How to get out of Mormonism —Runtu

I've decided that the single best thing you can do in leaving Mormonism is to not take it so damned seriously.

Let me explain. We were taught our whole lives that Mormonism was the center of our existence. Without it, we were nothing, and we had nothing. And when we figure out it's not true, it's as if our world completely fell apart.

Meanwhile our friends and family are still stuck in the "Oh my God they've apostatized" mindframe, so they use every weapon at their disposal: guilt, shame, anger, manipulation to keep us in the church.

And we let them do it, because we still are in the same state of mind: we lost our life, we think. This is *supposed* to be a big deal, so we make it a huge deal.

I've figured out that you have to break yourself from treating it so seriously. At some point you have to realize that it is not an earth-shattering event to learn that a moneygrubbing, sex-starved con man did not actually see an angel who told him about a Hebraic culture that flourished in the Americas for a thousand years without leaving a trace.

In some ways, Mormonism is unintentionally but hysterically funny, like a Madonna film. Let your friends and relatives take it seriously, but don't follow them into the trap.

Learn to laugh at the silliness so that you don't have to cry at the cruelty of it all. It's much harder to get angry when you see the church for the absurdity that it is.

Here's what that brought to mind for me:

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." --Luther

Never thought I'd be substituting "Mormonism" and "reason" into that one.