Reason #111: LDS Church’s Lack of Financial Reporting
Recently I read accounts by two LDS ward (local congregation) finance clerks. These are local priesthood holders who process tithing checks from their fellow ward members and then send the money on to the Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. One, who is presently active as a Mormon, says he will soon leave the LDS Church after seeing that his ward sends about $500,000 every year to Salt Lake, but is only given about $5,000 for its own budget for operational expenses. (Apparently some of the headquarters’ frugality is also seen in the “calling” of local members to do janitorial work instead of hiring it done.) Another former ward finance clerk reported that he left the LDS church after realizing that his tithing alone equalled the entire...
Reason #106: LDS Membership, Conversion and Retention Numbers in Question
I have been hearing from both people who have recently left the LDS Church as well as some who attend meetings but are considering leaving that they perceive that the number of local ward members who are actually active seems to be declining. Others report that missionary conversion rates are declining. Others speak of the high percentage of missionary companions who have left the LDS Church. Here’s an interesting quote from the Mormon Social Science Association– “. . .regarding retention rates… the LDS Church does not release this information. But there are ways to estimate this and several researchers have done so, giving us our current best estimates. For instance, Rick Phillips (2006), using census data for a variety of...
Reason #61: Peace After Leaving Mormonism
Ironically, the Church proclaims itself to embrace all truth. The believers may sing “Oh, say what is truth”" but truth for them is whatever fits their belief. What does not fit is spun or ignored. Belief trumps evidence. Obviously, “truth” is LDS new-speak. To my mind, Mormon preoccupation with its truthfulness belies an underlying insecurity with its truthfulness. There is the odd perception in the Church that if you leave it, you will lose your moral compass. My actual experience has been nothing of the kind. Not only have my ethics remained intact, they are now more secure because they derive from my connection to Source instead of institutional or behavioral norms. The perception too is that leaving the Church...
Reason #44 — The Whitewashing of LDS History
Mormons are taught that abstinence from tea, coffee, alcohol, and tobacco is essential for entrance into the celestial kingdom. If this is true, Joseph Smith must be a candidate for the terrestrial or telestial kingdom because he repeatedly violated the Word of Wisdom. An examination of early church sources in the original editions compared to the corresponding modern-day versions shows that the references to the drinking habits of early Mormon leaders have been purged from the original records. In other words, a great cover-up has been effected. 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...
Reason #43 I Won’t Return to Mormonism– Joseph and Nauvoo
There’s an error in the upcoming edition of The Mormon Mirage. (Yes, since I’m human, there will be errors.) This one has to do with the assertion of Fawn Brodie (author of No Man Knows My History, a biography of Joseph Smith) and others who have said that Joseph Smith just picked out of thin air the word “Nauvoo” (a place name he gave to a city he founded). He said that it was Hebrew, and his critics, including Brodie, said the word never existed. Recently I went to a pro-LDS site that successfully countered that claim. In writing the updated Mormon Mirage I should have checked out Brodie’s claim (I took Hebrew as part of my graduate studies) but instead repeated it. I regret that. In fact there is indeed in the Hebrew...
