WHEN THE LIGHT WENT ON - LDS Hymn Parody #82

Darkness... to light.  With the flip of a switch, everything suddenly became bright and clear.  That's how I would describe the beginnings of my transition from TBM to ExMormon.  When I began my journey away from Mormonism (and basically researched my way out of it), everything was so muddied and unclear.  But with every book and article I read, every fact I discovered, everything started to become clearer and clearer.  Although at first I didn't want to admit it, I had been duped my entire life.  Of course, at the point when I began to come to that realization, I began to look back over my life and think of all the things I had put on my shelf for all those years - things that I didn't understand and was led to believe were things that "we cannot understand in this life, but if we endure to the end, we will understand everything and know that it was worth it."  What a cop-out.

Facts are facts, now and forever.  Just as lies are lies, and always will be.  Just because many people believe something, that does not make it true, in and of itself.  As this picture points out, "Facts do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored."

 
Another quote that is applicable to this subject is this one:

So true.  This concept is discussed in this article from the Mormon Coffee blog entitled "Twleve Million Mormons."  In this article, it says:

In promoting their product (Mormonism), Latter-day Saints frequently say, “There are 12 million people around the world that believe it!” They look at that fact as one piece of irrefutable evidence that Mormonism is true. I’ve even had Mormons challenge me: “Do you think 12 million people can be wrong?”

The article goes on to say:

Or take the Roman Catholic Church’s position on Mormonism. In July 2001 the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith stated that LDS baptisms are “not the baptism that Christ instituted.” Though the Catholic Church recognizes the baptisms of converts from most other churches, Mormon converts to Catholicism must be rebaptized because of the LDS Church’s radical (non-biblical) view of the nature of God. Can the more than one billion members of the Catholic Church be wrong?

Then the Mormon Coffee blog post asks:

Regardless of the sensational LDS sales pitch that Mormonism is “proven to work” and that “millions of [people] are already using it,” the question needs to be asked: Can millions be wrong?

Well, yes they can.  It doesn't matter how many people believe something.  The number of people who believe something means absolutely nothing, in and of itself.

But facts speak volumes - and as far as the facts are concerned, Mormonism is not now, nor was it ever, true.  A person can paint the facts any way they want, but they cannot be changed.  Facts are irrefutable.  The problem, though, is getting TBMs to pay attention to the facts and not go into their "Just have faith and believe" routine... or their mantra of "We as mere mortals can't understand the ways of God."  Very frustrating.

I am so grateful for my AHA! moments - those cumulative moments when it finally dawned on me, once and for all, that Mormonism simply isn't true.  I finally knew "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that Joseph Smith made it up from the get-go, perpetrating an enormous hoax on people back then - and that since his time, other men and women have perpetuated the lies and deception.  And so the light went on - and it has never gone out.

So here is my 82nd LDS Hymn Parody, highlighting that life-altering period of time when I realized that my life-long religion is built on an enormous stack of lies - and I felt a lifetime of burdens lift as I began shedding the shackles of Mormonism.

WHEN THE LIGHT WENT ON
Sung to the tune of Let Us All Press On, #243

When the light went on
In my mind, I could see
How I’d been deceived,
It was so clear to me.
That the Mormon Church
Is just packed with lies,
And there is no disguise.

(Chorus)
No truth is contained within the church,
Falsehoods that I found in my research.
It’s so clear now from all that I have read,
All my life I know I was misled.

In the Mormon Church,
They say to just believe,
Do not think too much,
And blessings you’ll receive.
When the Prophet speaks,
If you don’t agree,
Shut up immediately.

(Chorus)
No truth is contained within the church,
Falsehoods that I found in my research.
It’s so clear now from all that I have read,
All my life I know I was misled.

Very gullible
And totally naïve,
I just went along
And tried to just believe.
But until I searched
Independently,
The flaws I did not see.

(Chorus)
No truth is contained within the church,
Falsehoods that I found in my research.
It’s so clear now from all that I have read,
All my life I know I was misled.

© Diane Tingen, 1/25/2013