Former Mormon "de-conversion" stories

[Marie5890]

I remember the very moment. I was sitting in Sacrament meeting and the talk was on temples, temple work, families are forever etc.

It hit me like a bolt of lightening. People dont need to be “sealed” to each other in order to be a “family forever”…

God’s love is what makes familes and “families are forever”…not temple work
If anything the idea behind LDS temples and “temple sealings” actually divides families, not unites them.

That disordered and distorted LDS teaching was the begining of unraveling of Mormon doctrine for me…The rest would follow as I did more objective research…

I thank God for my infant Baptism…The grace that it left me with broke thru the disordered and distorted teachings that is known as Mormonism…

Many in the LDS church dont have that heavenly aid…

 

[AtticusFinch]

If you’re talking about the hymn “Praise to the Man”, then whenever I sing that hymn I realize that it was written by W W Phelps, whose actions actually led to imprisonments of Joseph Smith when he left the LDS church at one point in his life, yet when he returned to ask forgiveness from Joseph he was told “yes, let us be friends once more.” Joseph Smith was not bitter, although having been in horrible, dismal conditions for four months.

W W Phelps thus had a tremendous sense of honor for Joseph Smith, the man. He sensed his integrity, and his compassion. He also happened to like to write hymns, so he wrote that hymn after the prophet was killed by a heartless mob.

You undoubtedly don’t think that “kings” extol him or that “nations revere.” But we are still in the early transition period before the Millenium, and leaders of nations have extolled the LDS approaches to humanitarian needs and will probably continue to do so as humanitarian needs happen in the world, but the word “nation” can be a symbolic term such as “an extended multi-generational family” or “a community of believers” or “a million people gathered together”, and there are those who do honor Joseph Smith’s integrity and faith such that they “revere” his name just like my family “reveres” the name of “George Washington” and “Thomas Jefferson”. Revere can mean “have gratitude for the mission on earth of …”

The LDS view is that God is in charge of how He has planned the unfolding of the gifts of knowledge given to humankind on earth. To reverence that unfolding process is not to diminish from the Giver of the knowledge. It is to honor the Giver as well as to acknowledge the need for the recipient of the knowledge to have asked for the knowledge by seeking inspiration from Heaven.

One can gain insight by placing a hymn into its historical setting, but some people choose not to do that and choose to poke fun at the sincerity of others’ expressions of gratitude to God.

and some people choose to defend blindly. I chose to listen to the hymns, listen to the testimonies of people, and read things Joseph wrote before forming my understanding

 

[AtticusFinch]

I still stand by what I said. That hymn honors Joseph Smith because he “communed with Jehovah”. Joseph Smith receives honor from his association with Jehovah, not the other way round. I also like what Parker has said. That hymn was written by W. W. Phelps, who apostatized from the Church for a time, and bore testimony against the Church, and was instrumental in bringing a lot of persecution against the Church and especially against Joseph Smith. But when he repented and came back and asked for forgiveness, Joseph Smith readily forgave him and received him back as a friend. As a result of that experience Phelps developed such a great love for Joseph Smith that he wrote that hymn in his praise, and it has become a Church classic. But as far as I am concerned, it honors “Jehovah” more than Joseph Smith.

Then you have not really read what it says

 

[zerinus]

Then you have not really read what it says

I have, but I don’t think you read what I said!

 

[sablouwho]

To the original poster:

I have a funny suspicion that our recent e-mails back and forth helped prompt this thread

Indeed, it did. Our emails made me curious to talk with others who might have had similar experiences to yours.

In any case, you already have my conversion story, and I’m surprised to see that the catalyst for me was the same as it was for Tmaque. I lost faith in Mormonism long before I ever found faith in Catholicism as the driving force was coming back from my mission, and embarking on a scientific discipline of study.

I can understand that a scientific bent would cause issues, especially (as I noted upthread in a reply to Tmaque) since LDS tend towards literalism in their understanding of scripture. During my time as an investigator, I also happened to be in my 1st year of a 2-yr bible study course for adults (co-sponsored by the Archdiocese and a local Catholic university) that was most definitely NOT literalist, but instead employed historical-critical method. The contrast between these two ways of thinking (LDS and Catholic) made a deep impression on me.

