Resigning your membership and taking your name off the church records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is no laughing matter. The price for this choice may be high. It also has the disadvantage that you may feel suddenly alone and alienated from your cultural roots. Many people are not prepared sufficiently to deal with this unexpected emotional void. The reason that I have made this choice is not due to insult or injury, not to rebel, but after much deliberate and conscience study I have discerned for myself that the LDS faith (nor any religion for that matter) is not for me.
I am free. Free as I have never been free before. I am now confident that those who remain close to me truly love me and not just because they are supposed to love me. Now there is nothing holding me back from determining my own destiny and finding my own path through life.
"To my mind, a kind of mild-to-severe schizophrenia results from trying to keep one foot in and one foot out of an authoritarian church or belief system. A person, like a nation, cannot long exist half-slave and half-free. If we nibble at the fruit of the tree of knowledge but still cling to the security of Authority, we are caught in the impossible position of trying to take a journey and stay home at the same time." - Hymns to an unknown God, p. 102, New York: Bantam Books
The church does not make it easy for members to leave. Its attitude is that it knows better than you do what you need to be saved and it wants to protect you against yourself.
Thank you for your “genuine” concern.
Most people believe that I am going through a phase, that I am bending to Satan’s temptations and that I am committing eternal suicide. To this I must say that I have not taken this decision lightly. I have wept many a night thinking of the possible relationships that could be lost because of this choice. I have been torn about staying true to family tradition and values. I respect my history and my family. I love them all dearly and am grateful for the experiences that I have with them. I do not wish for one moment to sever any relationships. What it comes down to is that I must be true to myself. I have studied church teachings and can no longer with honesty, integrity and respect for myself claim relationship with the church.
I have found that there are several basic issues of Mormon doctrine, history and practice, including:
--the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham;
--the “translation” of the fraudulent Kinderhook Plates;
--the Masonic origins of the Mormon temple ceremony;
--the rewriting and altering of LDS Church history;
--the question of consistency within Mormon doctrines;
--the racist and sexist teachings of Mormon scripture; and
--the reversal and denial of official Mormon teachings
The more I have studied in these areas, the more I have developed an intellectual resistance to, and eventual disbelief in, bedrock Mormon claims.
I have started the process of resigning from the church – officially. I must free myself from this chapter in my life and allow myself to proceed with life anew. Hopefully in a few short months I can say…it's over, done, finis, schluss jetzt, end of story, that's all she wrote.
