Picture this

Picture this. You and your family all live in a small and very cramped one room home. There are spaces where there should be windows, but they are boarded-up and no light ever come through them.

Although you share the home with other members of your family, you find it really hard to see them, as the only illumination comes from a small, 5 watt bulb suspended from the middle of the room. So the room is very dimly lit and you can only ever catch glimpses of the other members of your family when they walk directly beneath the .light bulb.

Every-so-often water starts to drip down on to you and your family. This, you are told, is special water sent from God to bless you. Funny. But to you it feels cold and unpleasant. And not much of a blessing at all.

At regular intervals your family is visited by a pair of men who come to check on you and your family to ensure that all is well. They wear strange, thick clothing and have goggles on their faces to protect them from the evil that is outside of your hut.

They knock on the door with a special knock and are quickly hustled in, lest the evil influence of outside contaminate the home.

But still, you sometimes wonder what outside actually is and how evil it might really be. One evening, someone is a little slower than normal in closing the door and you catch a glimpse of outside. All you were able to see was that it looked really interesting. So, you decide to leave the safety of your family home to find out what outside was like.

When the others are praying with the visitors, you sneak out through the door, closing it behind you. You gaze around you. All you can do is say: Wow!” You see the remains of the setting sun in the West, watch the first stars coming out, twinkling in the gathering night.

You wander away, looking at everything. It all looks so beautiful. Presently, overcome by exhaustion, you fall asleep under a hedge.

The next morning you are awoken by the singing of many different types of birds. And you see the sun rise. You look around you, shielding your eyes. You are unaccustomed to such brightness, but your eyes gradually adjust.

You retrace your footsteps as best you can. Eventually you find your home. What a terrible shock. Your home, of which your parents are so proud, is, you see, nothing but a small and cramped shack. But worse than that.

It is quite clear that it is built out of a variety of strange materials, all from different sources. Old packing crates, randomly sized bits of wood, all held together with bent nails, bits of old string. From where you stand you can see the flat roof of the hovel that you have called home all your life. There were so many holes in it that there was no wonder water fell on you and your family.

As you walk towards your home, you see a pair of the visitors staggering down the street, in their thick clothing, clutching each other. You wonder if one of them is ill. But then you notice that they are both wearing goggles that are totally painted over with black paint. They are clutching each other because they can barely see where they are going.

Somehow they make it to a neighbouring hovel that is similar to the one you call home. There are, you notice, a small number of these hovels all gathered together in a piece of rough land bounded by a tumbledown fence. There is a rickety slam as they are hustled into the hovel.

All around them there is fantastic beauty. Trees, vales, open pastures, farmland, gorgeous hills, valleys, majestic mountains. Everything. As your gaze shifts toward your home, the hovel, you start to weep. How could you and your family have lived in such a horrible home, whilst all around was not great evil and horrors but a truly beautiful world?

You resolve to tell your family the truth. You run to your door and open it. The action of your family surprises you. Shocks you, even. As the light of the day falls on them, they scream in terror. They push you out, shouting that you had been tainted by the evils of the world. They slam the door behind you, and you see the whole, pitiful shack shake and vibrate with the force.

You spend hours and hours hammering on the door, shouting for your family to join you in the light. But they do not even deign to give you a direct response. Instead they sing hymns to drown out the sound of your voice.

Eventually, you realise that you will never reach your family. So you turn to leave, noticing that it is already coming upon the evening time, again.

As you stand outside the hovel, wondering what to do next, several people approach you. They identify themselves as fellow former dwellers in the hovels with their own families. Some had their entire family with them, others one or two family members but most were like you, with only themselves having been able to escape their family’s hovel.

They invite you to join them. So you do, wandering off to see what great adventures might exist outside of the hovel that your family called home. Picture this.

“OK, Matt! Apart from posting on RFM and your Notamormon blog, what exactly do you do?”

I write. All day long at work I write. I work as a journalist for a small publishing company. Although the company is small that doesn’t stop it from publishing five different magazines every month. (Actually, 2 are published 17 times a year, rather than 12 times) Unfortunately I am the only full time journalist employed by the company. We use some freelance writers, (some are a hinderence rather than a help as I have to sub-edit their work and do some re-writes) but I write most of the copy for the magazines, all of which are between 40 something to 64 pages, depending on advertising sold.

