Questions to sceptics and former members of a church

[The Ex-Mormon]

As a former member of the LDS, I would like to ask you some questions. It concern everyone who has left their church or was excommunicated.

1. How do you handle your church past today?

2. Which of your church friends have you had still today? And why?

3. Were you excluded or did you go by yourself? What were the reactions of the church members like?

4. Have you learned things which are positive or negative to you by the church?

5. What do you miss since the excommunication/leaving at the most/few?

6. Do you still have contact to members of your church? If yes, how the look alike?

7. What an advice would you give to somebody who interests himself for your former church?

[Nickman]

As a former member of the LDS, I would like to ask you some questions. It concern everyone who has left their church or was excommunicated.

1. How do you handle your church past today?

I realize that I was duped and vow to never be again. I remember the good times but realize that they were built on false premises.

2. Which of your church friends have you had still today? And why?

None. They all abandoned me even when I tried to keep them as friends. I am not allowed to see my children anymore because I am not a member.

3. Were you excluded or did you go by yourself? What were the reactions of the church members like?

The bishop told members to not listen to snything I say. I tried to keep my friends and it always turned into a debate. They eventually stopped calling, because I wouldn't come back.

4. Have you learned things which are positive or negative to you by the church?

They have a great family oriented establishment, but so does Chucky Cheese. They are kind to most people unless they know you are an ex member. Then you must have had grievous sins in order to leave the church.

5. What do you miss since the excommunication/leaving at the most/few?

My children

6. Do you still have contact to members of your church? If yes, how the look alike?

Not the ones I knew and were friends with. Now I have other aquaintances that are LDS.

7. What an advice would you give to somebody who interests himself for your former church?

Show him the truth. Show both sides of the story and advise them to ask the missionaries questions. Tough questions. The missionaries will likely be the first people they really sit down and talk to from the church. Show them the BoA problem. That should tell them a lot.

[McCulloch]

[row]How do you handle your church past today? [col]I make no secret of it. It helps me to discuss religion, having once been on the inside. [row]Which of your church friends have you had still today? And why? [col]The guy who was the best man at my wedding. We have stayed in touch. He's seen my sons grow up, we've watched their daughters. We still get along. [row]Were you excluded or did you go by yourself? What were the reactions of the church members like? [col]We left. At first, they tried to get us to come back. But when that seemed to be a fruitless endeavor, they gave up and essentially forgot about us. Now, if we meet, there is an awkwardness. [row]Have you learned things which are positive or negative to you by the church? [col]Yes. [row]What do you miss since the excommunication/leaving at the most/few? [col]The singing. [row]What an advice would you give to somebody who interests himself for your former church? [col]Look at the evidence! Don't just take their word for it? Don't just take the writers of the Bible's word on it.

[The Ex-Mormon]

Thanks for your anwers
Here now my commend:

1. How do you handle your church past today?

I inform People about the church

2. Which of your church friends have you had still today? And why?

None of them. They all look at me as a leprous one

3. Were you excluded or did you go by yourself? What were the reactions of the church members like?

I go by myself, after i found out (with a huge help of Nickman), that this church is based on liing and fealiingles. They all blame me for that.

4. Have you learned things which are positive or negative to you by the church?

Positive: Speak in front of public
Negative: Lost Family and friends

5. What do you miss since the excommunication/leaving at the most/few?

Singing the Hymns (miss most), boring addresses (don't miss)

6. Do you still have contact to members of your church? If yes, how the look alike?

I have a brother in the church, wo is in contact by letters or Email sometimes. But he lives in Germany.

7. What an advice would you give to somebody who interests himself for your former church?

Tell them, that they must prove by themselve. Not believe me, not believe the church or the Elders, find out by yourself. So I had learned by Nickman.

@ Nick,

Thanxs a lot for your help and Support.

[Prisoner of the Sun]

1. I ignore it.

2. None

3. Completely excluded and treated as though I never existed...This included my parents as my father was a lay preacher in the Church.

4. Positive: The reliance on empirical evidence and the fact that a person should be judged on their deeds, not their beliefs. Negative: Not all religious or righteous people are good.

5. Nothing.

6. No contact at all.

7. To analyse the agenda. Are they trying just to make money or fame? If they are a theist, what kind? Do they prefer the Charismatic kind (Assembly of God, Pentecostal, Baptist) or a more introspective kind (Religious Society of Friends [Quakers], Methodist).

[JoeyKnothead]

From the OP:

1. How do you handle your church past today?

With the same contempt they showed me when I told 'em I thought they were goofier'n mustard on a lime jello biscuit.

