#manda's thoughts

[amethystmoons]

They were right things really do be coming to pass.

[kingpurplesnake]

*Lives!* 

[amethystmoons]

How to convince a mormon to leave their cult

(According to the internet)

Comment Galatians 1:8 on all of their posts even if it's not related to the church cult. This needs no further explanation to make sense because mormons are wrong

Comment the heresy detected gif. This will make them leave instantly.

Simply say they're in a cult with no evidence. They have never heard this before.

Tell them they're in a cult using the most straw man arguments you can think of. Who needs actual facts when you can just repeat what your pastor/favorite anti mormon YouTuber says?

Tell them they worship Joseph Smith. This is true.

Tell them they're not Christian because they believe in a different Jesus and that they're actually atheist/pagan/devil worshippers. They may think they worship Jesus Christ the son of God but actually they don't.

Inform them of the priesthood ban. They definitely don't already know about this.

Say that their temple rituals are creepy and weird and that means they're in a cult. Only cults have rituals and nothing else.

Make fun of them for wearing magic underwear. It's not weird to talk about other people's underwear if they're in a cult.

Tell them Joseph Smith was a pedophile and deserved to die. This will not make them defensive it will make them listen to you and leave their cult.

Quote the banned mormon cartoon. This is a 100% accurate depiction of their faith and has not been criticized by anti hate speech groups.

Get their beliefs confused with another controversial religion. This always works.

If you're on tumblr make sure you tell them about the policies on queer people. A community of queer mormons have never heard this before this is the first time.

Point out bad things mormons have done and pretend that no other religion has done anything bad.

Tell them to read the Bible. If they tell you they do read the Bible tell them they're wrong because mormons don't read the Bible.

And if mormons point out you're wrong with facts and evidence tell them they're wrong and brainwashed. If they ask for your sources quote YouTubers and influencers because you don't need reliable sources when talking about mormons.

[amethystmoons]

"Um actually you're not a real Christian because mormons believe in a different Jesus." ok that's fine. You can't use any of these paintings bc they're actually of my Jesus and not yours.

[amethystmoons]

When my boss who's suspiciously teenager shaped and covered in blood tells me in a voice that's totally not a teenage boy talking in the deepest voice he can to go to the treasury to bring him the thing some kids were asking for that he refused to bring them the other day and then says he's going to bring it to his bretheren outside the walls and tells me to follow him, I just do it because I don't get paid enough to deal with this

[amethystmoons]

Idc if the government doesn't think I'm a Christian. Mormons should be more concerned about the 180 religions they dropped from the list. Religious freedom is a much bigger part of our religion than fitting in with other Christians. Let them worship how, where, or what they may.

[amethystmoons]

Going to go perform the secret cleansing of the deceased ritual for my cult. #mycult

[amethystmoons]

Happy pride month yall! In honor of pride I'd like to share my story of being queer in the church. I've had this typed up for a while but decided this was a good time to post it. It gets a little long so I'm putting it under a cut.

I realized I was queer when I was 14. I had pretty much always been friends with the gay kids and that's when I realized I wasn't just the token straight friend. I questioned my sexuality, realized I was asexual, and decided I didn't care enough to figure out my romantic orientation. In the last few years, I just identify as queer because I feel like I'm somewhere between being aroace, bi, and lesbian. I feel like my gender is a lil queer too, despite being cis. Being an alt queer woman can feel like an entirely different gender sometimes.

Of course, being mormon this created doubts. I shoved them to the back of my mind. I was scared that seeking answers would mean that I had to choose between the queer community and the church and I loved them both. I stayed like this for years. At youth conference, I think my junior year, one of the lessons was about not letting the world pull you from God. The teacher got two ladders and set them up right next to each other, with the steps facing each other and the bottoms touching but the tops leading away from each other. One represented the world and one represented God. He stood on the first steps with no problem. After the second or third step he could't go anymore because they were too far apart and he'd fall. I remember thinking that that's what my life felt like. I felt like I was precariously balancing on the third step of the ladders, needing to pick one in order to continue without falling.

The next summer, during my last year of FSY, we had a lesson about the Family Proclamation in the morning. My friends and I (all queer) were talking about it at lunch. There were a lot of feelings. One of the FSY counselors sat down at our table and started to add to the conversation. We were about done eating and I just didn't like talking about this with non queer people so I tried to leave. I was almost out the door when I realized that they weren't with me so I went back to the table and stood there, not really adding anything, just waiting for them to be done. I remember he said something like "I see the proclamation as an ideal. It's not always what's going to happen, but it's what we should strive to." One of the kids asked "Where does that leave queer people in this ideal world? Are we just not supposed to exist?" I could tell they were mad. The counselor responded with "I don't know. But I do know that God loves you and you belong in this church. We need people like you in this church."

After that we left. I have repeated those words over and over in my head since then. I'm crying even typing this out. Somehow just hearing him say that made me realize that being queer was part of my journey to Christ and not a separate one. My straight and narrow path is painted rainbow.

I found tumblrstake in the fall of last year. I had created a Tumblr account in January and had avoided anything related to the Church because I assumed it was mostly going to be negative. I found a post tagged queerstake and looked at the posts there. I cried. It was genuinely an answer to my prayers. I've thanked God for yall many times since then.

My testimony is so much stronger now but I still struggle. It's still hard to feel like I belong at times. I have trouble with the family proclamation as many of us do. I don't know what I think the church should do or say about it. But I know that queer joy is real. Queer love is real. The queer community is a beautiful one. I've expeirenced it myself. I've seen how coming out can bring the light back to someone's eyes. I've seen how much happier my best friend is after she transitioned. I've seen how much pure love a queer relationship can have despite everything they face. It's hard to believe that a community with so much love and joy can be from anything but God.