My Journey Down a Rabbit Hole

8/29/17 The following is a analogy example that I found as to why someone left the church. Many leaders try and play it off that those who leave the LDS church are doing so because they want to sin, or something along those lines. This is a very poetic way of showing that is not the case in for MANY people. Copied with permission from the original author. There are various reasons for my decision to leave the church, and there is not just one thing that I can say was “the breaking point”. Let me use a story as an example. There is a beautiful wall outside your neighborhood that you look at every day. It stands tall and strong, protecting your house and neighborhood from danger. Your entire life you have always remained inside the borders of the wall. Why leave? It provides you protection and comfort. One day you notice a small crack in the wall from a distance. You ignore it at first, but after time you can’t help but notice the crack every time you look at the wall. The ...

Updated 11/30/17 So the question came from a co-worker of mine who knows of my “faith transition” if you will. She asked, “So what do you believe then?” That is a great question. And to be completely honest, I don’t fully know the whole answer myself. But I feel like I need to really dig into that question, and be able to formulate some sort of answer. I can best do that these days by typing something out, looking for references and sources, so here we go.             When I start to think about where I am in my belief system, I of course start with where I came from. The LDS church’s teaching consists of God (Heavenly Father), Jesus (God’s literal son), and the Holy Ghost (literally a spirit without a body, but might be able to get one after the second coming?). This is the very basic thing, 3 distinctly separate individuals, but all working for the same cause. This is something that separates the LDS/Mormons from nearly ever...

Posted 8/7/17 The Book of Abraham                                                Link to the Essay and link to the JS papers            OK, background on the Book of Abraham: at the start of the book it states, “A Translation of some ancient Records that have fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt. The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand , upon papyrus.” Emphasis added. First question, how did this “ancient record” fall into the hands of the early church members? Here is what is taught from the D&C study guide for home study seminary students: “The following is a description of how the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained the anci...