What an unusual week for me. Last Sunday night the HBO series Big Love depicted for the first time in major media a scene from the secret Mormon temple endowment. It was tastefully done and apparently not completely gratuitious (plot-wise.)
It provided an opportunity for me to once again log onto the Big Love discussion boards at HBO, where I have in the past been quoted — by others– as an expert on Mormonism. All week long, I provided information and links and insights from my own time as a very happy Mormon, and my experiences in an LDS temple.
There was a lot of emotion there! Mormons were angry and defensive. Non-religious people were often insulting and demeaning. I knew that I could help, and was so glad to do so. Here is a private message I got from one of the most prominent Mormons who posts there:
Thank you so much for your thoughtful posts. I've been reading all the vitriol back and forth this week & I was glad that you posted why ex-Mormons feel so defensive. Even though this board is a discussion of Big Love and because of that Mormonism – I feel like I've had my own breakthrough this week as an ex-Christian, as some of the feelings I've seen in the ex-Mormon community are similar to my own. I was glad to see your mediation in that untactful address to [screen name withheld.]
About the same time this was all happening, a Mormon man (who shall remain unnamed) on Twitter — a stranger to me, and as it turns out, equally a stranger to my books– posted a public message: @Latayne yeah! Another bitter anti-mormon spewing hate! Gotta love you guys, you really have nothing better to do with your time…
When I asked him if he'd read any of my books (and you can read reviews of them on this site) where other people have said I am not bitter, he called this website “an anti-mormon web site full of all kinds of the usual recycled garbage. Nothing worth reading.”
And now he can't understand why I don't want to go to one of his sites and “discuss” things with him. . .
On the other hand, my site statistic meter shows my site got over 600 pageloads yesterday, mainly from his website. So, thank you! And welcome to you all!
For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.
