LDS faithful statement…
“[P]eople used to try to peer pressure me as a teenager to do the things they were doing. I have never been afraid to stand out in a crowd and have different thoughts or opinions. I am completely confident with who I am and where I stand. It has never bothered me a bit to be different. The people who used to try (try in the sense that my stubbornness made them want to try harder, to which I just laughed) to peer pressure me, it was almost as if they felt so insecure about their decision that they had to recruit other people into their activity to be able to further justify to themselves that what they were doing was what they actually wanted to do. I am used to ruffling people’s feathers with my beliefs and I’m not sorry for that.”
Response…
“I would like to clarify a couple of misconceptions I see as very common prejudices in Mormonism. Although I’m not offended by your comments, I give you this information so you’re aware of how hurtful it can be to others when you make certain generalizations: 1) the spirit behind my message is clear. There is simply no way to point out the problems with the Church without it making some people uneasy, and many times angry. I don’t sense any anger coming from you. I have no problem proving the Church to be false and I realize that active Mormons hold many of these things sacred; I did too. Once you’re able to strip away the sugar coating you find the real truths. The temple is an example of how the most sacred idea in Mormonism can be easily proven to be one of the most hurtful. 2) Like you, I have seen many cases where people have left the Church because of sin. Most of these people simply slip away and hope to be unnoticed. Perhaps they have done something immoral, have a Word of Wisdom issue, or they were offended by someone in the Church…these are common reasons (I was an Elders Quorum President twice and saw much of this first hand). The other group (who are a bit more aggressive) usually make a conscious break because they have learned the truth. It is unfair to lump those of us that have left the Church for the correct reasons with those who couldn’t handle temptation or control their emotions. My road to leaving the Church was paved with years of dedicated service, love, reading, meditation, and prayer. 3) As I mentioned, ‘unlike the Church, I’m not in the conversion business, only in the information business.’ The information is here for people to look at if they choose. You choose not to. But how could you choose if you didn’t know it existed? That’s why I let you know about it. I feel sad for people that leave the Church in order to justify their own position. That is simply an extreme lack of character. I left the Church because I learned it was false and it wasn’t until several years later that I learned how much the Church has changed its history and doctrines in order to make it more comfortable in the present.”
~Dan Wees, Encyclopedia of Anti-Mormonism (West Valley City, UT: Self-Published, July 2011), 54-56.
