A Welcome and a Warning to the readers of this blog

NOTE-I imagine that there are 2 types of readers of this blog,

1-My new disaffected friends from the interwebs and the facebooks who have had, and in some cases, shared with me, similar tales of how they came face to face with a crisis of faith (say that 3x fast!). These dear new friends will laugh (hopefully) and maybe cry (we'll see how mushy I get) and mumble "I've been there." To you I say welcome, and enjoy.

2-The second type of reader of this blog will be old friends and family members who, at some point, have expressed a sincere desire to know what it is that I do and do not believe, and why. If you fall into this category, I have invited you here to share with you that which you profess to desire. If you follow me down this rabbit hole you will probably have one of two reactions:

• Reaction A: You will start with the unshakable "knowledge" that the church is TRUE and I am wrong. You will think I am under Satan's influence, preaching false doctrine and run screaming, never to go beyond these first few posts. You will disregard any evidence that I may present, judge me unrighteous and shun me or rage against me and condemn me. If this is you, you should go ahead and fuck off now.

or

• Reaction B: You REALLY want to know those things that led to my turning away from the Mormon Church.  You will continue to read the blog posts, possibly go on to read some of the books I list, listen to the Podcasts I link to, watch the YouTube videos I share , and check out the websites I reference. If, dear reader, this is you, go forth with caution and this warning, This could rock your testimony. You could be presented with enough cognitive dissonance provoking information to severely damage your belief in the Church Of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the Easter Bunny. Take your time and carefully investigate the claims I make, the sources I provide and evidence you find. I ask you only to have an open mind and be willing, just for a little while, to allow yourself to ask, "What if he is right? What if the Church isn't what I believed it was?

I know that it isn't realistic to expect people to read all the books that I did, listen to the hours upon hours of podcasts and watch all the videos.  I know it isn't realistic to expect some of you to read anything. 
    
  What it comes down to is this; 
     I spent a lot of time and energy looking into my beliefs and the history and doctrines of the LDS church.
     I found out A LOT of facts that made me realize that the LDS Church is not what it claims to be and  I cannot be a person of any kind of integrity if I  continued to pretend that I believed in any of it. 

     If you REALLY want to know why I left the church, it's not the kind of thing I can just explain in a 5 minute speech.  It requires a serious commitement of time and energy to seek out and find the truth for yourself.  Your truth may not be the same as mine, and that's  A-OK, but if you just blindly follow what you have been told since you were a sunbeam and never really explore everything that the church DOESN'T tell you, you will never find your own TRUTH!