Reasons people stopped attending church

[I Have Questions]

Is there any chance this action would have given Dr. Peterson the notoriety to become a General Authority? A man of action who will defend the Church with a bowl of goulash when necessary.

Dr Peterson hasn't thrown more than a strongly worded e mail his whole life.

[MG 2.0]

Most people I know who stopped going to church tell me it just didn’t/doesn’t bring them joy.

The Church or the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His Atonement? Belief in God as our Father?

The Church is an organization. Jesus Christ, well, that's something else. God...that's bigger than an organization that one might be put off by for one reason or another.

Isn't it?

My question would be, how many people that have left the church ever had a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ? Or a real desire to know if there is something BIGGER and more powerful in the universe...than them, or their puny knowledge.

Personal opinion? I think that those that do stay in the church even when coming up against 'speed bumps' are those that continue to seek a knowledge of Jesus Christ and how/why He is the One who matters. Not people. Not mistakes. Not money issues. Etc.

It's all about Jesus and whether or not He was resurrected from the dead. It kind of all comes down to that. Not whether or not we might be bored at times when we attend church or if our own personal (selfish) needs aren't always met.

But that's just one guy's opinion.

To each his or her own.

Regards,
MG

[Doctor Steuss]

Most people I know who stopped going to church tell me it just didn’t/doesn’t bring them joy.

Yeah. When did the church stop being any fun?!?

That's not why I left. I just want to know.

Growing up in flyover country, our stake was far-flung. So, my memories of youth stake activities are numerous and full of giddy excitement. Mutual activities usually meant Mom taking me out to buy some dowdy new frock that I thought was perfect. In the era of grunge and goth, I was thrilled with Laura Ashley floral prints past my knees and gigantic bows in my hair.

When I was about 15-16, Mom bought me my first pair of open-toed sandals with a barely-there wedge heel, and my father lost his mind. Luckily for me, girl-stuff was usually left to Mom's discretion. My scandalously-revealed toes went completed unnoticed by the church leaders chaperoning the activity.

There was some sort of social event at church almost every week, especially during the summer. Since I had grown up with the boys in my ward, dating any of them would have felt incestuous, so stake activities were a chance to check out the potential dating pool. There were unisex overnight lock-ins at the stake center. (We could wear makeup to those!) We had our version of Girls Camp, and even a really lame version of trek. (I've since heard that trek everywhere is lame.)

My parents still attend the same ward, and these days, they're lucky if there's a Christmas party (sometimes held over Zoom, even post-Covid), which makes it even less of a party.

There's maybe one stake picnic over the summer and the last time I went, even the little kids were bored out of their minds. There was nothing to do. No games organized. One kid brought a Frisbee and somebody brought a beach ball that went flat immediately.

My mother and sister tried to wave it off as, "Times are tight. There's just no extra money for those kinds of activities."

BS! The church is sitting on a bazillion dollars! Slumber parties and teen dances with a bowl of punch don't cost anything!

This had nothing to do with why I left, because those activities were still going on when I left. Presumably, I could have looked forward to more had a I chosen to go to BYU.

But those kind of activities contribute to socialization. For a kid, they ensure your closest friends and any potential dates will be with other Mormons. It's what made the church a community.

Now, it's just sit there for hours on Sunday, pay your 10%, and the callings are all stressful drudgery that no one really wants to do, and many of them ought to be handled by a paid professional (like, cleaning the church---that's a social activity now??) Or balancing the ward budget---oh, wait, they don't HAVE a ward budget anymore!

I don't know when it happened exactly, but at some point all the parts of Mormonism I thought were fun, and that my parents thought were fun, stopped happening.

Thank you for taking time to share some of these memories.

It made me think back on when I was a kid, and the type of things we had. Then, gradually, the activities started becoming smaller in scale, more distant in occurrence, and more thrifty on budget. The stake would have special nights at the water park (Wet N Wild), where the private section was rented out, with free food and all kinds of games. Growing up in poverty, these nights were like living in a different world, experiencing a life that seemed so magical and out of reach.

