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Why I
Left Mormonism - the Mormon ChurchWhy I left Mormonism
Documentation
on my reasons for leaving Mormonism is listed at the beginning of
my
story. These links are here so that it is clear I left Mormonism because
Mormonism
is not what it claims to be. I did not leave due to hurt feelings or
"sin".
Documentation
for those investigating Mormonism
Documentation
in a format for Mormons
The
reasons are numerous and difficult to confine to a few words in a post on
this
web site. This was originally written as a letter to a friend, a Mormon,
who
wanted to know why I left Mormonism. She too later left Mormonism.
This is
a listing of what is in this post:
Brief Background of My Life as a Mormon
Leaving Mormonism and Some Experiences as a
Mormon
History of Joseph Smith
Book of Mormon
Book of Abraham
The Temple
Church Members
Glad to be Out
A Brief
Background of My Years as a Mormon
I
joined the Mormon Church when I was 20 years old and living in Upper Michigan.
I was a
college student and was introduced to the church by a roommate. I
graduated
with a BS degree in metallurgical engineering and I went on to
graduate
school at the University of Utah. At the UofU I was asked to go on a
mission
for the church. I served a 2 year mission in Finland from 1974-1976,
which I
fully paid for myself. On return from my mission, I went back to
graduate
school and received an MS in engineering at Michigan Technological
University.
One month later I was married in the temple in Washington D.C. I
served
for the next 18 years in numerous callings such as the Elders' Quorum
President,
Young Mens' President, clerk etc. I was fully committed to the church
and
believed in it with all my heart, mind and money.
Leaving
Mormonism
Leaving
Mormonism was not a step I took lightly. It is extremely painful finding
out
that Mormonism is a fraud. I was a member for over 20 years. The realization
that we
(my whole family) had been deceived also made me angrier than I had ever
experienced.
When I
studied my way out of Mormonism it occurred in distinct layers or stages.
The
first stage was the Book of Abraham. This has the only physical evidence
(the
papyri) that can be studied of the unique LDS scriptures. I read everything
I could
find both pro and con. The LDS position was clearly unsustainable and
absurd.
Next was studying LDS history. I even used the official LDS materials
and
then acquired the pre-edited source materials the official LDS history has
been
based on. I got the Journal of Discourses on CD-ROM. What is amazing is the
wealth
of documents. There perhaps is no other religion that can have its
official
history be refuted so thoroughly. Next was the Book of Mormon. I kept
wanting
to cling to that for some reason. The archaeological evidence, materials
readily
available in Joseph Smith's time (which I had not known before) and on
and on
had the BofM crashing to the floor too. The last and most puzzling stage
was the
general authorities. Are these men liars or dupes? It appears they are a
mixture
of both.
President
Kimball and his wife toured Finland in 1975 when I was a missionary
and
spoke to small groups of us. What really struck me were two observations
that I
never acted on until I began seriously questioning the church. The first
was of
Pres. Kimball. He was clearly a humble man, but of very limited
intelligence,
at least when he was 80 some years old. I was a little disturbed,
but
trusted everything was in the Lord's hands. He spoke on how we will become
gods
and the normal missionary motivational stuff. What was really striking was
when
Sister Kimball spoke to us. In part of her talk she digressed from an
apparently
memorized (from being given so many times) speech and talked about an
experience
at the University of Utah. She took an institute class there while
her
husband was an apostle and was troubled by what the instructor (an LDS
liberal
evidently) was presenting to the class. She expressed her troubles with
her
husband who lightly dismissed them. The casual dismissal was a problem for
her.
What is fascinating now is that she would have expressed any doubt at all
to us
and it was clearly out of context with the talk she was giving. This
digression
occurred in mid-thought on another subject. When we got our
transcripts
of the talk, I noticed that this was not included. Here was history
being
rewritten right before my eyes. I did not act on it nor express to anyone
my
concern. I let it go.
Another
disturbing item was the Hofmann forgeries in the 1980s. In the Ensign
there
was a picture showing the Prophet President Kimball with, if I remember
right,
President Hinkley and other General Authorities looking at the Anton
manuscript,
which was a forgery. They believed it to be legitimate. The lack of
revelation
was clearly shown by these same men who are trying to tell us they
have a
testimony of the Book of Mormon or of Joseph Smith. They could not detect
a bogus
document of great importance. Again, I let it go.