That said, I still do wonder how LDS would react to someone like Grant Palmer, author of “An Insiders View of Mormon Origins”. I haven’t read the book, but I understand that he talks about the revisionist history of the church (changes to the official story of the First Vision, etc) as well as suggesting that the BoM is not historical, but instead is “pious fiction.” I certainly find the “pious fiction” idea more believable than the literalist stance embraced by the church.

I mean, there are some parts of the OT that I don’t believe literally happened, yet that doesn’t decrease my faith–it actually increases it, because if I had to believe in some of the stories literally, it would be too much of a stretch.

I notice some folks are talking about parts of their Mormon experience that they miss, or thought were virtuous and are sadly lacking in their experience of Catholicism. For me, this would have to be a sense of uniqueness as a separated people. Latter-day Saints far better fit the bill of the peculiar people spoken of in Deuteronomy and later reiterated by Jesus. And all throughout life we were constantly reminded of our “peculiar” status, which I think made living the faith a bit easier.

Very interesting. As a Jew, I can relate to the peculiar people thing. I’ve always felt “different” in some way, even though I didn’t actually observing all the laws, etc (though I have relatives who do). I think part of my identifying with this “peculiar-ness” was being very aware of being a minority, and another part was being aware of the historical persecution of Jews. And of course, now I’m really peculiar, having converted to belief that Jesus is the Christ. It is rare for Jews to convert–usually it happens when there is an interfaith marriage, and generally it is the gentile spouse that converts to Judaism and NOT the other way around. But in my case, I converted because I wanted to learn about why some friends believed “in that crazy Christian stuff” and the more I studied it, I found it wasn’t so crazy afterall!

Unfortunately I think Catholicism specifically, and Christianity in general, have lost this sense of not being of the world likely due to necessity since coming to be the majority religion I think demands that the religion become some what worldly. Maybe this isn’t the case for Catholics in parts of the world in which Christianity is a rarer phenomenon. Sub-Saharan Catholics or Catholics in China likely live the faith much closer to how the 1st century martyrs did while us Western Catholics take much of it for granted.

Agreed. Though in some ways, I think the increasing secularization of the West does make us peculiar in some ways. Though perhaps not as much as LDS.

 

[jpk1313]

I am interested in hearing from former members of the Mormon faith – why did you leave the Latter-day Saints? What was it like to leave? Etc…

I am NOT wanting to encourage LDS-bashing here, rather I am hoping to hear heartfelt and earnest stories of what it was like to leave the LDS Church, and what your thought process was like.

Also–for those of you who felt like you really did have a “burning in the bosom”, or spiritual experiences (giving/receiving priesthood blessing, patriarchal blessing, doing proxy work, etc) – in retrospect, do you feel that any of your spiritual experiences were genuine? Why or why not?

