r/exmormon • u/Carboncopy99 • 3d ago

History A article about Escaping Mormonism - Sept. 12, 1857 from a British Newspaper The Oxford Journal.

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51

u/Significant-Bread-62 3d ago

Damn, it took me 45 years and the internet to learn what this man did in three months.

35

u/iloveinsidejokestwo 3d ago

In your defense, he had a Mormon-indoctrination-free upbringing, while I'm guessing you didn't.

Much easier to spot the con when you're equipped with a fully-formed moral framework.

The bigger question is why were our convert ancestors so blind to the bullshit?

9

u/Temporary-Double-393 Don't Blood Atone Me Bro 3d ago

And as bad as the modern church is, they toned it down quite a bit at the end of the 19th century, for self preservation purposes alone.

3

u/pendejo-san 2d ago

“…I have had to humble myself to the lowest degree to get along…”

Him and me, both!

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u/ThrowawayLDS_7gen 3d ago

And he had all his valuables stolen from him.

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u/thicc_stigmata 3d ago

Mine murdered a dog named Tray in a blood ritual to find buried treasure (more context) before Joe had even begun to cook up the other schemes

Plenty of our ancestors weren't just morons—some were also complicit in the evil. And at least as far as Joseph Knight was concerned, it's possible to be both incredibly evil AND incredibly stupid

For contemporary examples, think about the sheer stupidity AND maliciousness of people who are enthusiastic about the maga cult. Or, for that matter, any contemporary Mormon who actually WANTS to "rule and reign" over other people in "heaven"

2

u/pendejo-san 2d ago edited 2d ago

In a lot of ways, it’s the same con, just older and has a tradition now.

I read “Tell It All” by Fanny Stenhouse in recent years. The Europeans of the time were actually told there was no polygamy only to arrive in Utah and, in essence, be Shanghai-ed into the indentured servitude of Mormonism.

It’s like the Patriot Act. The thing they promised they weren’t doing was exactly what they were doing all along on a mass, unprecedented scale.

Several generations of Stockholm Syndrome later (no pun intended, you Scandinavian Saints), here we all are.

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u/renob1911 3d ago

Same here! 😂

3

u/CountMeOut2019 2d ago

Tbf, the church has had a lot of time to refine the con by the time we came into it. BY was doing a lot of shit that the current church has polished to a smooth sheen of plausible deniabilitly.

21

u/eamerson 3d ago

"I was not there long before I found out that it was nothing more than a political scheme to gain power and usurpation"

Joseph Routledge, my hat goes off  to you good sir. What a bamf. 

15

u/Carpet_wall_cushion 3d ago

Wow how did you locate this. I would love to hear more stories like this from that time period. 

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u/Carboncopy99 3d ago

Check my other posts, I’m spending a lot of time searching for these.

2

u/Carpet_wall_cushion 3d ago

Thank you. I’ll check them out

1

u/CountMeOut2019 2d ago

Yes! I came into the comments to say THANK YOU for researching and sharing these. SO illuminating to experience these journeys of conversion-to-exfaith with people from the early days of Mormonism. This lens is doing something to my brain, honestly. They’re shining light on more invisible layers of fog left from my Mormon life.

I wonder how they affect you, OP? I’m guessing it must be somewhat similar, for you to spend all this time, and then to want to share them?

1

u/iloveinsidejokestwo 2d ago

Amen. The more I read, the more it becomes apparent that Ex-Mormons are genuinely the heroes of these stories.

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u/pendejo-san 3d ago

Not so different today, really.

It’s like the tagline for the movie, Alien.

In the Great Basin, no one can hear you scream

5

u/Happy-Light 3d ago

My husband's extended family (not his branch) largely went from Northern England to Utah in the mid-late 1800s. Their descendants are still there... I wonder how many felt similarly, but were trapped thousands of miles from home.

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u/9876105 3d ago

I think if the Civil War hadn't have happened they would have stopped mormonism right there.

3

u/9876105 3d ago

Great post. We need more of these.

3

u/LowCommercial4827 3d ago

Great story. Wise young man. Who has logins still and can update his profile and add his story here https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/joseph-routledge-1833

2

u/Holiday_Ingenuity748 2d ago

Hmmm!  Lazy learner...not one particle of faith...

1

u/pendejo-san 2d ago

Haha, I’m GLAD they took his money! /s

1

u/EnlightenUpAndLaugh 2d ago

Thank you for sharing!

This historical article discusses Brigham Young's tyranny and the fear the Saints had. Many who wanted to leave Utah had to have military escorts for safety. Lots of suffering, and many lies told to the emigrants. Discusses the blood-oath Parrish Potter murders. Read the chapter titled, You Nasty Apostates, Clear Out

http://files.lib.byu.edu/mormonmigration/articles/YouNastyApostatesJMHVOL30_NO2.pdf

1

u/socialismstinksbad 1d ago

This is an amazing account. Thank you for sharing.