Note that this is a bullet point list of why I choose to be an Independent, Nondenominational, Heritage Mormon; as one who does not agree with every idea or policy of the current Brighamite Church yet fits within the Smith-Rigdon Movement as opposed to the Augustine-Calvin paradigm.
The focus on the "Heritage" aspect moves beyond the issue of "belief" (or "disbelief") and literal interpretations, and moves the focus to instead an existentialist position; and puts the focus more on one’s ancestry and the empowering energy of the symbols and stories; and the overall LDS culture as a quasi-ethnicity and Life Philosophy.
Far-Left Secularists don't seem to want me to have an identity so identifying as a Heritage Mormon is in a way giving them the proverbial middle finger:
It seems like everyone else these days is allowed to have a culture and ethnicity and a language, but not me? There is Chinese culture and language and they have Buddhism. There is Jewish culture, Jewish ethnicity and Judaism, etc. Why can't my Mormon Heritage act as a quasi-ethnicity, culture and language? Why am I not allowed to feel empowered through a deeper sense of belonging to my ancestors and be proud of my Pioneer Ancestors and all that they have accomplished up to a thriving state of Utah? Am I not allowed to connect to an ancestral tribe, being proud of my culture, my language, my heritage?
Give me another Christian group with the unique doctrines I agree with in the Smith-Rigdon Resoration:
For example: a Fortunate Fall, belief in free will, and not being punished for Adam's transgressions (i.e. the rejection of Original Sin), Universal Salvation, a tritheistic Godhead and God the Father having a physical body (as substantiated by the book God: An Anatomy), which belief in turn affirms our physical body and earthly life itself.
Show me a group of Christians who actually act more "Christian" than LDS/Restorationist Christians, i.e. who are friendlier and "nicer" than Mormons?
This is why the Protestant from the YouTube channel 52 Churches in 52 Weeks converted to Mormonism 2024, because in part the Mormons were so much friendlier and personable.
A Net Good:
I think Mormonism proves to be an overall net good for most individuals and society. For undeniable evidence of this see my website here and the section "The Case for The LDS Church being a Net Good for Most LDS Members and Society."
Mormonism Breeds a Healthy People:
If Nietzche is correct in that the one truth we know for sure is the evolving nature of reality and the development of organic forms and species, then what theology is better at breeding a healthy species?
It's My Heritage Too:
Why do the dogmatic controller type personalities get to tell me how to interpret the LDS religion of my ancestors when they do not own the copyright to the Book of Mormon and there has been many different versions of Mormonism; so that my approach is just as valid as both any past or future approach to "Mormoning."
LDS as an acronym for Let's Do Something:
The original Doctrine in the First Lecture on Faith described Faith as "a principle of action," and all throughout LDS Scripture the emphasis is on action and creating, overcoming and triumphing; beginning with The Book of Mormon being if nothing else a form of literary art and creativity. The first story being Nephi exemplifying the righteous spirit of battle by battling all obstacles and building a ship and crossing the seas of Chaos to breed a People. Thus the themes of Battle and Build are recurrent themes at the heart of Mormonism. Battle the natural man to build a Christian character. Battle selfishness, unfairness and poverty to build a city of joy, prosperity and Zion, etc.
Atheism is Lacking:
After several years as an atheist I began to see, at least for me, that it was existentially depressing and unfulfilling. In my view an honest atheism ultimately leads to nihilism; and at least with me it quite literally sucked existential meaning and vitality from my life; leaving me ultimately spiritually deflated and always trying to distract myself from that deflation. I began to realize that Viktor Frankl was right, that a core drive of all humans is the will to meaning: the drive to have a higher purpose that creates meaning in life. In the end, I realized that overly left-brained secular-atheist activism was a kind of overly logical Spockianity; and most ethical atheists or humanists are basically practicing "Christianity Lite" (a watered-down version of Christianity) through secular ideologies; in other words, they are ethically cultural Christians whom Nietzsche referred to as "pale atheists" for still acting out the Christian Ethic; and thus haven't really come to fully realize or admit what the "death of God" position actually means: which is the death of moral Right and Wrong, no Free Will, and no ultimate Meaning of Life.