So, what do I do when I get back home? I write. Why? Because the way I earn my living is also my hobby. Great. I found someone kind enough to pay me for my hobby!

One of the things I run is my own News Portal, which is found at www.thatsnews.org.uk which leads on to a variety of news channels. News, health and nutrition, building and construction, business news, book reviews, etc.

There’s even a special section for Apple Mac users (called Apple Mac Heaven!) and I have a weekly humour column by Jason Love.

You know something? Although my lifestyle is a bit high stress, I love it to bits! Would I have been able to do the same kind of stuff had I been a Mormon? Hell, no! There’s no way my life would have worked out the way it did with the dead hand of Mormonism laying its rotting hand on my shoulder.

This is shameless self promotion. If you like my www.thatsnews.org.uk website, would you be able to help me by linking to it? (I’ll do reciprocal links, of course)

Also, does anyone have a bit of simple html code that I could use to create a linkable banner so that I will be able to replace the simple html link on the top of each portal entry page with a nice banner? If you do, please email this to me at matt_exmo@yahoo.co.uk Thanks!

I have decided to write a book.

It will be based on my Ex-Mormon blogging here at Notamormon. I think that I will called it Not a Mormon, anymore.

Those of you who have followed my blog since the early days (it seems like years, but it is only several months, honestly!) know what kind of material it will cover. To others? Well, it may come as a surprise.

Will I use my real name on the book? (That is always provided I can find someone willing to publish it!) I have thought long and hard about this. I was very tempted to use my real name.

But what if I don’t? What if I just sign myself as Matt? Now, if I do that, then nobody will know who I am. I could be that person who a TBM has not seen in church for a while. Maybe it is their cousin Billy? Or perhaps I am that British missionary they met whilst they were on their mission in Australia?

You see, if I were to say: “I am so-and-so”, every TBM could be tempted to think: “His story would never have happened in MY ward!” When, in fact, every ex-Mormon knows that our kind of story happens in every ward and branch all over the world.

In closing this blog post anyone got the contact details of a publisher who would be willing to look at publishing an exmo book? Just email me the details, please! Ta!

Fictionalised references to Mountain Meadows massacre

Jack London wrote directly about the infamous moment when Mormons inflicted this secret mass murder upon innocent men, women and children.

But exactly how secret was it? Jack London wrote an outstanding novel based on it and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle msde an oblique reference to it in A Study in Scarlet.

Do you know of any other books that make mention of the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

Here is Conan Doyle' obliuque mention of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.


"Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet
Chapter 3
John Ferrier Talks with the Prophet
Three weeks had passed since Jefferson Hope and his comrades had departed from Salt Lake City. John FerrierÂ’s heart was sore within him when he thought of the young manÂ’s return, and of the impending loss of his adopted child. Yet her bright and happy face reconciled him to the arrangement more than any argument could have done. He had always determined, deep down in his resolute heart, that nothing would ever induce him to allow his daughter to wed a Mormon. Such marriage he regarded as no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace. Whatever he might think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he was inflexible. He had to seal his mouth on the subject, however, for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in those days in the Land of the Saints.

Yes, a dangerous matter— so dangeous that even the most saintly dared only whisper their religious opinions with bated breath, lest something which fell from their lips might be misconstrued, and bring down a swift retribution upon them. The victims of persecution had now turned persecutors on their own account, and persecutors of the most terrible description. Not the Inquisition of Seville, nor the German Vehmgericht, nor the secret societies of Italy, were ever able to put a more formidable machinery in motion than that which cast a cloud over the state of Utah.

Its invisibility, and the mystery which was attached to it, made this organization doubly terrible. It appeared to be omniscient and omnipotent, and yet was neither seen nor heard. The man who held out against the Church vanished away, and none knew whither he had gone or what had befallen him. His wife and his children awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tell them how he had fared at the hands of his secret judges.

A rash word or a hasty act was followed by annihilation, and yet none knew what the nature might be of this terrible power which was suspended over them. No wonder that men went about in fear and trembling, and that even in the heart of the wilderness they dared not whisper the doubts which oppressed them.

