Rebel Mormon's memoir ignites a furor

[True_Blue]

A daughter of famed Mormon intellectual Hugh Nibley has accused him of ritually abusing her as a 5-year-old, possibly wearing some kind of Egyptian garb and imitating the sacrifice of the biblical Abraham.

Martha Nibley Beck makes this and a host of other allegations against her aged father, mother, siblings, Brigham Young University, Mormons in general as well as leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in an explosive new book, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith.

Beck, author of the best-seller Expecting Adam, takes the far side of often virulent debates about recovered memories of sexual abuse versus false memories, dissidents versus the LDS Church, scholarly debate about the veracity of Mormon truth claims, and feminists versus patriarchal religions.

For many, especially non-LDS readers, it will be a compelling tale, enlivened by hilarious as well as agonized dispatches from Mormon country.
more....
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2555256

[undergroundpanther]

1. I dunno

I knew some mormons in my life...

A few told me some WEIRD stuff and this was years ago.And how secretive Mormons are.They have a ornate church outside of DC everyone who's not mormon calls OZ.Allegedly it was open to the public for a short time after it was built,it has beautiful murals and expensive decor it's opulent people who saw it say.The mormon church is very very wealthy and the OZ church was a drop in the bucket.But now only mormons can go in there.It is very controlled church .Also I wonder why do mormons keep track of everyones geneology for?

Here is an ex mormon site
http://www.exmormon.org/

[roguevalley]

3. its a temple. there is one in my tiny hometown of Central Point,

Oregon. You have to live according to dictates for a year and get a writ of some kind from your Bishop saying so. Then you can enter for things that they deem important.

[HereSince1628]

5. The geneology thing supports Temple rituals...

that are conducted by proxy on behalf of dead ancestors.

[yellowcanine]

6. Yep - it is a way of making all of your ancestors Morman - misguided but

harmless exercise - and may actually do some good as the Mormans collect and preserve valuable geneological information - however be advised that some of their "records" are inaccurate and it is still necessary to find original documents (wills, birth certificates, etc.) when possible.

[mitchum]

11. I was surprised that there isn't more parking spaces for bicycles...

in front of the DC "temple"

[ocean girl]

2. I read Martha Beck's column in Oprah and she is a deeply

spiritual and enlightened woman. I will definitely buy this book.

[Nimrod]

4. I hate religion, but don't buy this crap

People who know me at all know I'm the least religious person imaginable, and utterly detest every organized form of it. But seriously, do yourselves a favor and don't believe this stuff. It's total bunk.

The Mormons are a little weird about a couple of things, but all these cult-ritual-devil-worshipping-secret-temple stories have been around for as LONG as I can remember and are about as accurate as a Jack Chick tract.

Trust me on this one, and don't buy into this bunk.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. I've been told (by a Mormon)

that he will have to wander the earth looking for the leg he lost 20 years ago (you know, when Jesus returns to take the "selected" to heaven, while everyone else burns for their sins. Whatever) He was very bitter. He had 3 daughters, all of them showed serious symptoms of sexual and psychological abuse.

Believe me, I didn't hang around long enough to know them well.

[Nimrod]

8. Yes, and?

It's simply AMAZING how that one-legged man gets around. You're the fourth or fifth person I've encountered who's talked to this guy. Dude really travels on that one leg, don't he? I'm sorry, you may be telling the truth, but I really suspect you heard that story from a second cousin of a friend of a friend of your brother's and have repeated it here. The term is "Urban Legend".

Even if you DID encounter the One-Legged-Man, I've been told (by a Catholic) that a picture of a hedgehog was actually the chupacabra. Big whoop.

Anyway, go to any religion on the planet and you're going to find individuals who show serious symptoms of sexual and psychological abuse. Any non-religion for that matter.

Anyway, I'm just trying to help out by telling you two words.

Bull. Shit. Heavy on the latter.

I was raised Mormon. My mother was Mormon for most of her life as was the rest of my family. I remained part of that church into my late teen years, and spent about six months in what they refer to as the "priesthood" before departing.

Let me put something straight. I detest that church. I detest all organized religion simply for the crushing stranglehold they ALL attempt to put on your will and emotions. I'm telling you this, because if a Mormon telling you he's going to have to search for his lost leg is enough to convince you all this is true, here's another (ex) Mormon telling you it's bullshit. So what are you going to do now?

Here's a few simple facts about the church:

The infamous Book of Mormon that is generally regarded as the Mormons own satanic version of the Bible is very little more than a record of the church's history and a few extra guidelines. In my time with the church I read the Bible cover to cover and only occasionally needed to to reference the Book of Mormon. So now the "Satanic Tract Containing Rituals For Summoning Ancient Egyptian Demons" theory is officially debunked.

