It is hard to decide what to say

I know what I want to say, but it is not that simple.

I care too deeply to hurt those around me, but I also know they wallow in ignorance. The truth has set me free, but I have to witness the bondage of those I love. I would let them out, because I see the jailor clearly, but there’s a problem. They do not want out. They do not want to be free. The outside world is unknown to them. Wild. Evil. They have been brainwashed by the jailor, and do not even know they are prisoners. But I escaped this prison and I can see. I can see clearly. I used to be just like them. I was them. I want to help them escape as well, because I know it will help them. This prison is a dead end they must escape. What is this prison? I’ll paint a picture in your mind:

The occupants are abused mercilessly by the jailor, yet told they are to blame for their own suffering. The occupants believe it. The occupants are taught to reject and hate the outsiders, so they reject and hate the outsiders. They believe what they are told. Life is easier that way. The jailor controls their actions. They are not allowed to think for themselves. They hope for a higher power and a better life after this one. Certainly they would wish for a heaven. After experiencing hell who would not? The prison door is left wide open, but they fear crossing it. The new life they desire lies right outside, but they fear man made consequences. I can see the jailor, but the jailor can not see himself. I can see the occupant, but the occupant can not see himself. The occupant and jailor are one and the same.

The Mormon church is a prison. The members are the occupants and the jailors. The door is wide open but only a few will leave. The knowledge is at the tip of their fingers, but they refuse to listen. They are trapped in the evil that raised them. After all, who wants to learn that the foundation of their life is a lie? No one. No one wants to be proven wrong. The cognitive dissonance is astounding and world crushing. sometimes it is easier to believe the bedtime stories. They help you sleep at night. They are peachy and fuzzy and warm. No harm exists in the bedtime stories. However, the bedtime stories of Joseph Smith are simply not true, no matter how much you want them to be. That is the easiest way to put it. However, the pressure from Mormon society can be devastating to someone finding the truth. You become an outcast. You are called a sinner. You are called a liar. Other accusations are hurled. Hatred is spewed. Two extremes normally come out of this lions den. Either you accept the truth and become the angry ex-Mormon, or you become the True Believing Mormon everyone thinks you should be

That is the perception anyways. I want to break that mold. I want the TBMs to see that I’m a good, moral, upstanding guy. Yes, I am angry at the church to a degree. I was lied to. Who does not become angry when faced with deception? A man or woman would surely be angry to find out their husband or wife has cheated on him or her. They would be justly angry. I am justly angry, but I am not here to destroy the church, they will do that on their own. I am here to support anyone else who has escaped from prison, and maybe help a few more along their way. I do this out of love.

I want to remain anonymous. The negative consequences of leaving the prison have affected me. Leaving the prison has changed me. I have had accusations and insults hurled at me. Even my own family has hurled their fair share of bigotry at me, but I know that they are just a few more prisoners, afraid to embrace the truth that would destroy their world. I do not remain anonymous for myself. I remain anonymous for those around me. When the time comes, they can know the truth. Only when they are ready will that happen.

The truth hurts. The truth hurts really bad.

But the truth will set you free.

Plato had an allegory. The allegory of the cave. I think it is especially applying to this situation:

[Socrates is speaking with Glaucon] [Socrates:] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: –Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. [Glaucon:] I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent. You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows? Yes, he said. And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? Very true. And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow? No question, he replied. To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. That is certain. And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, — will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him? Far truer. And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him? True, he said. And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he ‘s forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities. Not all in a moment, he said. He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day? Certainly. Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is. Certainly. He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold? Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him. And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them? Certainly, he would. And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer, Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner? Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner. Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness? To be sure, he said. And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death. No question, he said. This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html

Religion is the cave. All religions, not just the LDS Church. Every other church is just as controlling and manipulative. Every church is just as greedy and self serving. Every church is a cave, and the adherents are prisoners in the cave. It is beneficial to break the bindings and leave, because once you leave the cave you realize there is more. You realize you can not just go back to living the horrible way you did. You can not sit in the cave and interpret shadows. You know what the shadows are. You know the truth. You have been enlightened, but those who stayed behind have not.

I am writing these things out of love. I am writing these things because I care. These things are important and need to be said. I am writing these things because maybe you, like me, will find something that will set you free.

Please leave the cave (prison) and be saved. Do not throw your life away needlessly.