Buddhism was just a soft nihilism:
Buddhist mediation is practical and useful for reducing stress; but the focus on attaining Nirvana (Mind-less "Nothingness") and focusing on the doctrine of No Self, i.e. "you" (your sense or "I") doesn't exist, is rather off putting and depressing in my view.
The Blackhole of Hedonism:
Self-absorbed Hedonism, Consumerism, and "the love of money" is a vapid ride to the golden cuffs of codependence on things and obsessing about your mere appearance and most often people end up feeling lonely at the top lacking substance and character and thus no true friends.
I ended up just constructing a secular version of Mormonism:
I finally realized that my attempt to form my own ethos and worldview was just a secular version of a rehashed form of Restored-Christianity. Turns out I never stopped being a Restorationist culturally and philosophically. With my use of Dr. Paul Dobransky's Mind OS for example, turns out it is actually heavily based on Stephen Covey's 7 Habits book, and the 7 Habits book was based on Covey's earlier book The Divine Center (based on LDS ideas). Then Dobransky realized MindOS is incomplete and realized the benefits of religion and/or mythos as self-empowering technowledgies that better tap into and ignite the unconscious mind and instincts; and so he began a new self-help technology called Qauntum Psychology, including Mature Masculine Power 3:0 (no longer sold). I realized that LDS theology already provides the same kind of thing with the Book of Mormon's masculine characters like Nephi and Joseph Smith himself who (say what you will about the man) was someone who manifest masculine power, etc.
Realizing those I admired were Christians or Jews:
I found John Gottman's work useful, and he too is religious and his ethic is Jewish and he observes kosher and the Sabbath according to Wikipedia. I used Dale Carnegie's work and turns out he was an agnostic for a time but he realized it was an empty attitude and began visiting churches to meditate and feel more at peace in the cosmos; and he became a pragmatic Christian in his later years; and bases his overall ethics in How to Win Friends, on Christianity.
I am ethically Christian not pagan nor Nietzschean:
I realized this after reading nearly everything Nietzsche wrote and reading Tom Holland's book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World.
Meaning in Life:
The Christian Worldview gives my life meaning and purpose and makes me at least 50% happier; that is in comparison to when I was more atheistic and agnostic.
I'm not Protestant nor Evangelical:
I fundamentally disagree with Augustinianism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. The LDS writers, Terryl and Fiona Givens helped me more fully realize this by reading their books.
I have an overall LDS ethic and demeanor:
I basically dress and act LDS. I tend to smile at strangers, I don't use profanity profusely, I don't drink or smoke or do drugs, and I've never felt comfortable in clubs or bars, etc. Hence, I simply prefer the social culture of the LDS to other options and feel more "at home" in LDS venues. Although, as of this writing I do not attend church/chapel.
Mormon culture produces good people:
As a Mormon who voluntarily resigned my membership, I noticed several incidences where I was attending a secular venue and the kindest and friendliest ("warmest") person in the place, I later learned, was LDS. For example, as an exMormon I joined a gym in California and most everyone acted typically unfriendly, standoffish and cliquish at the gym; but one guy in particular was not like that and was more welcoming and friendly toward me. A year went by and I saw this guy in a parking lot as I exited a restaurant and turned out he was married to an LDS woman I knew when I was active in the LDS Church. We had never discussed religion at the gym, so he and I had no idea I knew his wife, and we all had a look of surprise on our face. This and other experiences objectively proved to me that LDS in general are "nicer" people on average. Recently I listened to Joe Rogan on his podcast laugh at some Mormon belief but then pointed out that Mormons are the nicest people. I have heard this so many times from non-mormons, something about the belief system is weird but they are such nice people. I have heard that so many times it is clear to me that Mormon culture is doing something right and producing kinder and friendlier people on average. I believe that the LDS Scriptures and the socio-cultural energy it generates is partly responsible.
Gallop poll reveals that in general Mormons and Jews are happier (or have higher overall well-being) than the average American. There is even a scholarly paper titled What Positive Psychologists and Mormons Can Learn From Each Other by Elisa V. Hunter.
