General Conference as an Ex-Mormon

General Conference isn’t an easy time for me. I consider myself wholly moved on from the LDS Church (this website aside, just trust me!) insofar as it doesn’t affect my life personally, and General Conference is the one time of year it seems to infringe on my mental space again. Suddenly, my social media feeds are inundated with platitudes, and worst of all—advice for me, the “sinner” and the “doubter”. My feelings of pity toward the deluded turn into feelings of frustration, as I’m once again forced to confront how truly irrational and deluded said Mormons are, even when it comes to their feelings about me.

The social atmosphere of Mormon-filled Utah and the fact that many of my Facebook friends are from BYU schools means I don’t post about the church much on my personal social media accounts. To do so would lead to unfriendings, gossip behind my back, and generally unkind sentiments being hurled at me. (Or, my personal (least) favorite—Mormons trying to refute my backed-by-solid-evidence claims by muddying the water, just like the tobacco industry did in the 70s. Shoutout to you, Stephen Smoot!)

For Mormons, social media is a different place. They feel more than entitled to post about their niche beliefs almost endlessly, regardless of how the quotes they like implicate others not of their faith. I’ve already seen at least 10 tweets about how “God will give us all the answers we need” and not letting “doubt” destroy your faith. Such notions are borderline insulting to me, someone who studied the LDS Church for thousands of hours with a pro-Mormon bias, and still found it to be a total con created by a textbook cult leader.

General Conference is an opiate to the masses—we see this every year. Refueled for the next 6 months by thought-terminating clichés, Mormons are probably NOT likely to be receptive to the truth of the LDS Church and its occult/cult origins at this time (nor will they ever, if their brains don’t have that kind of wiggle room), so my advice is this: stay off social media. You don’t need deluded smugness that might trigger PTSD shoved in your face this weekend!

Go hike, play with your dog, volunteer somewhere, get drunk with people you love (I’m pretty anti-alcohol but I’ll let it slide for this special circumstance!), have fun with your kids, read a good book, watch a hilarious Seth Rogen movie (or any movie, ideally hilarious), get high if you live in Colorado, learn how to cook something new, or just work your butt off at the gym for an hour or two. I’ll be doing at least some of those things today, content in the knowledge that my mind is free, and my life is good. It doesn’t erase the frustration I feel over the dangers of organized religion and the mind control it has over people, but that’s a battle to keep fighting another time.

Peace. Follow me on Instagram to see what I do this weekend. 😉