Mormon No More

For context: I was raised in the LDS church in England, served as a missionary & married in the temple.

This is a fascinating insight into an area that shows the lack of inclusivity within the church I've called home. I've seen the struggles my brother in law had to face when he came out. I found this series to be a fair & balanced representation of the issues raised.

I was also adopted through LDS family services, as my birth mother was 14 when she got pregnant, & was shocked to see the advice is continued to be given. As is "stay celibate". Until you've walked in their shoes you cannot know what it's like.

Its a good side of a story to see. Relatable to me, so I enjoyed the 1st episode. But I'm not going to watch the whole series. I think the people who are rating it so low are homophobes.

As Episode 1 of "Mormon No More" (2022 release; 4 episodes of about 45 min each) opens, we are introduced to Sally, who after marriage and 3 kids has left the Mormon church after falling in love with another woman. "Who am I without Mormonism?" she ponders. The other woman is Lena, with 4 children, who also has left the Mormon church. We then go back in time and understand better what the background of each of them is. At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this 4 part docu-series is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Heartbreaking because it provides a damning picture of the Mormon church, and in particular its non-support and non-inclusiveness of the LDTBQ+ community. All the strict rules of what is and isn't proper and allowed in the church are promulgated by, wait, wait, wait for it... OLD WHITE MEN. Every single one of the Mormon church's senior leadership (and much in the same way it is with conservative Christian churches), showing no understanding or empathy for "otherness", and in fact oppressing it at very turn. Watch the "conversion therapy" segment. Yet the documentary is also uplifting as we get to know Sally and Lena, and others like them. The most interesting aspect of it all is watching how Sally's and Lena's immediate families and ex-es deal with it. In the end, though, this docu-series exposes the hypocritical nature of religious organizations like the Mormon church and conservative Christian churches, who claim to profess one thing in words but then do the exact opposite in their actions. Shame on them all.

"Mormon No More" recently premiered in Hulu and all 4 episodes are now available to stream. I watched it just the other night and was surprised how quickly these episodes flew by. If you have any interest in the treatment of the LGTBQ+ community in and by the Mormon church, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

This documentary seems to be of the opinion that if you cheat in your marriage, IF it is with a same sex person, you're a hero of some kind. Lots of marriages grow stale and need to be worked on and given attention. Running off and having an affair makes you typical, not a hero. I suppose blaming your church eases the conscious, but it doesn't change the fact you lied, cheated, and broke vows, no matter how nice the music they play in the background while telling your "brave" story.

Perhaps I should have looked more closely at the episode descriptions before watching.

I was expecting an introspective journey of individuals who lost their belief in the Mormon religion.

What I got instead was a quasi-reality TV show of a couple who came out as being Gay - focusing on their lives in California where they were going to get married.

Coming out as Gay is a theme that has been brought up in many documentaries. However, in this series the emphasis was on their discovery of being Gay, rather than leaving the Mormon faith.

The Mormon religion is very hierarchical, patriarchal, and insular - shutting itself off from the outside world. It is puritanical, denying sexual activity and insists on sex only after marriage and solely for procreation purposes. I can assume they prohibit any form of birth control.

I wanted to learn the motivation for abandoning that world of Mormonism. There was very little on this.

One of the women told of how her parents were not allowed to attend her wedding inside the Mormon church because they were not of the faith.

The centerpiece of this documentary was of the two women who were to be married. This became repetitive and trite. When it veered away from them onto other ex-Mormons it was far more provocative, like the encounter with the "Mormon therapist" who did conversion therapy attempting to make Gay people straight. He later abandoned the Mormon faith.

Overall, this was disappointing and superficial, with much of one episode being devoted to the wedding of two women, showing them trying on clothes, making invitations...

What did any of this have to do with leaving Mormonism?