At first this vague and terrible power was exercised only upon the recalcitrants who, having embraced the Mormon faith, wished afterwards to pervert or to abandon it. Soon, however, it took a wider range. The supply of adult women was running short, and polygamy without a female population on which to draw was a barren doctrine indeed. Strange rumours began to be bandied about — rumours of murdered immigrants and rifled camps in regions where Indians had never been seen.

Fresh women appeared in the harems of the Elders — women who pined and wept, and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable horror. Belated wanderers upon the mountains spoke of gangs of armed men, masked, stealthy, and noiseless, who flitted by them in the darkness. These tales and rumours took substance and shape, and were corroborated and recorroborated, until they resolved themselves into a definite name. To this day, in the lonely ranches of the West, the name of the Danite Band, or the Avenging Angels, is a sinister and an ill-omened one.

Fuller knowledge of the organization which produced such terrible results served to increase rather than to lessen the horror which it inspired in the minds of men. None knew who belonged to this ruthless society. The names of the participators in the deeds of blood and violence done under the name of religion were kept profoundly secret.

The very friend to whom you communicated your misgivings as to the Prophet and his mission might be one of those who would come forth at night with fire and sword to exact a terrible reparation. Hence every man feared his neighbour, and none spoke of the things which were nearest his heart.

One fine morning John Ferrier was about to set out to his wheatfields, when he heard the click of the latch, and, looking through the window, saw a stout, sandy-haired, middle-aged man coming up the pathway. His heart leapt to his mouth, for this was none other than the great Brigham Young himself. Full of trepidation — for he knew that such a visit boded him little good — Ferrier ran to the door to greet the Mormon chief. The latter, however, received his salutations coldly, and followed him with a stern face into the sitting-room.

Is the Notamormon blogsite exmo website list up-to-date?

Some time ago with a great deal of help from several people, I compiled a list of exmo blog and websites.

You can find the link to the list here:- http://notamormon.blogspot.com/2006/04/ex-mormon-websites.html


I believe that there are some new websites that need to be added. Do you have any candidates you would like to have included?

If you would like to link the list to your own blog or website, please do so. If you want to email me with some more websites or blogs, please do so at: matt_exmo@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks for your help.

Has my mother being driven mad by years of Mormonism?

The reason I ask is because she seems unable to employ rational thought processes. The woman who used to be bright and clever is now, well, acting stupid, for want of a better word. And has been doing so for at least ten years.

Some examples of what I mean.

I caught glandular fever. My mother advised me that as she did not want my nephews catching this that I must on no account visit her. I thought this was a little harsh, but I acquiesced to her instruction.

Some time later she range me up, tearfully, berating me for “not visiting her.” When I pointed out that I was only acting on her instructions she said in an odd, cold voice: “Oh. Yes. That’s right. That’s what I said” almost as if she resented my remembering it.

When she went on her mission several years ago my brother and my sister and their families both moved house and took the decision not to tell me their new addresses or new phone numbers. For the full time she was away (with a holiday at the end it was 24 months) they made not one effort to contact me or tell me how they were. Suddenly when she comes back the family and my mother both express shock and concern that I do not feel willing or able to have a family relationship with them. As I said to my wife at the time they all took the decision to cut me out of their lives: “I can take a hint. They obviously have no room for me in their lives.”

Whenever I phone my mother she says: “Oh, I do miss speaking with you.” But she can’t really miss speaking to me, or why would she not just pick up the phone and call me? I mean, she is Internet savvy, has done a legit online university course and sends email to everyone in the family (but not me) so yes, she could call me and speak with me, if she really wanted to.

And my mother (when I phone her up) says: “We do miss you at family events. You should come to them.” That’s a real great idea, mother. Except, of course, I have only been invited to a family event once in three years. It was my mother’s birthday over two years ago and I was invited by accident. The party was actually a Sunday lunch crammed between video showings of a General Conference, so was not really a fitting way to mark her 70th birthday, but then, as an exmo, what would I know?

Are Mormons trained to be liars?

Mormons are apparently taught not to lie. More specifically, in the Biblical terminonlogy, they are taught “not to bear false witness.”

