Matty Matheson on Growing Up Mormon and Being Excommunicated

I was brought up, I was brought Mormon. Really? So I was brought Mormon. Your family's Mormon? Well my family's Mormon, but we're all excommunicated. What happened? My dad got us all taken out of the thing, so it was just like, we were like deep. We were deep, and then when we moved provinces, the church wasn't good here in Ontario. So in Nova Scotia, big, big fellowship, Mormon world, you know? My dad was like a high deacon or whatever the fuck it was. We always sat next to the Bishop's family, front row shit, because it's all like the family's whoever's up on the stage or whatever, the family's sitting in the front rows and shit. And so then when we moved to Ontario, I fucking, you know, when we were about 12 or 13, right around that time when we started all of a sudden doing drugs and drinking is when we stopped going to the church. Because that's maybe a part of it too, right? We were like, I never had a Coca-Cola. I never saw a PG rated movie. We only watched G rated. Really? I never saw The Simpsons until I was, you know, like things like that. Like we were allowed to... So once you got excommunicated from the church, they just... Well we took ourselves behind that. I don't know if excommunicate is the right word. Left the church. We left the church, but because they have so much information on you and your family, like fucking family tree stuff, like it takes a long time to actually get your like your shit out of there. What do you mean? I think they just have like a lot of information on you and your families and they do a lot of ancestral stuff, right? So I think they do like a lot of... And you, you know, the pent... You got to give all... Like even like I would get $2 a week for my allowance and I would have to give 10% to the church. So we would all... Come on. Me and my brothers, we would have to take our nickels or whatever, our dimes. Really? And we'd have to give our 10% to the church. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was training. Like that training of like giving the church the money from day one and all that kind of shit. So it was just like... And then, you know, my parents are like, they were young and it's great. They were like the young couple that got knocked on and my dad was like, come on in. Like drink a... Like you want a beer? And all of a sudden my dad was just like... And it was one of those days where I'm like, why? You know, we were so like, you... Like when I found that out later on, I was like, you literally just like somebody knocked on the... You led a missionary in here? You know? Like where it's like so funny. How old were you when you were asking him that question? Like later, like in my twenties. Like when I had like some balls to like, you know, dads are so scary. So I was just like, you know, like... Why? Huh? Yeah, just why you're asking him why? Yeah, just like some... Like where I was just like, you know, like he would come visit me in college and we'd go have like lunch, you know, my dad would drive up to the city and, you know, having those father-son kind of conversations like, hey, like this was kind of crazy back then. Or like, why was this? Or like, you know, like why, why, you know, why were we never allowed to like sleep over at other kids' houses? Or like, you know, like things like little small things that I don't think are, you know, crazy. But I think it's definitely like one of those things that like, you know, never having like coca-cola and then all of a sudden I'm like doing acid. You know, I'm all gas. You know? Like it's just like, I was like, oh cool, we're not Mormons anymore? Let's do some blotter acid. Sometimes that's what triggers it, right? Is the repression. There's so much repression and then all of a sudden they take the reins off you. And the idea of heaven just like at a young age, I strongly felt like there was no heaven. And I strongly felt, I didn't believe it from a young age because I also, and there's three levels of heaven in the Mormon, in the Mormon or in the Book of Mormon, right? There's like the celestial, the fucking whatever and the whatever. So I was just like, there's like three levels of heaven. There's like three levels of heaven. So then there's tears, right? So the thing that I was a klepto as a kid. I would walk into like, you know, a little store and like grab a little thing. Like I remember I saw a jackknife once from like this, like, you know, hardware store. Like I would just like take things, you know, a little klepto. In my head at a very young age, I was like, I'm never going to be eternal with my parents at a very young age. I was like, my parents are like, you know, they did the whole thing with the underwear and they're married forever. And like fucking underwear is wild. I think they had to give it back or they had to get rid of it. I don't fucking know. I don't know. Let's FaceTime Steve and be like, what the fuck? So I still don't understand like they have information on you. Like what is that make it hard to leave because they tell you, hey, we know things about you. Like what? No, I don't think it's like weird, like that kind of stuff. I just like get our shit out to be like stricken of the books. Right. So you don't have to pay them every week. You don't have to. Pensages like you or I think it's called pens. But I think it's like once again, there's probably a lot of Mormons watching this that are being like, man, he doesn't know shit. And I don't know shit. OK. I don't know shit. But I just think it is. I remember it was just one of those things where I remember my dad and my sister. It was crazy because she had a child out of wedlock. She's going to love that I say this, but she had like a child out of wedlock. And so that was like a thing where I think it was like, I don't even know. I think there was like a thing where she got like a piece of paper saying she had to go in front of like a tribunal. Oh boy. And like, you know, explain herself or she was getting or maybe she was getting excommunism. I still forget. It's kind of fuzzy. But I think it was like one of those things where I remember when the missionaries showed up and it was almost like they served her like papers or some shit. And I remember my older brother almost like beat the shit out of these missionaries, was like get the fuck out of, you know, one of those kind of things like get off our porch, get the fuck out of here. Serving you papers. You violated. I don't know. I don't know. Like that's the thing is like I don't like a lot of that is the wackiest religion. It's the wackiest, right? Yeah. I know. It's like other than Scientology, I was baptized. It's the wackiest one. It's the wackiest one. They know the guy who made it up and he was a con man. We used to go to the hill where he found the Book of Mormon and they used to redo the event and we would visit the jail where he was like murdered. How old was he when they killed him? In his twenties. That's in that wild. John Smith, right? John Smith. Joseph. Joseph Smith. He invented it when he was 14 years old. Let's go. That's incredible. That's like now. That's like a TikToker. You know, everyone just follows TikTok. Same shit. Well, I just can't imagine a 14 year old that's not full of shit. Yeah. You know, like a 14 year old that tells you a story like that and everybody's like, wow. He's like, let's go. You've met angels? Wow. What were they like? They were beautiful. You have golden tablets. I love a golden tablet. With the last work of Jesus. Jesus. Watch new episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience for free only on Spotify. 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