When I was about ten years old my father joined the mormon church. At first I was completly indefferent to it all. But my aunt (who conviced my father to join) kept at the “when are your kids going to be baptised” and eventualy when I just plain old said “I don’t belive in all this junk” my father beat the hell out of me and forced me to be baptised. All I was exposed to was hypocrisy. Even one of the ministers told me straight to my face “you are a little demon child”. So I figured if I’m so evil I might as well start acting the part. This lead me to my first steps into the occult/black magik. I started to pray to satan to kill my father and would’nt you know my father died when I was eleven. I spent the next theirteen years delving into the deepest of occult philosophy. I would read everything I could get my hands on. I’ve got the equvilent of a masters in the occult. Then around four years ago I had an experience that conviced me God really does exist. I did not who or what he was just that he existed. One day about six months after this experience I was walking past a Christian book store and something came over me (the holy spirit) and I was like a puppet I could not control myself. I walked into that store and used all of my food money to buy a bible. Later that day I went to a party at a friends place and I had been there maybe half an hour when my leg started to shake and I had this fearfull feeling that I could not be there and needed to go. So I said my good by’s and left. Half way home I run into this guy who I at first thought was a druged out psyco who was going to rob me (He talked like charlie manson and had this insane look in his eyes). When he started talking about my brother and other people I knew and then started to point out scars I have one my body. I’d never seen or met this person before in my life. At the time I had been looking into the kabbala (jewish mystism) and for some reason he asked if I was jewish. then asked if I thought Jesus was the messiah. When i said I thought he was at most a prophet he started telling me about Jesus and how he came to save us from our sins and he was God made flesh something inside me started to crack like the hardness of my heart was breaking is the only way I can explain it. It was like a feeling of peace and terror mixed together. about four months later I was reading the gosple of John chapter three and that was when It started to make sense to me. I put down my bible and for the first time I repented of all my sins (it took a long time my voice was gone by the time I was done) and that was when the Holy Spirit came upon me. Iwas speaking in toungs and had a vision of hands washing over me and this feeling of peace (which took me a long time to identify as peace since I had never felt that before) came over me. I spent the rest of that year reading the bible and thinking about what i had read. Two years ago i was baptised in a mennonite church (it was the first church I went into that asked if I wanted to be baptised) and eventualy I was led to the catholic church and was confirmed last year. That is the jist of my story minus all the gory details. oh I did look into mormonism and It just does not stand up to reason and I just can’t buy what they are selling. God has a body and is a space alien? no thanks I prefer to belive in what the holy spirit tells me is the truth and he says joe smith and the mormon faith are full of it.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Would you say that most born and raised Mormons become atheists; opposed to converting to another religion, when they find out that Mormonism is not true?

I think this blog post from the iMonk sums it up…though he is speaking to Evangelicalism, it applies to Mormonism. (Bolding mine.)

"Atheism is just….easier. Occam’s Razor. Theism is too much trouble. It starts to sound like someone is trying to sell you something sight unseen. Isn’t your best move just to hang up the phone and ignore the call?

Douglas Wilson may be witty and William Lane Craig may be brilliant. John Lennox may teach at Oxford and Ravi Zacharias may be able to quote a dozen philosophers, but most atheist young people today are like Brad Pitt. Pitt was a kid walking the aisles in Baptist revivals, trying to find God in that mess when he met a Methodist preacher’s daughter who told him it was OK to just say no to it all. He didn’t have to live like that. He could call the torture sessions off and just be himself."

“Keller is still great. C.S.Lewis is still helpful. Craig is still impressive. But I’m not sure their arguments are on the right channel. Vast numbers of people aren’t asking for philosophy. They are asking what will let them live a life uncomplicated by lies, manipulation and constant calls to prefer ignorance to what seems obvious.”

That is what it is like for many who leave mormonism. It is so nonsensical why bother trying to make sense of it?

I can’t tell you the shock it was for me to discover rational thinking in a religion. Even more so to discover some of the greatest rational thinkers of history have been Catholics.

 

[aspirant]

Would you say that most born and raised Mormons become atheists; opposed to converting to another religion, when they find out that Mormonism is not true?

This is old, but interesting:

Percentage of former Mormons, residing in Utah, who say thay are now Roman Catholic: 22
Percentage [of former Mormons, residing in Utah] who say they are Baptist, Born-Again Christian: 5
Percentage of former Mormons, residing in Utah who say they have no religious preference: 42

, December 1998Sunstone Magazine

 

[AtticusFinch]

I have, but I don’t think you read what I said!

Sure I did. You did what Mormons always do. When confronted with proof against what they want to portray, they need to twist it all around to make it more palatable. Like the whole “as Man is, God once was…” thing

 

[sablouwho]

Ugh. Understandable.

Thank you–it is really something I so appreciate about the Catholic faith as opposed to Protestant. (I admit that this was also a reason I appreciated the LDS belief when compared with Protestants as well.)