I choose to believe in a Higher Power:
I have never been somebody who prayed often; after reconstructing a Christian lifestance, I have tried to pray more often, but for me, that does not mean so much petitionary prayers but maybe reciting the Serenity Prayer or engaging in a kind of meditative visualization of God, like an atheist named Kevin did in a brain study with neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, that showed this benefits the brain and increases well-being. Whenever I do imagine God and seek the meditative stress-reducing effects of prayer, the concept of Heavenly Parents is the only conception of God that makes sense and feels right to me. The inclusion of a divine feminine feels right. I want to pray to what I relate to, not some vaporous no-thing without body parts or passions, and without locality as described in the sectarian Creeds. The Protestant Godhead sounds to me like the Father deity is an invisible no-thing (a kind of bodiless single dad) and then a never-married (bachelor) Jesus (as they present him); basically a godhead of three males and a host of all male angels without a female in sight! It sounds rather incomplete to say the least. Restored-Christianity just makes more sense with it's Heavenly Parents (a Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother).
Most (or many) Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals gleefully preach ECT (Eternal Conscious Torment) for having the wrong theological ideas in your head:
Thus basically preaching Orwellian Thoughtcrimes; including teaching ECT to children which I consider psychological terrorism and emotional child abuse. Joseph Smith removed this unbiblical and inhumane doctrine from his new church right at the beginning of its founding. Smith was ahead of his time in this regard and deserves a lot of credit for sparing future LDS believers from the pain and torment other Christians have gone through because of ECT. A lot of times exMormons who leave the church feel a sense of emotional betrayal and some form of emotional trauma, but in my opinion nothing I had experienced in the LDS Church that was negative, comes close to the psychological terror and trauma of those who have been taught ECT in other churches. My point is, whatever negative experiences the LDS church might produce in some people, it is nothing compared to the negative experiences caused by ECT in other churches.
Joseph Smith mostly cared about the same things I do and he championed many of the same causes that I do, and his religion reflects that:
(1) If Dan Vogel is correct, one of Joseph Smith's motivations was he wanted to unite his family through the Book of Mormon; and he was successful at that. I am a unifier at heart myself and so I resonate with Joseph's desire to bridge the divide in his family and unite them around a shared story and ethos. He was also seeking to remedy the growing skepticism and nihilism in his day, and the resulting cultural degeneracy, as is covered in the book Joseph Smith’s Response to Skepticism by Robert N. Hullinger.
(2) A recurrent theme in all Smith's scripture is that it is wrong for greedy jerks (with higher economic status) to look down on the poorer and less fortunate. We should instead have a mindset of how can we increase everyone's wealth and well-being as a unified group by esteeming your Christian brother/sister as yourself; and its wrong for society to prop up and idoloize those who are selfish and greedy (hoarding their wealth to stroke their ego) who lack good character. Yet it is also wrong for the poorer to envy those who are richer (more wealthy) if they are being idle and seeking to steal from the wealthy rather than work hard to achieve something for themselves.
(3) Smith's future vision was a society of friends linked in the heavens (see D&C 130:2), who treat each other's self-esteem as important as their own (see Jacob 2: 17; D&C 38: 25; D&C 42: 38).
(4) He also presented earthly desires as good, and romantic joy and happiness as the object and design of our existence.
(5) He presented a pro-science theology and a spiritual naturalism that does not despise the body; he formed a scholastic school, learned Hebrew, and promoted the reading of the best books to gain wisdom.
(6) His Dream of Zion is the same as mine.
(7) In the Book of Mormon we read of Christians who are compassionate but not doormats; who fight back to defend their families and Country as masculine men of valor. The Book of Mormon is thus very similar to books like No More Christian Nice Guy.
A Fortunae Fall:
I reject the Augustinian doctrine of Original Sin and agree with Smith who said in Article of Faith # 2, "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression." Smith also rejected the Protestant version of the "Fall" by instead stating in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 2:25): "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." This reversed the former view among many Protestants that man fell into a state of perpetual misery, and was to suffer, and grovel before the Augustinian-Lutheran concept of deity. Smith instead presented a more humane concept of deity, along with a more Hebrew attitude toward life in the body, and argued that man exists so that he might have joy.
