Ex mormons to catholics

[nebula]

I’ve noticed that there are quite a few ex mormons here who have opted to become catholics. I am very interested in this as I am a recent ex mormon deciding where to take my faith. Catholicism seems like a natural option for many reasons, for one because I’m already baptized Catholic, because I yearn for some kind of form and direction in my worship of God, because I respect that the Bible requires interepretation. BUt, because of my recent experiences with Mormonism I am also suspicious of the centralized authority. So if you don’t mind, I’m curious for those ex mormons out there:

• Why did you leave the Mormon church? What are the major reasons?
• Why did you join the RCC? Were there elements of your Mormon background that made it a natural choice? Elements that made it harder?

thanks for sharing!

 

[ricko]

Not what the gentleman asked for.

 

[tundramom]

So if you don’t mind, I’m curious for those ex mormons out there:

• Why did you leave the Mormon church? What are the major reasons?
• Why did you join the RCC? Were there elements of your Mormon background that made it a natural choice? Elements that made it harder?

thanks for sharing!

Hi Nebula, Thanks for asking!

I left the Mormon church because I became a Christian. I originally went on the internet in search of a Mormon chat room. I had moved from Utah to Minnesota and was unsure of where my life was headed, religiously. I picked my location based on the fact that there is a Mormon church close by. I wasn’t ready to attend though… I felt a freedom I hadn’t known before.

I studied with JWs, I met a great Baptist guy in a mormon chat room. Two years of exchanged emails with he and his wife, and a women’s Bible study later, I found myself on the floor of my living room sobbing. I just wanted to know who God is. My own surrender to His will for my life felt so beautiful.

That night still brings tears to my eyes. It was my own private “altar call”. I pleaded with Jesus to reveal himself to me. I wanted to know and follow Him and Him alone. I didn’t know that would lead me away from Mormonism at the time, but it did. More Bible study and prayer showed me where I had been wrong.

I wound up in an Assembly of God. It was a good place to start. Lots of feel good type worship experiences, lots of good Bible study.

I didn’t choose Catholcism. God chose that for me.
I went back and forth with my husband to the Assembly of God and the Catholic church. I fought Him every step of the way. I wanted to be in the Assembly of God. I liked it there! I felt like I’d been given a family. (my own had disowned me by this point because I wasn’t Mormon anymore) Things went downhill, as they do sometimes in small congregations. People got greedy for power and control. It ended badly.

I remember that first sunday sitting in the pew at the Catholic church. I had been baptized Catholic, had gone through everything I had to go through to be catholic but in my heart I wasn’t yet.

It was the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. So I sat there thinking, “oh great… now I have to sit here and listen about Mary and blah blah blah”. I still had not come to a belief in her as the Mother of the Church. It was my final stumbling block. The reading for the Gospel that day was Zaccheus’ story. At the end, Father Denny asked if any of us had had that encounter with Jesus. Had we risked and given all we had to know Him. He asked us to close our eyes and ask Jesus to reveal himself to us all.

During the Eucharistic prayers I just bawled. I knew I had wanted Jesus. I believed in transubstantiation (I didn’t partake of communion in the A/G church for a long time) But He absolutely revealed himself to me that day. I surrendered again.

I was HOME.

in Christ
Steph

 

[PaulDupre]

Two important things that Mormons and Catholics agree about:

1. Jesus established a physical, visible Church with a hierarchical organization and priesthood. Not just a loose invisible body of all believers like the Protestant view.
2. Priesthood authority is required to administer the sacraments. One must be “called of God as was Aaron” (ordained) by one in authority in order to administer the sacraments. Catholics trace their authority through an unbroken line of succession from the apostles. Mormons derive their authority through alleged angelic visitations to Joseph Smith. Protestants do not see the need for authority.

These similarities between CC and LDS are, I think, responsible for the steady flow of Mormons into the Catholic Church.

Paul

 

[PattyPryor]

hey steph have you been getting my private messages?

