My Impression of "Ex-Mormons"

I don't recommend this exercise. It left me feeling kind of dirty. Even though I pride myself in trying to analyze things at a distance, I think most people can't help being somewhat influenced by what they read - some more than others. That is why sometimes avoiding news and mass media can make such an absolutely startling positive experience in your life - avoiding all that negativity does make a big difference.

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Obviously there's exceptions, and the forums and internet sites geared towards this-sort-of-thing are obviously biased, but I'll give my overall impression, without any intent to debate it:

Very bitter, angry, cynical, and depressed. It reminds me of dis-affected youth who are bitter at their parents because they believe everything they've been taught is a fraud, but instead of finding something else or moving on, they positively stew in it - as if it is their new purpose.

My guess is that the sort-of-people who fall into this trap are very impressionable, and somewhat gullible. I think they had too much esteem for their (sheltered?) perspective. They seem positively stunned that other Mormons might be human and have failings, or occasionally be hypocritical about something, or that a Bishop or other leader might error.

To me it's sort of strange, and I feel some pity. I think they do not realize that the whole world is like that, but generally much worse. For the most part, Mormons do a better job of being better people, but of course, like everyone, they fail and sin, are far from perfect, etc.

I think these people will become increasingly bitter as they realize the rest of the world is, for a large part, worse than what they abandoned for its perceived flaws. The reasoning seems somewhat secondary, as a lot of the arguments against the Book of Mormon etc. have arguments on both sides (e.g. FairMormon does a great job) and a lot of the anti-Mormon sites are actually very poorly done, they sort of look like "tin-foil-hat" sites where you find conspiracy theories, etc.

That last part is why I think these people may be, for the most part, too impressionable. They seem stunned to find that some people might disagree with what they believed before and are so swayed they depart. It's unfortunate they weren't better exposed or educated.

There also seems to be a connection to abandoning it in order to accept mainstream or liberal values, like on marriage, abortion, and the rest. They now want to attack the church from the outside instead of actually just abandoning it, walking away, or leaving it alone. It is a very destructive and negative attitude.

That said, in the end, (after, admittedly, a lot of questions, doubts, etc.) all the anti-Mormon stuff has strongly biased me more in favor of Mormonism and the CJCLDS.