What was wrong with your church and why should anyone leave it?
And why are you so ashamed to say what church it was that you left?
And why do you find it necessary to criticize those of us who left the Mormon church?
What religion did you convert into?
I don’t care to discuss my reasons for leaving, nor the church I left. It is a personal matter and none of your business - it has nothing to do with being ashamed, I discuss it freely in the proper forum.
I haven’t criticized any who left the Mormon church, I have only criticized the way in which you injected your hatred for “Mormonism” (which is another way of saying everything Mormon) into a discussion about clergy and legal standing - you don’t get to make up your own rules about who is and who isn’t clergy. By your standard, nobody in the Mormon church would be clergy - and that is utter foolishness in a societal or legal sense.
I suppose none of the 12 apostles are rightly considered to have been clergy? They had no formal training as counselors either.
Like I said earlier - I have no more interest in discussing this with you. I refuse to be the grindstone for your particular hatchet.
Sorry - didn’t see that it was you who posted. My apologies.
My previous response generally stands - except I didn’t express to you previously that I didn’t want to discuss this further, and I haven’t sensed that you have an axe to grind in this discussion - I have taken your questions at face value. My response about considering bishops clergy because of lack of training was regarding a previous post that wasn’t yours.
Anyway - I still don’t think this is the forum for discussing why I left my childhood church, or what church it was. Those specifics have no bearing here. I brought it up only to express understanding what it is like to leave a controlling church.
My anger and hate toward that church and its controlling ministers disappeaared when I realized that they had no power or control over my life any longer. It vanished, and I was able to forgive them, and only then was I truly free.
Let me reiterate - I have ZERO criticism for leaving the Mormon church. I applaud it, and I understand the difficulty, spiritually, socially, financially in taking that step. My criticissm has been to the belligerent tone one person here has taken to my honest, thoughtful and reasoned respoonses to the topic at hand. Somehow it was taken as a defense of Mormonism and worthy of attack because of that perceived defense.
I have never defended Mormonism - but I do defend the idea that the Mormon church is entitled to the legal rights of clergy, the same as other churches - and the position that parallels that of a pastor in most other churches is called a bishop in the LDS church.