In what ways can u leave the church?


InfiniteEternity
 Share

Recommended Posts

I have talked to the missionaries about setting up an interview with the bishop to get removed from the churches records. The bishop is currently on vacation so I have to wait till he get's back to discuss everything with him. I am just curious as to how this process will go and what options I have. I remember talking to my dad a few years back when I was active asking him if people got "un-baptized" when they left the church and I can't remember exactly what he told me but I remember him saying there were more than one option. Like you could get your records removed, or you could completely ex-communicate yourself or something along those lines.

I would really appreciate any information I could get & or links about this process. I would like to come to the Bishop's office prepared and knowing exactly what I'm asking for and the mormon lingo to boot.

Thanks,

Seth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you ask to have your records removed, you'll have your records removed. It's that simple, really.

I'm curious as to why you are even bothering, though. If you don't believe in the church, what difference does it make if you're on the records? I mean... It's your dime, but it seems like a waste of an afternoon to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm agnostic.

It's because whenever I tell the mormons I am not mormon anymore they say "no your still technically a mormon, you were baptized weren't you?" I don't care if they are wrong or whatever it's just quite annoying and I'd like to show them I'm serious about my opinion and my own beliefs that I could remove myself from the church. It's not just removing my records that I'm interested in, I want it to have been like I'd never have been baptized - from a mormon's perspective... if that makes sense >_>.

I will never tell my family though. I am a member of a family of 10 and like a bajillion relatives all mormon on my mom's side except me it would mess things up if they knew. I just wanna prove my mormon friends that I can do this and there's no turning back for me.

Edited by InfiniteEternity
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How often have mormons said this to you? Is it the exact same people saying it to you? Because I've never, in my 8 years in the church, heard anyone say anything remotely close to that.

If you want to show them you're serious and they say that, pee on them. They'll stop coming around and will show that you're serious.

Plus, if someone's saying that to you, they're just alienating you and being rude. You may as well be rude right back. Go to the bishop and get your records removed. There is no 'Unbaptism'.

So: To reiterate, ask for your membership records to be removed. If anyone says you're still technically mormon, pee on them.

I'm agnostic.

It's because whenever I tell the mormons I am not mormon anymore they say "no your still technically a mormon, you were baptized weren't you?" I don't care if they are wrong or whatever it's just quite annoying and I'd like to show them I'm serious about my opinion and my own beliefs that I could remove myself from the church. It's not just removing my records that I'm interested in, I want it to have been like I'd never have been baptized - from a mormon's perspective... if that makes sense >_>.

I will never tell my family though. I am a member of a family of 10 and like a bajillion relatives all mormon on my mom's side except me it would mess things up if they knew. I just wanna prove my mormon friends that I can do this and there's no turning back for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear it so unbelievably often. I moved to a new place with my old best friend from highschool and I go to church with him sometimes or help people move or whatnot. It's always different conversation but it always ends up the same.

example

me: "yeah back when I was mormon and we were playing dodgeball that was so much fun haha"

person: "back when you were mormon?" "your not mormon anymore?"

me: "no I've been athiest for a year or so, and recently converted to agnosticism"

person: "well your still mormon, you were baptized weren't you?"

i was just wondering how do i like make myself unmormon to a further extent than just removing my records from the church. I smoke, injest, and insufflate substances that are against the word of wisdom to partake of would that qualify me as a candidate to get ex-communicated or whatever???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i was just wondering how do i like make myself unmormon to a further extent than just removing my records from the church. I smoke, injest, and insufflate substances that are against the word of wisdom to partake of would that qualify me as a candidate to get ex-communicated or whatever???

Are you for real? What are you? 14?

Edited by Wingnut
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having your name removed from the records is, for all intents and purposes, the same as being excommunicated. The only difference is that readmission might be a little easier than if you are formally excommunicated. Maybe.

I would recommend you not do anything deliberate to get formally excommunicated. You'd probably find the process irritating and it would require a chunk of time from the leaders that could probably be better allocated somewhere else. It's also something devoted church leaders take seriously and would feel like much more of a burden to them. So, all around, it just wouldn't be a positive experience.

