Investigation reveals more than $1 billion raised by the Mormon church in Canada has been funneled to the U.S. rather than going to charitable works in this country. We hear from former members in Canada and elsewhere who say concerns about how money is spent have led them to leave the church. – The Fifth …
Continue reading “The Mormon-Canadian-BYU Billion Dollar Tithing Funnel”
Prior to 1978, LDS church leaders wrestled to understand the priesthood ban. They listened to explanations from Brigham Young and other church presidents who taught about the subject. They continued teaching the same things, and in some cases came up with new explanations. That changed in 1978, when the church flipped a 180 and granted …
Continue reading “McConkie Got It Wrong – Redacted Mormon Doctrine”
During the Worldwide Relief Society Devotional and Testimony Meeting on March 17, 2024, President Russell M. Nelson and the Relief Society General Presidency spoke to the members of the Relief Society and Young Women. The event was a 40-minute video production. The remarkable part is the claim J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society …
Continue reading “Church Leaders on Power and Authority Broadly Given To Women”
Letter For My Wife is a document aggregating questions and doubts about the Mormon church written by a questioning Mormon to his wife. The letter is meant to discuss the questions and concerns with the church’s truth claims or truth crisis and this man’s testimony. The letter was started as a document in 2009, when …
Mormonism Is a Religion of Unwritten Rules Mormonism as a religion and a culture relies heavily on unwritten and even unspoken rules. The religion judges members on these rules and judges everyone for adherence to the unwritten rules. There are theological assumptions that are entirely based on some of these rules and the religion has …
Continue reading “Unwritten Rules Are A Foundation Built On Sand”
This reading for worship, from the Unitarian Universalize Association, emphasizes the value of doubt as an essential and positive element in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. It contrasts doubt with unquestioning belief, arguing that beliefs immune to questioning can lead to error and incompleteness. Doubt, in this context, is portrayed as the key to …
The Covenant Intimacy Conversations discuss the challenging transition individuals may face when moving from a state of being sexually active to sexually inactive due to divorce or the death of a spouse. It states that while it may not be possible to fully replace the aspect of sexual intimacy lost through such life changes, individuals …
Continue reading “BYU Counsels Divorcees to “Fill the holes that were once filled by sex””
The 2015 November Policy of Exclusion The November Policy of Exclusion, or the LDS Church policy to ban LGBT, was a controversial policy change by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in November 2015. This policy update was initially leaked to the public and was later officially confirmed by the LDS Church. The …
A famous saying within the Church states, “As man is now, God once was; as God is now, man may be.” This couplet, originating from Joseph Smith’s King Follet discourse, was popularized by the fifth Church President Lorenzo Snow. Time Magazine published an article about Mormons and asked President Gordon B Hinckley about this concept …
Continue reading “Hinckley’s “I Don’t Know That We Teach It” Interview”
How does the church instruct the members to deal with their doubts? First, we do have an admission that we have legitimate reason to doubt. But First Doubt Your Doubts Even if there are legitimate things that may cause us to doubt, doubt these legitimate reasons before giving into any actual doubting. It’s natural to …
Continue reading “Dealing with Doubts and Controversial Opinions”
Ken converted to the church and then faithfully served in church callings and as a CES Educator. Over his 27 years teaching for the church, he grew increasingly uneasy with the whitewashed history the church teaches and took notes along the way. Eventually, this led to a tipping point where he “just couldn’t violate [his] …
Continue reading “Ken Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight”
Madison found she always had questions, but was forced to them off. She told herself, that she’d “figure it out later.” She did figure it out eventually through her experiences in the church and the temple to know that the church is not true. She felt connected to diety and felt confirmation that she was …
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Teddi chipped away on her Mormon checklist, repented when guilt and shame told her she needed to, and thought that without the rules and teachings of the church, she wouldn’t be happy. Over time she found herself disillusioned from the church, and still happy. She recognizes there is still healing on the other side, but …
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When Natalie Palmer-Taylor’s son was the target of a racial epithet hurled by another Mormon youth, she went to the church’s headquarters to complain. Ezra Taft Benson received her complaint and retorted with this dismissive challenge: ‘If you allow the people of the church to turn you against the church, then you were not worthy …
Continue reading “Racism and Victim Blaming From God’s Anointed”
John was a golden convert. He found comfort in the certainty. He also found the authority of the church exacerbated his anxiety into a real OCD and religious scrupulosity. The high-control authoritarian system was incredibly unhealthy for him throughout adolescence and a mission. John acknowledges that some may blame his OCD, but he knows it …
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In his lazy learners and lax disciples talk at the April 2021 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, church President Russell M Nelson emphasized the importance of developing faith in Jesus Christ through intentional effort and action. Those who don’t succeed in this self-administered brainwash he refers to as “lazy …