Homophobic, just like all Big Religion. I'm going to hell, we've all agreed on this. However I will give the Mormons points for basically leaving it up to God to take care of sicko reprobates like me, rather than hunting me down themselves. They're a little racist just like all Big Religion, although nowhere near the level of Southern Baptists.

The term "The Priesthood" is a word that has really triggered a lot of people's images of the place. It sounds cultish, therefore they must be a Satanic Egyptian Cult, right? Here's the big secret from someone who'd been inside of it. It's the young men's advanced Bible study classes. Whee.

They're oddly segregated between the sexes. That's a little strange. When your family goes into church on Sunday, the women go to one side of the building and the men go the other. This is sort of an "Old Ways" style of teaching - adult women educate girls of the community and so with adult men and boys.

I know I've never been abused, and when I was a kid I was a prime target for sexual abuse and had been in a vulnerable position for it countless times. It's typical for boys and girls in their pre- and early teens to spend a good deal of time with various "missionaries" of their own gender. So I spent many hours of my youth in the company of older men and never once got buttfucked (pity, one of them was kinda cute). Learned a whole hell of a lot about their version of the Christian God though. Also went on a lot of hiking trips, camping trips, and discussed personal matters of pubescence that I couldn't discuss with family - again, I was exceedingly vulnerable to sexual abuse. I was a good looking kid if I DO say so myself, extremely shy and private, extremely unsure of myself. If someone had decided to molest me it would have been extremely simple to do and to force me to keep it a secret. Never happened.

No, polygamy is no longer allowed within the church. The reason they give for it ever happening in the first place was a decidedly larger number of women than men surviving among the pioneers. Since they are oddly throwbackish and believe women should be protected by men, the men would take husbandless women into their families to provide for them. Since that would be "living in sin" they got married to make God happy. But their case is polygamy was a matter of necessity, and now that the necessity has passed it is no longer part of the church structure.

Here's something interesting - they very rarely discuss the afterlife. I've always found that kind of strange. I do know they don't preach "hell" as it were. Hell exists as a prison for the Fallen Angel, but it's not a place the common human has to worry about going to unless he is truly evil. Naturally, this is assumed to mean that they think everyone in their Church is automatically going to Heaven and everybody ELSE is automatically going to Hell. Not so.

In fact, they preach the exact opposite of what most Big Religion would like to have you believe: They preach that everyone on the planet is by DEFAULT going to Heaven and have to earn their way into Hell, rather than the other way around. Sadly, being a faggot is still a great way to earn your way to Hell, but so it goes.

So there you go. Some basic tenants. Weird, not exactly progressive, narrow minded, and pushy. Big shock, it's a church after all. But all this "Satanic Cult" crap is just that. Crap.

The only reason I argue this case at all is simply because I've been there for a lot of my life, I'm extremely disenfranchised, and detest the place. However I know for a fact all the tabloid rumors to be bullshit, and I don't like bullshit either.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. His name was Charles....

You wrote...
"It's simply AMAZING how that one-legged man gets around. You're the fourth or fifth person I've encountered who's talked to this guy. Dude really travels on that one leg, don't he? I'm sorry, you may be telling the truth, but I really suspect you heard that story from a second cousin of a friend of a friend of your brother's and have repeated it here. The term is "Urban Legend".

It really happened. His daughter Tina and I were friends for about a month. I admit, they are only a few of the Mormons I have known, and I am sure they are a minority (God, I hope so!), but I was really there, heard the story from his own mouth.

"I'm telling you this, because if a Mormon telling you he's going to have to search for his lost leg is enough to convince you all this is true, here's another (ex) Mormon telling you it's bullshit. So what are you going to do now?"

What am I going to do now? Curiously, continue believing as you do..."I detest all organized religion simply for the crushing stranglehold they ALL attempt to put on your will and emotions."

Unfortunately, the only other experience I have had...
There is another Family I met, I went out with their son for a summer, back when we were 12. Unfortunately, I spent the night at their cabin when ours was damaged by a storm. I was warned by Chris's Mother to stay away from his grandfather, and never be alone in the same room with him, made me swear to be careful around him.

Now, before you jump to the conclusion that I think those perverts are that way because of their religion, let me also say this...
One of my best friends in 3rd grade was molested by her father. He was not Mormon. My best friend in 6th grade told me her Step dad was messing with her, and now he was starting on her sisters. The problem is not the religion the perv happens to follow.


Peace! and I'm glad you escaped too!

ex-Lutheran

[Nimrod]

10. Okay, I'll take you at your word

I apologize for this post in advance.

The last One Legged Man was Joshua. The One Legged Man before that was Glen. Guess there's just a lot of One Legged Men - goddamn Mormons should learn to be more careful. :)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

12. lol! nt