The
fact that the general authorities go to great pains to cover embarrassing
historical
events shows to me they know what is going on. There are perhaps a
few
sincere ones who dismiss the evidence of its origins by not looking at or
thinking
about it. This appears to have been the case with President Kimball.
We
officially left the church in March of 1994 through a letter requesting our
names
be removed from the church records. Since that time, in all too typical
mind
control like fashion, members of the church have avoided us. The Regional
Representative
even came up from Alabama and spoke out against us in a Sacrament
meeting
three weeks after we left and told the members that if they ever talk to
us or
if we give them materials, they are to contact their Bishop. Only an
organization
that had something to hide would be paranoid about the truth being
revealed
about itself. It is interesting that we would be considered such a
threat.
We had done nothing except request our names be removed from the records
of the
church. That was all. We learned that we really had few friends within
Mormonism.
LDS
History
The
visitation of 1820 of God and Jesus to Joseph Smith has been shown by the
mass of
information on the supposed event, to have never occurred. The date
conflicts
with other recorded historical events and even with Joseph Smith's
mother's
account of her son's history! No one ever mentioned this revelation
until
Smith dictated it 18 years later! It plays no role at all in Mormon
history
until the 1860s. His early hand written account (1831-1832 diary) does
not
even mention God the father visiting. He forgot that God visited him? That
is
absurd. As Smith got older, he got bolder in his claims of power and
visitations
and the creating of an imaginary history is just part of that. He
did
this when there were fewer eyewitnesses around who could claim such events
never
happened or did not happen the way he testified to. When a Mormon reads
the
official history today it appears everything occurred in a certain order
when in
reality most items were back dated and created out of thin air to lend
credibility
to the ever increasing stories.
The
official Mormon history has been heavily rewritten. This is one of the most
disturbing
things I discovered in our research of the church. Even the official
History
of the Church is only 40% Joseph Smith's writings when it is still
claimed
to be 100%. The 40% has been rewritten so as to be "faith promoting"
and
the
60%, which was not his writing at all, was selectively chosen from other
people's
writings and rewritten to make him out to be something he was not.
Here is
a simple example of how Joseph Smith was a fraud. You can read this in
the
official Mormon History, but few Mormons ever bother to read it. Some
farmers
in Kinderhook devised a hoax in 1843 and made up some copper plates
which
they claimed contained ancient writings. They planted them in an Indian
burial
mound and later dug them up again. When Smith saw the plates, he
immediately
"translated" part of them, which (he claimed in his diary)
identified
the writings as from "a descendant of Ham, through the loins of
Pharaoh...".
Here is the exact quote from the Documentary History of the Church:
"I
insert fac-similes of the six brass plates found near Kinderhook, in Pike
county,
Illinois, on April 23, by Mr. Robert Wiley and others, while excavating
a large
mound. They found a skeleton about six feet from the surface of the
earth,
which must have stood nine feet high. The plates were found on the breast
of the
skeleton and were covered on both sides with ancient characters."
"I
have translated a portion of them, and find they contain the history of the
person
with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins
of
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of
heaven
and earth. "
For
many years, the church claimed that these plates were authentic ancient
writings,
in spite of the fact that the farmers later admitted the hoax -
evidently
the fact that Smith had translated part of them made it too
embarrassing
to accept the hoax. After resorting to more and more implausible
and
desperate arguments, the church flip-flopped about 10 years ago, and now
admits
that the plates are phony. The 1981 August Ensign has the statement where
the
church admits that the plates were a hoax. Of course, this leaves them with
the
embarrassing quote from Smith's diary.... In spite of the fact that this
quote
is confirmed by contemporary newspaper reports, they conclude that THIS
has to
be a false report (indeed, many supposed entries in Smith's diary are
generally
regarded as fraudulent -- something that church historians don't like
to
emphasize).
The
essential problem here is not the Kinderhook plates themselves, of course.
The
problem is that since Smith is revealed as credulous or deceitful in cases
where
he CAN be checked, the Book of Mormon translation, where he cannot be
checked,
is rendered highly suspicious.
