Product Description

A Woman's True Story of Heartache Turned to Joy

When Judy and Jim Robertson felt a spiritual void in their lives, they found "the finest people in the world" to embrace them and a beautifully packaged religion to entice them. Once drawn into Mormonism, they quickly climbed to leadership positions and became worthy temple Mormons, only to become disillusioned with the teaching and demands of the LDS church.

From her unique insider's viewpoint, Judy shares her life as a Mormon woman, her rediscovery of the Jesus of the Bible, and how she and Jim found freedom as they left the LDS church in the face of persecution and confrontation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82189 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 215 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780764226045
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Balanced and nonoffensive... recommend it as a conversation starter with Mormon women as well as a ready reference for readers." -- CBA Marketplace, Aug. 2001

"thorough analysis of Mormon teachings versus Christian truths…useful resource for witnessing to others in need of guidance." -- Christian Retailing, Aug. 20, 2001

About the Author
Judy Roberston is an author, speaker, teacher, and cofounder of Concerned Christians, an outreach ministry to Mormons and an equipping arm to the body of Christ. She and her husband live in Arizona.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Part I
Mormonism Looks Good

The Weakness
How can such good people be wrong? I thought. There’s gotta be something there. Surely if God designed His church for today’s world, it would be like this one.

Jim’s account with Campbell Soup took him to the Arizona farmlands each year from May to the first of July. He needed to be there during potato harvest to oversee grading, loading, and shipping to ensure top quality spuds. Although this was my first time accompanying him with our kids, I heard my husband rave so much about Joe Jackson and his family, I’d gotten sick of it. “Judy, these are the finest people you’ll ever meet.”

At first, I made serious accusations. “Jim, these people just want your business,” I said cynically. “That’s why they’re being so nice. They’re snowing you.”

“Judy, how can you say that? They’re just sincere, hard-working people.”

“Well, I have a funny feeling about them. And what is their religion? Mormon? I’ve never heard of that before.”

“They are totally committed to it. I’ve never seen anything like it. Everything they do revolves around their church and family.”

After a summer of observing this “all-American” family in action, I began to see their appealing qualities, too. Boy, they really do have something! Certainly something we don’t. I want to know more.

My depleted spiritual life needed to be recharged, especially after a recent incident at our home church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I guess you could say my spiritual candle was flickering.

At a vacation Bible school planning meeting, I sat with my co-director in her elegant living room. I opened my heart and unfolded what I thought were innovative and fresh ideas for the kids. In the middle of my presentation she interrupted me. “We’ve never done it this way before, and I don’t know who you think you are, trying to change our VBS!” she sputtered, eyes glaring at me. Her words stung and I sat speechless. Unable to go on, I swallowed hard, gathered my things, and left her home like a whipped puppy.

I choked back tears all the way home. Once in our bedroom I lamented, How could she be so cruel?

I knew after a good fifteen-minute sob I needed to get my feelings under control fast. The kids would be back soon from their friends’ house and Jim home for supper.

After eight years of marriage, Jim’s way was to try to “fix” my hurt feelings. He’d say something like “Why didn’t you just tell her off?”

But I couldn’t bring myself to tell off anyone. So I stuffed it in my hurt-feelings bag never to tell anyone—not even God. I didn’t know how to share my hurts with God, and I hadn’t studied the Bible enough to know we should “bear one another’s burdens.”

I’d been a church attendee all my life, listened to lots of sermons, but I didn’t know how my faith should work in times of crisis. That’s why I looked forward to this family trip and meeting these “fine” people Jim kept telling me about.

* * *
* * *

The Jackson family put us up in an apartment house they owned right off Main Street, near the center of the city of Mesa. After we had a welcome shower to get the accumulated dust off, they took us out to dinner.

Our kids enjoyed the apartment complex’s swimming pool. Across the street from our summer home was a lush green park, and we were only a block away from the gleaming white Mormon temple. Its acres of cool grass, tall palm trees, and sparkling fountains were an oasis in the desert.

They treated us like family, taking us out to eat and to church and to family cookouts. “I’ll have to admit, Jim, any people I’ve ever been around that I’ve thought were really Christians have these same attributes. They are good, loving, family-oriented people.” In no time, I forgot the unpleasant experience with the church member back in Fayetteville.

Jim and I agreed before we married that we would join a “neutral” church if we couldn’t agree on his Lutheran background or my Disciples of Christ upbringing. We believed that if our family prayed together we’d stay together.

After hopping from church to church to find our niche, we finally settled on the First Christian Church. I had attended it as a college student at the University of Arkansas.

We jumped right into the activities. Jim was on the church board and eventually became vice chairman. One summer, I co-directed the vacation Bible school. It was during this time I felt the sting of the sharp words of my co-director criticizing my ideas. Even though I attended church regularly, I didn’t adequately know how to call on God for my needs. Perhaps you could call me a social Christian.

I never searched the Scriptures I’d learned about, sung about, and heard every Sunday during my entire life. I was president of Christian Youth Fellowship, played piano for Sunday school, attended church camp every summer, and sang in the choir with my mother.

