Ranting against the Mormons

Recently, an anonymous commentator to this blog (they're almost always anonymous) pointed out to me that I haven't spent any time cornering Catholicism, Islam, or any other major religion, just this one church.

Well, duh, DipShit. This is MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I focused on the Mormon Church because that's what I was raised with. And, if you haven't noticed, I haven't ranted about it for quite some time. And, one of my last posts was about Christianity as a whole being ridiculous. Why should I go on to bash Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, or Buddhism? They are not part of my personal experience. Otherwise the blog would be titled: Everyone's Opinions on World Religions.

Poor Baby. Feeling persecuted again? Are all the Bloggers picking on Mormonism these days?

I'm sure if you dig around you can find some other blogs that target the other forms of religious beliefs (even anti-Wiccan ones), and then you can feel better about not being the only one persecuted for your beliefs. Unless feeling persecuted helps cement the belief that your church is the one-and-only true church on the face of the earth, which Mormons believe theirs to be.

That's a fact, Jack. Mormons are taught to feel special, feel select above all others, and feel like the "chosen" people. Kind of like Pharisees. And, they even get up in front of all the others one Sunday a month to talk about how blessed they are to be Mormons, and how unfortunate it is for the others who stay away, or leave it. As a matter of fact, it's actually better for those who remain outside and refuse to join, than it is for those who join and then leave it later. The first group still has a chance to be redeemed through Mormon proxy-baptism after their deaths. Those who leave after joining are cursed to spend eternity in the 'lake of fire'. Knowing this, it would seem more appropriate for missionary work to cease entirely, and just quietly process the dead into Mormondom, rather than spread the message, get them to join, and then condemn them to hell, torture, damnation, and 'outer darkness' for looking beyond the approved reading materials and speaking points and digging further into the doctrine, history and background of Joseph Smith and finding out he MADE IT ALL UP!!!

As to your assertion that your beloved prophet Gordo warned us all to get out of debt as soon as possible, you can say the same thing about Suze Orman on CNN, and she's no prophet. I don't feel any more pressure to obey Gordo than I do Suze, and it's just good grandfatherly advice as far as I'm concerned. What idiot WANTS to be buried under tons of debt, really? And because I am in debt for my house and my car (student loans, and some medical bills too), does that mean I'm going to HELL? What's your deal anyway? Everything Gordo speaks is a "prophecy"? Unless, of course, he's speaking as a man. Which he always did.

I don't live under a cycle of guilt and shame anymore. And I even quit bashing the Mormon ideology for a while. And all over this country, thousands of people like me hide their beliefs and practice in secret, because persecution of WITCHES is real. Documented history. Mormons also believe their persecutions were unwarranted attacks soley for their beliefs. My opinion is that if the Mormons hadn't arrived in Missouri haughtily claiming that all they survey would soon belong to them because "GOD" was giving it to them for being the 'chosen people', then maybe the current occupants of that land wouldn't have had any cause to freak out.

Imagine what would happen if some Muslim Extremists moved in to a house in your neighborhood, and brought with them ten other families who soon bought up all available properties in your town. Imagine hearing them speak to each other about how the whole town would soon be Muslim, by "Allah's Will". Then you might get an idea of what brought on the Haun's Mill Massacre in Missouri.

The Mormon Persecution Complex doesn't end there. Being driven out to Utah under disasterous circumstances (who the hell leaves for a cross country trek with handcarts in FEBRUARY??) , they arrived totally convinced that Utah was their own private country, separate from the U.S., and that they would be completely autononmous as a "Kingdom of God".
Rumors that the government was sending the U.S. Army to beat down the Mormons yet again, caused the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which incidentally happened on Sept 11, 1857.

I don't know any Muslims personally, but I don't have any reason to believe they all would take their religion to the extreme, and force everyone around them to adopt the beliefs or die. There are SOME radicals who would do just that, and feel justified in the work. Just as there are extremists in any religion, even Christianity. Right now, the Right-Wing Christian Conservative movement would do almost ANYTHING to turn over Roe v. Wade and bring women down to there most primitive biological level: baby machines. How far could women advance in the workplace if they had to take 6 weeks off every 9 months to pop out a kid? How much equality is there for women if they have ZERO ability to stop the 'Baby Train'? I'm not just talking abortion rights, but birth control of any kind. And they can just say no to sex, right? Tell that to the thousands who are raped and molested every year. Tell that to the twelve year old who has to carry a baby to term because her stepdad got her pregnant. Tell that to the woman who was gang raped and left for dead, only to live through it and then be forced to carry a baby to term, give birth, and raise it knowing that it was a product of violence, not love. Imagine being the child, growing up knowing you weren't wanted and came from an action of hate and violence towards your mother.