There were regular activities at the Warm Springs Ranch. We had plays, musicals, and "road shows." We had group sporting events. There were regular Disney movie nights in the cultural hall. I drove by the old stake center from my youth a while back. The massive area that the Church owned, with two baseball diamonds, a playground, three covered picnic areas, and two football field sized grass areas, that were used for sports and events have all been sold off with homes built there now.

It was like a massive family, with the "Church" acting as the benevolent retired grandparent, fostering love, joy, and companionship.

[I Have Questions]

My question would be, how many people that have left the church ever had a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ? Or a real desire to know if there is something BIGGER and more powerful in the universe...than them, or their puny knowledge.

There’s that grandiose narcissistic phraseology again.

[Chap]

[...] Not whether [...] our own personal (selfish) needs aren't always met.

Are all personal needs selfish? What about, for instance, the need to belong to an organisation in which the love and care of your deity for his/her/its creation is incarnated in human form, through the love and care that church members give one another, and which they express in a joyful and nurturing community?

You know, the kind of community that people on this board are telling you that they remember from the past, but which they no longer find - apparently because the church leadership no longer wishes the church to be like that.

Are people selfish because they think a church ultimately under the control of your deity should be a loving, joyful and generous place?

[MG 2.0]

My question would be, how many people that have left the church ever had a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ? Or a real desire to know if there is something BIGGER and more powerful in the universe...than them, or their puny knowledge.

There’s that grandiose narcissistic phraseology again.

Empty rhetoric. Nothing to respond to.

Regards,
MG

[Gadianton]

My question would be, how many people that have left the church ever had a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ? Or a real desire to know if there is something BIGGER and more powerful in the universe...than them, or their puny knowledge.

For starters, the poster on this board who goes by "Markk". Care to take him on in a debate?

[MG 2.0]

My question would be, how many people that have left the church ever had a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ? Or a real desire to know if there is something BIGGER and more powerful in the universe...than them, or their puny knowledge.

For starters, the poster on this board who goes by "Markk". Care to take him on in a debate?

About what? Doesn't he believe in something bigger and powerful than himself? A supreme creator in who all knowledge resides? If we're on the same page in this respect I'm not sure whether it's that important that we argue or discuss theology or doctrine. He's got his beliefs and I've got mine.

I think that the surveys seem to show that most people that leave the church become either agnostic or atheist. That seems to point to the possibility that their faith in Jesus Christ may have not matured or that belief in God/Jesus was not actually on their 'belief' radar. It was the church organization that was their focus.

Any large bureaucratic organization is going to have its faults. Why? Because human beings are not perfect.

I think those that stay active over the long haul, generally speaking, have a faith in Jesus Christ as Savior which keeps them in the fold.

Regards,
MG

[drumdude]

MG,

I would argue that there is strong evidence that if ex-Mormons had instead been born into a more moderate religion like Catholicism or Presbyterianism, that they would be less likely to become atheist after leaving those religions.

My personal experience has been that people I know who stop going to those churches don’t stop believing in God. But ex-Mormons are much more likely to doubt all religion after their faith crisis.

I think it has a lot to do with being lied to by other Mormons, and uncovering the unsavory history of how the religion developed.

[Gadianton]

Google: survey of ex-Mormons who believe in god

A.I. Overview
A 2023 survey of current and former Latter-day Saints found that while a significant portion of former members are unaffiliated with religion, a substantial number still believe in God, though perhaps not in the same way as during their time as active members.
Here's a more detailed breakdown of the survey findings:
Belief in God:
A significant portion of former members (around 86%) say they believe in God, though they may have doubts or view God as a "higher power" rather than a personal deity.
Only a small percentage (6%) of former members do not believe in God at all, and another 8% are agnostic.
Many former members retain basic Christian teachings about Jesus and the afterlife, but often reject specific Mormon teachings about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, or contemporary prophets and apostles.