Top 20 Reasons People Leave the Mormon Church - A Starter List
What would you add or change?
I would like to curate a list of the top 20 reasons people leave the Mormon church. Here is the list that I have created so far. Which of these do you resonate with? What should I remove? What should I add? Please let me know in the comments:
Joseph Smith’s illegal and fraudulent treasure digging (stone in a hat, illegal, court trials)
Book of Mormon translation/production issues (use of stone in the hat, hiding plates, plates not in the room, lost 116 Pages, problematic witnesses)
Book of Mormon historicity problems (Native American DNA, Deutero Isaiah, OT & NT in BOM, protestant sermons, Mound Builder Myth, wrong animals, wrong plants, wrong technologies, KJV errors, King James English)
Joseph Smith’s changing First Vision Story
Joseph Smith’s false Book of Abraham translation
Joseph Smith’s Polygamy and Polyandry
Mormon Temple Ceremony (Masonic Influences and Changes, violent, creepy, weird)
Problematic Brigham Young Teachings and Behaviors (Adam-God Theory, Blood Atonement, Extreme Racism, Mountain Meadows Massacre)
Post-Manifesto Polygamy
Anti-Science Teachings ( 6,000 year old earth, literal Adam/Eve, global flood, literal Noah’s arc, anti-evolution)
Racist Teachings (Curse of Cain, Lamanite Curse, Priesthood and Temple Ban)
Sexism (women as second class citizens, decreased emphasis on education & professions, woman’s place is in the home, Anti-ERA, Ordain Women, smaller budgets)
Homophobia (hateful and uninformed teachings, encouraging celibacy, Mixed-Orientation Marriage, Conversion therapy, Proposition 8, LGBTQ Exclusion policy and reversal)
LDS Church Rampant Sexual Abuse and Cover-Ups (Anti-masturbation, anti-porn, harsh chastity teachings, One on one worthiness interviews, Highly sexualized culture, Boy Scouts, Help line / Kirton McConkie, Sam Young)
Shady Financial Dealings (Non-transparent in finances, total wealth of >$300 Billion, tithing manipulation of members and the specifically the poor, Ensign Peak, City Creek Mall, SEC Fraud, minimal spending on charity)
Excommunicating or Intimidating Truth Tellers (Oliver Cowdery, William Law, Ann Eliza Young, 1911 BYU professors, Fawn Brodie, Joanna Brooks, Leonard Arrington, Sterling McMurrin, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Sonja Johnson, September 6, Eugene England, Margaret Toscano, Brent Metcalfe, David Wright, Thomas Murphy, Simon Southerton, Grant Palmer, Kate Kelly, John Dehlin, Jeremy Runnells, Bill Reel, Sam Young, Gina Colvin, Natasha Helfer, Laurie Lee Hall…also the Strengthening church members committee)
Hiding and Lying to Members (JS Polygamy denials, Nauvoo Expositor destruction, MMM cover-up, polygamy Manifestos, Secret Mormon Meetings of 1922, Joseph Fielding Smith and 1832 First Vision account, Mark Hofmann Forgeries and Bombings, John Taylor Revelation, Leonard Arrington history department, Gordon B. Hinckley media appearances, gospel topics essays)
Changing Doctrine over Time (trinity, imminent second coming, Independence, MO as gathering place, Dynastic sealings, eternal polygamy, priesthood and temple ban, temple ceremony, changing garments)
Harsh or Confusing Doctrinal Positions about God, Jesus, Afterlife, Judgement, Epistemology, Eternal family/sealings, exclusive truth claims
Others
Church experience is boring, unspiritual, or irrelevant
Ecclesiastical abuse
Your best idea goes here….
Please let me know in the comments if there’s a super important reason that should be included here. I really appreciate the support.
I love it, great list. One other thing that stands out to me as a major reason for leaving was finally getting over the hurdle of misunderstood emotions.
I was taught that bad feelings were either warnings from the Holy Ghost or temptations from the devil. That good feelings were the Holy Ghost confirming the undeniable truth of things.
This made it so hard to even take any of these arguments seriously - I would hear them and immediately feel the cognitive dissonance and persecution complex kick into full gear, get overwhelmed by a “oh no these are scary and evil things, the devil is trying to deceive me and lead me away” and then pretty much run away from the thoughts, hum “I am a Child of God” for the umpteenth time, and then go on with my day.
Once I finally realized that feeling ‘good’ about something means you *like* it and not that it’s *true*, the rest really clicked into place for me.
Then I realized that my feelings *all* come from within and I’ve had to try and figure out what all that shit means in therapy. Yay trauma and being an emotionally immature 30 year old 😢
This is a great list! I’m not sure if this is an important reason or if others have felt this way, but for me, the thing that made me take a step back first was seeing the way members treated others, especially online. From my point of view, members were treating others who have different views, whether they are religious or political, horribly. I observed how quickly many members jumped to name calling and degrading comments if anyone voiced an opinion opposing theirs, more often online than in person. This made me question if I wanted to be associated with a group of people who couldn’t have open conversations and be willing to learn from others points of views. That’s not to say that all members behave this way. But seeing this sort of behavior online, for anyone in the world to see, from people who claim to be followers of Jesus, was very unsettling to me. It was after I took this step back that I learned about everything on this list, my shelf breaker being the ex-communication of those fighting for children within the church and hearing heartbreaking stories of child abuse by church leaders. Thank you so much for the work you do! Hopefully this helps.