hey. I was just wondering if anybody else here was raised LDS, or even considers themselves to still be mormon, despite smoking. I don't consider myself LDS anymore, but I still love all of my friends that are. However, I feel like I can't let them know that I smoke, because they would never act the same towards me. I would be the heathen that went to college (not at BYU or BYU-I mind you) and came back as a drug addict (the way the religion is taught, there is little distinction between ganj and hard drugs). Anyways, anybody else here in the same boat? Any thoughts on the religion?
This problem sounds familiar. I, too was raised Christian--sunday school and all. As to keeping your friends, I found it to be natural to drift away from them and make new friends--people interested in stuff I was. Once I had renounced organized religion (all of 'em)I began to notice that my still religious old friends often had ideas and attiltudes such as you describe, that seemed silly to me and I suppose mine seemed silly to them. I found that in my case, it soon seemed that we really had no more common interests. The drift apart took no effort and lilttle time. It was time to get on with my life and not look back. It worked for me and thats my suggestion.
If you have commercials on tv or door-to-door 'salesmen' to promote your religion it's just gotta be fake. So toke and be happy, unfortunately you may have to hide it from your friends if you value the relationships.