Theosis:
The Protestant version of going to "worship," ("Where do you worship?") sounds and feels like groveling before the vanity of a monarch, which is off-putting to me; it lacks the Pauline, Eastern Orthodox, and/or LDS emphasis on theosis. At LDS churches and when I went through the LDS temple in the early 2000s I felt more ennobled and endowed with power, progressing with the Gods as an eternal soul (Abr.3:18; 5:7); in contrast, in the other Protestant churches I am essentially labeled inherently depraved and a filthy rag (menstrual cloth) in need of rescue from an angry deity who hates my human nature. In contrast to that, the LDS concept (as expressed by Terryl and Fiona Givens) of a Weeping God and a Christ Who Heals, feels more true and good.
Why Reinvent the Wheel?
I have already invested thousands of hours of time and energy into LDS Culture and have developed a cultural identity within it, to such a degree that I will never be able to develop anything comparable anywhere else. I grew up in the church, singing Primary Songs and hymns and learning LDS stories and the cultural language early on. I spent my teenage years attending Mormon dances and in my early twenties, as a Return Missionary, I enjoyed attending LDS single adult activities. I earned the Eagle Scout award in scouting and served a full-time mission, learning to speak Portuguese in Brazil. In other words, I was a missionary and technically a minister at age 19, and chose to read the entire Bible which I did by the time I was 21. Hence my brain has already been deeply wired with scriptural language and culture. There is no way I can completely unwire all that cultural brain wiring that has already been solidified after so many years.
Some scholars even argue that the atheist Nietzsche never fully unwired his brain of Christianity and in a way simply tried to improve it in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which uses New Testament language and imagery at times.
The Culture Mormon is to a Cultural Jew
Much like many men growing up in the Jewish Faith, who even though they might become an atheist or agnostic, still identify as a Cultural Jew and feel at home practicing Judaism at least on some level. Likewise, I am culturally Mormon and will always be that way whether I want to be or not. I have had this discussion on exmormon message boards and most exmormons, if they're honest, will admit that even if they're atheists they never stopped being culturally Mormon. As I have contemplated this reality, I am realizing that in fact I like it (as much as a secular Jew finds that he likes his cultural Judaism). After opposing my LDS Heritage and criticizing it and protesting certain policies around 2005 and then seeing that which I criticized undergo reforms in the LDS Church in the 2010s, I have seen enough progressive change take place in my lifetime to satisfy me enough. In the process I have grown into accepting my LDS identity. Like a family relationship wherein loved ones bicker and sometimes there is fighting and disagreements here and there, yet everyone eventually regathers and re-communes, I have felt a similar relationship to Mormonism. Although in my continuing studies, I have studied other Restoration branches besides the the Brighamite sect (Utah-based LDS Church), and so my Restoration beliefs are unique to me.
Mormonism is a Net Good:
As much as I found things to criticize about the LDS church throughout my life and had my qualms with various negative experiences being LDS, as I look back at the long and wide tapestry of memories in the LDS Church, I now see that there was way more positive experiences than negative ones. In psychological language, there was way more placebos than nocebos, far more lasting positive emotional contagion than negative emotional contagion. Then when I compared the doctrines or policies I struggled with and compared them to any other option, whether it's atheism or Nietzscheanism or Protestantism, etc., the Mormon Church comes out looking better by comparison.
Even when I compare the harm and bloodshed caused by other religions in comparison to Mormonism, once again I see that the LDS Church comes out looking much better than other religions and/or secular ideologies.
When I add up all of the LDS Church's positive teachings and the meaning-making power of its theology, and their buildings full of Jesus-apprentices and temples providing sacred spaces for quiet Christian contemplation, and how temples symbolize and signify hope and family unity -- and add up all of the missionaries and LDS charity and service projects, and the general LDS emotional-atmosphere and ethic of "choose the right" that reverberates throughout LDS communities everywhere in which they germinate -- it is overwhelmingly clear to me that the LDS church is a net good.
