This week's thoughts . . .

One of the things that has been most interesting to me is how people react to the news of us leaving the church, but more specifically, how people who were never members react.

Growing up, I was often told that my non-member friends, acquaintances, teachers, and co-workers would all know of my religious standards, and would be watching me carefully. I kinda always pictured it as a cross between Roz from Monsters, Inc. and James Tolkan's character from Top Gun.

"I'm watching you, Wazowski. Always watching. And if you screw up just this much, you'll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog [crap] out of Hong Kong!"

In fact, most of the world was this way, because the church was known so well worldwide with all of its charitable works and humanitarian aid efforts. I got the impression that everyone recognized that what I (and other church members) was doing was the best/correct way of living, but these other people weren't strong enough to do the same.This was presented as an example of the "crab mentality," in the sense that everyone else (the "world") was waiting to pull me down if I stooped to their level, so I had to constantly stay above them and out of their reach. I was, of course, encouraged to try to convert them to bring them up to my standards.

For what it's worth, I fully recognize that this was my own interpretation of what I was told/taught at home and church and not official doctrine, but many other ex-Mormons have expressed similar sentiments, so I'm not alone.

The other thing I was always taught was that the temple was this place where things so spectacular and holy took place that we weren't able to speak of them outside of its walls. Non-members were just dying to get in there and find out what happens in there and learn the secrets. People often tried to sneak in to the temple, but the older gentlemen who guarded the doors kept them out through the spirit of discernment. And besides the temple stuff, there were plenty of other things that people wanted to know about the church but they were too afraid to ask.

I figured that once we announced we had left the church, non-member friends would be banging down our doors to find out the big secrets they had so longed to know. Additionally, this was such a life-changing event that they must be curious to know every juicy detail.

As it turns out, most people are generally uninterested. After I had removed the Mormon rose colored glasses, I learned that many people have a hard time distinguishing Mormons from Jehovah's Witnesses and even the Amish (including inside the US - especially in the eastern parts). Most people might equate an event like resigning from the church to something like switching gym memberships, while in our mind it's more like coming out of the closet and announcing one's self to be gay.

And they don't really care about the temple - they just think it to be weird and laughably cultish. People are not obsessed with seeing if their Mormon friends drink caffeinated Coke, or drop the F-bomb. They don't think twice about what goes on in the temple any more than you probably think about Shaolin monks learning Kung Fu.

I guess it's one of the hallmarks of an organization like this to make its members self-important and artificially inflate its influence. It's one of those things that makes me seriously face-palm when I think about it. But I'm just glad I'm out and can now see what everyone else can see without the blindfold of mind-control.