Jim received “proper training,” too. Raised in the Lutheran faith, he learned many Scriptures to be able to pass the exam for catechism. “I didn’t continue learning Scriptures and eventually forgot all I’d been taught,” Jim recalled.

Satan is subtle, catching us in our weakness. Nursing my wounds from the sharp tongue of a less-than-tactful church member, the kids and I traveled with Jim on this fateful trip into the desert of Arizona to buy potatoes. Little did we know this journey would change our lives forever.

Customer Reviews

This is a very important book!
I feel like I have a very legitimate perspective from which to post this review. I was born a Mormon woman to extremely orthodox and true believing Mormon parents. The Mormon church was my life. I married in a Mormon temple, bore children very quickly and participated in every way a Mormon woman can. I held almost as high a position in the Mormon church that a woman can.

I related to this book so much. It helped me re-examine my life as a Mormon woman and the feelings of inadequacy I had. I felt controlled, put down, patronized, etc. However, I kept smiling and playing the game. I eventually began to study and see things for what they really were. I made a very hard and gut-wrenching decision to leave the church. I lost my family. I lost my friends. But as I made the transition, the light started to come on. The sun came out. The beauty of life that I'd missed for 40 years came through.

I've seen it from both sides, a place most of the reviewers of this book have never been. I remember the persecution complexes I had when I perceived people as "bashing" the Mormon church who were only trying to point people in the right direction.

Please read this book if you are really interested in what it is like to be a Mormon woman.

Interesting journey into, through, and out of Mormonism
This is an interesting personal story of a woman's experience entering and then leaving the Church of Latter-Day Saints. It is not hate-filled or anti-Mormon, though I suppose some Saints will inevitably view it this way. I would say the tone is more one of sadness, as Robinson has become an evangelical Christian who believes that the LDS Church is seriously wrong. Some readers will find Robinson's current religious beliefs unnecessarily intrusive or "preachy," though they play an important role in her personal journey.

Other authors do a better job talking about Mormon history or theology, so I wouldn't read this book as an "expose" or as an analysis of LDS doctrine. Instead, read it as a valuable first-person account of an experience with the church and its members. Robinson is only one person, so her experience may or may not be typical.

First, Robinson provides a very interesting narrative of how she was attracted to Mormonism in the first place. It's interesting to see a first-hand account of how the LDS Church moves in on people who express interest in their faith, and who share the kind of family values that the church emphasizes.

Second, Robinson provides an interesting introduction to the LDS Church as experienced by a new member. One of her legitimate frustrations, and the start of her doubt, was the extensive use of secret rites. As a result, she felt that she was subject to social pressure to go along with beliefs that were first presented as part of a "public" (in the temple) rite. She also describes some Mormon rites that I found theologically shocking; some of these rites have since been changed, though it's not clear from this book whether the underlying doctrines have been changed.*

Third, she tells us how she and her husband left Mormonism, and the hostility that this produced in their former friends. It would be nice if the LDS church could reflect on its attitude toward those who feel they must leave the church, it would reduce the bitterness that many ex-Mormons feel. Again, Robinson's account is valuable and it does not seem that unusual.

In short, this is a good personal account of a journey into, through, and out of Mormonism. I think both insiders and outsiders will find it interesting and worthy of reflection.

--
*Addendum in January 2008: I was coy in the original review, but one of these secret rites includes a play in which Jesus and Satan are presented as brothers, an issue that Mike Huckabee raised in the presidential race. Perhaps some LDS members can tell us whether this is (or was) part of the baptismal ceremony, as Robertson reports.

A Good Resource
OUT OF MORMONISM tells the autobiographical story of Judy Robertson's experience in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The book exists to lend a personal face to the plethora of Mormonism resources that are out there.

Robertson's story is worth reading. She grew up in the (orthodox) Christian church but because of a lack of Biblical grounding she found herself drawn into Mormonism with her family, thanks to the LDS's emphasis on family and morals. At first it was a blissful life, but things began to sour when some of the deeper truths about Mormon doctrine were learned, and when her and her husband were sealed in the temple ceremony (an experience that shocked her to her core). Eventually she became so disillusioned with the discrepancies between Mormon doctrine and the Bible that she found the courage to leave the church, and she now runs and outreach to Mormons with her husband.

If you know someone who is struggling with some of Mormonism's teachings, this might be a good resource to give them. It's pretty even-handed and not antagonistic (unlike some other books on this church). The only issues I take with it are literary. Robertson isn't the best writer and as a result her story, which should've been profoundly moving, seems a little forced and impersonal. It's a powerful testimony, but it could've been told better if a different writer would've handled it. A similar book, BEYOND MORMONISM, by James Spencer, I found to be much more effective, personal, and moving. I would look for BEYOND MORMONISM first, if pursuing a book of this nature, but OUT OF MORMONISM is not a bad choice by any means. It speaks the truth and does so in a straight-foreword and loving manner, and hopefully it will be a powerful tool to reach the lost for Christ. THREE 1/2 STARS.