I left because I really loved being Catholic and once I started studing I could see how the mormons are wrong

 

[RebeccaJ]

• Why did you leave the Mormon church? What are the major reasons?
• Why did you join the RCC? Were there elements of your Mormon background that made it a natural choice? Elements that made it harder?

thanks for sharing!

hi nebula, i have related my “story” before, but short version, I left as a teen, a lot didn’t make sense to me. there was no internet at the time so it was just me, and my own reasoning. i eventually became an atheist.

as an atheist i decided to experiment and see if i could figure out what faith was…also, i figured out that i had a lot of anger about god (false god, lower case ‘g’) and religion that i was caring around for a long time. so, i decided i wasn’t a very good atheist since i was angry at god. i didn’t know anything about christianity,

i had wandered around, studied yoga for a couple of years, thought about following that, but had no interest in anything having to do with “the divine”. attended the unitarian universalist church, found it to be a good social group, but it was at a time when i wanted nothing to do with religion.

so, fast forward, once i figure out i was angry at god i decided to learn what Christianity taught about God. I didn’t want some made up man-made thing like mormonism, so I went for the oldest form of Christianity I could find. I spent a year or so studying on my own, learning Catholic terms. I approached it like mormonism had never taught me anything, it was the only way that i could keep my disdain for religion out of what i was doing. this turned out to be the best approach, as the more i studied the more i realized that mormonism had redefined so many Christian terms. at that point, i studied very word, to learn the Catholic meaning, ie, if I read “God created the heavens and earth”. I looked up, God, created, heaven and earth, to learn what the Catholic church taught.

i reached a point where i understood the terms, but still did not have faith…a belief in god. i had been praying for a while before then, one prayer, that God would guide me to Him. so, i signed up for RCIA…it was then that God seemed to have put me on a fast track. All of the sudden all these things I struggled with, made sense. Faith, the largest mystery ever to me, suddenly materialized. Scriptures, that made no sense to me whatsoever, suddenly were very profound in their meaning. and on and on.

i had no intention of getting baptized when i started RCIA…as i went through the rites of acceptance and initiation, i spent time questioning myself…what am I doing? a lot of prayer, more study, reading scriptures, and i just knew it is what i was going to do.

i hit the same as you, a huge distrust of religious authority, to the point that I would not even talk to the priest after Mass. I avoided all eye contact with him and just wanted him to leave me alone. I have conversations with our deacon from RCIA, about religious authority…and he helped me understand the Catholic stance on this, recommended reading Kunz (who some people here will go nuts over as anti-pope or something). What I figured out is that there is a difference between authoritarian and authoritative. The Catholic church is not authoritarian, nothing is imposed on you, not ever. The Church proposes one message, that of Christ. You are free to accept or reject this message. It is the authoritative Church that Christ established, and as such, is entrusted with protecting the Truth of Christ’s message. Ensuring it does not become corrupt or fall into heresy. This authoritative aspect drew me more to the Truth of what the Catholic Church is.

The Catholic Church does not believe or teach that any one person converts you to the Truth. You don’t understand the message of Christ from feeling good about reading a book or happy emotional messages. No one is waiting for you to cry, as an indication that you “have the spirit”. No, it is the Holy Spirit that brings people to Christ. Catholics evangelize, not proselytize, and there will be no one RCIA who coerces you into anything. No one who will extract commitments out of you. They teach so that you understand the Doctrines and Christian history (as much history as can be covered in such a short time). They answer any question without diverting or changing the subject to get you away from hard subjects. They pray for you and with you. And sit back and watch the Holy Spirit guide you.

It is nothing like Mormonism.

 

[nebula]

hi nebula, i have related my “story” before, but short version, I left as a teen, a lot didn’t make sense to me. there was no internet at the time so it was just me, and my own reasoning. i eventually became an atheist.

as an atheist i decided to experiment and see if i could figure out what faith was…also, i figured out that i had a lot of anger about god (false god, lower case ‘g’) and religion that i was caring around for a long time. so, i decided i wasn’t a very good atheist since i was angry at god. i didn’t know anything about christianity,

i had wandered around, studied yoga for a couple of years, thought about following that, but had no interest in anything having to do with “the divine”. attended the unitarian universalist church, found it to be a good social group, but it was at a time when i wanted nothing to do with religion.

