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Comment by Idaho Spud on April 30, 2013 at 12:00pm

Free thinking general authorities:

Comment by Debra Stevenson on April 12, 2013 at 9:55am

William Mathis,

You're Stuart Mathis' brother aren't you?

Comment by William Matis on February 26, 2013 at 10:22am

I totally agree Annie. I would often hear, "Well I love the sinner, I just hate the sin," but it's how you act towards someone that truly shows how you feel. Otherwise, like you said, it's just lip service.

Comment by Annie Neri on February 18, 2013 at 3:52pm

What a well-written article.  I think it captures the dilemma that someone can face being in the church where you feel two opposing dogmas are right and that you are meant to follow both.  I certainly never went through what your brother went through, but the whole time I was growing up, my mom taught me to love everyone no matter what the color of their skin, sexuality, or religious beliefs.  And then when I got older I found out that a lot of that was lip service or that it was something reserved for our friends.  We liked our black uncle, but he was the exception.  We liked the homosexuals that were in our family, but distrusted those without because they were not doing what God wanted.  We were supposed to love all of God's creatures, but in reality if you weren't Mormon, you weren't in the right church and we weren't supposed to talk to you.  It was this kind of stuff that had me out of the church in a flash.  Because the number one thing I'd been taught was to be true to myself and if I hated all these people, then I wasn't being true.  I was being a hypocrite. 

And all this on the dawn of them telling all those little Boy Scouts that there's something wrong with them.

Comment by William Matis on February 18, 2013 at 12:36pm

Thanks Idaho Spud and Patricia. It's ironic that they say the anti gay legislation is to protect the family when my own experience is it has the opposite affect.

Comment by Idaho Spud on February 16, 2013 at 6:32pm

Sad story about your brother William.  Another life destroyed by the cult.

My brother wasn't gay, but I think the church teachings was a large part of why he shot himself.

Comment by Patricia on February 16, 2013 at 5:24pm

Thanks for the write up William, sad & so very needless.

Comment by Idaho Spud on February 16, 2013 at 4:02pm

Don't think I've heard "the spook" before, but it is funny.  I also look forward to the day Kevin.

Comment by SDF on February 16, 2013 at 12:39pm

"god, jesus and the spook"   "the spook"......I almost didn't have time to turn my face away from the computer screen before the spit take when I read that!  ROFLMAO.  I've used that term for years, didn't know anyone else did.

Comment by Kevin Dunkley on February 16, 2013 at 12:25pm

That was a well written article.  Thank you for sharing his story.  Also along the lines of Bible study: teaching the 8 year old Valiant class the old testament sealed my fate as an atheist. It became very clear when Sampson murdered 30 families to settle his gambling debts. It was ok they were Philistines. I said to myself he sounds like a murderous barbaric folk hero. I started pulling the string on the sweater and found religion to be the emperors new clothes. Everything that I thought was holy about the bible fell apart. The BOM is founded on biblical teachings and immediately became irrelevant.  Bible study has a whole new meaning now. For the religious its always been an exercise in confirmation bias to settle cognitive dissonance. I am glad that most people have dissonance, and look forward to the day that god, jesus, and the spook go the way of Isis, Thor, and Zeus.

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