What you should do now is write a letter that says that you want your name removed from the records of the Church. You can give reasons if you want. I just processed a request from a brother who hand wrote on a piece of paper "Please remove my name from your records" and signed it. But it is crucial that it be a signed, written request (typed is fine too :)). The bishop of your local congregation will want to talk to you to review what this means with respect to priesthood office, temple covenants, and baptismal covenants. He should then forward it to the stake president who will send you a letter giving you 30 days to change your mind. If you don't change your mind, the request will be processed.

And I can fully understand why you'd want to have your name removed. It can be obnoxious to frequently have missionaries and other do-gooders show up at your door when you don't want to be affiliated with them. And anyone that flaunts that you're still technically mormon is a putz. I like Funky's suggestion that you pee on them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I don't want to do something to deliberately get ex-communicated unless I have to (which I now see I don't). I will just write a short letter, print it, sign it, and give it to someone at my friend's ward next sunday. I actually look forward to speaking with my bishop we've had some nice long conversation's discussing Albert Hofmann, Amazonian Shamanism, and some other stuff I find really interesting. A lot of mormon's are really cool I have nothing against them - organized religion just aint my cup of tea :P. And I'll make sure to pee on all the un-cool mormon's who can't accept the huge changes I've made in my beliefs and lifestyle :P. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amazonian shamanism? Well, it sounds like you've made up your mind and are definitely not being a juvenile person who is embracing obscure religion as a means of rebelling, creating a mystic aesthetic about yourself without actually having any spirituality simply because your form of mysticism requires nothing of you, but provides you with a cool mystique.

*munches on popcorn*

Yep. You're going to go deep in to the hearts of an Ecuadorian rainforest with no weapon and live off the land for the rest of your life. Well played, sir! You have certainly chosen a difficult path to follow, since I know you're not simply saying you're Shamanic so you can pretend to spirituality when in reality you're simply embracing hallucinogenic use, which you think is cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just to add perspective to the "you are still mormon" type of comments. lol

i have a friend who stopped coming to church for a time. he was going through some tough times and decided to not be part of any specific church. he knows a lot of ppl in town and so he went to a different church each week to socialize. for whatever reason he would call every sunday to check on my family. he would call and say "i was a baptist today" or "i was a methodist today". i think he was looking for someone to reach out to him. so i would calmly reply, "no, you were a mormon who went to the baptist church today." i would then ask how his services went, i'd tell him what was going on and invite him to whatever activity that may be coming up and tell him he was always welcome. this went on for some time. when he did settle on a church and proclaim membership there he stopped calling every sunday. when we talked i no longer made comments about him being a mormon attending another church. i respect that he made a choice. he still called about every 2 weeks to ask how ppl were and what was going on. i still invited him to special activities. sometimes he came sometimes not. he has been coming back to church recently and he is shown the same respect and support i gave before he left and while he attended another church.

i guess my point is yes such comments can be made very rudely and out of place (once someone has declared another religion it's a good sign to let it go lol) but they also can be said with all sincerity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Funky has given some great suggestions here. First, if you want to deny your membership, why bring it up in the first place? Telling others you “use to be” just opens the door to further questions. If you want to profess yourself as agonistic put on the big boys pants and tell everyone, even your family, that this is who you are. There is nothing worse than a Sunday Mormon or one who wants to be a Mormon when it’s best to be one rather than show the true colors.

It’s sad that substance abuse and/or not keeping church standards are more attractive than being an adult about life. Had you written and stated you had done a lot of study and you feeling, your beliefs have changed, I think I could have supported you position. All you’ve stated here are “I smoke, injest, and insufflate substances that are against the word of wisdom . . .” which tell me you simply want to party. “I will never tell my family though. I am a member of a family of 10 and like a bajillion relatives all mormon on my mom's side except me it would mess things up . . ."” shows you have no backbone and “I just wanna prove my mormon friends that I can do this and there's no turning back for me” just tells me you want to be the “bad boy, the party dude” and it's just for show. You never wrote you had a change of heart AND intelligence.

