#ex-mormon — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #ex-mormon, aggregated by home.social.
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Surely no man knoweth the hour, but The Second Coming of Jesus Christ™ will be scheduled to align with the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints IPO. Get in early!
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[Edit*]An older but ever-relevant of ICSA Today with articles on recovering from sexual abuse in cults, how to communicate with loved ones inside cults, the spread of conspiracy theories in France, and multi-generational cult survivors.
https://library.internationalculticstudies.org/24n7ceh/
[The issue is from 2021, but they emailed around an article from it recently.]
#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #ICSA
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I find the names interesting. They're way cooler than the names men gave to us when I was coming up.
'The group of girls turning 12 or 13 will now be called “Builders of Faith,” those turning 14 or 15 will be “Messengers of Hope,” and those 16 or older will be “Gatherers of Light.'
I did notice an interesting tier-structure, which mirrors the levels of heaven.
You've got your low-level laborers at the bottom, building shit. Then there's the Messengers, middle-managers who get a bit more pay for far less work. Then there's the Gatherers who are just gathering light, which is the lightest work of all, enlightened youngsters ruling over their younger, less-equal sisters in Zion.
I'd love to see the men's youth group counterpart names to represent the eternally opposing gender roles.
I suggest:
Foot Soldiers of Faith
Prophetic Preachers of Hope
Big Game Hunters of Lighthttps://www.sltrib.com/religion/2026/04/25/lds-young-women-president-emily/
(Clearly this one's lit a blog post in me.)
🧵
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Wow, big changes in the LDS Church. They're giving women so much leeway over their own organizations!
Clearly, Mormon leadership has come to respect women and expects big things from them! They've put a tremendous amount of trust in them for this monumental job! How inspired! Has any human organization ever been so progressive towards women's liberation?
It'll be difficult, but I know you can do it girls!
🧵
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The ICSA has a journal article about how career counseling can help protect vulnerable kids from trafficking and cults.
Surprise! Poverty increases risk. Having a solid sense of identity helps prevent risk.
Abstract: 'Human trafficking is a rapidly expanding global criminal industry that frequently targets children and adolescents by preying on their vulnerabilities. This article presents research identifying seven categories of susceptibility in Generation Z, with a specific focus on how poverty and low personal achievement increase the risk of being trafficked. The authors propose that career counseling can serve as a vital preventive measure by building self-sufficiency, motivation, and a long-term “career self-concept” that helps youth reject the immediate gratification offered by predators.'
(Sorry, it's Substack.)
https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/could-career-counseling-help-protect
#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical
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Natasha Helfer on developments in Utah with the LDS church supporting rollbacks of discrimination protections for transgender people. 10 minutes.
#ReligiousTrauma #UTPol #exmo #exmormon #LGBTQ #Sexcommunicated
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Christians and defenders of Christianity who haven't thought it through like to point to the New Testament as where God finally decided to be a nice guy. (Which is antisemitic, btw. But that aside.)
Sometimes I revisit various stories from the New Testament and realize what an asshole Jesus was.
Today my feed reminded me of the walking on water story, in which Jesus was particularly dickish. It goes like this:
Jesus sends his pals out in a boat and he's like, "You go on boys I'll catch you up later." And he goes on a mountain to pray for the rest of the day because he's SO HOLY. When he's done, he heads back to the ship, which by now is way out to sea. So he just walks out there as if states of matter are nothing to him.
The dudes on the ship, they're like holy shit boys, there's a ghooost! (idk why but everybody was always mistaking The Christ for a ghost back then.)
Jesus is like "hey guys, lol naw it's just me, walking on water!! Check this out!"
Peter is like "I don't fucking believe you, SCARY GHOST! If it IS you, then tell me to come out there and get you!" (wtf Pete??)
So The Christ is like, "ok bru, come on out here."
Peter is like "boys, hold my beer, don't you go drinking it Judas, it's my last one!" and he jumps out of the boat and is walking on water, just like his buddy Jesus!!
But it's a bit windy and this one huge wave is like "ooooohhh I'm the ghost now! Boo!" and Peter is thinking "Shit this was really stupid, I'm way too drunk for this." So Peter starts sinking, right?
