Not sure where this is going to go, but I need a place to vent, and so I started this blog. I'm not really sure at the moment where I am going to drive it, but I am just going to start typing and see where it goes.
A little history.
I was born in the covenant in Paradise California in 1971. My understanding is that my father was just out of the military, and my father, mother, and my older sister were renting a trailer from my uncle and aunt. He re-joined sometime soon after my birth, and my earliest childhood memories are of playing in military housing, and stating school on an Air Force Base in Germany (my dad was an army MP and did customs inspections there). The church has been in my life as far back as I can remember. My mother's family are Mormon royalty, going all the way back to Brother Joseph. Anson Call, one of our great, great, whatever, uncles was featured in the Ensign a few years ago. (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/07/anson-call-man-of-action?lang=eng) My grandmother on my mothers side was a Call, but she seemed a bit disenfranchised by the church (and by me, she really did not like me) and her constant smoking and drinking were proof of that. She died when I was quite young, and I never really got to know her as a person. My grandfather converted later in life, and I was never more disappointed than when we went to his brother's house after he had gone through the temple and had a cup of coffee. I had never felt so betrayed. I understand now and have no problem with it at all, but at the time I was devastated.
We moved to Utah when I was 8 years old, after having spent 3 years in Georgia after leaving Germany. My family moved here so that my father could go to school, but I don't think he ever finished, so just like every other thing he started, he gave up after a short time. He held jobs sometimes, often my mother had to work to pay the bills. We lived off the church and off relatives until I was 17 and went off to boot camp, they took my mother's inheritance and went off to Arizona to open a Seagull bookstore, which, of course, never happened.
There is much more I can write into the history, and I will hopefully write more about it later, but the main parts are this; my wife and I were married when she was 16 and I was 17. I smoked, and imbibed a bit while I was in the Navy and we went to church 2 or 3 times in that 4 years. When we returned home, we stayed fairly inactive, but went back periodically after I quit smoking after our first child was born. We really started back in after the birth of out third child, and remained active until a couple or years ago when the self-righteousness and judging just became too much for us to handle and we left the church for good. I left first and my wife followed about a year later. My kids still attend sometimes, but that is because we live in Utah Valley and the church is ingrained in the culture, and leaving it all behind would be social suicide for them.
Today I came across this blog, which made me want to start my own blog:
http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com
The one main theme that runs through this blog is that she should have her constitutional protections to do whatever she pleases, but others should not have that same protection. Drives me crazy.
A little history.
I was born in the covenant in Paradise California in 1971. My understanding is that my father was just out of the military, and my father, mother, and my older sister were renting a trailer from my uncle and aunt. He re-joined sometime soon after my birth, and my earliest childhood memories are of playing in military housing, and stating school on an Air Force Base in Germany (my dad was an army MP and did customs inspections there). The church has been in my life as far back as I can remember. My mother's family are Mormon royalty, going all the way back to Brother Joseph. Anson Call, one of our great, great, whatever, uncles was featured in the Ensign a few years ago. (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/07/anson-call-man-of-action?lang=eng) My grandmother on my mothers side was a Call, but she seemed a bit disenfranchised by the church (and by me, she really did not like me) and her constant smoking and drinking were proof of that. She died when I was quite young, and I never really got to know her as a person. My grandfather converted later in life, and I was never more disappointed than when we went to his brother's house after he had gone through the temple and had a cup of coffee. I had never felt so betrayed. I understand now and have no problem with it at all, but at the time I was devastated.
We moved to Utah when I was 8 years old, after having spent 3 years in Georgia after leaving Germany. My family moved here so that my father could go to school, but I don't think he ever finished, so just like every other thing he started, he gave up after a short time. He held jobs sometimes, often my mother had to work to pay the bills. We lived off the church and off relatives until I was 17 and went off to boot camp, they took my mother's inheritance and went off to Arizona to open a Seagull bookstore, which, of course, never happened.
There is much more I can write into the history, and I will hopefully write more about it later, but the main parts are this; my wife and I were married when she was 16 and I was 17. I smoked, and imbibed a bit while I was in the Navy and we went to church 2 or 3 times in that 4 years. When we returned home, we stayed fairly inactive, but went back periodically after I quit smoking after our first child was born. We really started back in after the birth of out third child, and remained active until a couple or years ago when the self-righteousness and judging just became too much for us to handle and we left the church for good. I left first and my wife followed about a year later. My kids still attend sometimes, but that is because we live in Utah Valley and the church is ingrained in the culture, and leaving it all behind would be social suicide for them.
Today I came across this blog, which made me want to start my own blog:
http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com
The one main theme that runs through this blog is that she should have her constitutional protections to do whatever she pleases, but others should not have that same protection. Drives me crazy.