Continue reading “Demonizing Doubt: Nelson’s Talk on Lazy Learners and Lax Disciples”
In the Mormon community, the practice of putting questions on a shelf refers to the act of setting aside doubts or concerns about the faith in order to maintain belief and avoid conflict with church teachings. Mormons are encouraged to trust in the leadership and authority of the church and to believe that answers to …
Continue reading “Putting Questions on the Shelf is Unhealthy and Doesn’t Work”
Pascal’s Wager is an argument proposed by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal in the 17th century, which attempts to demonstrate that it is rational to believe in God. It does not provide evidence or proof that God exists, but it sets up belief as a rational choice we can make and outlines the …
Continue reading “Pascal’s Wager for Mormons and Ex-Mormons”
Do you have exmormon trauma? Try writing your story. Write about your faith deconstruction or crisis. wasmormon.org gives you a place to do this important and healing writing. Consider contributing your story to the site so others can read it and find community and validation as well! Suppressing the trauma is bad for us and …
Continue reading “Writing Your Traumatic Faith Crisis Experience is Healthy and Healing”
Boyd K Packer gave a talk to religious educators at a symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history. The talk was given at Brigham Young University on August 22, 1981 and is titled The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect. This is an infamous talk among scholars because Packer commands them …
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The First Vision of Joseph Smith is told today as an original exact story detailing the unique experience that sets the foundation for Mormonism and the restoration movement. We’ve discussed that even though one version of the story is canonized in Joseph Smith History as the “official” version, there are multiple versions of the first …
Continue reading “Other First Visions, Which are Not of This Fold”
Elder Jeffrey R Holland gave a fiery talk at a devotional in Tempe, Arizona in April 2016. Tempe Rescue This is a very dynamic address, and he’s quite emotionally charged about those who leave. Though charged, Holland does come off as more intelligent than in his BBC interview where he claims he’s neither an idiot …
Continue reading “Elder Holland’s Taffy-Pulled Devotional – Don’t You Dare Bail & Stay in the Boat!”
Fred lived as dedicated to the church as anyone could. He watched respected people leave the church and he was curious about why they left. So, he followed up with some research and collected issues onto his shelf, but he was able to reconcile them over time with his faith and would not deny the …
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This faith crisis report next lists many anonymous faith crisis profiles each detailing the exit story of the member (along with precious statistics and demographics the church cares deeply about such as household income). Not to be confused with the actual faith crisis profiles shared on wasmormon.org.
The report also analyses a perpetual cycle of disaffiliated members, where a member finds troubling information and through the age of information and the internet confirms the troubling issue as true and feels betrayed by the church for not being honest, and ends up venting to a family member and causing the cycle to restart for them.
Garrett stumbled into the rabbit hole of doctrine inconsistencies while doing his best to teach the youth of the church. He studied deeply and what he was finding troubled him enough to stop. He felt the prompting to continue to “seek truth. [He] felt assured that if the church was true, if the restoration was …
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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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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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In a faith transition many face feelings of groundlessness akin to crisis level vertigo. They may feel that their life is completely falling apart; that nothing is what it seemed and they struggle to cope with such a huge shift. They face reprocessing every principle, every value and potentially every reason for every thing in …
Continue reading “Finding Personal Meaning and Purpose in a Faith Transition”
![The church is taking away the government's ability to fund health care, and education, and provide other essential services. They've done it at the expense of taxpayer dollars. There's definitely been a change in [my] perspective. The church teaches that the temple should always be a focal point in your life. The temple has become a physical reminder of greed for me. - Nigel Kennet, a Canadian accountant, was working on the books of a church of a different faith, when he saw how much their members gave to charity. So, he looked into the Mormon's books, and was stunned by where their donations were going. - The Fifth Estate, October 27, 2022 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/canada-5th-estate-Nigel-Kennet-church-taking-away-government-ability-to-fund-essential-services-temple-has-become-a-reminder-of-greed.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1)
!["There are statements in our literature by the early brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things, and people write me letters and say, "You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?" And all I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation... [All the views and all the thoughts of the past] don't matter any more... It doesn't make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year." - LDS Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie, BYU Devotional 1978 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/mormon-doctrine-it-doesnt-make-a-particle-of-difference-what-anybody-ever-said-about-blacks.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1)