Then Jesus, god what a dick, he goes, "Pete you motherfucker, you didn't have enough faith and now I've got to save your ass AGAIN!" And he saved Peter from drowning, even though this whole thing was a setup from the beginning to make him look like some sort of savior.
And just to prove it, the weather calms right back down when Jesus gets into the boat, and they all has a good laugh.
Just kidding. What really happened is, in fact, everyone started worshiping him then and there with his smug-ass grin.
The version they tell in Sunday school has all of these same beats, but is told in a different tone, where Jesus is awesome and Peter should be ashamed of himself for not believing hard enough that he could only walk *a little way* on stormy water.
That, my friends, is what I call #AbuseCulture and why you should decolonize your mind.
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Lady Maga - Ryan Woods (not the UK based footballer)
#LadyMagaRyanWoods #Mormon #ExMormon #CostumeArtist #Drag #DragQueen
(search results from DuckDuckGo)
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Lady_MAGA
Lady MAGA - Wikipedia
Lady MAGA is a character created by Ryan Woods, an American political activist, internet personality and former drag queen who supported Donald Trump during the 2020 United States presidential election.Lady Maga USA
https://ladymagausa.com › about
What I Stand For - Lady MAGA USA
I'm Ryan Woods. I'm a Utah man and a staunch Conservative Constitutionalist. I use the drag character Lady Maga USA to bring humor and fun to the dark world of politics. I stand for the original values of MAGA: America first, no foreign wars, mass deportations, government swamp clean-up, a border wall, lower taxes, and arrests of corrupt government officials and Epstein clients. Lady Maga ...grokipedia.com
https://grokipedia.com › page › Lady_MAGA
Lady MAGA - grokipedia.com
Lady MAGA USA is a drag persona created and performed by Ryan Woods, a gay conservative activist based in Utah, who employs the character to advocate for America-first principles, constitutional freedoms, and Republican policies while challenging perceptions that LGBTQ individuals cannot support conservative causes. Woods, an ex-Mormon with a background in aviation where he worked eight years ...Advocate.com
https://www.advocate.com › news › lady-maga-usa-drag
Right-Wing Drag Queen Lady MAGA USA Now a 'Costume Artist'
Lady Maga USA, the drag queen character played by a Salt Lake City-dwelling, gay, Mormon man named Ryan Woods, has walked a fine line for years since appearing in conservative circles and ...Yahoo
https://www.yahoo.com › news › just-not-now-lady-maga-100000898.html
'It's just not in me right now': Is Lady MAGA USA hanging ... - Yahoo
2 Apr 2025For the better part of five years, Woods has exhausted himself and stretched his finances serving as the ultimate Trump cheerleader: Lady MAGA USA, a drag queen who sashays from rally to rally ...Facebook
https://www.facebook.com › LadyMagaUSA › directory_category
Lady Maga USA - Facebook
Hi, I'm Ryan Woods, creator of the drag character Lady Maga USA. I'm based. I am a Patriot. I love America. I love the Constitution. I'm a free speech absolutist.Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-features › lady-maga-loneliest-drag-queen-america-1234703303
Lady MAGA: The Loneliest Drag Queen in America - Rolling Stone
A blue sash proclaimed the name of Ryan Woods' drag persona in sparkly letters: "LADY MAGA USA." The floor-length ensemble, he'd explain, was an homage to Abigail Adams, Marie Antoinette ...IMDb
https://www.imdb.com › news › ni64012398
The Loneliest Drag Queen in America - IMDb
A blue sash proclaimed the name of Ryan Woods' drag persona in sparkly letters: " Lady Maga USA." The floor-length ensemble, he'd explain, was an homage to Abigail Adams, Marie Antoinette and Scarlett O'Hara. The dress was festooned with yellow ribbons,...LGBTQ Nation
https://www.lgbtqnation.com › 2023 › 03 › magas-resident-drag-queen-will-now-be-known-as-a-costume-artist
MAGA's resident drag queen will now be known as a "costume artist"
Lady Maga is the creation Ryan Woods, a recently sober Salt Lake City native and a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. He's racked up nearly 14K tweets promoting the Trump and MAGA agenda ...New York Post
https://nypost.com › 2024 › 06 › 12 › us-news › trump-loving-drag-queen-lady-maga-schools-anti-israel-pride-marcher-in-viral-video
Trump-loving drag queen 'Lady Maga' schools anti-Israel Pride marcher ...