2. Which of your church friends have you had still today? And why?

I never felt I had a friend in church, only folks who'd ostracize me for daring to challenge that man in the funny clothes up front.

3. Were you excluded or did you go by yourself? What were the reactions of the church members like?

I excluded myself, by pitching an unholy fit when my folks tried to take me in. I lack sufficient evidence to carry on about the reactions.

4. Have you learned things which are positive or negative to you by the church?

I learned I positively hate the negativity, and downright idiocy I witnessed.

5. What do you miss since the excommunication/leaving at the most/few?

Not being able to defecate on their holiest articles.

6. Do you still have contact to members of your church? If yes, how the look alike?

No. I hope they die in a fire.

7. What an advice would you give to somebody who interests himself for your former church?

Marbles are cheap, buy some new'ns.

[Divine Insight]

1. How do you handle your church past today?

I don't think about it much at all. For me religion was never about a "Church" anyway.

2. Which of your church friends have you had still today? And why?

I didn't really have a lot of friends through the church. But many of my relatives were members of the church. Religion has never been a problem in terms of my relationship with my immediate family. Some of my cousins are still Christians, others have become agnostic or atheists. I don't know of any who have embraced mysticism or anything like Wicca. I don't really discuss spiritual beliefs with my cousins anymore. It just never comes up.

3. Were you excluded or did you go by yourself? What were the reactions of the church members like?

I just quit going. I have no idea how they might have reacted, I didn't go back to ask.

4. Have you learned things which are positive or negative to you by the church?

The Church I used to attend was not a bad church. I have nothing against the church itself. They are just a congregation of people who are trying to do they right thing. My Church was not a "Hardcore" church. They didn't preach fire and brimstone, and they didn't accuse non-members of being heathens. On the contrary they were quite tolerant of other beliefs, even of non-Christians. As a church in general it wasn't bad at all.

5. What do you miss since the excommunication/leaving at the most/few?

I don't miss anything to be quite honest about. I always found the church services rather boring. It's just the same old moral parables over and over again like as you need to hear it. I mean, how many times do you need to be told these parables, especially when you aren't doing what they parables are about.

In fact, I had actually returned to the church many years later, only because my feeble mother still wanted to go and she couldn't go alone, so I took here and suffered through the sermons. By then they had a woman preacher. The preacher discovered that I had left the church and she did seem to be "preaching at me" quite often. Although she had no clue how unrelated here sermon were to my life.

In one particular sermon she was talking about the importance of fidelity and not cheating on your partner. She seem to really be giving me some hard looks during that sermon which is utterly absurd because I'm not even married, nor do I date married women. So her sermon about infidelity couldn't have been more further removed from my reality.

I'm the most monogamous family-oriented faithful loyal homebody you'll ever meet. So clearly I don't need any sermons about being unfaithful, blah, blah, blah.

6. Do you still have contact to members of your church? If yes, how the look alike?

I do have a couple cousins who have become quite religious. One is even a pastor. Sometimes they do try to preach to me, but I tell them flat out that I'm not interested in it, and I'm totally open and frank with them. I tell them that if they continue harping on the religion they will incite me into explaining to them in detail precisely why I believe the whole religion to be nothing more than a religiously bigoted scam. And I promise them that they'd really don't want to press that. We're far better off with just saying to each other, "Look, you believe what you would like to believe, and I'll believe what I would like to believe", and let's just leave it at that.

7. What an advice would you give to somebody who interests himself for your former church?

Actually I don't think the former Church even exist anymore. If the congregation is the church, that congregation has long since all died off. The newer congregation has probably evolved to become a totally different church by now anyway.

So I wouldn't even be in a position to say much about the church now.

I really don't have anything negative to say about the original church. For someone who believes in the Bible it as a pretty good church. In fact, if all Christians were like the Christians at the church I used to attend I don't think Christianity would even be a problem at all.

The people who make Christianity into such a nasty problem are far more pushy and belligerent than the people were at the Church I used to attend. The people at the Church I used to attend were far more like Jesus. They were quite meek, and did not go around preaching fire and brimstone. I don't believe Jesus taught fire and brimstone either. Instead of going around accusing everyone of being sinners, Jesus simply explained to them how not to be sinners.

The Gospels have Jesus teaching people, "Be perfect like your Father in heaven is perfect".

Unfortunately there aren't very many Christians alive today who are willing to believe that anyone can be perfect. All the Christians of today do is accuse everyone of being a sinner.

That's a far cry from what Jesus was said to have done.

I totally renounce the religion in general. But there are some nice churches and the one I used to attend was one of the nicer ones. But even a nice church can't save the Bible.