The
church has been deceitful in its creating the image of Joseph Smith as an
unlearned
country boy. He was very intelligent and capable of reading at a high
level
and memorizing enormous materials. The primary source for the Book of
Mormon
was a book written by a man named Ethan Smith (no relation) who lived a
short
distance from Joseph and was a minister to a family none other than Oliver
Cowdery's.
This book is called the View of the Hebrews and was written in 1823
and
republished in 1825. This book contained everything Joseph Smith needed to
create
the Book of Mormon.
The
Book of Mormon
The
"keystone" of the church is unquestionably the Book of Mormon. If the
book
can be
shown to be a product of the 19th century, the church is then not what it
claims
to be. Archaeology in the old world continues to uncover physical
evidence
of biblical history. This is not the case with new world archaeology
and the
Book of Mormon. In fact, archeologists have stated that the last 2
decades
have been devastating to Book of Mormon archeology. Mormon apologists
are now
resorting to "internal evidences" which are addressed elsewhere on
this
site
since they realize there is no hard evidence at all for the Book of Mormon.
The
most compelling evidence of the fictional nature of the Book of Mormon, from
an
archaeological view, is the things which have not been found. This part of my
post is
liberally copied from some documents on Mormon archeology.
Cities
Numerous
books and papers, of which I have many, describe proposed Book of
Mormon
locations for cities and for the "narrow neck of land". All of them
differ
significantly. No city has yet been identified as being Nephite or
Lamanite.
This is significant in that Zarahemla was occupied for hundreds of
years.
Almost all geography mentioned in the Book of Mormon is in Mormon's
abridgment
of the plates. He would have known which locations would have been
destroyed
by the crucifixion. Therefore, the weak LDS apologist stance that the
cities
were destroyed is not valid. Remember we are talking about a time period
from
2000 BC to 400 AD and millions of people and these cities they occupied
have
yet to be found.
A curious
note is that when the Nephites landed in the Americas there were
already
millions of inhabitants in the land with large cities and
infrastructure.
Why are these peoples not mentioned?
Plant
and Animal Life
There
are four major crops mentioned in the Nephite records. These are:
Barley (Mos 7:22, 9:9, Alma 11:7, 15)
Figs (3 Ne 14:16)
Grapes (2 Ne 15:2, 4, 3 Ne 14:16)
Wheat (Mos 9:9, 3 Ne 18:18)
Archeological
findings for the time period of the Book of Mormon:
Barley NONE {an new world variety was found
in Arizona and totally unrelated}
Figs NONE
Grapes NONE
Wheat NONE
This
negative score on the plant-life test should not be treated too lightly. An
abundance
of evidence supporting the existence of these plants has been found in
other
parts of the world of antiquity. The existence of numerous
non-Book-of-Mormon
plants (maize, lima beans, tomatoes, squash, etc.) has been
supported
by abundant archeological findings. Quoting from Tom Ferguson: "I (Tom
Ferguson)
participated in excavating a trench a the edge of the Grijalva river
in
which we found a ceramic vessel is a stratum dating to about 200 BC. The
vessel
contained lima beans that had been burned anciently and discarded--pot
and
beans--as too badly burned to be edible. And yet they were still in their
pristine
and perfect form. The beans were carbon-14 dated helping to place the
whole
stratum on a true time scale. Art portrayals in ceramics, murals, and
sculptured
works--of ancient plant life--are fairly commonplace. Thousands of
archeological
holes in the area proposed have given us not a fragment of
evidence
of the presence of the plants mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The
holes
include the great one dug by Edwin Shook at Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico. He
excavated
a cave -- going back to 5000 BC., finding most of the major plants of
the
area. But no wheat, barley, figs or grapes."
I would
like to note that wheat is very durable. Wheat in near perfect condition
has
been frequently found in the Egyptian pyramids dating back thousands of
years.
There is absolutely no evidence from any source that wheat was ever used
in the
ancient Americas. This alone brings the Book of Mormon into serious
doubt.
Animal
Life
This
section is fun and Mormons are derided here for claiming horses and
elephants
were used by the ancients in America. This derision is for good
reason,
for they have never been found! There are more animals mentioned which
reinforces
the fictional nature of the Book of Mormon.
