Sadly it is not an option for my friend. There are symptoms of her mental health conditions that cause her to be driven towards becoming a part of the mormon church. These symptoms keep her chained to this religion, and affects her more than she will ever admit. She has shared the following with me.
"Childhood complex trauma survivors, often have a very hurt inner child that continues on to affect the survivor in adulthood. When a child’s emotional needs are not met and a child is repeatedly hurt and abused, this deeply and profoundly affects the child’s development. A survivor will often continue on subconsciously wanting those unmet childhood needs in adulthood. Looking for safety, protection, being cherished and loved can often be normal unmet needs in childhood, and the survivor searches for these in other adults. This can be where survivors search for mother and father figures."
Ever since I have known her she has always been looking to be a part of a loving family. Her birth parents gave her up, and the family that raised her abused her constantly as a child growing up. She has spent most of her life searching for loving parents, and often times she will see older adults as parental figures to her. Plus borderline personality disorder causes all her emotions to be heightened to an extreme range, and exacerbates the need for loving parents even greater. She has told me that the church offers her the hope of loving eternal parents, and the hope to be part of a loving family which she has never had. This keeps her chained to the religion, and every attempt to talk sense into her only causes her more pain as she has told me all she wants is to return home to the arms of loving parents. I see the pain this causes her, and it worries me a lot. I feel like she is going to remained chain to the mormon church for the rest of her life as she continues to seek for the one thing she never had which is a loving family.
I just want my friend to finally have some love and happiness in her life. If anything could help her it is to share her story. She has told me she would never do anything that would harm the church, but I see the anguish this is causing her. She wants to be baptized, and to be a member of the church. I believe it is simply a means to achieve a need that she has never had. She just wants to be a part of a loving family.