among my acquaintance (this is the short version. I have references and links if anybody wants to know more):

--Glossing over or outright lying about early Church history.

--No archaeological, linguistic, nor historical evidence of the Book of Mormon whatsoever (one of my snarkier friends referred to it as Bible fanfic).

--Hypocrisy of leaders past and present and their meddling in politics (Prop H8 is only the tip of the iceberg. In U-duh, they own the legislature).

--Stoney has touched on the subjugation of women in many of her posts. One of our friends who was from a family of five boys didn't really "get" that aspect until he had a daughter of his own and realized she'd never be anything but a second-class citizen in the church. He's out, of course, and (another black mark on the Mormons, IMO) will have to sit outside the temple when his son gets married in a few months. So, add the fact that the church does everything they can to replace the parent/child relationship with a church/child relationship (missions are a classic example of this).

--Stories of sexual/emotional abuse in the church are, sadly, numerous; and even more sadly, Mormons circle the wagons around the abusers (those stories would fill several books).

As I said, the short version.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I feel like I'm being interviewed for an un-authorized autobiography... I'll put it this way: if you didn't find it in a public post, then it's not public.

I am writing a book about my experiences, however, so perhaps one day you'll get all of the details. :)

Short version: I was disaffected and disbelieving.

[hartlyn.livejournal.com]

I wasn't intending to pry, honest--I was just saying I didn't find anything specific (many people can point to day, date, time, place and reason but nobody expects you do so so) and since I don't know whether abright1dea knows anything about the quagmire mindbend that is mormonism I don't read everybody's LJs and perhaps I should before putting my foot in my mouth as I have here), so I thought that I would list the most common ones to help out a little. I should have replied to her instead of putting in under your reply. I am sorry if I came across as nosy or that you felt put on the defensive. There are people with whom I won't discuss my reasons for leaving either.

No unauthorized bios, I promise. And I apologize.

I'm looking forward to the book.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

No worries, just look at it from my perspective: I don't know you from Adam and those were some detailed bits of info. And in public. :)

I hope there ends up being a book to read! Come on, agents! *g*