so, fast forward, once i figure out i was angry at god i decided to learn what Christianity taught about God. I didn’t want some made up man-made thing like mormonism, so I went for the oldest form of Christianity I could find. I spent a year or so studying on my own, learning Catholic terms. I approached it like mormonism had never taught me anything, it was the only way that i could keep my disdain for religion out of what i was doing. this turned out to be the best approach, as the more i studied the more i realized that mormonism had redefined so many Christian terms. at that point, i studied very word, to learn the Catholic meaning, ie, if I read “God created the heavens and earth”. I looked up, God, created, heaven and earth, to learn what the Catholic church taught.

i reached a point where i understood the terms, but still did not have faith…a belief in god. i had been praying for a while before then, one prayer, that God would guide me to Him. so, i signed up for RCIA…it was then that God seemed to have put me on a fast track. All of the sudden all these things I struggled with, made sense. Faith, the largest mystery ever to me, suddenly materialized. Scriptures, that made no sense to me whatsoever, suddenly were very profound in their meaning. and on and on.

i had no intention of getting baptized when i started RCIA…as i went through the rites of acceptance and initiation, i spent time questioning myself…what am I doing? a lot of prayer, more study, reading scriptures, and i just knew it is what i was going to do.

i hit the same as you, a huge distrust of religious authority, to the point that I would not even talk to the priest after Mass. I avoided all eye contact with him and just wanted him to leave me alone. I have conversations with our deacon from RCIA, about religious authority…and he helped me understand the Catholic stance on this, recommended reading Kunz (who some people here will go nuts over as anti-pope or something). What I figured out is that there is a difference between authoritarian and authoritative. The Catholic church is not authoritarian, nothing is imposed on you, not ever. The Church proposes one message, that of Christ. You are free to accept or reject this message. It is the authoritative Church that Christ established, and as such, is entrusted with protecting the Truth of Christ’s message. Ensuring it does not become corrupt or fall into heresy. This authoritative aspect drew me more to the Truth of what the Catholic Church is.

The Catholic Church does not believe or teach that any one person converts you to the Truth. You don’t understand the message of Christ from feeling good about reading a book or happy emotional messages. No one is waiting for you to cry, as an indication that you “have the spirit”. No, it is the Holy Spirit that brings people to Christ. Catholics evangelize, not proselytize, and there will be no one RCIA who coerces you into anything. No one who will extract commitments out of you. They teach so that you understand the Doctrines and Christian history (as much history as can be covered in such a short time). They answer any question without diverting or changing the subject to get you away from hard subjects. They pray for you and with you. And sit back and watch the Holy Spirit guide you.

It is nothing like Mormonism.

Thanks for sharing. I haven’t done RCIA, but I did do an adult education class with the RCC and I was impressed by the spirit of openess that was there. At the time I was a loyal Mormon, but the people there had no problem with me participating and asking questions and no one tried to force anything on me. I can tell there is a difference, I just want to quantify it… It’ll be a long road for me, whatever I decide to do, this is just the beginning.

 

[nebula]

Hi Nebula, Thanks for asking!

I left the Mormon church because I became a Christian. I originally went on the internet in search of a Mormon chat room. I had moved from Utah to Minnesota and was unsure of where my life was headed, religiously. I picked my location based on the fact that there is a Mormon church close by. I wasn’t ready to attend though… I felt a freedom I hadn’t known before.

I studied with JWs, I met a great Baptist guy in a mormon chat room. Two years of exchanged emails with he and his wife, and a women’s Bible study later, I found myself on the floor of my living room sobbing. I just wanted to know who God is. My own surrender to His will for my life felt so beautiful.

That night still brings tears to my eyes. It was my own private “altar call”. I pleaded with Jesus to reveal himself to me. I wanted to know and follow Him and Him alone. I didn’t know that would lead me away from Mormonism at the time, but it did. More Bible study and prayer showed me where I had been wrong.

I wound up in an Assembly of God. It was a good place to start. Lots of feel good type worship experiences, lots of good Bible study.