12 Jun 2024A conservative drag performer schooled an anti-Israel Pride marcher on her contradictory support for anti-gay Palestine in an incredible exchange captured on video. -
@CosmicTraveler Yeah I never bothered to do name removal, because I would still be part of the church through my personal and family history. And I don't even acknowledge their pretended authority to keeping records for eternity.
In my case, they didn't invite me to anything fun or useful. No, it was to clean the building. Why would anyone think that cleaning a church you don't attend be some sort of reactivation incentive? Even the Mormons themselves hate doing it!
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Wow I just got a text from Mormons in my area. I've not been contacted by them in like 20 years. Seems like they'd have realized that I'm not interested after all this time!
Stuff like this is why your reputation has problems, guys.
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Christianity primed white people to feel guilty when certain Pavlovian bells ring.
Accused? Wrongdoing even subtly implied? Guilt! Shame!
Then, if it's a respected authority doing the implying (be it parent or priest), we're primed to submit.
If we don't respect the authority of the "accuser," well, were primed to see them as the enemy in the all-or-nothing good vs evil war. "My authorities haven't called that a sin so who is this person anyway??" And we lash out. At women, POC, queers, disabled, and often, even ourselves.
What, you're white but never were Christian? Sorry, but you were programmed this way, too. (If you feel mad at me, that's the programming.)
Christianity's way out from guilt and shame is impossible. It doesn't work. It's designed to make you feel forever ashamed and in debt to Jesus — or rather, the religious authorities who represent him. That's how they get you.
We aren't allowed to emotionally mature to know how to handle our own feelings when we've done wrong. We're forever dependent children on the religion. We go to confession, do the penitence, feel a few days of relief, then go back to feeling guilty. No matter how well-meaning any particular clergy, this is by design.
Now suddenly here's these people I don't respect out of unexamined implicit bias dumping more crap on me.
Aren't I bad enough? Haven't I submitted enough? What am I supposed to do about it?
I'm hamstringed. My white brain has been lobotomized wrt how to handle this. But also, I've been told by trusted authorities that I'm not a racist, so I'm not!!! Out comes the Karen.
Colonialism=Christianity=Corporatism
It's all the same system.
Freeing ourselves from this system means freeing those whose oppression we enable.
Because it's all the same thing.
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #antiracism #antifa
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I saw a white evangelical basically screaming at the camera yesterday on YouTube about patriarchy, racism, capitalism, and SA, ready to split from every Christian, even the progressive ones, and while I disagreed with some of her minor points and her shouting gave me a headache, I'm emotionally so with her.
Would that even 25% of white women had even a portion of her intensity and self-awareness.
#exmo
#exmormon
#ReligiousTrauma
#antiracism
#deconstruction
#LDS
#Mormon -
🎶 Genealogy: Are you "doing" it? 🎶
Or are you just listing names and dates so you can nonconsensually force your dead relatives to conform to some arbitrary standard of perfection in the afterlife?
#exmo
#exmormon
#ReligiousTrauma
#antiracism
#deconstruction
#BYU
#LDS
#Mormon -
In Mormon news, BYU tried to make an indigenous student cut his braids. So fuck them.
Thankfully, they responded to pushback and now will not make him do that, but I'm sure they will continue to get away with all of their other attempts to control the hairstyles and harmless behaviors of literally everyone else.
(Which is why this issue is a "white" cause as much as it is anyone else's. My Celtic and Germanic ancestors wore long hair in all sorts of styles, and so did yours. Whiteness restricts all of our freedoms.)
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #exvie #exvangelical #antiracism #deconstruction #BYU #LDS #Mormon
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RE: https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/116250786806679193
Well, what do you know? He's #DezNat. Our own weirdo Mormon brand of Christian Nationalism: Deseret Nationalism.
https://gist.github.com/travisbrown/3e6d29e2a6931f40c2293f092337fa03
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I'm watching a horror movie in a purity culture setting called Pure. It's fairly good, really liking how they're handling the themes. I feel like it's personal for the director, who's a woman.
It's not a perfect movie. Feels like the director doesn't have much experience with the horror genre. But there's strong talent, just a little raw on the skills, small things that would have made it better.
