Ex-Mormons: Why Did You Leave the Mormon Church?

[Porknpie]

I’d like to hear from any “Ex”-Mormons on why you left the Mormon church. For example, was your leaving initiated because of problems within the Mormon church in some way, either on faith, morals or some church practice? OR was your leaving initiated because you found the truth existed in another church (hopefully the fullness of truth in the Catholic church but that’s not the purpose of this thread) ? Also, was your journey “out” a short one or did it take a lot of time and discernment? At any time did you have a “Moment” in changing your beliefs?

Thank you in advance for sharing story.

 

[Angelsflight]

I was a mormon LONG ago…23 years ago. I was not in the faith long, maybe a year. I just felt really out of place there. Family and marriage is a big thing for them, and I planned on never getting married or having children.

I had a hard time with some of their practices, like store bought bread for Eucharist, and water instead of wine. I know, that is not a really big deal, but…it seemed weird to me at the time. And I felt strange about temple sealings and baptisms and marriages for the dead.

And I had a hard time with the whole Joseph Smith thing. They tended to use the Book of Mormon more than the bible, at the ward I was at anyway.

Mormons are very nice people, with the greatest of intentions, but the religion just wasnt for me in the end.

 

[TexanKnight]

I was a mormon LONG ago…23 years ago. I was not in the faith long, maybe a year. I just felt really out of place there. Family and marriage is a big thing for them, and I planned on never getting married or having children.

I had a hard time with some of their practices, like store bought bread for Eucharist, and water instead of wine. I know, that is not a really big deal, but…it seemed weird to me at the time. And I felt strange about temple sealings and baptisms and marriages for the dead.

And I had a hard time with the whole Joseph Smith thing. They tended to use the Book of Mormon more than the bible, at the ward I was at anyway.

Mormons are very nice people, with the greatest of intentions, but the religion just wasnt for me in the end.

The Bibleis just for show. They use the Book of Mormon

 

[Tmaque]

The Bibleis just for show. They use the Book of Mormon

LDS use the Bible quite a bit but it’s true that they do rely on the Book of Mormon more. I was raised LDS, served a mission, but left the church in my mid-twenties simply because I came to realize their doctrine was illogical and incompatible with history.

 

[TexanKnight]

LDS use the Bible quite a bit but it’s true that they do rely on the Book of Mormon more. I was raised LDS, served a mission, but left the church in my mid-twenties simply because I came to realize their doctrine was illogical and incompatible with history.

I disagree. In all my time as LDS and since, I have NEVER heard the Leaders have a “Bible Challenge” to read thr Bible. Yet I have hundreds of “Book of Mormon Challenges” to read the Book of Mormon in 4 months or in 6 months, etc.

As a missionary, we were not challenged to read the Bible, but we WERE challenged to read the Book of Mormon daily.

At the MTC during PE, we recited the Books of the Book of Mormon and the PResidents of the Church, we never recited the Books of the Bible.

Just sayin…

 

[RebeccaJ]

I was raised LDS, started doubting when I was in elementary school. That catalyst being: I was hearing in church lessons that dark skin was a curse from God. One day a lesson at school taught about natural selection and melanin. That was the first time I had that feeling of “something isn’t right here”.

Through the next ten years or so more instances of this type occurred. It peaked when I was 16 or 17 years old. Church lessons for girls of this age are heavy with marriage preparations. It felt very stifling to me, this life laid out before me, as though there is no choice. Between the “something isn’t right here” moments, that had piled up, and the feeling of being caged, I was done.

I contined the appearance of the good Mormon girl just to keep my parents happy. By the time I was in my early 20’s I was an atheist. When I moved out on my own I stopped practicing anything that had to do with the Mormon religion.

 

[andrewstx]

I joined the mormon church at a very young age, because I was lonely and they were an instant set of friends (the young adult group).

I left quickly once I became aware of the things the missionaries don’t say. like Mrs God, many “gods”, “heavenly father” being an ordinary human man, who worked his way up to “godhood”, other people becomming “gods” with their own planets to fill with spirit children.

I bit off more than I could chew, and had to be excommunicated to get out.

 

[Callvenus]

I left for many reasons. I grew up in the church, served a mission, went through the temple. I started realizing the gaps in the theology like 1.) the belief in many gods. 2.) the necessity for the fall and how great this event was 3.) the fact that we needed to be married to be exalted 4.) the fact that God is not sovereign and is bound by laws 5.) the fact that Joseph Smith bashed every other Christian denomination and said he has more to boast of then Jesus because only he (Joe Smith) could keep a church together.

The list really does go on and on but I would just like to close by bearing my testimony that I KNOW the LDS Church is NOT true and is full of lies. I KNOW Joseph Smith was not a prophet. I KNOW that Thomas Monson does not speak for God today. lol.