How strange it is for us ex-Mormons to keep finding that Mormons descend on the ex-Mormon bulletin board (www.exmormon.org) with the express intention of lying and bearing false witness to us?

They use a variety of guises. The gentle seeker after truth. The ex-Mormon who has some sincere questions about the faith, the believing Mormon who is struggling with attending church, and there are even people who were born into Mormonism who pretend that they were converts from another faith when they visit www.exmormon.org.

Why do Mormon feel it necessary to visit www.exmormon.org and to lie to the people there? Do they not realise that, in the lies that they tell, they are condemning themselves?

Is it perhaps possible that they do not consider lying to “apostates” (sic) to be an real lie? Do they consider that “being a liar for Jesus” is somehow justified in the arid and vacuous theology that appertains to Mormonism?

Do they really, honestly think that the people who use www.exmormon.org are so stupid and gullible that they will not be able to spot that they are not what they claim to be, but are, instead, nothing but filthy liars?

They attempt to re-convert ex-Mormons by trying to blind us by throwing dirt in our eyes. As a tactic, it is mind numbingly dense. Stupid, even. But when Daniel C. Peterson, a lecturer at BYU decides to use such subterfuge at www.exmormon.org, one realises that the “being a liar for Jesus” programme is one that is approved of at the very highest levels of the Mormon church.

The Mormon church. Condemned as a hotbed of lies and liars out of its own , filthy mouth.

(A slightly different version of this post was published in February. But I thought the points could do with being raised again.)

Calling IAmThat

You wrote:

"Matt, Interesting that you chose the exact same name and surprisingly have the exact same merchandise for sale, by the exact same supplier. And you have the same name as the NAM site owner. You even end your emails with the same salutation as the other Matt did. Such a coincidence.

Whatever."

Interesting? Only to someone who does not get out enough.

Do I have the same merchandise for sale? No. It would seem that you claim that Matt and myself both use or used the same online shop, Cafe Press (as do thousands of other people and organisations). But NOT the same goods. (The goods I have for sale were designed by me only a couple of months ago, so your claim that we have the SAME goods on sale is untrue. You DID check the goods that are on sale, didn't you? Because I do not think you did.)

What? There are more than two exmos using the name Matt? Do you know how many people use the name Matt or Matthew on the Exmo board? Do you? You do not have to check. I'll tell you. It is 16. And that's only 16 that are registered, there are unregistered ones, also.

Wow. Two people use the same salutation! Is that really "such a coincidence?" Not to anyone with an ounce of common sense. (How many salutations can there be?)

Of course, had you been arsed to email me as I asked you, I could have supplied you with my private UK email address. (Mind you, one would have thought that the fact that I use a UK Yahoo address might have been something of a clue...)

Carnival of the Veil Week 13 is up!

http://the-thought-spot.blogspot.com/2006/08/carnival-of-veil-week-13.html

All thanks to the hosts!

The current Carnival of the Veil is up!

Thanks to Mr G for running this fantastic service!

http://sinisterporpoise.blogspot.com/2006/08/carnival-of-veil-week-12-bread-and.html

Why DO so many Mormons enter MLM schemes?

Why do so many Mormons get into MLM schemes or other direct selling schemes and try to sell Amway, Noni Juice, Nu Skin, Mary Kay, Nature’s Sunshine Products, Herbalife, Nutra-Smart, XanGo, Living Scriptures, 4Life Research, NSA, Pharmanex, Quixtar, Shaklee, Kirby, Unicity International, USANA Health Sciences, Inc., and Old Mother Jones’ Baked Goods by Mail? (OK, although it sounds like a good idea, I just made that last one up!)

Now, some ex-Mormons say that this is because Mormons are stupid. This must mean that either they, the ex-Mormon, is also stupid, or somehow when they became an ex-Mormon miraculously became non-stupid and magically intelligent.

However, as most ex-Mormons do not believe in miracles or magic (they drag out that lovely little hobby horse, the Invisible Pink Unicorn) then we must look for another explanation as to why so many Mormons get involved with MLM schemes and scams. The answer is so simple that I am surprised the “Mormons are stupid/gullible” theory has held sway for so long.

The real answer is, I believe, because the Mormon church, in relative terms, keeps its membership ‘dirt poor.’

