Facebook users?

[Clueless Morgan]

No need to apologize. I appreciate you taking the time to address what I said.

I am not denying the bad experiences of these people and of those you have omitted. But in the defense of Mormonism, I do think we have to put these comments into perspective. They were taken from a group of ex Mormons who felt compelled to join an ex Mormon group. Many of these people probably left the faith after having had bad experiences. I think if this question were to be answered completely honestly by all Mormons (current and ex), it would be a lot less doom and gloom. Just my humble opinion.

I'm not meaning to suggest that you were denying that Mormons have bad experiences, I'm meaning to present one of the reasons Mormons (as a stereotypical group) seem to be so happy all of the time.  At least a portion of them are actively taught to behave that way - to put on a false front of happiness as a way to promote their religion and give the impression that they're they right ones - they are told that no one who is not a Mormon can know what "true" happiness is.

And, yes, I am well aware that I'm citing a very biased group.     But the majority of believing Mormons also wouldn't admit to this sort of thing because it would betray the facade of perfection and happiness they often are trying to present.  It's like when Stephen Meyers gives a lecture about Intelligent Design to an audience he's trying to win over versus one full of ID believers - he doesn't use overt religious language or make the connections he might want to make back to the bible when talking to the first group, but he does when he's talking to ID proponents, people who donate to the Discovery Institute and when talking to people he already knows believe what he's shoveling out.

Yes, take what these people are saying with a grain of salt - but also recognize that if you rely solely on believing Mormons for information about Mormonism, you're going to be fed the carefully constructed, white-washed, PR-sanitized information that they want to present to the world which needs its own accompanying salt lick.

The moral of the story is to always have a salt-shaker handy.  

CM, make him walk the cats for the next 6 weeks to make up for it!
(Play the persecuted card, he's retired and hasn't really got a lot on his plate anyway...shhhhhhh)

Naw, reading through my facebook postings would be torturous enough for him.