There
are many animals mentioned in the Nephite records. These are:
Ass
Bull
Calf
Cattle
Cow
Butter
Milk
Flocks
Goat {the Nephites claimed to have found the
domestic goat no less!}
Herds
Horse {the horse plays a major role in the
Nephite and Lamanite societies}
Ox
Sheep {this was a major animal in the Book
of Mormon}
Sow
Swine
Elephants
Archeological
findings for the time period of the Book of Mormon:
Ass..... NONE
Bull.... NONE
Calf.... NONE
Cattle.. NONE
Cow..... NONE
Butter.. NONE
Milk.... NONE
Flocks.. NONE
Goat.... NONE
Herds... NONE
Horse... NONE
Ox...... NONE
Sheep... NONE
Sow..... NONE
Swine... NONE
Elephants (NONE contemporary with the Book
of Mormon)
Again
from Tom Ferguson: "Evidence of the foregoing animals has not appeared in
any
form -- ceramic representations, bones or skeletal remains, mural art,
sculptured
art or any other form. However... evidence has been found in several
forms
of the presence in the Book-of-Mormon times of other animals--deer,
jaguars,
dogs, turkeys etc. The zero score presents a problem that will not go
away
with the ignoring of it. Non-LDS scholars of first magnitude, some who want
to be
our friends, think we have real trouble here. That evidence of the ancient
existence
of these animals is not elusive is found in the fact that proof of
their
existence in the ancient old-world is abundant. The absence of such
evidence...is
distressing and significant, in my view."
Metals
I will
be briefer on the metals, but this is fascinating to me as I have both a
BS and
MS in metallurgical engineering.
Evidence
supporting the existence of these metals, skills and products...at this
time as
follows:
Bellows....... NONE
Brass......... NONE
Breast Plates. NONE
Chains........ NONE
Copper........ NONE
Iron.......... NONE
Ore (mining).. NONE (this is very
significant, no evidence of mining
activities)
Plows......... NONE
Silver........ NONE
Swords........ NONE (none that are metal)
Steel......... NONE
Again
from Tom Ferguson: "Metallurgy does not appear in the region until about
the 9th
century A.D. ...I regard this as a major weakness in the armor of our
proponents
and friends". ...Art does not portray the existence of metallurgical
products
or metallurgical activity. Again, the score is zero.
There
are so many items archeologically, historically and using textual
criticism
to show the Book of Mormon to be fictional, that anyone willing to do
a
little study will reach the same conclusion.
There
is a lot of Mormon mythology that states that the Book of Mormon has been
"proven"
by such and such a find or the uncovering of a city. When investigated
ALL of
these claims have been shown to be false. The myths are circulated in the
Mormon
culture by Sacrament meeting talks, Priesthood meeting discussions and in
LDS
social circles so much, that Mormons who do not investigate the source of
the
information, believe the stories to be true. They use these false stories to
"strengthen
their testimonies". Please see section on Problems with believing in
Mormonism
/ Mormon Apologetics on this site for a letter from the Smithsonian
which
verifies these statements.
Book of
Abraham
The
Book of Abraham is another document where Smith is a perpetrator of a fraud.
This is
the translation of an Egyptian papyrus which came into Smith's
possession,
and which he claimed to have been written by Abraham in Abraham's
own
handwriting and with his signature!. Note, that these papyri were too new to
be
Abraham's by almost 1500 years!! There was no one in Joseph Smith's time who
could
refute the "translation" as can be done today. So he was able to take
advantage
of people's ignorance of Egyptian. Smith charged admission to see the
papyrus.
Smith even prepared an Egyptian Grammar based on this papyrus. Smith's
Egyptian
Grammar was not published until the 1960's, and needless to say, it
bears
no resemblance to what we now know of actual Egyptian grammar.
The
papyrus disappeared and was believed to be lost, but it turned up again in
the
Metropolitan Museum in NY, in 1967. Alas, the papyrus, which can be easily
read by
Egyptologists, is an ordinary Egyptian funerary papyrus from the 1st
century
A.D. and the text has absolutely nothing to do with the Book of Abraham!
The
attempts by the church to rescue this book are not much more plausible than
the
arguments used to support the Kinderhook Plates. Some Mormon scholars claim,
for
example, that the text of the Book of Abraham was somehow secretly encoded
into
this Egyptian papyrus or that the text somehow "inspired" Smith, in
spite
of the
fact that there is no resemblance in content. Again, in a case where
Smith
can be checked, he comes up wanting.