I still haven't seen the ending. There are some ways I want this to go, and some ways I really hope it doesn't go.
(Previous twoot is not a direct quote, but sums up a speech the pastor is giving.)
[edit: ok that ending was super powerful. We need what happened there to become a recurring motif.]
[Director is Hannah McPherson. She didn't experience purity culture, but is real mad about it. https://deadline.com/2019/09/pure-director-if-youre-not-pissed-off-you-may-be-a-lost-cause-1202742568/ ]
#movieReview #horror #ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #feminism
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CW: SA within cult contexts, Epstein, Rome
Further, I recently watched bible scholar Dan McClellan talk about homosexuality in biblical times. It' a subject I have seen him and others talk about before, and I've read about it. (But I am not an expert on ancient history – I'm just repeating.)
Fact: In Roman society and before, when Leviticus was being written, they didn't have any concept of "sexual orientation" the way we do today. They didn't have the concept of consent. They centered sexual mores around the hierarchy of power. Anyone up on the chain was expected to take the penetrative role; anyone below them was expected to take the receptive role. Anyone who violated these hierarchies was sexually immoral.
Free men with status? Top of the chain. Boys or men of low status? Below that. Women, at the very, very bottom, always. The sin was in penetrating someone who was supposed to, themselves, be in the penetrative role.
The Sodom and Gomorrah story was about a people who had been taught to care for strangers who instead wanted to rape a (male) guest to death. Which violated two mores: Hospitality and the chain of status wrt to the penetrative role. That's why it was perfectly ok for Lot to offer his daughters, and why the gang didn't want *girls*. They wanted to demonstrate their power by taking on men of station.
What does this mean in this context? It means that sexual domination has long been a part of how power works in human civilizations, at least in these cultures that descend from that place in those times.
We, here today, with our consent norms and our idea of love and equality in relationships, we're the odd ones. We've bucked the norms. (A tremendous accomplishment that took thousands of years.) And those norms *still exist.* They exist within toxic masculinity, pro-patriarchy religions, and abusive relationships.
It is hard for me to believe that the Epstein Class of today is somehow worse than the Fat Cats of the 1920s, or the aristocracy of the Renaissance, or the lords and monks of the Middle Ages.
We're really not that far descended from Rome. The path to liberation has been carved against these longstanding traditions.
We have only to look at the world billionaires are trying to create, to see what their values and expectations are.
And why they admire Rome so much.
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical
#abuseCulture
#SexualAssault -
CW: SA within cult contexts, Epstein
I've recently commented on Epstein probably not being the first of his kind, that his market for sex victims already existed, and that the sexual abuse of minors and the marginalized as a recreational activity for the rich and powerful likely goes way, way back. And I got a little bit of pushback.
But this is my world, this cult stuff. And if this has been going on in new sex cults like NXIVM, and secretly in old established religions like Catholicism, in Mormonism, in evangelicalism (it is), the why the hell wouldn't the richest, most powerful people in the world have done this going back across time?
Why are we holding dead billionaires to an idealized image? Why are we defending them? Why are we *still* bending over backwards to suspend disbelief that the worst people in the world in every other regard are somehow pure when it comes to sexual abuse?
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical #AbuseCulture #SexualAssault -
CW: SA within cult contexts, kink
New paper on sexual conditioning within cults just dropped. This article sums up the paper for a lay audience.
https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/dominance-and-submission-the-psychosexual
I am so relieved that highly respected cult researchers are finally backing up conclusions I suspected early in my own research:
- C-PTSD isn't just about trauma, it's about conditioned reactions and beliefs.
- Oppressive high-demand religious institutions condition followers to accept sexual abuse, or be the one to dish it out.
- Religious control of sexual bodies doesn't just prime one for abuse. It is itself a form of sexual abuse. It is at least as bad to manipulate a person into having children she doesn't want as it is to traditionally abuse her.
- What I say next may be controversial, but this research implies it, and I've suspected this since I joined the kink scene of my own free will first thing after leaving Mormonism: Sexual submissiveness can be a result of being reared in a high-demand religious environment, even if as adults we joyously consent as bottoms outside of the original religious framework. (I also think Dom/sub alignment is partly biological.)
