Forum Search

So, I need to amend my earlier entry “I’m on MormonHub Forums!” In my search to find someplace wholesome to hang out, it turns out, LDS forums are fraught with just as much danger as IMDB or Literotica. Just a different kind of danger. On the worldly forums, people curse freely, make sexual jokes, and devolve into contentious arguments almost as a matter of course to communicate with one another. Despite the things I learn from some of the discussions, I did not like the way that I was desensitized to these mannerisms and methods of communication. As if calling someone a crude name is something I can gloss over and still gain something valuable from the discussion. I’m incredibly protective of my testimony, since I lost it for several years, and despite the measure of intolerance it might show of me, I cannot allow myself to feel the Spirit leave me for even a moment if I can help it.

Looking up “lds discussion forums”, where people would share my values and would even be church centered, turned out to be a bad idea as a replacement. I tried out a couple of other LDS forums after going to MormonHub because that forum moves rather slow and people like to talk topics to death before finally moving on to something new. On a different, much larger LDS forum, seemingly more politically and conservative geared, I read a bunch of topics and ended up finding out about false doctrines and off-shoots from the church that I didn’t know existed. I don’t want others to be exposed to these things as I was, so, I will not mention them by name but it’s the kind of thing where members fall away because they don’t have strong testimonies in the core principles of Christ and His church or they have been very obviously tricked by the Adversary into thinking they are more special than they are and deserve God’s glory for themselves through self-aggrandizement.

It's not just that these things exist that is harmful but on this particular forum, I would recognize the opening post of a topic to be false doctrine and I’d scroll through a dozen replies before finding someone who recognized it as well. And then they’d end up being the only one weakly making a case for why this thing was false while dozens more people came in declaring their support for the original false post. There is something self-correcting about going to church; you ask questions or you express a viewpoint and if it is incorrect, you’re guided towards the correct doctrine. You don’t just spout an answer or opinion in class and not have others help guide your viewpoint and focus back to where it belongs, either in the middle of class, or privately with the teachers and church authorities and even the missionaries.

This is not happening on these forums. They’re anonymous so nobody knows who has real authority or not and people who have doubts or spout false doctrine don’t have any checks or balances in place in order to call them on it or guide them towards the right answers. The ultimate guide is of course the Spirit who will help you find the right answers but if you’re not choosing the right, it can be hard for the Spirit to come to you. I don’t want to assume how often these people pray or whether or not they’re reading their scriptures. I remember a time when I thought I could get away with not reading them and still have a strong testimony(spoiler alert: that did not end up working out for me). But I do know if they were reading their scriptures and had a relationship with Heavenly Father, they might not be thinking these ridiculous things.

In the midst of reading one particular topic, I felt prompted by the Spirit to leave, understanding that there was danger there. Because as a newly returned member, all I really have is what I’ve learned so far and what I vaguely remember from going to church before. I didn’t want to chance that I’d come upon a topic and not be able to recognize immediately that it was not true doctrine and possibly be romanced away again. The church has brought me so much assurance and confidence in my path through the world now and I know what it was like to trust in other things. Without really understanding that was what I was doing, I searched for replacements, different things to believe in and give guidance and meaning to my life. They were never good enough, the sense of trust was never there. Only this church has brought me that kind of surety that if ever I were to fall backwards, the Lord and Christ would be there to catch me.

I expressed my misgivings to my brother, Ben, and he suggested I find a plain Christian forum or a plain conservative forum to go to. I don’t think that would be a good idea either, despite the focus being on Christ, I don’t want to, with my testimony as gentle and special to me as it is, put it out there where it is forced to be challenged or made fun of. Because if I signed up to a Christian forum, I’d want to be open about being LDS and in discussions about Christian topics, I might get drawn into contentious arguments and debates about doctrine. Teaching has to be done with the Spirit in order to have value because it is the Spirit that will testify to someone that what is said is true. The internet is bad enough about allowing regular, worldly people to feel safe to express themselves. When religion and personal beliefs are brought into it, people automatically get defensive in order to protect it.

So, in conclusion, for now, I’m not going to be going to any forums but I did want to make this entry to warn anyone against going to any LDS forums. Please, if you go exploring, make sure that you have the spirit with you so that you may feel its promptings if you need to leave. But my personal experience and counsel is: just do not go. Go to church instead.