How many times when I was a Mormon did I brush off questions about Mormonism's past, saying, “Oh, we don't believe that anymore.” No more polygamy, no, we don't believe that anymore. United Order? Well, that was back then, it was a good idea but didn't work out. Mormons today say, “Oh, we don't believe blacks can't hold the priesthood. We don't believe that anymore.”

While most Mormons are relieved they don't have to defend polygamy or racism, they have a greater problem. When did polygamy cease to be “eternal”? When was the last “unvaliant” spirit born into a black male body? I do understand how practices change, especially when such practices are based on misinterpretation of scripture. (Nineteenth-century Christians' attempts to justify slavery come to mind.)

But Mormons say they have a prophet. Someone with a direct pipeline to God. Somebody who should speak eternal principles and they should stay eternal. Somebody who should be able to correct misconceptions and misinterpretations of scripture. Somebody who would prevent such misconceptions in the first place.

No, I won't go back to a church that called me to believe, and absolutely, what it taught; and ten years from now will be disavowing its own “eternal” principles of today, saying, “Oh, we don't believe that any more.”

For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition:  A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.