A guy on youtube who produces what I consider useful learning content recently came out with a video about why he “left Mormonism.”
This is not an uncommon topic of social media posts among people I have known throughout my life.
When I see the posts; however, I am always curious about the intent of why the post was written. Some people become violently opposed to anyone else remaining members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, others seem to be seeking approval or love from their chosen community, others seem to be wanting to force social acceptance from people they know would be opposed to the decision.
Let me be clear: the choice of beliefs is entirely up to the individual. Agency exists for each person. Whether you attribute that to divine gift or simple luck, you have full capacity to choose.
I am interested as a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ that nearly no one declares their intent to leave and references the name of the Church correctly. (There is a style guide available from the Church. And there have been numerous talks from Church leaders about how to correctly refer to the name of the Church and why.)
I find important messages in how those who terminate membership refer to the Church. And the basic message is “if you can’t refer to something by its preferred name, you probably never understood it in the first place.”
And that can instantly be viewed as judgmental from those who also don’t understand or those who don’t come from the same background. But faith is a process, and if you aren’t actively improving your faith, it is diminishing. So people don’t just decide “I’ll leave the Church.” It’s a result of a spiral of self-reinforcing activities that happen over a number of years.
People will leave the Church. That is inevitable.
It’s also inevitable that people will join the Church.
I react strongly–and why I’m writing to examine my own thoughts on this–because the stories of leaving are the most widespread. And if the leaver cannot even refer to the Church by its correct name, the message that (potentially) millions of people will hear cannot be an objective analysis.
I recognize people in general are not objective in their choices. Especially around religion. (Don’t get me started on how people are usually more religious about their politics than their religion. There are a few commandments God gave Moses about that….)
But when the title of someone’s post or video is “Why I left Mormonism” the message screams “Give me attention” to me. If they truly wanted only to explain why they are no longer members of the Church of Jesus Christ, a much better title would be “I’m leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and here’s why.”
One is sensational. One is honest. One deserves attention. The other will get it.