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9th of June 2022 - Another Exit Story, but to become a Baptist

I listened to another exit story found here, and this was about a guy who left the church and redefined his Christian views which aligned more like those of the Baptists. 

While listening, there were a few things he mentioned that resonated with me at this time:

  1. Mormons teach that grace is sufficient before, during, and after all we can do (talk by Brad Wilcox). However, the Bible teaches grace is sufficient when we accept Christ without any further actions on our part. He called this the Impossible Gospel concept, that through Mormonism, you need to be constantly moving or doing something to qualify for this grace whereas in mainstream Christianity, it is available to you at the mere mention of Jesus' name. 
  2. “No success can compensate for failure in the home.” A classic Mormon quote that hurt this man when his marriage broke down as he navigated his conversion. Whilst the spirit in which this quote is given highlights the family’s importance, the secondary and implicit message suggests that if you fail in the home, nothing else will compensate for that failure.   
  3. The impeded righteousness cycle of always climbing that stairwell, of trying to be better every day. He said it’s a dangerous cycle believing the scripture in Moroni 10:32 - Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. The rat race of denying oneself of all ungodliness before having access to grace was something he didn’t believe. And I resonated with the idea that the cycle of chasing this power, while being chased by guilt and shame is a hamster wheel. I was taught that you need the power to change, but you can't have the Spirit with you if you are unclean. But it is through the Spirit that you feel the power of Christ in your life. But you need to be clean to have this Spirit with you. See? Hamster wheel.
  4. He mentioned that when he first learnt about Joseph Smith and all the historical things he got up to i.e. the many wives and the circumstances of those marriages, it didn’t bother him at first. But as he thought more about it, and when people during fast and testimony meeting would defend Smith, the weight of his newly discovered historical knowledge began to sink in, and soon he lost confidence in Joseph’s divine calling. I think when I told my friend and her husband that I’m okay with God servants being broken servants and they can still be accepted as his servants, I think I gave an oversimplified idea of complacency with the fact that when they do wrong things, that it was okay. Truth be told, God's servants should be acting in a much higher standard and the fact that these attributes of power abuse, lack of spiritual discernment, and racist teachings draw attention to the lack of divinity in their capacity as prophets. They’re men. Just men, doing their best to maintain and govern a church system they also grew up in. 

Whilst there was much in this video that I now agree with, at the time of listening, I seem to resonate more with the stories of how and why people transition out of the church; their thought processes and emotional change. It was reassuring to me that this change of perception and understanding was a normal and healthy process. It gave me hope to move forward and continue on this path of self-discovery.

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