Every faithful (and some less-than-faithful) Mormon pays 10% of their income to the Mormon Church in a tithe. Now, in strictly Biblical terms, the Mormon tithe is not “legal”. This is because it tithes income before tax; Federal, State, Income Tax, Sales Tax, VAT and Council Tax in the UK, so it tithes gross income and not net/increase as a genuine tithe would.

Therefore the situations for Mormons is worse than it would at first appear to be. Depending on local taxation regimens, the real cost of a Mormon tithe could be anything up to 25 to 50%. And this does not take into account mission fund, fast offering, etc., which takes an even larger chunk of money out of the typical Mormon family budget.

So in comparison to their non-Mormon neighbours (even those of other Christian denominations who might pay a tithe based on increase, rather than gross income) many Mormons are “dirt poor.”

So in order to live any kind of meaningful life and to not have to rely on food stamps, social security handouts or Mormon church welfare, an extra source of income is required.

What about a second job? An attractive idea, true. But as for the practicalities of a Mormon getting a second job? As Austin Powers would say: “Oh, behave!” Most faithful Mormons spend almost all of their free time in meetings, or even in meetings about meetings. Not to mention, home/visiting teaching, missionary splits, etc., etc. They would not have time for an extra job.

So what to do to ensure their children have some luxuries in their life, such as food to eat, a roof over their heads, and so forth? Try MLM. You can run it in your spare time. (What spare time?!) and even if you do not have spare time, you can try to have a whispered conversation in the hall in between three hour block meetings with Brother Zee or Sister Wye, about how you are SURE that Wonder Cure Mineral Drink will just change their lives forever! (And all for only two cans a week, at $14.00 per can.

Do they make any money? The answer varies from not much to zero. So not only do they not get out from the Mormon Church poverty trap they end up even more miserable and depressed. And then what happens? More Prozac, anyone?

So, next time someone says to you that Mormons are stupid for getting into MLMs, ask them where they parked either their Bible or their Invisible Pink Unicorn? Ask them when (or if!) THEY stopped being stupid. Or point out that Mormons are not necessarily stupid, but are kept in the Mormon poverty trap. After all, a poor person is often more pliable than a wealthy one.

The day a Mormon missionary got the $%£$ beat out of him by a surgeon in Shropshire, England

Wellinton, Shropshire, surgeon J. F. Steedman was famed and highly regarded throughout the area of Wellington, Shropshire, for his skills as a surgeon.

However in 1854 Mr Steedman caused a sensation in Wellington when he was on trial for attacking and severely beating a Mormon missionary.

The trial of Thomas Williams v J. F. Steedman took place in the County Court, under “that indefatigable” member of the judiciary, Uvedale Corbett, Esq., as the Welllintton Journal described him.

The case was brought against Mr Steedman by Thomas Williams, a “Mormonite” –as they were then often described- from Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, some twelve or so miles from Wellington.

Due to the high feelings of people against the Mormons in Wellington and the popularity of Mr Steedman, the case had to be removed from the Wellington County Court to the picturesque medieval town hall of Newport, Shropshire.

On the day of the trial the courtroom was packed out with a large crowd of interested parties.Mr Craig was the advocate for the plaintiff, T. S. Smallwood for the defence. The damages claimed were fixed at the then princely sum of £50.

After the jury was sworn in Mr Craig stated the case of his client, claiming that he had been the subject of an unprovoked attack by Mr Steedman. (In Britain surgeons are always addresses as Mr., never doctor, by tradition.) He concluded his opening speech by questioning Williams as to his belief in the New Testament, which he professed to believe in.

Williams gave the following deposition to the court: “I am a thread-finisher in the employ of Marshalls of Shrewsbury, where I have been employed for 15 years. On Sunday 1 January this year (1854) I was in Park Street, Wellington, in the company of a young man named Henry Shaw, going from house to house, distributing tracts belonging to my sect.

“I called at the house of Mr Steedman who is a surgeon, alone. Mr Steedman answered the door himself. (many employers in Victorian times gave their servants Sunday off) I presented a tract, and asked him if he would have the kindness to read it, and I would call on him on the next Sunday, and renew it if agreeable. He glanced over the outside of the tract and asked if I would walk in.

