No such animal. it seems that about the best that could be done would be “help mine unbelief” but not addressed to anyOne, necessarily.

Re: “He wants to find or start a religion that is completely rational. No nonsense that requires the suspension of logic and giant leaps of faith and close mindedness about problem areas.”

I flirted with the rationality path in years past as I tried to argue the reasonableness of the restored gospel. It doesn’t work. I had a Protestant friend that tried the same thing your friend proposes. As I posted at M*, “in high school, I was able to argue a Protestant friend out of his beliefs, which is not difficult to do. He announced one day that he’d made-up his own religion and explained it to us. His new religion didn’t work out very well: the year after we graduated, he wrote a note, took some pills, and died. I feel responsible for my part in his death because I took away his false foundation but I failed to show him how to obtain a real testimony based upon the witness of the Holy Ghost. ‘Trifle not with sacred things.’ (D&C 6:12)” (see complete posting here)

As for “a religion that is completely rational. No nonsense that requires the suspension of logic and giant leaps of faith,” God, the source of true religion, already told us “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14)

I don’t believe that we do require close mindedness about problem areas; but an open mind doesn’t shut out the favorable evidence of spiritual witnesses we received either. In such cases, I say, “I do not know the answer yet to this issue and I will continue to wait for it. I do know that the Holy Ghost repeatedly testified this restored gospel is true, that this gospel saved my life, and that it healed my soul. I will not drop what I do know for what I do not yet know.”

I hope the best for your friend.

I think the reason people go inactive is that they loose this perception of this sweetness. Mormon life becomes sour to them. Drudgery. Bitterness. Toxic. (Where is that thesarus when I need it?)

I spent a few days out of town visiting with a close friend who once was one of the greatest members I knew and has gone pretty sour. He once told stories like these and now would howl in laughter and derision at this thread. All of these conversion stories, not just this one. His last experiences with Mormonism were anything but sweet.

I can not cover 20 hours of intense discussions, but a snippet: He challenged me to demonstrate, based on the last two years of general conference talks, that any of the current GA’s had a genuine understanding of the Atonement. He said he would attend one more Mormon church meeting if I could do it. He has been attending other churches for many months. I had him read Elder U-dorf’s last GC talk on the church website and he said that it was primitive and lacked depth and too heavy on the works and not enough emphasis on grace and basically tore it apart. I am rather cynical but I thought that talk to be quite uplifting.I hoped he would taste a bit of the old sweetness. I find that I like Elder U-dorf and my friend finds him a buffoon. Further descriptions might violate the policies of this website, I am on thin ice already.

We went to both services. Neither was particularly good. My friend said it represented a threshhold for him; the first time he felt more comfortable in a Protestant service than in a Mormon one. I suppose I walked with him out of the doors of a Mormon church for his last time two days ago. (We also loose his wife and four sons, ages 18, 16, 11, 8. As recent as 1 year ago his oldest son was planning to serve a mission). Off course, he spent much of the previous day telling me all the things he does not believe about Protestantism.

Since the Methodist sermon covered the virgin conception of Jesus, I asked him, out of fairness and consistency, if the multiple versions of the 1st vision were a problem for him then is not this story in Matt 1 also problematic? Old Jewish folklore about the Roman soldier, etc. Does it not yank the rug out from under Christianity worse than our Lamanite DNA problems? And Moses with his burning bush; come on that is assinine, maybe it was his pants that were on fire. If we are agoin’ to squirt lemon juice on the gold plates then we must be fair and consistent. I humorously proposed a scientific experiment: Test the Shroud of Turin for !st century Roman DNA.

He wants to find or start a religion that is completely rational. No nonsense that requires the suspension of logic and giant leaps of faith and close mindedness about problem areas. The only thing everyone can agree on then I told him is periodic eating, that it is a good thing. Jesus fed the hungry 5,000. What exactly to eat is another story. Not jello. An intense discussion on why stay in Mormonism has run its 10 year course. So he may start up the church of the feast. Dutch ovens will be the sacrament trays.

My point: I read these wonderful conversion stories from people on this website whom I do not know and I should rejoice, but one of my best friends has gone sour and I hurt. That you are feeling the sweetness is remarkable to me because it so contrasts with what my friend has gone through.

Adam: I think you’re right on in linking “sweetness” with “divine sociality.” I’m not aware (maybe someone can enlighten me if I’m wrong) of another faith tradition or culture in which “sociality” is lent such a sense of spirituality, or in which the concept of heaven so closely resembles the most enjoyable moments on earth. What makes it unique (I think) is that, as Jim. F. once put it so precisely,”God exists in the world in something like the way that we do”; we can deduce from this that there’s something literaly holy in those moments when we experience profound joy in the company of others. Mormonism implies that such moments will happen forever–and, in fact, are the purpose of existence.

Bookslinger,
Thanks.

Dan in Baghdad,
No thesauraus here, friend. Others pretend to be pompous windbags, but I’m authentic.

Wilfried D.,
Thanks for the links, they’re always timely. I don’t wholly agree with ‘em, but they’re worth reading.

Todd L.,
Great! If you see something worth sharing, email me.

Manaen,
I think personal journals would be a bad source, mostly. People are always trying to draw lessons and things, which is great for a journal but bad for public writing.

Eugene England’s Mormon Literature: Progress and Prospects

Richard Cracroft’s, Attuning the Authentic Mormon Voice: Stemming the Sophic Tide in LDS Literature.

Overall, the Mormon Literature Website will provide much more.