That last part was a joke but I do mean it. Mormons rely on bearing a testimony to convert people to their faith because logic, reason, and history are all at odds with the theology of Mormonism so maybe this little short testimony will convince someone that the mormon church is not true.

I am happy to be now a full member of Christ’s true church, the ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC church!

 

[TexanKnight]

I left because, as I was studying old LDS History and Doctrine in order to become a better LDS apologist, I discovered doctrine I could not accept (Adam/God, God was once a man, etc.) and history that led me to accept Joseph was not a prophet (the 9 versions, his con-man background, the William Law stuff that included wife-swapping, the Fannie Alger stuff, etc etc etc. I lost my testimony. One of the worst days in my life, and, ultimately, one of the best.

 

[Marie5890]

I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting the talks were on the temple and temple marriage and priesthood etc…

In my gut I knew I no longer believed in such doctrines because God’s love was greater than the power Mormons feel they have in the priesthood to bind families together.

It’s love that binds families, not priesthood…

Hence, no need for priesthood for families to be eternal, and no need for temples…

From then, the rest of LDS dogma fell like a pile of dominos…

 

[Quaesitor]

For me, something happened when I was a kid. I was sixteen and an active member of the church. My doctors told me I had to have open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve, which happened about 4 months after my father had the same surgery. It wasn’t my first surgery as I had two others, one during the first year of my life and another one when I was about seven. We knew it was coming, they were just trying to wait until I was full grown. So there was no, “Why did God do this to me?” type questions or anything, it was just a part of my life.

Up to my surgery I was fully active in the church, no questions or anything, believed in everything. Well, after surgery, of that kind, you’re in the hospital for about 5 days but because they crack your sternum to get at your heart, you’re pretty much homebound for a few months to let it heal. For some reasons, that I have yet to find, I never went back to church. I don’t have any specific moment that I said “Ah, that’s whats wrong with this religion.”

Over the years I’ve tried going back a few times, but for what ever reason, it never felt like it did before I had my surgery. Like there was no connection. I finally thought to my self, last year, that maybe I should stop looking at the LDS church and look elsewhere. So about a year ago, after twenty-one years, I started looking around. I have to say I’ve been drawn to Catholicism out of all the other christian faiths out there. Mainly because of the authority of the Pope and the Magisterium.

 

[Marie5890]

For me, something happened when I was a kid. I was sixteen and an active member of the church. My doctors told me I had to have open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve, which happened about 4 months after my father had the same surgery. It wasn’t my first surgery as I had two others, one during the first year of my life and another one when I was about seven. We knew it was coming, they were just trying to wait until I was full grown. So there was no, “Why did God do this to me?” type questions or anything, it was just a part of my life.

Up to my surgery I was fully active in the church, no questions or anything, believed in everything. Well, after surgery, of that kind, you’re in the hospital for about 5 days but because they crack your sternum to get at your heart, you’re pretty much homebound for a few months to let it heal. For some reasons, that I have yet to find, I never went back to church. I don’t have any specific moment that I said “Ah, that’s whats wrong with this religion.”

Over the years I’ve tried going back a few times, but for what ever reason, it never felt like it did before I had my surgery. Like there was no connection. I finally thought to my self, last year, that maybe I should stop looking at the LDS church and look elsewhere. So about a year ago, after twenty-one years, I started looking around. I have to say I’ve been drawn to Catholicism out of all the other christian faiths out there. Mainly because of the authority of the Pope and the Magisterium.

Hello Quaesitor and welcome to CAF!!!

May God bless your RCIA journey this coming year and may it be fruitful and full of graces…

Im guessing that you are hoping to be baptized and received into the Church Easter Vigil of 2013?

Feel free to ask any question or post any concerns if you need to. There are several of us former Mormons here on CAF. We will be glad to help you if you need some…

 

[Quaesitor]

Im guessing that you are hoping to be baptized and received into the Church Easter Vigil of 2013?

That is correct. I started out last December but decided I missed so much I didn’t want to rush through everything for the 2012 Easter Vigil. So here I am to finish what I started, this year.

Thanks

 

[CyberAngel]

I dig in to the teachings in the LDS web pages
I think that I’m probably the only one in my home country
that have read so many English pages so fast and eagerly

from the OFFICIAL LDS pages I found three things that were very WRONG
one of them is the Book of Abraham

1. Joseph Smith told that he translated it
2. nowadays the LDS Church teaches that it was “inspired”
   why?
3. because the Egyptian hieroglyphs were later found out to have
   NOTHING to do with the Smith’s “translation”
   the actual papyrus is part of a terrible pagan Book of the Dead

the Book of Abraham was - literally - drawn out of a hat !!!