Don’t dignify your weakness for the party life by jumping on the “agonistic” bandwagon. Go to the bishop AND you parents, tell them the truth and take you stance. Don’t pee on your friends; you’ve already peed on yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I don't want to do something to deliberately get ex-communicated unless I have to (which I now see I don't). I will just write a short letter, print it, sign it, and give it to someone at my friend's ward next sunday. I actually look forward to speaking with my bishop we've had some nice long conversation's discussing Albert Hofmann, Amazonian Shamanism, and some other stuff I find really interesting. A lot of mormon's are really cool I have nothing against them - organized religion just aint my cup of tea :P. And I'll make sure to pee on all the un-cool mormon's who can't accept the huge changes I've made in my beliefs and lifestyle :P. lol

Hang in there, you parents will always still love you. Even I have a wayward child but never rejcted the church...just don't live the standards for guilty reasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amazonian shamanism? Well, it sounds like you've made up your mind and are definitely not being a juvenile person who is embracing obscure religion as a means of rebelling, creating a mystic aesthetic about yourself without actually having any spirituality simply because your form of mysticism requires nothing of you, but provides you with a cool mystique.

*munches on popcorn*

Yep. You're going to go deep in to the hearts of an Ecuadorian rainforest with no weapon and live off the land for the rest of your life. Well played, sir! You have certainly chosen a difficult path to follow, since I know you're not simply saying you're Shamanic so you can pretend to spirituality when in reality you're simply embracing hallucinogenic use, which you think is cool.

I believe in the inifinite. I've been writing up an essay on alot of my beliefs and thoughts I'll paste it here I hope it doesn't go against the rules or anything lol :P.

I don't really have any specific beliefs because I am agnostic and open to all ideas as a possibility and the ones I currently find more likely than others could change within minutes of some very important new information. This agnostic tactic frees me from wishful thinking and helps me mould my ideas towards something I find more appealing.

Through my interest in anthropology and shamanism I have found tryptamines extremely interesting – especially dimethyl-tryptomine or DMT.

DMT exists naturally in every human being, in fact it occurs naturally in many living things. Many mammals, marine animals, trees, grasses, flowers, and shoots contain DMT. DMT is released in your brain when you are born, when you die, and while you dream by the Pineal gland (remember this term) - along with a blocker so that it will not be diluted, and melatonin.

Edward Burnett Tylor, founder of British social anthropology had the idea, that religion evolved from dreams. I think it is quite possible that it was within a tryptamine dream in which mankind first communicated with the cosmos or god. DMT has been used by the Amazonian people for at least thousands of years, and it is mind boggling how they made the found the complicated process of making their hallucinogenic drink without the aid of modern science.

I believe it's possible that god could be energy itself, which is too complicated for us to understand. Or else god could be everything, a single conscious which we could possibly return to after we leave the state we're in or maybe not these are all just possibilities and they could be bogus.

Situation within the brain is a peculiar organ, the pineal gland, which, until recent years, was a source of mystery-although the Orientals have long held that the gland has significance in relation to the occult. The pineal gland, aside from it’s physiological importance, is now recognized by many Western students of psychics, as well as by the Orientals, as being a connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds.

Swami Bhakta Vishita states:

“The pineal gland is a mass of nervous substance which is found located in the brain, in a position near the centre of the skull, almost directly above the extreme top of the spinal column. It is shaped like a small cone, and is of a reddish grey colour. It lies in front of the cerebellum and is attached to the third ventricle of the brain.

“It contains a small quantitiy of gritty particles, a sand-like substance, which is commonly known as “brain sand.” It derives it’s scientific name from it’s shape, which resembles a pine-cone. The Oriental occultists claim that the pineal gland, with it’s peculiar arrangement of nerve-cell coruscles, and it’s tiny grains of brain sand, is intimately associated with certain forms of transmission and reception of waves of mental vibration.

“Western students have been struck with the remarkable resemblance between the pineal gland and a certain part of the receiving apparatus employed in wireless telegraphy, the latter also containing small particles which bear a close resemblance to “brain sand” of the pineal gland.”

The bible is like the telephone game - who knows how much truth is left. I believe there is probably some form of truth involved though. In Genesis 32:30 it reads; And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Peniel means “Face of god”. I know Hebrew doesn’t have vowels which makes pronunciations different. The word Pineal came from the word Pinecone, because if you opened up a human skull and took out their pineal gland it’s shape would closely resemble a pinecone. It was also a common decoration for the Baetulus (house of god) of the Phoenicians. The most noteable thing when you walk into the masonic temple and look up, the ceiling is covered in a golden grid with a rather large very detailed pine cone in the center of each square. The pine cone symbolism goes back to Roman/Egyptian days (and probably beyond that) - what did they know about the Pineal Gland, does this also say the symbolism is masonic?" Is this why milk and gluten, the foodstuffs so propegated by the church, contain opiod peptides that, in combination with fluoride, calcify the pineal gland. "It is said the Catholic church symbolizes this gland with the "Pine Cone" (although they say it symbolizes rebirth)...

