Lindsy grew up doing all the right things according to the church. She did EFY, BYU, married young and had children. She had normal doubts and things to place on her shelf, but eventually the shelf broke for her and her husband with the CES letter. It gave a new narrative that Joseph Smith just …
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Prominent LDS historian Richard Bushman and famed author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling notes, “I think that for the Church to remain strong, it has to reconstruct its narrative. The dominant narrative is not true; it can’t be sustained. The Church has to absorb all this new information or it will be on very shaky grounds …
Kelly has a story of conversion and deconstruction and deconversion. She went from being a “Golden Convert”, to feeling racist discrimination for the first time in her life in the Mormon church doctrines. She dug in to learn all the hidden issues in church history and despite her best efforts, could no longer believe the …
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Being raised in the Mormon church and even serving a foreign language mission and teaching Sunday school gospel principles class kept Erika busy in the church. But when she learned disturbing issues in church history she felt God leading her out of the church. She has issues with the treatment of LGBTQ members by the …
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FreeAtLast shares the resignation letter sent to his bishop after struggling with being gay and Mormon. He couldn’t be gay, Mormon and happy. After trying, here couldn’t not be gay but he could be not Mormon and still find happiness. Born and raised in the lds church in the Midwest. Very faithful family. Served a …
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Tyler thinks logically and teaches his children critical thinking. He studied the church’s truth claims and found them lacking. He felt betrayed and hurt that he was never given a fair chance to make a decision with complete and honest information. We feel lied to because the church has not been transparent about its own …
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Aaron faithfully dug in deep to explain away the anti-mormon lies he was exposed to. The more he studied, the more problems he found until he realized the anti-mormons were the ones being honest and sharing the true history with evidence, not the church to which he’d dedicated his whole life to. This sent him …
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Rodney collected issues onto his shelf while serving in his calling. Eventually, when looking into the origins of the Book of Mormon he found some answers which helped him answer everything on his shelf. The issues were all red flags he’d come across that he couldn’t figure out, but once you see the reality, the …
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This site is dedicated to hosting mormon faith transition stories. These stories are told by real people with real lives. You can create an account and tell your own story. We’ve found that writing our story is cathartic as well as reading the stories of others is therapeutic. It is validating to find similarities in …
Richard had doubts, but still felt the obligation to serve a mission. Once he was there he realized the doubts needed attention and he needed to reevaluate his testimony so he returned early from his mission. He discovered the doubts had merit and they were only the tip of the iceberg! All the puzzle pieces …
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Being born into the church many have had the thought that they wouldn’t be members had they not been born into it. Brik is among them, but parenting brought her to study the church’s truth claims. She wanted to know deeply before raising her children in the church too. She found that the truth claims …
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Kristie did all the right things and was an exemplary mormon mother teaching her children the gospel. As is common she worried about the mormon belief in eternal polygamy but still didn’t stray even after she heard more about honest church history about Joseph Smith’s affair with Fanny Alger which evolved into plural marriage and …
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From full devotion and good mormon stock, Valerie had items on her shelf from an early age. As time went on, the concerns on her shelf accumulated until she couldn’t ignore them all. Her shelf broke through the years of research trying to make it all work. You can’t ignore things once you know them, …
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Through research, Jeremy finds multiple instances of the church changing doctrine over time as well as some of these changes being led by the law rather than by revelation and prophetic leadership. The story of the first vision certainly evolved into what it is today, it wasn’t even a footnote of church history until 20 …
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What are the Church Essays? The church has quietly published some essays discussing some hard-to-reconcile issues. There are multiple topics in these essays, such as Multiple First Vision Accounts, Rock in a Hat Translation & Mormon Institutionalized Racism, a collection of essays about Polygamy referred to as Plural Marriage & even Heavenly Mother. Haven’t heard …
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Ken served faithfully in the mormon church for 30 years. He concluded that many so-called facts about church history, church doctrine and church operation were not true. Thus the church was not true. He lambasts the church and its leaders while also calling for an uprising of the disillusioned and the disaffected. He calls for …
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Keri has found a much healthier relationship with herself and a better relationship with Jesus by leaving the mormon church. She is not mormon, yet she is happy! I am living my life as a free, educated, single but happy woman who has found a true relationship with my Savior. I am no longer a …
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Is the Mormon church transparent? Is the church honest with its own history? What does it mean to be as transparent as you know how to be? Not much actually, but it’s their best excuse and retort when questioned. M Russell Ballard and Dallin H Oaks had a fireside broadcast with Young Single Adults. They …
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John found the repeated lack of integrity in how the church uses an ellipsis troubling. Adding to his already shelved issues there wasn’t much that could help in the gospel topic essays. It doesn’t take anti-mormon literature to decipher the mormon illusion, many brave souls arrive via official church material. Even quotes from favorite church …
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Becca says after finding the gospel topics essays, her testimony hit an iceberg and sank like the titanic. That’s another way of saying her shelf broke or she deconstructed her faith. I enjoy crafting, cosplaying, and exploring. My favorite place to be is the beach. I am a domestic violence survivor. I was a Mormon. …
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Bruce recollects his testimony was shattered by enhancing his knowledge of church history. He works to reconcile his wife and local leaders as well as an area authority but finds no satisfactory answers. Years later, he is reprimanded for a facebook post calling Joseph Smith a fraud as his local leaders pressure him to recant. …
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Joshua found that the mormon church didn’t actually behave very Christ-like. He suffered months of cognitive dissonance trying to reconcile correlated church history and factual church history. Finally had enough and to resolve the dissonance, had to conclude the church was not the place for him. I’m a family man, a nerd, a technology evangelist, …
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Brandon saw the lack of social justice in the church as inexcusable. When the November policy of exclusion was leaked, he had to stand with his conscience and leave. He even hopes he would have done the same for his black brothers and sisters before the priesthood ban was lifted. “I served a mission and …
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Mormon church leaders council that research is not the answer, but that stance only works for so long. Once the floodgates of true information open, there’s no turning back. Lindsay found that once she had the information, the only conclusion that makes any sense. She has this poignant epiphany that the church simply isn’t true. …
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The critical thinking skills that flourish in logic and science must be ignored in Mormonism. Once Michael applied the same critical thinking, his belief in the church couldn’t hold water. “I’ve always been a fan of logic, science, and critical thinking. I just finally got around to applying logic and reason to matters of faith …
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In his quest to find himself, Zac realized he was done living for everyone else’s comfort. He really began to find himself and face his own sexuality. Finding the CES letter helped him open his eyes and see that he’d been conditioned his whole life and never allowed himself to think his own thoughts! “I …
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Gretchen spells out the insanity in what Joseph Smith did and got away with for a number of years. It does not compute that a prophet of God would do this, or that a good God would command a prophet to do this. Also, that we can’t talk about these problems or think critically about …
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The CES Letter reaches far and wide and everywhere it unwinds the lies the church tells. Plonx from the Philippines deconstructed his faith and found more happiness after leaving the mormon church. “I started searching about the mormon church. I learned about the CES Letter, the salamander letter, the case of Mark Hoffman, the Book …
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The CES Letter exposes many of the church’s coverups and helps readers see through the correlated bologna. Denise accidentally found the CES letter but didn’t accidentally leave the church. “I stumbled on the Post Mormon facebook pages, learned about the CES letter, and all of the lies of the church. I resigned my membership in …
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The Gospel Topic Essays are damaging to testimonies in that they skirt around issues that we’ve always been taught to ignore. To be authentic the only route was for Mark to leave the church. “I discovered the Gospel Topic Essays on the church website. They aren’t easy to find, and I found the content to …
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