Restored-Christianity is the best relational-spiritual philosophy I am aware of:
In my view, Mormonism (or Restored Christianity) combines the positive elements one finds in Nietzche's pro-masculine philosophy (without its negative qualities), the wisdom of Stoicism and the Heart of New Testament Christianity and combines all of that with Hebraic/Jewish Eros. It is an interpretation of the Bible that some call a version of Muscular Christianity, yet with a strong emphasis on balancing the divine Feminine with the divine Masculine through the belief in a Heavenly Mother (and by extention Heavenly Parents). In contrast to other theologies that encourage celibacy and life-renunciation, LDS theology and practice acts out a life-affirming theology: in that it fully affirms biological life (the roles of the sexes and the family unit) and affirms procreative sexuality as good and holy through the archetypal hero's journey.
Much of what the Critics have criticized has eventually been remedied:
I have discovered that every time there is a legitimate criticism it is most often eventually corrected, like with the 2013 Race and the Priesthood essay; and ever since 2005 there has been a consistent effort to generate a more transparent LDS Church History with for example The Joseph Smith Papers.
Unrighteous dominions solved with good boundaries:
Most of the criticisms of the social culture and it beeing a "high demand religion" can be remedied with healthy boundaries by each individual member. So while I personally do not attend the LDS Church I think some people with good boundaries can have a good experience.
Know of Nothing Better:
It is the best Family Fraternity I am aware of. I have not found anything better. Give me a modern organization or family-friendly fraternity, that is more positive toward men and fathers and the nuclear family; during our current cultural psychosis that is anti fathers, anti-feminity and motherhood, and is against biological gender roles, healthy parenting, and is overall anti-masculinity, the Mormon Church has become a safe haven for conservative Christian values: like the importance of fathers in the home providing a masculine balance to the femininity provided by the mother.
Give me a fraternal organization that is as worldwide and successful as the LDS church. I can fly to a new state or country right now and likely find a local LDS Ward that will welcome me in and help me assimilate into my new location, providing me an instant culture of familiarity and acquaintances who share my spiritual language; who will very easily, if I make the effort, become my friends and allies in the new area.
90% Good and Positive:
There certainly is at least 10% that is problematic and negative in Mormonism, but isn't that the case with any religion or even a secular organization? While one can nit pick and narrow in on the negative, which is what career anti-mormons do, I have found that if one consumes LDS material in its Scriptures and in the manuals, one will find that it is 90% good and positive. In other words, it contains a psychological and metaphysical energy that is an overall positive good for the individual and society. Are there certain personality types and types of persons that will not thrive in Mormonism? Yes. But for the majority, and for most of society (benefiting from the chapels and temples and LDS culture), it is a net good of positivity and charity.
New & Better Apologetics:
When I resigned around 2004, LDS apologists were often snarky and rude and unChristlike. Fast forward to around 2015, and I have seen a radical change toward what has been called a more pastoral apologetics, the removal of Daniel Peterson from the Maxwell Institute; and Flumen and Terryl Givens taking the lead in the area of a respectful and scholarly defense of Mormonism.
I spent 5 years visiting the Deseret bookstore in my area, and have found that what could only previously be found in anti-mormon literature is now available in church-friendly sources. So the accusation that the LDS Church is not transparent with its history, is nill and void. The LDS Curch manuals in the Chapels may indeed continue to sugar coat things. But the LDS Curch has also put out official publications presenting the same information you will find in anti- mormonism documents. So there really is no longer a hiding of information like was done in the past.
There is more of a Voice Today for Intellectuals & the Philosophically Inclined:
When I was inactive around 2004 I did not have a Voice, there was no one who saw things the way I did; but now there is Patrick Mason, Terry Givens, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, etc. There are now popular podcasts like Midnight Mormons (changed to Ward Radio in 2023), A Thoughtful Faith, and Gospel Tangents, where actively believing LDS members present a cool, rational, informed and transparent version of the Faith. And historically, there were Mormon leaders who practiced a more philosophical, scholarly and scientific faith, such as Joseph Smith himself, BH Roberts, the Pratt Brothers, and James Talmage, etc.
