I am struggling to finish “A short stay in hell” by Steven L. Peck because of things unrelated to the story itself

I feel I have to preface this post with a statement that I am no longer a member of the LDS church and I don't believe in the teachings. I use the terms the members of the church now prefer because I aim to be respectful in my post and to foster respect in the ongoing discussion.

I don't believe members of the church deserve any hate and I don't want to see that in the comments. So please be respectful in your replies.

I don't think this book is a bad book by any means, my struggle with the book isn't a reflection on the quality of the book. It is however a reflection of the author being in a religion that I am no longer a part of and the emotional scars leaving that religion left on me.

I have had this book on my holds list on Libby for a long time. I had to re request the hold a couple of times because I wasn't ready to read it when it became available. I finally started to read it a few days ago and I had an uneasy feeling while I was reading the book.

The uneasy feeling didn't come from reading the text, it came from the conversations I've had regarding this book that I can't stop thinking about while reading this book.

"A short stay in hell" by Steven L. Peck features a main character who was a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints in his mortal life and the author himself was a devout member of that church.

To this day I believe he is still a devout member. He's been a controversial figure within the church because he is a vocal believer in evolution and argues that that belief doesn't contradict the truth of the church.

What makes me uneasy are the conversations I've had where some fans of this book believe this book is an argument against the teachings of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints.

I don't think that's true given the author was devout at the time of writing and publishing this book.

Yes you can argue that the premise of the book is an excellent argument against the teachings of the church and of any religion that claims they're the one right church and everyone else is damned.

I think Steven either has his own reasons for not believing that argument presented in this book, or ignores it through cognitive dissonance.

My experience no longer being a member of the church and being frustrated with my own family members who still regularly engage in cognitive dissonance has heavily impacted how I feel while reading this book.

There is nothing in the book itself that should trigger those feelings of cognitive dissonance I used to have as a member of the church, yet I sensed something like that while I was reading and that's when I researched the author and discovered he was (and maybe still is) devout.

I wish I could describe my feelings more clearly, but it feels like I'm in church and experiencing that cognitive dissonance again while reading this book and it's deeply unsettling. This feeling is why I haven't been able to read more than 40 pages in a week even though it's not a dense text.