This should be another fun year. I can't wait.

There are so many interesting aspects of the LDS religion that I simply can't get my hands around. Why on earth would you waste time and money to travel to Salt Lake City to discuss why you left the LDS Church. The reason you left is a personal choice that I am sure you thought about and commited to. If you need a support group to tell you it is OK to leave the church, you should have taken more time before making a decision. It seems to me that you are still wanting to be part of the church and trying to find someone else's reason for justifing your decision to leave. Simply cut the strings to the LDS Church and get on with your life. There are some many worthwhile things to be involved with in this world that you need to quit wasting time and get moving. Next, don't approach this as a cult. Who ever is blowing that smoke at you has never taken time to understand the LDS faith. I don't find any members I know even remotely associated with a cult. That is also part of the problem you have.

To The Deuce,

"Why on earth would you waste time and money to travel to Salt Lake City to discuss why you left the LDS Church. The reason you left is a personal choice that I am sure you thought about and commited to."

Answer this: Why on earth would YOU take time to type a comment on this article? If you are a Mormon, that is a personal choice that you DIDN'T think about, and you were probably committed to it by your parents! So what? Just because YOU don't find any members you know "associated" with a cult tells us nothing. You are BLINDED BY THE CULT yourself! We don't expect YOU to "get it" because you are still full of all the mind control that the speaker will be addressing. If there is even a tiny ray of light beaming through the cracks in your Mormon chamber, take a chance and come listen to a different kind of "prophet's voice" and hear the words of liberation from the most successful cult in American history!

Dear Lance E.
The Deuce is not a member of the LDS Faith and has never claimed to be. I have taken time to study some of the teachings and asked questions of my friends who are Mormons. So be careful how you color everyone you refer to here. My orginal premise still stands, why would you go to Salt Lake City to talk about a religion you have decided to leave. It seems to me that you are looking for a reason to go back or you are trying to look for another person's reason to justify your leaving. In either case, cut the strings and move on. Do you not have more constructive things to do in life? To answer your question as to why I would respond to this posting is easy. I am intrigued by human nature to try and justify their decisions by using someone elses excuse. Make up your mind and your own decision and then go out and make it work for you. Otherwise, you have made a poor decision to leave and find yourself trying to get back in. Take responsibility for yourself. This is called accountability.

Because Mormonism is relatively young, as compared with other, traditional, Christian relgions, most Mormons were "ex-" -Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others.

So all the Mormon Church is today is a support group of ex-other religions!

What is so hard to understand about a group of ex-believers wanting to get together for social and moral support?

Omer - One of the strangest things that I have encountered about the Mormon faith is that when someone leaves they never really let go. I see very few of the same behaviours in other religions that take place when a Mormon leaves the church. They have to talk about it, blame the church for all of society's ills or rant and rave about how false the LDS Church is. If this is what this group does when they get together it is time to go do something else with your life. If you cannot let something like this go then you really did not ever want to leave in the first place. Are there other reasons that this group wants to get together?

Deuce-If you are not an ex-mormon, never been an ex-mormon, and not experienced the culture and teachings instilled from birth, what expertise gives you the credibility to question why ex-mormons should or should not form a group? You are free to have an opinion, which is what your posting is-an opinion, but I don't believe you can accurately conclude that there is some "other reason" why ex-mormons want to get together and why you think they get together.