I told no untruths. I simply informed the investigators about Joseph Smith's marriages to other men's wives and a few other true, historical tidbits, and viola! - they were no longer interested in Mormonism. You see, Coggins7, there's no need to spread lies about Mormonism. The truth is ugly enough.
Oh but you did, in your own way. You clearly failed to mention that the marriages to other men's wives of which you make so much hay were of a peculiar doctrinal nature that had no relation to sexual relations with them. You also probably failed to mention the complete lack of historical evidence that Joseph ever did, indeed, engage in any sexual relations with them (other than his legal plural wives, which, you might have mentioned, was a common practice among some very prominent Old Testament prophets). You may not have lied directly, but failing to explore the actual historical difficulties associated with proving the assumption of the worst about Joseph Smith as well as the doctrinal understandings of such practices, is still a form of intellectual dishonesty as any other. Unless it was simply done in abject ignorance, which, if true should make one shrink from cock sure pronouncements upon the doctrines and practices of others.
Coggins7, where did I mention addiction in my post? I didn't. I certainly did not intend to detract from your recovery from Alcoholism. The fact that there is a recovery process to leaving Mormonism doesn't diminish your recovery at all. Are there different kinds and levels of recovery? Of course. I respect the difficulty of your recovery and had no intention of minimizing it. You will never see me mock your recovery or battle with alcoholism on this board or anywhere else for that matter. I think it's wrong of others to do so, too.
Here is what you wrote:
Seven extended family members have resigned and my whole immediate family, as well. I've gotten wonderful emails from people telling me how I helped them in their recovery from Mormonism and that their correspondence with me helped them make the decision to leave the church. It is also cathartic to share my personal experiences with others.
There's really no need to pretend that there isn't a well developed ideology within the active and public exmo world that consciously attempts to use 12 step terminology and concepts to conceptualize both their experience within Mormonism and their transition out of it, with all this entails and implies. Its disgusting, demeaning, intelligence insulting, and intellectually vacuous.
I was simply pointing out what Wade has consistently done on this board: Attribute any and all problems with Mormonism to the disaffected member instead of the organization itself. I'm not the only poster here who notices Wade's agenda.
Coggins, when I first posted on this board, Wade launched personal attacks my direction when I'd done no such thing to him. The post was about licked cupcakes for heaven's sake, and wasn't directed at him in the least. But he revealed his true colors on that thread. You're doing the same here. I have never been anything but polite to you, yet here you are launching personal attacks my direction. Thank you for showing me how you really are. And no, you're not excused for the ad hominem nature of your post just like Wade's not excused for his.
I've actually rarely seen Wade launch personal attacks against anybody, and even when he has, its been with restraint and decorum difficult for most of his opponents to muster.
Now, Wade has associated many problems people have with the Church to the people themselves, as have I for years. There is a reason for this, and its that in the vast majority of cases where the "reasons" for apostasy from the Gospel has come up, over almost a decade of discussion on the Internet with disaffected members, or ex-members, I've rarely seen anyone within this class of people willing to explore the possibility that, indeed, it is an unwillingness or inability to support and live in harmony with the standards, requirements, and disciplines expected of a Latter Day Saint that forms the crux of such apostasy. It is, indeed the case, that, as opposed to what you seem to think, I have almost never encountered ex-Mormons willing to consider personal character issues as a potential determinant of their relationship to the Church. Indeed, its almost always the Church that is the problem to most of these people, even though the doctrines and teachings of the Church; morality and sexual chastity, the importance of home and family, honesty, integrity, Christian service and charity, the eternal nature of family and friendship, the eternal nature of humankind, and our ability to become like Christ and partake of his nature and attributes, would seem, even if one, for whatever reason, couldn't accept them intellectually, to be hardly the kind of ideas that could create the kind of hostility, mocking disdain, and opposition I have encountered from exmos in print and on the Web for many years.
You may ignore the denunciation of you for your remark regarding "recovery" if you wish, if what I took it to mean was not your intention. That particular issue within exmo anti-Mormonism is a hot button one for me (Recovery From Mormonism etc.) and one for which I will show zero tolerance.
I frankly don't think you have now, or have ever, understood, or attempted to understand the doctrines of the Church to a degree such that you have any real business turning others away from it. I don't really think you know what your doing, which, in a spiritual sense, is the best position for you to be in in the eyes of your creator.