I didn’t choose Catholcism. God chose that for me.
I went back and forth with my husband to the Assembly of God and the Catholic church. I fought Him every step of the way. I wanted to be in the Assembly of God. I liked it there! I felt like I’d been given a family. (my own had disowned me by this point because I wasn’t Mormon anymore) Things went downhill, as they do sometimes in small congregations. People got greedy for power and control. It ended badly.

I remember that first sunday sitting in the pew at the Catholic church. I had been baptized Catholic, had gone through everything I had to go through to be catholic but in my heart I wasn’t yet.

It was the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. So I sat there thinking, “oh great… now I have to sit here and listen about Mary and blah blah blah”. I still had not come to a belief in her as the Mother of the Church. It was my final stumbling block. The reading for the Gospel that day was Zaccheus’ story. At the end, Father Denny asked if any of us had had that encounter with Jesus. Had we risked and given all we had to know Him. He asked us to close our eyes and ask Jesus to reveal himself to us all.

During the Eucharistic prayers I just bawled. I knew I had wanted Jesus. I believed in transubstantiation (I didn’t partake of communion in the A/G church for a long time) But He absolutely revealed himself to me that day. I surrendered again.

I was HOME.

in Christ
Steph

What a story, thanks for sharing. The power of the eucharist is definitely something to ponder. What I like about it is that it is open for all to see so that you know exactly what it is that you want, unlike Mormon temples, when you really have no idea what it is that you are supposed to be striving toward.

 

[RebeccaJ]

What a story, thanks for sharing. The power of the eucharist is definitely something to ponder. What I like about it is that it is open for all to see so that you know exactly what it is that you want, unlike Mormon temples, when you really have no idea what it is that you are supposed to be striving toward.

yeah, when I was 17 or so I spent some time talking to my bishop about temples, marriage, garments the whole bit…got no answers…I have a hard enough time being a Christian with associated Christian behaviors, knowing what the goal is…the whole temple, the goal is “eternal marriage” and your husband will be a god, never held any appeal to me, whatsoever. So what do you DO in there that makes you a god? What is going on that makes a marriage eternal? I had a hard time buying that God said all the bazillion of marriages before this idea existed were thrown out the window unless you were mormon…in this life or the next.

I was trying to understand what the appeal was, no one would tell me, so I just let it go. I still, to this day, cannot tell you what the appeal is of a mormon temple. There is nothing there, absolutely nothing, that is required for salvation, and there is absolutely nothing there that Christ or any of the Apostles ever taught.

When I was older, and the internet came about, I read in the late 90’s about the masonic ritual, and how the temple ritual was an exact copy (until changes were made). Then I really had to wonder…what in the hell is going on in there?

I feel almost fortunate, at times, that I never found out.

 

[nebula]

yeah, when I was 17 or so I spent some time talking to my bishop about temples, marriage, garments the whole bit…got no answers…I have a hard enough time being a Christian with associated Christian behaviors, knowing what the goal is…the whole temple, the goal is “eternal marriage” and your husband will be a god, never held any appeal to me, whatsoever. So what do you DO in there that makes you a god? What is going on that makes a marriage eternal? I had a hard time buying that God said all the bazillion of marriages before this idea existed were thrown out the window unless you were mormon…in this life or the next.

I was trying to understand what the appeal was, no one would tell me, so I just let it go. I still, to this day, cannot tell you what the appeal is of a mormon temple. There is nothing there, absolutely nothing, that is required for salvation, and there is absolutely nothing there that Christ or any of the Apostles ever taught.

When I was older, and the internet came about, I read in the late 90’s about the masonic ritual, and how the temple ritual was an exact copy (until changes were made). Then I really had to wonder…what in the hell is going on in there?

I feel almost fortunate, at times, that I never found out.

Maybe this is a little strange but I actually liked the fact that the temple ritual was somewhat of a mystery to me. I could attend the temple and finally have a place where there was some mystery to think about. Looking back, I was discouraged that Mormonism made God small, that he was literally a man + a billion or so years and that didn’t satisfy me at all. I tried to find some part of Mormonism which would enlarge God and reintroduce the mystery which should be a part of the divine since the divine is wholly other from us, and so I put my hopes in my temple attendance. Eventually that wore out because no theology, pretty much, was ever developed about the temple ceremony, you can only go so far with it before you’ve exhausted it. Pretty soon the whole thing is memorized, but no one is allowed to talk about it, and even when you ask questions in the celestial room no one really has anything to say about it. I began to get the clue, this isn’t it, the ‘mystery’ of the temple doesn’t magically deepen God into what He ought to be- qualitatively and infinitely different from us. If that is the best that Mormonism has to offer, it is a paltry offering.