“I said I had no objection, and he shewed me into a room on the left side, There was no one in the room. He went to the window, opened it, looked up and down the street for a moment or so. And then shut the window.

He opened the tract, turned it leaf after leaf and said; “What does this tract contain?” I said; “It contains the initiatory principles into the sect of which I am a member of.”

He said: “What is that?” I answered: “”Faith, repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

He said: “You believe in miracles, don’t you?” I said I did. He said: “You believe in the gift of tongues?” I answered that we did. He said: “What reason have you for believing that?” I replied, “because I had received them myself.” He said: “You believe in the gift of healing, don’t you?” I said: “Yes, we do.”

He then rushed at me, gave me a blow with his clenched fist over my left eye and said, with an oath, “Get that healed!”

The blow nearly stunned me, and caused me to kneel, but before I fell, he again struck me. That floored me.

He then commenced kicking me; the first kick was on the calf of my leg, the second was in the ribs. The room appeared to spin round, and I seemed to be losing my senses. His kicks took the breath out of me.

When my senses returned he was standing over me, and again commenced kicking me.With the assistance of a chair, I got into a half-standing position, and he then began striking me, about the head, face and shoulders with his fist.

I called “murder,” and made for the door, which I got open about an inch. He rushed at me, put his foot against the door and shut it, and recommenced kicking and striking me. I shouted: “Oh, dear sir, have mercy upon me; or do you intend to kill me?”

He took no notice, but gave me a blow on the left temple that sent me bouncing against the wall. I felt myself going again. He then stepped back a yard or so, and I got the door open.

He rushed at me, and with a kick on my posteriors, sent me from the door to the causeway, and said: “There, _______, you devil, take that!” I went over the intermediate steps, clear.

I saw no one but the defendant while in his house. I did not strike him, the first blow put me past striking. He is a much larger man than I am. While I was against the palisading (in front of the defendant’s house) Shaw came up. I saw also a man and a boy.

Shaw assisted me. We walked a few yards, and then I vomited three mouthfuls of blood. We went to Mrs Butler’s in New Street. Mrs Butler fomented my face with hot water for about half-an-hour, and gave me a glass of spirits.

“I lay on the sofa till about a quarter past seven. Mr Shaw assisted me upstairs and looked at my ribs. I had much difficulty in getting home that night by rail. My mother got me to bed and sent for Mr Pidduck, the surgeon. He could not come, but sent directions for my treatment.

“On the next day, I went with my father to Wellington, and saw Mr Jones, the surgeon, there. On our return I fell fainting into my father’s arms.

“Mr Gill first saw me on Wednesday the 4. In the meantime I was fomented and poulticed, as Mr Pidduck directed, by my mother. Mr Gill attended me till the 28 or 29 of January, the day before I resumed my employment.

“During that time I was constantly attended by my mother. I could not dress or undress myself for a fortnight. I am now wearing a strengthening plaster on my side, by Mr Gill’s orders.

“I cannot work overtime as I formerly did, and now follow my employment with difficulty. Before the injuries I earned 15s a week, including overtime.”

He informed the court that he had been made overseer (“of the saints”) in the district and claimed that no tracts were delivered without his knowledge. “I never saw Mr Steedman before.”

In his cross-examination, he admitted that the dissemination of the doctrine of “plural marriage” had caused many disturbances in Wellington. He denied that he had offered religious instruction to Mr Steedman, or that he had claimed that the “gift of tongues” was “exclusive to Mormons.”

Henry Shaw, who was also employed as a thread-finisher at Messrs. Marshall’s, PC Smith of Wellington; Mary Butler of Wellington, formerly a 'Mormonite,' (as she put it) but who was, she told the court, now a Roman Catholic (“I have not been a saint since last October”) and Mary Williams, the mother of the plaintiff; all gave evidence that corroborated some of the parts of the statement by Williams.

The controversial Mormon doctrine of polygamy, where one man could take as many wives as he wanted, did seem to influence the development of the case.

George P. Gill, who had examined Williams said; “I examined the plaintiff. The principal injury was merely a bruise, extending from the fourth to the seventh ribs. It was a good deal swollen and very tender. It might have been produced by a blow or a kick, most probably the latter.

