Born into Mormonism...

Please bear with me as I type up the following. I am typing this up as I'm working my primary job and have to make calls all day, so if it seems like I'm trailing off at times, I do apologize. If it still doesn't make sense...that's what the comments are for and I will respond as soon as I can.

Firstly I'd like to share some light on my background (and ultimate deconversion) as a child, as a teenager and as an adult.

This particular blog post will focus on my childhood.

I was born at 12:56am MST (-7 GMT) on November 11, 1982 to my parents who had been married for 1 year and 2 months (yes, they're anniversary is September 11). When I was born I was given my birth name and, following standard Mormon tradition, immediately blessed into the church at a following meeting. Now, for those that know me, know that I have obviously not agreed with the birth name...nor the gender physical attributes that I was given. What does that mean? Simply put, I was given a penis and not a vagina...something that has honestly been a bane to my life (and will be touched on several times as it does have some relations to my religious beliefs).

Now, I know all that thanks to what my parents have told me, and my birth records (which apparently were printed wrong, it shows I was born at 12:56pm not in the morning, but my mom has reassured me that it was indeed almost 1am...she should know she was there). However, I do not recall anything from before I was about 4 years old. So...that means that those 4 years are lost to memory. So, we shall continue one from the 4 year mark.

When I was 4 right around the 5 year mark,  this is when I started my course of learning in the US public school system. Everything was like it should have been for the public system...granted we had to say the pledge of allegiance (something I have since learned was essentially raped thanks to both the communist threat of the 1950's and the help of the Knights of Columbus, a segment of the Catholic church. As can be seen here http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm the Americans borrowed it from another country and slightly modified it for our country. But, thanks some asshole godbots, it now blatantly violates the first amendment of the bill of rights in the constitution: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html "

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." As you can see it says law, but seeing that the pledge is recited before government meetings, it is still an endorsement of a religion by the state).

When I turned 8 years old, as is also Mormon tradition, I was baptized into the church through the process of immersion. It apparently was a big deal to my family (seeing that I had some huge party afterwards), but to me...I had no real clue what the hell was going on...I mean come on, I was 8 for Flying Spaghetti Monster's sakes...

After that happened, my parents had me attending church regularly on Sunday's. Now, I don't know if it's because I have very acute ADD, or in that I just found what was being taught boring (probably both), but when I was in church, I would sit there and play around with the backside of the pews or the chairs. I still picked up the lessons, but, I never really devoted anything remotely close to my full attention to the person reading from a book (oh, wait, that's why my ADD would kick in, I HATE learning like that cause it does NOT work for me).

But, as I got older I did the whole cub scouts thing, got lots of awards from those. In fact, I was more active in doing the outdoor scout stuff then I was church, even if I had no idea that the Boy Scouts of America was made to be a religious propaganda device (not necessarily Christian cause I knew a few Jewish boys who were scouts also).

By the time I was 10 I was already losing interest in the Mormon church and only went to it to pass the time on Sundays. A lot of the time I only stayed in for sacrament and then would leave and walk around the halls the rest of the time. It was when I turned 12 and became a Deacon. WHOOOO!!! Now I could serve people their wonder bread and unfiltered tap water to remind them of the things Jesus did. Did this really change anything for me...just that I had to serve that stuff and it was more of an annoyance than anything. Plus, walking down the aisles inbetween pews and seeing all the old crotchety people sitting there glarin' at us youngins to make sure we were doing it just like them (does anyone see the intimidation and brainwashing going on here?).

Here is where I leave the transition from being age 0-12 and hit the teen years. The 13-18 range (I only put 18 cause after that in the US I was a minor adult and things changed a LOT more) will come in the next post.