Quote:
Originally Posted by El Paso Coug
You have a very practical approach, which I try to have as well. Your approach is to extract the good from any situation and leave the bad. I think that it would be very hard for someone to say that there isn't an enormous amount of good things relating to the LDS Church, regardless of whether you are a believer or not. It's hard to argue that the LDS Church won't make an individual a better human being and doesn't teach excellent life principles.
I think that the bitterness comes from "the only true church" claim. If you are taught to believe that the LDS Church is the only true church, that it's the only place where God's true authority is found and that God can only give revelation to the LDS prophet and then the Church makes you swear your life to it when you are 19 (at least for active males), I can see where someone would be bitter if you determined that those extremely serious claims regarding salvation were false. It would be hard to simply walk away from that and just say, "well, it's not true and I'll go find another religion now", when you have lived your life thinking you were following the only true path to the celestial kingdom. The fact that you lived a productive and wholesome life and were taught some really good principles along the way is great, but it doesn't change the gravity of the discovery regarding true salvation (at least where it's not found).
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Thus we should expect bitterness and allow it without comment or retort? WHere does this take you?
Isn't this just a variation of finding out that your father isn't as smart as he seemed when you were younger? What do you do about it? DO you wallow in bitterness and take jabs at your fmaily or do you live and let live and move on with your life?
If you still see it as your family, then you are stuck with it and so sometimes the bitterness omces out and you really can't help it becaseu you don't want to stay but you also can't leave. But if it is a church that you now think is false, then wouldnt' you leave and go elsewhere rather than dwell in your bitterness? Unless you are now re-directing your zeal towards conversion to your new world view, which then leads down a whole new path of specualtion.
SU is going to LOVE this thread.