 

[BartBurk]

I became Catholic in 2006 after 34 years as a Mormon. I left the Mormon Church spiritually long before I became a Catholic. I first began to see something wrong with Mormonism when I read a Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought article in Spring 1990 about a man named Thomas Stuart Ferguson. He had supported archaeological work in Central America for years in hopes of finding something supportive of the Book of Mormon. He eventually became a closet doubter because the work he had supported showed no evidence for the Book of Mormon there. That gave me food for thought.

I then came to realize the Book of Mormon actually taught there was only One God who is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It is a matter of interpretation whether the Book of Mormon is trinitarian or modalistic, but it definitely does not support the tritheism of modern Mormonism. It became clear Joseph Smith started teaching tritheism late in his career and even proclaimed there were many more Gods besides Father, Son and Holy Ghost. While I at one time believed the teachings of Joseph regarding this doctrine, a reading of both the Bible and the Book of Mormon convinced me that Joseph had errored in his teaching. All of his later teachings were promulgated as a way to justify his doctrine of plural marriage. I even learned that Joseph had allowed himself to be crowned as King of the Church in Nauvoo. In his final years I came to believe he was a full blown megalomaniac where power had completely gone to his head.

Later it became clear that mt-DNA findings showed that Native Americans were descended from Asia. There is no evidence of any Israelite ancestry at all.

These are just a few of the teachings that caused me to begin to question the Mormon Church. I began attending Protestant meetings, even talking to a counselor at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on the phone. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior in 1996. As I continued to search out early church history it became clear to me that Jesus had actually established a church while on earth. Surprisingly, I began to understand that the Catholic Church was the Church Jesus had established and that Christ had given Peter the keys to the kingdom as the first Pope. I began to see the Eucharist really was the body and blood of Christ rather than merely a symbol – the early Church Fathers made that abundantly clear. Eventually, I entered RCIA and was baptized into the Catholic Church even though the remaining members of my immediate family are all still Mormon. It has been a wonderful discovery.

 

[Catholic20064]

This is old, but interesting:

Percentage of former Mormons, residing in Utah, who say thay are now Roman Catholic: 22
Percentage [of former Mormons, residing in Utah] who say they are Baptist, Born-Again Christian: 5
Percentage of former Mormons, residing in Utah who say they have no religious preference: 42

“Mormon Index,” Sunstone Magazine, December 1998

It doesn’t surprise me that Mormons turn to Catholicism. I wonder how many become mainline Christians?

 

[sablouwho]

It doesn’t surprise me that Mormons turn to Catholicism.

Do you mean because the CC and the LDS have similar authority structures, etc?

By mainline Christians, do you mean mainline Protestants?

I suspect that a fair amount who still believe in Christ (as opposed to leaving the LDS and becoming atheist/agnostic, so sad) become evangelical. But this is only an impression I got from reading conversion stories on evangelical ministry web sites that focus specifically on the LDS. But I have no numbers or anything, just an impression.

Maybe “aspirant”, who gave the other statistics, knows?

 

[Catholic20064]

By mainline Christians, do you mean mainline Protestants?

I suspect that a fair amount who still believe in Christ (as opposed to leaving the LDS and becoming atheist/agnostic, so sad) become evangelical. But this is only an impression I got from reading conversion stories on evangelical ministry web sites that focus specifically on the LDS. But I have no numbers or anything, just an impression.

Maybe “aspirant”, who gave the other statistics, knows?

I know there are a lot of LDS who become Episcopalians, Lutherans and Methodists. The numbers above still left about 30 percent unaccounted for. If I’m right it means most ex-LDS eventually migrate to a Christian denomination rather than remaining unchurched. Perhaps the atheist/agnostic Mormons are just more vocal.

 

[sablouwho]

I know there are a lot of LDS who become Episcopalians, Lutherans and Methodists. The numbers above still left about 30 percent unaccounted for. If I’m right it means most ex-LDS eventually migrate to a Christian denomination rather than remaining unchurched. Perhaps the atheist/agnostic Mormons are just more vocal.

I have found that to be the case in my perusing ex-LDS stories online. That is why I started this post, actually, because I was interested in hearing conversion stories from ex-LDS who have faith in Jesus, versus those who are now atheist or agnostic (or who converted to a non-Christian faith).