Pragmatic Functionalism:
Even if I were to conclude that the whole Mormon thing is "made up," the entire Bible is made up, then there is no God and thus no objective Right and Wrong. But even if I reached that conclusion, I would not feel content with that and seek to construct everything I had rejected because deep down I believe in Right and Wrong and feel like I have a soul and my loved ones have a soul and were not just meat-computers or just a random assembly of atoms formed by quantum waves of basically cosmic nothingness. I would want there to be inalienable Rights endowed by our Creator. I believe in the guilt or innocence of a defendant in court, and without that we lose Law and Order and civility. Likewise, I would want there to be a Higher Power, a meaning and purpose in life, and there to be a soul. So I would end up as a Restorationist Pragmatist (similar to Jordan Peterson and Durkheim) at the very least.
I believe in Empowering Ideas & The Dream of Zion:
The heart of Mormonism is a consistent emphasis on individual and group empowerment. If it is not truly empowering to you and others, then I would say it is not authentic Mormonism. So I believe in the energy of LDS Scriptures, Socials and Rituals, as a consistent energy source for motivating an active Empowerment. I also believe in the Dream of Zion as described in the Book of Moses chapter 7. I believe in The Book of Mormon's consistent theme of treating your brother/neighbor as yourself and the pursuit of equity in contrast to iniquity (non-equity). So even if the entire Mormon belief system was to be deemed unscientifically true and the Big "C" Church (Utah-based Corporate organization) deemed man-made, for me these individual and cultural ideals within the little "c" church (the Ekklesia) would still be true and worth defending and championing. In other words, even if it was not supernaturally produced and no different than any other social fraternity and secular ideas, I would still conclude that I believe in its core values and principles and the overall good it does.
A Heritage Mormon Perspective distinguishes between the Traditions of Men and the Doctrine of Christ:
The traditions of men are always changing and evolving. For example, the traditions of Joseph Fielding Smith, Boyd K. Packer, and Bruce R. McConkey, Daniel Peterson and Louis Midgley, has been largely replaced today with Terryl Givens, Patrick Mason, and Spencer Fluman, etc.
The consistent principles and patterns of the Doctrine of Christ are simple:
- Repentance unto water baptism
- The baptism of fire
- Endure to the end
In brief, water baptism is a mindset ritual, dying to your old self and becoming a courageous warrior, willing to die a hero if necessary for a just cause (which is the meaning of endure to the end). The baptism of fire is the noomatic burning away of cowardice and selfishness and becoming more Christian and more antifragile: including the spiritual energy of the Strength of the Lord as well as the gifts of the nooma toward the vision of Zion (in Moses 7).
This is the core foundation of LDS Christianity. The Heritage Mormon Perspective is connecting oneself to what Samuel Brown has called the great Chain of Belonging: interlinking one's being with one's LDS Pioneer ancestors and the founding fathers of LDS religion and culture: who exemplified the Doctrine of Christ throughout their lives, passing on their genes, their stories, and cultural ideals to the next generation; having built a transgenerational metatribe, a quasi-ethnicity, a mighty culture, what Denver S. calls a Peoplehood.
From this perspective, Heritage Mormonism is beyond belief or disbelief and is rooted in one's DNA, one's heritage, or family line; and so to "spit on" Mormonism is to spit on one's ancestors; to mock and ridicule their ancestral line of forefathers and foremothers and disrespect their memory, their sacrifices, their accomplishments; their drive to thrive and form a People. To embrace one's heritage in turn is to become linked to one's genealogical ancestors, to connect and belong to a People, a Higher Generational Purpose: to enter an ancestral city built on a hill, with deeply rooted ideals and virtues to live by, embedded in the very "blood" of each Heritage Mormon.
It is to move beyond merely thinking of yourself and your next temporary gratification and selfish pursuits. It is to think beyond oneself, to think generationally as a link in the great Chain of Belonging; to expand the bloodline, continue the culture, the vision of a Zion People into future generations, just as the Jews have done through Judaism.