 

[nebula]

Never left it.

I was inspired initially by the writing of 19th century Catholic occultist, Eliphas Levi. Specifically his book, The Great Secret.

amazon.com/gp/product/0877289387/
spoogle.us/~tsuzuki/occult/the_great_secret/working/the_great_secret.html
spoogle.us/~tsuzuki/occult/the_great_secret/working/

The similarities in both morality and the way I personally perceived the nature of God in Mormonism.

The popular perception of the two being mutually exclusive is a roadblock.

tsuzuki,

To be honest, unless Mormonism radically alters its theology the two are mutually exclusive on the most basic level. Religion starts with how deity is envisioned, and the conceptions of Mormonism and Catholicism are not at all compatable. The only way around this is to go outside of both theologies and fashion your own philosophy that encompasses both, but that wouldn’t be an authentic representation of either group.

Saying this, of course, presupposes that you’ll feel free to dissent, which I hope you do.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Maybe this is a little strange but I actually liked the fact that the temple ritual was somewhat of a mystery to me. I could attend the temple and finally have a place where there was some mystery to think about. Looking back, I was discouraged that Mormonism made God small, that he was literally a man + a billion or so years and that didn’t satisfy me at all. I tried to find some part of Mormonism which would enlarge God and reintroduce the mystery which should be a part of the divine since the divine is wholly other from us, and so I put my hopes in my temple attendance. Eventually that wore out because no theology, pretty much, was ever developed about the temple ceremony, you can only go so far with it before you’ve exhausted it. Pretty soon the whole thing is memorized, but no one is allowed to talk about it, and even when you ask questions in the celestial room no one really has anything to say about it. I began to get the clue, this isn’t it, the ‘mystery’ of the temple doesn’t magically deepen God into what He ought to be- qualitatively and infinitely different from us. If that is the best that Mormonism has to offer, it is a paltry offering.

I believe we reached the same conclusion, in different ways.

 

[nebula]

Such an approach is already native to Mormonism and some circles in Catholicism, and is exactly what I do, but I try to make it as authentic as possible by using as few words as possible.

“More words count less.
Hold fast to the center.”

- Tao Te Ching, verse 5​

You cannot speak heresy when you do not speak.

Is there any doubt?

tsuzuki,

At what point are you stepping out of the Mormon tradition? If I look at what is taught in the Gospel Principles about the nature of God, how free am I to change at will those teachings, to what degree, and still gain insight from Mormonism? That is, at what point is what you believe so different from the normative body of Mormon theology that identifying yourself as a Mormon is a mere formality without meaning?

I wrestled iwth many issues as a Mormon, but considered myself a part of the tradition up until I realized I did not agree with Mormonism’s presentation of the nature of deity. How more basic does it get than that? If your understanding of deity does not match that of Mormonism’s, what can you learn from Mormonism that is valid?

 

[zaffiroborant]

The defining characteristic of Mormonism isn’t its view of the nature of deity, but of the nature of community and the building up of a Zion people.

Well that makes it the same as Amnesty International or the UN.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Well that makes it the same as Amnesty International or the UN.

Or NuSkin.

 

[nebula]

The defining characteristic of Mormonism isn’t its view of the nature of deity, but of the nature of community and the building up of a Zion people.

I disagree. The whole point of Mormonism is personal and familial exaltation. If that were not so, why be so concerned about building up temples and getting everyone to go to them? THe entire point of a temple is to

1. do you own ordinance work, which is explicitly about conquering death, going to the CK to eventually become gods (wiht your spouse, naturally and
2. do ordinance work for hte dead so they have the same opportunity.