 

[Catholic20064]

I have found that to be the case in my perusing ex-LDS stories online. That is why I started this post, actually, because I was interested in hearing conversion stories from ex-LDS who have faith in Jesus, versus those who are now atheist or agnostic (or who converted to a non-Christian faith).

The internet is increasing Mormons’ understanding of their church history and doctrine. The LDS Church is going to have to deal with the reality its members are going to become more and more skeptical of the LDS Church. It may have to come clean on some of the more unsavory parts of Joseph Smith’s life and teachings.

 

[aspirant]

Maybe “aspirant”, who gave the other statistics, knows?

Nope. Those are the only stats on the topic that Sunstone published in that issue, and that’s the only issue I actually remembered seeing stats like that in.

I’m kind of amazed that I remembered seeing those in 1998 and where I saw them. My memory is not usually that good.

 

[catholic-rcia]

What was fascinating to me as I read about the Saints, as I was on my way to an authentic Christian baptism was that they were actual people from our past, real History, those who have helped bring Christ to a multitude. It was Issac Jouges that brought me to Christ, 400 years later and 3000 miles away.
http://utahmission.com/pages/cJouges_page.html
I met my wife in California. She was from Montreal. She has French, Mohawk and Huron in her blood. Her ancestors were converted to Christianity because of the North American Martyrs. It was chilling when I read about him and realized this historical fact. As a child I dreamed of such men, but they were not historical, rather make believe. I grew up and I chose Jesus, I picked up my cross and became Catholic.

What intrigued me about this faith was the reality of my own sin, the reality that there is sin in the Church itself. Things began to click, like dot to dot as you see the picture more clearly. Baptism….Confession….the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the Saints, the Crucifix.

All very tangible, very much needed on the path to the Cross. Again I grew up, yet I feel like such a child in this faith. This Church is not built because of the fall of another’s. It was built because we are all a fallen people in need of healing. Not so that we can seek rewards on earth or in heaven. Rather so that we can tell others about Jesus, in the here and now. So that they can discover the same joy, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation that we have discovered. Its like everyone move over and make room for Him. With Him I feel lucky to have found His Church, very blessed indeed.

 

[sablouwho]

It is a little unclear to me from your post…were you ever a Mormon? If so, could you perhaps share with us why you left that faith?

What was fascinating to me as I read about the Saints, as I was on my way to an authentic Christian baptism was that they were actual people from our past, real History, those who have helped bring Christ to a multitude. It was Issac Jouges that brought me to Christ, 400 years later and 3000 miles away.
http://utahmission.com/pages/cJouges_page.html
I met my wife in California. She was from Montreal. She has French, Mohawk and Huron in her blood. Her ancestors were converted to Christianity because of the North American Martyrs. It was chilling when I read about him and realized this historical fact. As a child I dreamed of such men, but they were not historical, rather make believe. I grew up and I chose Jesus, I picked up my cross and became Catholic.

What intrigued me about this faith was the reality of my own sin, the reality that there is sin in the Church itself. Things began to click, like dot to dot as you see the picture more clearly. Baptism….Confession….the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the Saints, the Crucifix.

All very tangible, very much needed on the path to the Cross. Again I grew up, yet I feel like such a child in this faith. This Church is not built because of the fall of another’s. It was built because we are all a fallen people in need of healing. Not so that we can seek rewards on earth or in heaven. Rather so that we can tell others about Jesus, in the here and now. So that they can discover the same joy, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation that we have discovered. Its like everyone move over and make room for Him. With Him I feel lucky to have found His Church, very blessed indeed.

 

[RebeccaJ]

catholic-rcia is a former LDS who seems to have a focus on evangelizing LDS (he lives in UT).

I like his approach…very grateful for God leading him to truth. I agree to this. If it was easy, or hard, or had very strange moments (which we all have experienced)…it doesn’t really matter. It all pales in comparison to what God has given us.

At least, that is how I feel.