new perspective

Now I had a whole new perspective on life, more freedom to move around, whole new ideas to consider. Everything made much more sense, and ideas fell into place like they never had before. Mormonism makes much, much more sense as a small religion started by a young, uneducated, though very imaginative and charismatic, man. It’s not how God and the world work; it’s just one (somewhat strange) way of thinking about things.

All the things I had been trying to perform painful mental gymnastics to understand—racism, sexism, polygamy—suddenly made sense if the church was just a 19^th century religion.

Now that the Book of Mormon was just a 19^th century creation, I could properly look at the DNA, archaeological, and logical evidence that Native Americans are descended from Asians.

Now that Genesis was just one society’s ancient origin myth, I could properly give evolution a chance. (And guess what. It makes sense.)

Now that the covenant to “hearken unto the council of my husband” was just some old guys’ revision of an even more sexist ritual, I could recover my self-esteem as a woman.

It was so refreshing to let down the compartments in my mind, to give up the mental blocks, to stop performing the mental gymnastics. At first, I had felt like my world was destroyed. Now, my life was opened up too all the splendor, the joy of discovery, the pleasure of learning. Best of all, I’ve been able to rediscover myself and figure out who I am, instead of trying to fit into a mold of what I’m supposed to be.