He had complained of some difficulty in breathing. I did not see him spit blood. If the vomiting took place, it most likely proceeded from the rupture of a small blood vessel. I saw no reason to apprehend any bleeding had taken place.

"There was a contusion on the left eye, not of any very serious extent. The plaintiff appeared to have had a good beating. A small enlargement of the gland took place about a fortnight after I was called in.

"During the first part of his illness, he appeared to suffer a great deal of pain. I saw him twice at his own house. He came to me about three weeks. During that time I think he was not able to work.

“He seems a poor, feeble, sickly person. From the nature of his constitution, the injuries may be felt for some time, but it is not very probable. The enlargement of the gland has almost subsided.

“The distance between my house and the plaintiff’s is about a mile and a half; he came to me three or four times. My attentions were so slight that I only charged a guinea.”

Mr Craig, for Williams told the court that the sole reason for the attack was personal animosity towards his client by Mr Steedman. However, the defence advocate, T. C. Smallwood, painted a wholly different picture. He scoffed at the idea that there was any personal animosity by Mr Steedman for Williams.

He told the jury that Mr Steedman had been affronted by having someone of the beliefs of the plaintiff promoting his religion in the town in which he, Mr Steedman, lived. The words T. C. Smallwood used were reported thus: “Mr Steedman felt indignation at having the privacy of his home invaded by disseminators of doctrines of the horrible nature that had been disclosed.”

According to the local press, the speech was skilful at playing on the passions of the jury. He asked them, as husbands and fathers, to put themselves in the place of Mr Steedman.

Consider, he asked, if his resentment at the “lewd and blasphemous creed, which this sect propagates, was not pardonable?”

The impression he made on the jury was strong and the calm and clear summing up by Judge Corbett was unable to remove the effects from the minds of the jury members. After only a few moments consultation the jury rose and returned a unanimous verdict.

Although they found in favour of the plaintiff (Mr Steedman had not after all, denied that he had assaulted Williams) in the sum of £5 .Mr Steedman was also known for his great work for Christ Church, Wellington.

This is a re-worked version of a similar article.

Blogger IamThat PLEASE READ

I am NOT the Matt from www.notamormon.com

I am Matt from the UK, on the RFM board.

As I have explained previously, I did NOT know about www.notamormon.com before I started my blog. Had I known, I would have chosen a different bloody name for my blog.

Oh. And that comment you said I would not publish? Here it is.

" sure wish you would have taken us up on the offer to buy notamormon.com from you before you let the site lapse. NYMarshall and I would have kept it going. Instead, you did not notify your users -- some had been with you as much as five years -- that you intended to let the site die. You didn't answer your emails. There were those of us who would have like to archive the messages elsewhere.I doubt this post will make it on your blog and I don't expect a response. I just wanted to let you know how disappointed I am in your actions. I think many of us deserved better than this."

Maybe the Matt who ran that board is ill? Dead, even? Have you considered that possibility?

Email me at matt_exmo@yahoo.co.uk if you want.

Talking to God

Talking to God

What cost Mormonism?

I wonder if anyone has ever figured out exactly how much money and material the Mormon church has wasted since it was founded?

I mean, people were encouraged to emigrate from Britain, fro example, and they took with them gold, silver or whatever else they had.

And what about all the chapels, stake houses, stake centres, Mormon church office buildings, temples and latterly all the McTemples of Hinckley’s crazy temple building programme?

And what of the wasted talents of all the people who became Mormons and the waste the talents of their descendents?

What amount of money has been wasted? Billions of Pounds Sterling or Dollars?

And have you ever tried to figure out exactly how or why your former Mormon friends and ex-family members are so damn scared of you? Is it because they think you have a deadly, contagious disease?

Do they think you have some sort of moral cancer that will cause them to fall away from the faith like you did?

And why do they refuse to believe the reason why you stopped being as Mormon?

I mean, after all, it is a well-known “fact” that ex-Mormons only quit being Mormons so they can: Sin or continue to sin, because someone upset them, because they were offended or they were weak or yada, yada, yada.

I think the underlying reason is this. We ex-Mormons scare them. I really do think that. We freak them out. They think if they get too close to us, we will play freaky little mind games and then we will ensnare them and we will hold their souls for ever!

