Non-Religous Upbringing

I grew up all over the place in the western United States and my parents never instilled any sort of religious bearing in me. The only reason I even considered myself a Christian was thanks to my grandmother, who at an early age taught me how to pray.

I always viewed organized religion as evil and corrupt and something that I really wanted no part of. I always found it disturbing that those who claimed to be doing God's work were being paid to do it. I believe that a church should not be involved in matters of money except for those things they strictly need, buildings, books, etc. Imagine how pissed off I was when I found out about the multi-billion dollar church owned shopping mall.

So when I was in college I met my wife and she eventually worked up the courage on her part to introduce me to the church. I wasn't too interested at first but everybody was so nice and it all made perfect sense to me at the time. And to seal the deal they told me that church leaders are not paid to run the church. So after taking the discussions and reading the Book of Mormon in less than a month I decided to hop on board.

Nothing really changed after that. I had always been "good" before that. I didn't drink, smoke, or any of those "sinful" actions. The powers from above had also seen it necessary to start grooming me for the big time. I was in the bishopric in less than 5 years. Then I let my guard down and let "Satan" in my heart (rolling my eyes).

Needless to say after leaving the church I feel so much better. I feel closer to my wife, I don't feel the constant guilt of having to do everything "by the Book", and I don't have to send my tithing money to a church corporation who wants to do their part to oil the capitalist machine.

I've never felt better!