After that it was much easier to find out what else the lustful Smith cooked up
He married other men’s wives etc
Smith was an occultist demonic man who had it coming…
too bad…
If you are being deceived by Smith’s lies, please pray at least once
you can be forgiven and get out!

 

[Porknpie]

I dig in to the teachings in the LDS web pages
I think that I’m probably the only one in my home country
that have read so many English pages so fast and eagerly

from the OFFICIAL LDS pages I found three things that were very WRONG
one of them is the Book of Abraham

1. Joseph Smith told that he translated it
2. nowadays the LDS Church teaches that it was “inspired”
   why?
3. because the Egyptian hieroglyphs were later found out to have
   NOTHING to do with the Smith’s “translation”
   the actual papyrus is part of a terrible pagan Book of the Dead

the Book of Abraham was - literally - drawn out of a hat !!!

After that it was much easier to find out what else the lustful Smith cooked up
He married other men’s wives etc
Smith was an occultist demonic man who had it coming…
too bad…
If you are being deceived by Smith’s lies, please pray at least once
you can be forgiven and get out!

Cyber- this is off topic for this post…,but there is another “merged questions on Mormonism” or something close to it. Thank you.

 

[Prince_Hal]

I think I still qualify to answer this question even though I have not left physically (it is a long story), but spiritually I have left. I know that leaves me open to the criticism that I must still be having doubts, but I don’t have any doubts, I am just trying to do what is right, in the right way.

Like most mormons i was taught not to read “anti-mormon” literature - since it is the tool of the adversary to make us doubt the pure religion. Like most mormons too I was taught to concentrate on reading the book of mormon since it is the “keystone to our religion”. So, I really did not know what the Bible actually said. I was enticed by promises of celestial marriage and mansions on high. I also - correctly - saw the goodness of the hearts of many mormons and their family values, oh and that pretty girl I was dating was also mormon.

Then I received a jolt - a terrible event in my life - not God’s doing, except He allowed it to happen. The pain was intense. I contemplated stupid courses of action, but my friends pulled me through. I spoke to my LDS bishop but only saw rules and not compassion (this is very, very forgivable). But there in my desolation I saw a vision in my mind. A green hill crowded by people who I realized were my friends, other LDS church members, my bishop, the leaders of the church. One by one they left because they could not cope with the pain that i was feeling. Everyone was gone except me and one other person. A beautiful person who I did not recognize, but who exuded so much love, I knew they were the answer. I labelled this person as Jesus Christ - because it had to be - but I was not sure. All I knew was this person was the answer. That was probably 10 years ago. Since that time i realized that the person was a Woman, not a Man. A Woman who was to lead me to Christ. This was the Blessed Virgin Mary.

So, knowing that the LDS church could not show me peace in my heart, I set about looking for that peace. I found it partially in a wonderful baptist congregation, but it was transitory. i started to read the Bible and realized that I was being duped my mormonism. Concepts and doctrines that I was being taught by my LDS teachers - and I taught to other (I had been an LDS missionary, High Priest, High Counsellor, bishop’s counceller, and a bishop all before I was 35 years old) were twisted. It was the doctrines that I could read for myself in the Bible that contradicted what i was taught: the great apostasy as taught by mormons - false; the priesthood as taught by mormons - false; marriage and polygamy as taught by mormons false. Weekly hypocrisy taught from the stand in an LDS chapel. The nature of God and the Trinity as taught by the mormons - false. Walk into a mormon sacrament meeting on a Sunday and tell me where the worship and adoration of God is? It is more like a business meeting. And yet the pull of the crowd is intense. The guilt of leaving the LDS religion is heaped upon you: what sin did you commit? must be one of a sexual nature. Well what do you expect, he doesn’t believe in the LDS church anymore, bound to be a sin lurking at the back. Yep, I got it all and still do.

Another major doctrinal problem was in the Creation story. According to LDS beliefs God presented Adam with two sins and he had to choose to commit one of them. Adam is praised for chooseing the “least of the two sins”. Odd, really odd sort of a Father who would do that. Oh and then there was Joseph Smith… well I could go on.

Simple answer: a major jolt in my life; the overwhelming waterfall of God’s love for me, drowning me without any desire on my part to struggle and save myself; the Bible leading me from erroneous doctrines to truth. That’s why I spiritually left the mormon church and why I spiritually entered the Catholic church. And where my heart now is, my weak and cowardly body will follow.

God bless you,

Hal.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Simple answer: a major jolt in my life; the overwhelming waterfall of God’s love for me, drowning me without any desire on my part to struggle and save myself; the Bible leading me from erroneous doctrines to truth. That’s why I spiritually left the mormon church and why I spiritually entered the Catholic church. And where my heart now is, my weak and cowardly body will follow.