Excerpts:
"This article is foundational because it frames sexual exploitation as structurally embedded in coercive systems, not merely the misconduct of individual leaders."
...
"Cult leaders quickly recognize that controlling the sexual and intimate lives of their followers provides a massive source of power. In Lalich’s analysis, sexual domination is not merely one abuse among many — it is the final stage of objectification within an authoritarian system.
"This exploitation ranges from strict rules regarding marriage and procreation to more overt abuses like arranged marriages and forced sexual activity. By controlling the most intimate aspects of life, the leader ensures there is no private sphere beyond his reach."
...
"One of Lalich’s most important contributions is her direct challenge to the notion of consent within cult environments. Because cults are structured around extreme power imbalances, genuine consent cannot exist. Members are conditioned through fear of expulsion, spiritual threats, peer pressure, and dependency on the leader for identity and belonging."
...“Because of the power imbalance between leader and followers, sexual contact is never truly consensual and is likely to have damaging consequences for the follower.”
...
"Shame, guilt, and self-blame persist long after exit. The leader’s ideology continues to shape the survivor’s internal narrative. Recovery therefore requires dismantling both the sexual trauma and the ideological manipulation that sustained it."
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"At one post-cult recovery workshop, 40% of women present reported having been sexually abused in their cult (p. 7). Lalich suggests this number likely underestimates the true prevalence based on her own clinical observations. The silence surrounding sexual exploitation, she argues, is itself part of the problem."
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I believe this is true even in (especially in) sex-negative environments. We pointed this out in the book I just wrote. If sex is shrouded in secrecy and shame, victims are unable to understand what they are going through, and unable to report it.🧵 ?
#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #PTSD #cults #exvie #exvangelical #abuseCulture #SexualAssault
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Christian apologists should be like, "Oh, yeah, we're really sorry about that. That isn't right. We're gonna fix that right away."
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I realized recently that I don't think I've seriously revisited my scripture writing project since my dad died in 2023. I tried to get back into it a couple of time, but omg that place I came from and how sick I was. Considering that I *wrote it* while sick in the first place is a real testament to how awful things got.
I had all but 3-4 planned chapters finished, with even a few edit passes. (I need to keep re-reading it as I pick it back up, and just edit as I go.) So like, it's *almost* ready for people to see it. So close.
I had tried to sell it the season before dad died, but there's really only like, one place that would be a good fit for this weird little gremlin. And they rejected it.
At this point, I'm kinda sorta thinking of just putting it online. I've been thinking about doing an indie web site anyway, and this is just the sort of weird little text you could easily find on the 90s internet.
I just read chapter 2 and it's solid.
idk. I felt called to write this thing to express the insights I'd gained while trying to stay alive enduring unbearable pain for so long. And as a project to see if I could untangle the authoritarian aspects of Mormonism, to see what a truly expansive, inclusive, diversity-embracing version of Mormon doctrine could look like.
It's my Secular Woke Hermeneutics of Mormonism in the vibe of Alan Watts and Carl Sagan. My speculative theology. My sequel to Recovering Agency after deconstruction. It's the "So now what?"
It feels right. It feels like a calling. I feel like I'm coming up for air now and want to do something with it.
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Digging in to Season 3 of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and I've got to say, most of these women are extremely capable of growth, and it shows.
It's been good practice for me to test my ability to spot red flags of people who are genuinely toxic, and probably always will be, vs. those who are just mimicking unhealthy behavior they learned within a toxic culture.
And when people do change, seeing if it sticks or if they're just manipulating people.
And I'm watching passive women conditioned to capitulate and defend bad behavior eventually come into their power.
I'm really proud of most of these kids as they come into their own. I'm cheering them on. Yes, even *that one,* who is maybe(?) starting to show some glimmers of self-awareness and being genuine.
These are the kinds of cultural forces swiftly changing LDS culture, and why I say Therapy Culture is the biggest secret threat to the institutional abuse culture within religious authoritarianism and fascism.
Though it often makes me uncomfortable, I unironically love this show.
🧵
#RealityTV #SecretLivesOfMormonWives #MomTok #RVLife #exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #AbuseCulture
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🎶freedom's just another word
for nothing left to lose🎶#solarpunk #exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #exvie #exvangelical #USPol #Antifa #resist #humanism #atheism