THE
TEMPLE
The
temple ceremony or the endowment is nothing less or more than Joseph Smith's
copying
of Masonic rituals. Joseph Smith received the first three degrees of
Masonry
on March 15th and 16th of 1842. Less than two months later (May 4, 1842)
he gave
the endowment ceremonies. (see History of the Church, vol. 5 pp. 1-2).
The
three bloody oaths that Mormons used to make in the temple and changed in
1990
(the two oaths that go with the two tokens of the Aaronic priesthood and
the
oath that goes with the first token of the Melchizedek priesthood) appeared
in the
temple ceremony in the same order as in Masonry. In both cases (temple
and
Masonry) the first oath mentioned the slitting of the throat. The second
spoke
of the cutting open of the breast so that the heart and vitals could be
removed
and the third mentioned disembowelment. In all three cases the same
penalties
were demonstrated. This all appears to be too similar to be a
coincidence.
I met
Reed Durham, who was president of the Mormon History Association, when I
was at
the University of Utah in 1973-1974 working on my masters degree in
engineering.
He wrote the following. "...I am convinced that in the study of
Masonry
lies a pivotal key to further understanding Joseph Smith and the
Church...
The many parallels found between early Mormonism and the Masonry of
that
day..." Joseph Smith was adept at copying and using other materials to
create
what he needed. The temple ceremony is just Masonry modified. It is
copied
from the book "Freemasonry Exposed" by William Morgan who published
it in
1827.
The wording in the Mormon temple ceremony, in many cases, is exactly the
same as
from this book. I will quote from Morgan's book page 84. "He (the
candidate)
is raised on what is called the five points of fellowship.... This is
done by
putting the inside of your right foot to the inside of the right foot of
the
person to whom you are going to give the word, the inside of your knee to
his,
your left hands on the back of each other..." Mormons who went to the
temple
before 1990 will find this quite striking. There are many more examples,
but
this one will do to make the point. The 1990 version of the temple ceremony
removed
this section since it was an obvious copy from Morgan's book and women
objected
to being held so closely by a stranger while at the veil.
CHURCH
MEMBERS
I
believe deceit goes on at all levels of the church by seasoned members, with
much of
it well intended, but done with incredible ignorance. The degree of
deceit
varies with the intelligence, knowledge and church position of the
seasoned
members involved. When a member of the church brings up a historical or
doctrinal
problem, a seasoned member has learned how to give pat answers which
give a
superficially satisfactory resolution. For example, the question of why
is the
temple so similar to Masonry may get asked. The standard answer is that
Masonry
goes back to Solomon's temple. Any reasonable inquiry into that myth
will
show it to be absurd historically. This does seem however to satisfy one
who
does not dig any deeper and does not want to be troubled. Senior members of
the church
dole out such dribble all the time. In many cases they do not know
themselves
and give such a response because it was satisfactory to them. More
intelligent
individuals, such as Hugh Nibley, use their prolific creation of
unrelated
materials to confuse the question and the normal church member then
concludes
all must be well because someone wrote so much about it and the member
is too
overwhelmed to be troubled anymore. Is this deceit? I think it is. A
seasoned
member usually wants to give the impression of having superior
knowledge
and spirituality with no doubts expressed verbally about his or her
faith.
This facade is required in leadership positions and is also required in
most
Mormon social circles. The senior levels of the church are composed of
individuals
who hide behind their positions of trust and are experts at giving
great
impressions. This is subtle and powerful deception.
Glad to
be Out
Mormons
have a lot of fear when thinking about leaving the church. All
authoritarian
organizations put fear into its members teaching that terrible
things
will happen to you if you ever leave. The Jehovah's Witnesses and other
groups
are actually worse than Mormonism in creating fear. Actually life outside
of
Mormonism is much better than I could have imagined. I wish I would have done
this
years ago when I first began to realize there were problems with Mormonism.
I would
have been better yet, to have never joined.
References
for all these comments are found in the books and links listed on
this
web site
Documentation
in a format for non-Mormons
Documentation
in a format for Mormons
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