God bless you,

Hal.

It is a strong and brave person who would share such intimate experiences in this particular forum.

I have had similar, with Mary, clarity in scriptures I never had in my life, answers to prayers, etc. You have to understand, all this while calling myself an atheist.

That is what brought me to Catholicism. There are some things you just can’t ignore.

 

[Porknpie]

Like most mormons i was taught not to read “anti-mormon” literature - since it is the tool of the adversary to make us doubt the pure religion. Like most mormons too I was taught to concentrate on reading the book of mormon since it is the “keystone to our religion”. So, I really did not know what the Bible actually said. I was enticed by promises of celestial marriage and mansions on high. I also - correctly - saw the goodness of the hearts of many mormons and their family values, oh and that pretty girl I was dating was also mormon.

Then I received a jolt - a terrible event in my life - not God’s doing, except He allowed it to happen. The pain was intense. I contemplated stupid courses of action, but my friends pulled me through. I spoke to my LDS bishop but only saw rules and not compassion (this is very, very forgivable). But there in my desolation I saw a vision in my mind. A green hill crowded by people who I realized were my friends, other LDS church members, my bishop, the leaders of the church. One by one they left because they could not cope with the pain that i was feeling. Everyone was gone except me and one other person. A beautiful person who I did not recognize, but who exuded so much love, I knew they were the answer. I labelled this person as Jesus Christ - because it had to be - but I was not sure. All I knew was this person was the answer. That was probably 10 years ago. Since that time i realized that the person was a Woman, not a Man. A Woman who was to lead me to Christ. This was the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Prince Hal - thank you for sharing a very personal story. The Virgin Mary, in many appearances to man throughout the ages, always leads us to her son. The message is never about her, it’s always about her son. This can be seen in her appearing in Lourdes and Fatima among many others. It is truly a gift for the Lord to allow his mother to appear to you in such a way.

 

[HonoraDominum]

I left the church because I was deeply offended by someone. And I wanted to live a sinful life.

[insert slow clap] :clapping:

No, not really. But can you imagine? “I knew with every fiber in my being that the LDS church was the revealed church of our God and creator, and our savior, and that my salvation depended on my endurance to the end. But I got dismissed from my calling as Relief Society First Counselor because the Relief Society President didn’t like me, and the Bishop’s wife insulted my Funeral Potatoes in front of the entire Sunday School class! I’m never going back!”

I was a TBM, never doubted, until I was 21. I remember going to a particular bookstore in Mesquite TX, and for some reason, I picked up some anti-Mormon book. I’m sure, being deep in the bible belt, it was some horrible Ed Decker-esque book, but whatever I read in it, it shattered the cornerstone of my belief. I was taught in seminary that Joseph Smith was the cornerstone of the religion - lose faith in him and the whole thing crumbles. Well, that’s what happened. Everything crumbled, including my belief in God, my belief in Christ, and everything about my belief in Joseph Smith. I quit my calling and left the church.

I wish I could say I never looked back, but that’s not entirely true. When I was 27, I decided that I needed to make sure that the Mormon church really was not true, that I had not lost my testimony due to my own sin and weaknesses. I read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, and went to church every Sunday, and paid full tithing and went through the temple, and prayed so very hard. I did everything I was supposed to do, and never received that “burning of the bosom.” But I do believe that God was calling me even then to become Catholic, but first He had to teach me that the Mormon church was truly not His church, so that I could close that chapter of my life and move on to His truth.

For most Protestant converts that I know, they had a “teach their way to the church” kind of experience. The more they studied about the history of Christianity, the more they began to believe in the truth of the authority of the Catholic church. Most Mormons, however, tended to have more of what I think of as a “2x4 to the side of the head” type of experience, involving something very uniquely Catholic. For me, I was at a Catholic wedding Mass, and had a moment during the consecration. I remember thinking, “I want that. I don’t know why, but I want it.” I had such a holy envy for those who received during Communion. Then I remember thinking, “I could do this. I could come to a Catholic church, every day if I wanted! I could even become Catholic. I’m a grown up - I don’t need anyone’s permission to do this. I want to be Catholic!” I was in RCIA two weeks later, and have always had a profound respect and adoration for our Eucharistic Lord since that conversion moment.

 

[RebeccaJ]

HD, a hunger for God is a commonality among every convert from Mormonism I’ve met.

Recently in our RCIA, as we discussed the Sunday readings that have all come from John 6, one of our catechumens (former LDS) commented that contemplating, praying and meditating on these readings have caused her to want to receive communion. What a gift!

The Spirit brings people to Christ.

God, you are my God—
it is you I seek!
For you my body yearns;
for you my soul thirsts,
In a land parched, lifeless,
and without water. – Psalms 63:1

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." – John 6:35