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A devout Mormom family will much more readily make life hard for you if you want to head for the hills.
With Catholics and Christians, it's "eh, so what?"
The criticism comes from the fact that Mormons apparently judge others, including non-Mormons, through Mormon lenses. It's the imposition of their value system. Therein lies the problem.
So, yeah, give the defecting Mormon an extra scoop of ice cream. Their trek is a little harder, given the context. I think that, if you find out a religion, a career, an educational track or even a spouse is not good for you and you do something constructive about it, you are very cool in my book.
therein lies the interpretation of some people as to what the problem is.
the majority of devout mormon families that i know have ex-mormon kids, and still love them and treat them with the respect that they too wish to be treated with. in fact, many of them are particularly supportive, hoping that the kids will see the light again someday.
the church teaches that it is not acceptable to disown or drop others for something as stupid as a difference in belief. if you think we really believed that, don't you think we would also be actively ignoring the rest of humanity?
as far as judging others through mormon lenses, there is not a person in the world that doesn't judge the rest of humanity through their own, individual lenses, so i'm not going to be foolish enough to say that it doesn't happen.
but it does not happen as often as you seem to think (note the complete generalization in your post). it is not acceptable. people need to get over petty differences such as the ones that we are discussing. but if you are going to harshly judge a congregation because they are not perfect, then you are failing on multiple levels.
either way, back to the op, i know plenty of ex-(insert any religion or lack thereof here) that are 'cool' people. i have friends and family that are ex-mormons, and i'd be a hypocrit were i to disdain them for their choices.
aaron out.
unless you know the intimate inner workings of their families you do not really know about the ex-members treatment.
^that is true, but quite a few of the ones that i am talking about are close family and friends, where i do know (obviously not everything) a lot about the inner workings.
i also know that this ostracism is not a mormon phenomenon, though it does happen. plenty of the rest of you belong to churches that do the same thing that you are trying to make us look bad for. again, i'm not claiming that mormons are a perfect bunch (if we were, we wouldn't need Christ's atonement). i'm claiming that this overgeneralization is simply that, an overgeneralization that people are using to cement their already biased fears and resentments. that's it.
I like most Mormons I've met. Even worked around a lot of them, and every single individual had good work ethics. They look healthy and stay pretty true to their tenets about not consuming certain things (pork, caffeine) or tobacco, drugs or alcohol. (I do work with one who's a huge chocoholic.)
Y'know, I didn't really think so until my husband told me that the other day. I'm married to a "jack-Mormon", and he told me that they refrain from pork. However, he probably hasn't set foot in a Mormon church since he was a teen, so his memory is shot and he's getting his facts mixed up with another religion.
Alright, so does this make my husband more "cool"? His mom was "the Mormon" in his family (not his dad), and while "cool" isn't the word that comes to mind when I think of her, she was a sweetheart, and I liked her better than my own mother, quite frankly.
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