Stories of mormon faith transitions. Share your truth – own your story!
Images
My daughter was the first person in our families to ever serve a mission. She'd chosen to serve a mission so she could teach people that they were loved by god and to serve people. She was quickly learning in the MTC that the mission was much more about rules and obedience and judgement and numbers. She was sure that once she got out into the mission field that everything would be different but it wasn't.
My 16 year old son came out as gay. We celebrated and loved him but he came home from church in tears most Sundays. We told him he was perfect exactly how he was but at church he heard that in God's eyes, he was not.
For the next 10 months I tried to make sense of it all. I felt so lost and broken and lonely and angry.
My daughter was on a mission and watching her suffer was one of the catalysts to start questioning everything I thought I knew was true. I left the church while my daughter was serving a mission. I was a mormon.
Why we left: Church history, sexism, homophobia, racism...
We left the church as a whole family.
Jessie Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight
Born and raised in Germany and live now in Texas. I was a mormon.
joseph smith and martin harris seer stones from south park cartoon
joseph smith peep stone translation process from south park cartoon
joseph smith peep stone translation process in a dark hat from south park cartoon
joseph smith story of book of mormon translation south park
"As someone who was raised in the church since birth in 1955, the first time I ever heard about that damn rock in the hat was when I read it in the gospel topic essays in May of 2021. Yes, I was 66 years old. I had taught every lesson in every auxiliary, been president of primary (twice), YW (twice), relief society, taught seminary and had NEVER heard of it. Never! It was a huge crack in my heavy shelf. I absolutely hated the explanation given by RMN in the video for primary children saying the rock was like a cell phone - words would appear on it. It made me so angry!" A member experiences feelings of anger when the church continues to gaslight about peep stones.
"If evolution is true, the church is false." Joseph Fielding Smith
The purpose of Church research is to gather reliable information to support the deliberations of general Church leaders.
You can leave the mormon church, but you can’t leave it alone. - Bishop Glenn Pace, Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric in General Conference April 1989
image-6-2
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - hyphenated and even though in all-caps, with a lower case 'd' in Latter-day.
If false, [The Book of Mormon] is one of most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated to deceive and ruin millions who will sincerely receive it as the word of God, and will suppose themselves securely built upon the rock of truth until they are with their families into hopeless despair. - Orson Pratt, Mormon Apostle
If after a rigid examination, it be found an imposition, it should be extensively published as such; the evidence and arguments on which the imposture was detected, should be clearly and logically stated, that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived may perceive the nature of the deception and be reclaimed, and that those who continue to publish the delusion, may be silenced.
image-6-1
thus-shall-my-church-be-called
people-of-my-church
Now I live for today. Life is too precious to waste time serving an unseen god. I believe in having fun and being nice.
This led to my discovery of so much nastiness cluttering up nearly every aspect of the church. It was only a few months of revealing these truths to my wife before she joined me in post Mormon happiness.
Read Jeffs full was mormon profile at wasmormon.org
I jumped straight past issues in the church and went full atheist. This caused close to a decade of contention with my then active wife. I started listening to podcasts on mixed faith marriages in an attempt to better understand my wife.
I believed it all until I felt it damaging to believe.
Raised in the church. Served a mission at 19. Married within months of my faithful return. I was a mormon.
One day, a news article popped up on my feed showing the church’s sexual abuse reporting policy was directly protecting and covering up sexual abuse and the offenders. I was able to corroborate, and know that the church has an ongoing history of practicing loose regard of sexual abusers, as well as cover up of such atrocities. Finally, in my privileged eyes I could no longer deny: the net result of the church was bad. My shelf broke.
My exit has brought me so much peace and happiness, despite the difficulties that come with the paradigm shift. I now am free to love everyone. I did not resign so I could enjoy the “pleasures of the flesh.” I resigned in hope that my children can now be better people outside of an organization that lets racism, sexism, bigotry, and anti-intellectualism fly under the banner of God.
I am ashamed that, as a white American male, I have been so privileged that I have not realized all this sooner. I had turned a blind eye, followed indoctrination, believed in teachings that created a systematic culture of abuse, inequality, hatred, suppression, and anti-love. I had to get out. I had to remove all association I held with the church. Since then I have learned so, so much more. The lies seem to never end. And today I stand happy, prouder of myself than I have been in a long time. With a clear conscience, my affiliation with the destructive organization comes to an end. I now disavow the church and its hateful teachings. I do not disavow the members.
I had four people, who stand out as individuals I respect deeply, come to their own conclusions that the church wasn’t true. They left the church with their families. Knowing these individuals to be of excellent character and moral fiber, I wanted to understand more the reasons beyond their decisions. In a desire to respectfully understand their motivations, I researched them. Through this I discovered the exmormon subreddit, Mormon Stories, Mormonverse, CES letter, Rough Stone Rolling, and others. I skimmed over the information I found. I faithfully never delved too deep…just enough to understand and respect where they were coming from. This put a lot on my shelf. A lot I could not resolve.
I decided to use my strong faith as another support for my shelf. In fact, it became the dust cloth for my shelf. Everything on it was covered over with my faith. I wouldn’t have to look at it. I could not deny the feelings I had had. In addition to that, I saw the net result of the church as good.
I finally knew that the church belittled women and minorities, fought against basic human rights, hurt those seeking comfort, harbored and enabled sexual abusers, and lent to the systematic oppression of anything and anyone that would threaten its doctrine, image, financials, or reach.
Continue reading Fred's full wasmormon profile at https://wasmormon.org/profile/featon/
The first item I can recall putting on my shelf was the church’s stance on LGBT marriage rights. On my mission the only items I remember placing on my shelf were temple new names not being unique or special but given on a schedule, polygamy, and the fact that prophets are not called by revelation but instead by order of entry into the quorum of the 12.
I had four people, who stand out as individuals I respect deeply, come to their own conclusions that the church wasn’t true. They left the church with their families. Knowing these individuals to be of excellent character and moral fiber, I wanted to understand more the reasons beyond their decisions. In a desire to respectfully understand their motivations, I researched them. Through this I discovered the exmormon subreddit, Mormon Stories, Mormonverse, CES letter, Rough Stone Rolling, and others. I skimmed over the information I found. I faithfully never delved too deep…just enough to understand and respect where they were coming from. This put a lot on my shelf. A lot I could not resolve.
The information I found that disturbed me most was and is all sourced and available through church talks, scriptures, messages, and document scans. Nothing on my shelf was from an anonymous source, but instead from the lord’s anointed.
There's a point where there are just too many things that cannot be comfortably answered, too much weighing that shelf down, and eventually something comes along that is so offensive to our good senses, something that defies our logic, compassion, feelings, understanding, and knowledge more than we can reconcile, and the shelf then breaks.
I was fully active, paid a full tithe, served a voluntary 2 year mission for the church in Brazil, attended a church university, and lived in statistically the most Mormon town in the world for most of my life. I never drank, smoke, swore, or had premarital sex. I ended some wonderful, wholesome relationships based on advice in The Miracle of Forgiveness. I married in the temple, prayed and studied scripture daily, attended the temple regularly, and lived a fully active, faithful life. I was a mormon. Now I am free to love everyone and be my best self.
I had always enjoyed science and had many things church related on my shelf due to that background. I put lots on my shelf over the years. I learned about skepticism and finally applied it to my own belief and it all fell apart.
Continue reading Spencers's full wasmormon profile at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spencer-warner/
I enjoy skiing, technology, and skepticism. I grew up Mormon, married in the temple, etc. I was all in. I was a mormon.