Saturday, January 24, 2015

BECAUSE I FOUND THE TRUTH AT LAST - LDS Hymn Parody #110

Here's my 110th LDS Hymn Parody.  110 has been my goal for quite some time, and there for a while, I didn't think I was going to make it - but I did!!  I'm not sure why I haven't parodied this hymn before this except that the music for it is not on the list of LDS hymns on their website because of "copyright issues." But, naturally, with the internet as expansive as it is today, I was able to find the music on YouTube, and there is a link to that version below.

Of course, the words to this parody expound on a recurring theme in many of my writings, the fact that Mormonism is replete with lies and deception.  Sadly, I went along my entire life, believing what I was taught, and it wasn't until much later in my life (beginning when I was 52) that I did actual research on my own and discovered that I had been duped all along.  Yes, I was complacent, and I regret that now.  But on the other hand, at least I'm not spending my entire life trapped behind the Mormon Curtain.

BECAUSE I FOUND THE TRUTH AT LAST

Because I found the truth at last, I had to leave.
Because of all the lies, the fact that they deceive,
I had to turn and walk away,
So very clear I could not stay,
I’m done with all the games they play.

Because the Mormon Church is filled with many lies,
The truth behind it all they think they can disguise.
But if you look, you might agree,
And though it was a shock to me,
So glad that I am finally free.

Because I finally did some research on my own,
And finally saw the lies I should have always known.
Too many years, I went along,
And now I know that I was wrong
To be complacent for so long.

© Diane Tingen
1/23/2015

RANDOM DISCUSSIONS

Want to share an interesting discussion I recently had about Mormonism, kind of "out of the blue."  I'm a Legal Secretary at a law firm in downtown Denver, and I just started working with a new attorney.  Last week, he came by my desk to ask me to do something, and we got into a discussion which included the fact that he was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado.  This lead to me telling him that my mother was born and raised in Loveland, Colorado, which isn't very far from Fort Collins.  Then I mentioned that I was in Loveland for the first time in October (on my way to Estes Park), and that I went by Loveland Park Cemetery to find my grandparents' gravesites, and that while I was there, I took pictures of their gravesites (and also my two uncles' gravesites which also turned out to be there).  Then I mentioned genealogy, and told him that before she passed away, my mother had done our genealogy way back, and that after her death my brother took it over and later submitted it to the Mormon Church's genealogy website, www.familysearch.org.

When I told him that I was born and raised Mormon but had left the church about 10 years ago after realizing that it is a bogus religion, his eyes lit up and we launched into a 20-minute discussion about Mormonism, during which he told me that he is Christian and goes to a non-denominational church, but that Mormonism has always fascinated him because it makes no sense and yet intelligent people adhere to it seemingly without questions or doubt.  Of course, I told him that this aspect of Mormonism has baffled me since leaving the Mormon Church - the fact that there are a lot of very intelligent people in the Mormon Church who use critical thinking in all aspects of their lives EXCEPT when it comes to Mormonism.

During our discussion, I told him that I didn't discover the truth behind Mormonism until the Summer of 2001 when I (finally) started doing some independent research.  Having been born and raised in the Mormon Church, I had just "gone along" for all those years, and was deterred from doing independent research because of the Church's directive to only study in "approved areas," which as I now know is one of the signs of a cult.  Of course, that directive also includes the Mormon Church characterizing anything negative about Mormonism as "Anti-Mormon Propaganda," a phrase that, in my opinion, is designed to keep people from venturing into areas that the Mormon Church wants them to avoid.  

It was great discussing Mormonism with him, and it was especially great hearing what he already knew about the sordid history of the Mormon Church, including Joseph Smith's venture into polygamy and polyandry; the Book of Mormon (and its questionable origins); the Book of Abraham (and the fact that it was supposedly translated from some papyrus that Joseph Smith found, and that although it has since been proven that the "translation" is not accurate, the Mormon Church still adheres to it as actual scripture); the Three Degrees of Glory, including the Celestial Kingdom; and so on.  It's great to know that others outside of Mormonism, who have never been Mormon, know so much about the Mormon Church and its fallacies.

Our discussion ended with agreeing to talk about Mormonism some more when time permits, and I'm looking for to discussing all of this with him again - and hearing more of what he already knows.  Just fascinating.