VATICAN & THE POPE:

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

Calcification of the pineal gland is shown to be closely related to defective sense of direction (Bayliss et al, 1985). In a tricentre prospective study of 750 patients lateral skull radiographs showed that 394 had calcified pineal glands. Sense of direction was assessed by subjective questioning and objective testing and the results noted on a scale of 0-10 (where 10 equals perfect sense of direction). The average score for the 394 patients with pineal gland calcification was 3.7 (range 0-8), whereas the 356 patients without pineal gland calcification had an average score of 7.6 (range 2-10). This difference was highly significant (p less than 0.01) (Bayliss et al, 1985). Also, the effects of disturbed sleep and memory are well documented.

Pineal gland calcification has also been implicated in the onset of Multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS). The CNS consists of the brain, spinal cord, and the optic nerves. Neuroradiological research has shown the pineal gland to be involved in the pathophysiology of Multiple Sclerosis. In a 1991 study by Sandyk R, and Awerbuch G.I published in the “International Journal of Neuroscience”, it was shown that Pineal Calcification was found in 100 % of MS patients. The strikingly high prevalence of pineal calcification in Multiple sclerosis provides indirect support for an association between MS and abnormalities of the pineal gland (Sandyk and Awerbuch, 1991). Multiple Sclerosis tends to affect Caucasians disproportionately, and is nearly unheard of in Africa and is rare among African Americans. A high prevalence of pineal calcification has also been linked to bipolar disorder.

I WAS ACTUALLY WRITING THIS FOR MY STATEMENT OF FAITH GOT A LITTLE CARRIED AWAY BUT I SAVED IT IN MICROSOFT WORD I WILL BE FINISHING THE REST LATER AND PUTTING IT IN MY SOF.

Edited by InfiniteEternity
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Funky has given some great suggestions here. First, if you want to deny your membership, why bring it up in the first place? Telling others you “use to be” just opens the door to further questions. If you want to profess yourself as agonistic put on the big boys pants and tell everyone, even your family, that this is who you are. There is nothing worse than a Sunday Mormon or one who wants to be a Mormon when it’s best to be one rather than show the true colors.

It’s sad that substance abuse and/or not keeping church standards are more attractive than being an adult about life. Had you written and stated you had done a lot of study and you feeling, your beliefs have changed, I think I could have supported you position. All you’ve stated here are “I smoke, injest, and insufflate substances that are against the word of wisdom . . .” which tell me you simply want to party. “I will never tell my family though. I am a member of a family of 10 and like a bajillion relatives all mormon on my mom's side except me it would mess things up . . ."” shows you have no backbone and “I just wanna prove my mormon friends that I can do this and there's no turning back for me” just tells me you want to be the “bad boy, the party dude” and it's just for show. You never wrote you had a change of heart AND intelligence.

Don’t dignify your weakness for the party life by jumping on the “agonistic” bandwagon. Go to the bishop AND you parents, tell them the truth and take you stance. Don’t pee on your friends; you’ve already peed on yourself.

I love bringing up the topic of religion with everyone except my family.

Your making alot of assumptions about me.

You've read a few sentances and think you know so much about me, very judgemental.

I have no backbone? My parents know I'm not mormon and they know I use psychedelics, I just don't want to tell them I'm ex-communicating myself because that would hurt them.

Agnostic bandwagon? ... it's called the evolution of intellegence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been used in certain cultures for thousands of years without ill effects. It has no damaging properties it occurs naturally inside of you!

There are a number of hormones that occur naturally inside the body, but when consumed synthetically or in any way other than the body's own natural production, can be harmful to the body. I'm not sure how it can be said that a hallucinogen has no damaging properties.

By the way, heroin was also used in certain cultures for thousands of years, and they thought there were no ill effects of it, either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share