Look, there are TONS of things I could rant about on a daily basis. There is LOTS of injustice in the world. And Mormon or not, persecution will come your way. Injustice will cross you. Shit Happens. Thinking you're being tested on your affirmations of Mormoness when you come across something that makes you doubt your beliefs is a trap to keep you tied to those beliefs. The Mormon Church is more afraid that you will look behind that curtain and see the old man pulling the levers and speaking into the mike, pretending he's the Wizard of OZ.

Moving On

I've been studying at a website I accidentally found, and I'm hooked. It's given me so much more to ponder and analyze than Mormonism ever did, and I am hoping to spread the word about it.

The Library of Halexandria :

"Halexandria is a Synthesis of new physics, sacred geometry, ancient and modern history, multiple universes & realities, consciousness, the Ha Qabala and ORME, extraterrestrials, corporate rule and politics, law, order and entropy, trial by jury, astronomy, monetary policy, scientific anomalies, religion and spirituality, and a whole host of other subjects ranging from astrology and astrophysics to superstrings and sonoluminesence to biblical and geologic histories to numerology, the Tarot, and creating your own reality. Halexandria makes the assumption -- an assumption which will be mathematically proven -- that all aspects of the universe are connected and that there are no limits to what we can possess or what we can become.

I have spent a few weeks at this site, reading everything I have time too. So, Mormonism goes by the wayside. I have better things to do now.

Satan has left the building

I just had a stray thought that I'd like to share.

It seems to me, all the time while I was Christian, and even the 20+ years I was a Mormon, the common mantra was that Satan was looking for ways to keep me from the "one true path" back to God. I was constantly vigilant, on guard against Satan, because I didn't want to be "trapped" or "led astray". I lived in fear of losing my toehold on God's narrow path, and I worried about my immortal soul perishing in Hell for my petty sins of lust, envy, greed, sloth, pride, gluttony, or wrath.

I'm now Mormon-free, Christianity-free, and you know what? The devil leaves me alone.

No more worries, guilt, shame, or fear. No more attending church because of what the neighbors or the minister might think. No more participation in endless meetings, temple rituals, scripture studies, and Bible classes to make sure that Satan doesn't "get" me.

Now I'm actually feeling sorry for the folks who think I'm the one going to Hell. Seems to me they're already living in it here on Earth.

As a practicing Wiccan, I have heard the occasional comdemnation from Christian folks. "Thou shall not suffer a Witch to live" etc. And I've even been accused of having Satan over for parties.

He must be way too busy teasing the Christian zealots. I've never met him. We do not share zip codes.

Something else that bothers me is the use of Bible quotes to prove that I'm wrong in my understanding of the human purpose. Because I don't acknowledge Jesus as my personal savior, I'm going to be burned. Well, then I guess there will be plenty of folks there with me, and I'm not so hip to acknowlege a God that would punish me simply for living a simple life free of drug and alcohol use, free of harm to others, free of polluting the earth, and doing what I can to improve the lives of others and the world around me.

In alot of ways, I'm more like Jesus than most Christians I've met. What if that was the point? what if Jesus really wasn't trying to tear down Judaism, but uplift it, or improve it? What if there was never supposed to be anything like Christianity, just a new and improved Judaism? He was a Rabbi, a teacher, and a JEW. And Christianity didn't even put down modern roots until the Council of Nicea almost 400 years after his death.

Christianity is stupid. I have to agree with a recent post found on The Gods Are Bored:

How Fundamentalist Christianity Works

You want to travel from Detroit to Tampa.

There is only one route from Detroit to Tampa.

It is Interstate 75.

You may not take any other route from Detroit to Tampa.

There are certain exits from the Interstate that you cannot take, because they may lead you to a store that sells fireworks or some such. Or worse, those exits might lead you to an alternative route to Tampa.

There is no other destination if you are leaving Detroit, except Tampa.

No other city is as great as Tampa.

Don't listen if anyone tells you that, say, Indianapolis is just as nice, or that you can actually proceed past Tampa to Sanibel Island. Or that you can get to Tampa by taking a little detour and winding up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and maybe in comparison to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Tampa suddenly doesn't seem as appealing.

My Thoughts Exactly.


Thanks to Anne Johnson over at The Gods are Bored. She is very witty and thought provoking, and I encourage everyone to go see her.