Temple worship is the goal of Mormon activity and it makes no sense outside of the Mormon sense of deity as espoused in the PofGP. Mormon theology is truly a comprehensive theology, you cannot simply remove one of its central cogs and expect everything to continue to go on merrily with no reprecussions. It’s all tied together, the notion of the pre-existence, heavenly father’s exaltation, Christ’s plan, the building up of zion, the building of temples (in particular), perfecting the saints… At some point your picking and choosing gets to be a little careless and insulting to what Mormonism is.

 

[BartBurk]

I’ve noticed that there are quite a few ex mormons here who have opted to become catholics. I am very interested in this as I am a recent ex mormon deciding where to take my faith. Catholicism seems like a natural option for many reasons, for one because I’m already baptized Catholic, because I yearn for some kind of form and direction in my worship of God, because I respect that the Bible requires interepretation. BUt, because of my recent experiences with Mormonism I am also suspicious of the centralized authority. So if you don’t mind, I’m curious for those ex mormons out there:

• Why did you leave the Mormon church? What are the major reasons?
• Why did you join the RCC? Were there elements of your Mormon background that made it a natural choice? Elements that made it harder?

thanks for sharing!

I left the Mormon Church because I could no longer accept the Book of Mormon as an ancient scripture. The findings regarding mtDNA, linguistics, archaeology, etc. make the Book of Mormon impossible.

I joined the RCC because the admonition to partake of the body and blood of Christ is most clearly carried out in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. I did not feel the Orthodox Churches demonstrated the unity necessary to fulfill the mission of being God’s one church. A central authority like the papacy is absolutely necessary to maintain the true faith once delivered to the saints. The confusion found amidst the Protestant churches made it impossible for me to land there. They just can’t be trusted to maintain the moral standards God requires – just look at the Anglican churches as an example.

 

[scipio337]

Levi was about as Catholic as Crowley was Anglican.

 

[nebula]

1. Temple work can be seen as an extension of the Zion theme into the next life
2. The Perl of Great Price (specifically the Book of Abraham) wasn’t canonized until long after temple work was started, so acceptance of it isn’t a requirement for temple work.
3. Mormon exaltation is analogous to Catholic/Orthodox theosis, and can be interpreted the same way. The King Follet sermon is not canon.

The king follet discourse is not canon, I agree, but the doctrine of god and man being the same species is taught officially- that heavenly father was once a man on another planet exaltedt o his position and we have the opportunity to do the same. Now if Mormonism radically changes gears, denies this, and embraces the notion that God is truly infinite and necessary, there would be much to discuss. Theosis only makes sense when dealing with a concept of God that is an independent Being, choosing to infuse dependent, finite beings with divinity, theosis isn’t an accurate description of exaltation.

I’m curious, do you not accept the book of Abraham as canon? What would you make of former lectures at the veil in the temple, wouldn’t that at least alert you to how former prophets have interpreted the temple ceremony? And as a last question, do you reject the notion that heavenly father is an exalted man (as described above)?

 

[nebula]

I haven’t been through the temple yet, and I wouldn’t comment on it if I had, but I take a page from the Tao Te Ching, where it says that mystery and manifestation are two sides of the same coin.

This is a post made by a friend of mine a few years ago on the MA&D/FAIR boards.
I’ve mirrored it here along with later posts on the same subject.

I appreciate your comments tsuzuki, and I do think that you are sincere in what you are doing. I also understand the urge to draw from religious traditions so as to have some kind of direction, some kind of object to meditate on, some kind of form, some kind of ethical standard to strive toward and so on. If I am to give my honest opinion however, it is that you ought to give serious thought to what it means to be a Mormon, what it means to be a Catholic, and whatever other traditions you draw from. Is it possible that by not really taking the plunge into one tradition or the other you aren’t fully experiencing any of them? Because at the end of the day you have your hand firmly around a philosophy which doesn’t represent either of the churches we’ve spoken about here… when you remove key elements out of a system of thought, to assume it’ll all hold together smoothly approaches an unhealthy arrogance because at the end of the day you keep yourself as the firm arbiter of truth, it is you who are weaving together your own reality from this and that and with that you miss the essence of Christianity and the absolute humility in submission to a greater reality than what we can generate ourselves. That’s my two cents, offered in a spirit of friendship.