Rant Time

So I haven't posted in a while because I honestly don't have a whole lot to say nowadays, but I do have something that I just need to get off my chest. Maybe I'll lose some friends, maybe people will talk about me, but I don't care. You know those things that you just get tired of carrying around, buried deep inside yourself? And you know how sometimes you just get tired of carrying it? I'm there right now.

Maybe I'm just stressed out from school and work and life in general, but maybe I'm not but let me just start by saying the following sentence(s? I don't know how many it will be, I'm just in rant mode and need to get it out. Y'all know how that goes.).

I am not a Mormon. I don't want to be. I have no desire to be one. And because of where I was raised and because of the people that have ruined that for me, I will never, ever have any desire to be any part of that affiliation. A lot of my friends are Mormons and I love them TO DEATH. But here me out now.

I DO NOT want to be any part of your religion. Please quit forcing it down my throat. I'm tired of it. I moved from Utah for a reason, and it wasn't because I wanted to move to yet another place to get it forced down my throat even more.

So let me get this straight. I am a Christian. I have no religious affiliation beyond that. I believe in the bible, I believe in God and Jesus. The one thing I don't believe in? The Mormon religion and it's book. I'm not shaming anyone who is a part of that church but I know so many people that are like me. I know so many people that move from Utah because the Mormon cult of Utah is just too much to handle.

Cult? Yes. Cult. Why do I say that? Well, after moving to Texas, it was almost a relief not to have every single one of my friends force their religion down my throat. Beyond that, the Mormons here are different. They are so nice. They don't make me feel ashamed of myself when I say that I'm not a Mormon. They are just a whole other species. And that's how I feel a religion should be. One that is welcoming to all other walks of life. Be it Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, I think that a religion should be accepting of everybody. And let me just say, the Mormons of Utah (for the most part) are not welcoming of ANYBODY that aren't are a part of their church. And I feel like it's a cult mentality. You can't be friends with someone because they aren't your same religion. You know what? Let me just share a quote from an essay I wrote my Senior year of English when I moved to Texas:

Growing up as a child in Utah as a non-Mormon was not only hard, but it was confusing too. I can remember coming home from school in my Elementary days in tears because another girl on the playground found out I wasn’t the same religion as her, and her parents thought I’d be a bad influence on her. I can remember too, bringing my friends over to my house, and they would stare open mouthed at our coffee machine. Mormons thought it was a sin to drink tea or coffee, consequently, there were few coffee machines in their homes. Life was confusing as well, I never understood why any of my friends couldn’t come over to play on Sunday, nor did I understand why they were always dressed up every Sunday in fancy tuxedos, and cute dresses. But as I grew older, I understood what they were doing, and learned to accept the fact that my Sundays were bound to be long and boring.

I hate to say the people like me, but so many people experience this. EVERY. DAY. If you are going to even begin to claim to be a Christian, why would you shame somebody for believing in the same God as you for starters, and for ending, God is a loving being of everybody. Regardless of who you are. He LOVES you. He loves your flaws and every single thing that is you. That being said, would He want you to shame someone else for believing in Him in a different way than yourself? I tend to think not.

That being said. I will never be a part of the Mormon Church. Ever. The things that I experienced living in Utah have scarred me far too much to ever consider being a part of something like the Mormon church. So before you even think about converting me, handing me your book, or even mentioning your church, just know that I'm going to ignore you, or if it's on Facebook, I will delete your comment. I don't want to be any part of your church, just like you don't want any part of my religion. And you know what? That's okay. And also, all your posts about the church and all of your public announcements from church leaders? Yeah. I won't ever listen to them or read them. So don't even waste your time recommending it to me because it just flat out won't happen.

To those that are like me, know that believing in God is not a bad thing. Believing in whatever you want to believe in is not a bad thing. What becomes bad is when you force it down somebodies throat.

Please think before you start to shove your religion down somebodies throat- especially mine.

~Alyssa

(As a side note: I hope I made myself clear. There are some really, really great Utah Mormons out there. But the majority ruin it for the minority. And if y'all have never heard of my struggles then this probably doesn't apply to you.)

(If you want to read the rest of my essay, "A World of Hypocrisy" you can do so here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzc2MzzgQerbbVYzWjE1RTZ3MU0/view?usp=sharing. For privacy reasons, names that were mentioned in the page were changed to random names generated from a random name generator.)