Stupid cult? Oh yeah. Big time stupid cult.

Mormonism and the Stockholm Syndrome

On RFM the other day, someone posed this question: “Ok, to be fair, what's something nice that happened while TBM?”

This supposes that there is a reason why we should be “fair” to the Mormon Church. I know of no reason why anyone should want to be “fair” to the Mormon Church.

The desire to look back and try to spot some positive element of Mormonism is something that I would suppose almost every ex-Mormon is “guilty” of at one time or another. I know I was guilty of this. Until I decided to take ownership of my own life.

I believe that this desire to look for good, positive effects that Mormonism might have had on our life is like a sort of modified Stockholm Syndrome. We were, in effect, kidnapped by Mormonism and held hostage by it.

Over time, like the original Stockholm Syndrome victims, we came to rely on our kidnappers for everything, even for small acts of kindness which we came to look upon as examples of how much they loved us and how much they held us in high regard. When in truth the Mormon Church held us hostage.

What has Mormonism ever done for you? Or, to put it another way, where would YOU be, without Mormonism?

What has Mormonism ever done for you? Or, to put it another way, where would YOU be, without Mormonism?

This is something I have put a great deal of thought into, in recent years. I believe that, if my parents had left Mormonism when they both (as I now realise they did) came to the knowledge that the Mormon church was untrue, we would have returned to our home city from the rural backwater we had found ourselves in. The idea of moving was scotched by the church elders/bishopric in some way I never did fully figure out, but believe was guilt, guilt and MORE guilt. So my family never moved.

Had we returned to Birmingham I would have received a first rate education, gone on to university and, as they say, the world would have been my oyster. Sadly, this did not happen and I received an education that was very much below standard. It was basically designed to fit you for work in a large local factory as a machinehand or in a local munitions depot as a storesman.

But the local Mormon elders wanted my parents (and us their kids) and they did not want us to move away to another branch or ward. Never mind that my father would have been able to have commanded a salary of FOUR times what he was earning in Shropshire! That wasn’t important! What was important was local membership figures.

Years later my mother said to my father: “I am glad we did not go back to Birmingham. I do not think we would have continued being Mormon, there.” I thought to myself: “And what would have been so bad about that?”

Where would I be, now, had my parents done the right thing and returned home? I would certainly have had a better life. A life free of the constructed stupid guilt of Mormonism. A life when a cup of tea or a mug of coffee are not terrible sins against God.

A life where our family was not impoverished by having to give 10% of our income plus all the other little collecting scams for my father’s appallingly poor wages, in a low wage area.

A life where I would have been judged by who I was, not whether or not I wore a tie to shirt to shirt, or if I drunk a cup of tea. A life free of pre-programmed Mormon guilt.

Where would YOU have been without Mormonism? What would you be doing now, without the dead hand of Joseph Smith the child molester resting on your head? Please let me know.

What IS it about Mormons?

What IS it about Mormons? That make them so annoying?

They can't help themselves. I really believe that.

Once, when a Baptist told a Mormon that she had prayed about something the dense Mormon squealed and blurted out: "Oh! I did not realise Baptists prayed! I thought only Mormons prayed!"

And Mormons really do not get WHY other people think they are so irritating...

Ex-Mormon get-together taught me something new

We recently had an ex-Mormon meeting in Birmingham, England. It was very successful. We all had a great time.

It was not until Tuesday severla days later, when I was walking along a rural road not far from our house to release an insect in some woodland, that a thought struck me with such force that I had to stop, momentarilly, to take stock of my situation.

I had suddenly realised that the meeting with fellow ex-Mormons was the first time I had EVERY sat chatting to a group of people who didn't need the others in the group to tell them how they felt. They already knew. Because they had gone through it themselves

That was a most exilerating experience. Thank you!

Exmo meeting a success

The Birmingham ex-Mormon meeting was a great success. 7 of us turned up and drunk whatever we wanted (soft or “hard”) ate some rather nice food and chatted about life both Mormon and post-Mormon.

It was like we’d know each other for years. As it happened, I had met someone at my mother’s house, as he spent part of his mission in Telford! A very small world!

Why not organise an exmo meeting where YOU live? It’ll be fun.