I’m angrier than a Mormon who just found out he can’t marry more than one woman anymore over the fact that I didn’t do what I did today sooner. Today, I made it official. I am no longer a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the “Mormon” church. Their leader, Rusty Nelson, doesn’t like that word anymore, so they’re Latter-day Saints or perhaps LDS. But that’s not important right now.
I had a meeting with the Albany 2nd Ward’s (420 New Scotland Ave in Albany, visitors welcome) bishop (think Catholic priest) and handed in my keys, temple recommend and filled out some paperwork. As a part of leaving the LDS church, I resigned my assignment as the ward librarian and I was formally “released” (removed) from that “calling” (job).
Within a couple of days, I’ll be taken out of the computer system, but
that’s just a formality. As of this morning, my membership was, at my
request, revoked after 37 years of membership.
I was first baptized in 1987 at the age of nine. From birth up to that point, I’d been raised in the Seventh-day Adventist faith. So what am I doing now religiously? As I have been for two years now, I am a Catholic. I was baptized at Easter Vigil in 2022.
So why did I leave the LDS church? Oh, many reasons. Up to this point, I stayed in to keep my wife happy, but she was told by the previous leader of the ward to leave me if I had my records formally removed. So, I fully expect her to leave me and that’s more than fine with me. I’ve been wanting to leave her for some time now, so this morning, I think I just killed two birds with one stone.
There are many more reasons. Here are just a few:
- I no longer believe that Joseph Smith was ever a prophet. He was a known criminal in Palmyra and he married multiple women, including young teenage girls, supposedly on the authority of God. I do not believe that Jesus Christ and God visited him in the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, New York. In order for his claims to be true, we would have to accept that Jesus returned to earth, making that his Second Coming, and we all know that that didn’t happen, so Joseph’s lie is obvious.
- I do not believe that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri.
- I do not believe that men will one day get their own planet.
- I do not believe that God lives on a planet named Kolob.
- I do not believe that men can be married to women, and certainly multiple women, in one of the many LDS temples. By the by, the church still commits polygamy, despite stopping it in the world in 1890. The church’s temples make spiritual polygamy possible, according to their beliefs.
- I do not believe that twelve-year-old boys have any form of priesthood authority.
- I do not believe that Mormons have the authority to say or do anything in the name of Jesus Christ.
- I do not support the church’s actions in regards to sex abuse, especially of children. The church’s method of acting on such allegations is too little, too late. I have no tolerance for adults who sexually abuse or have sex with teenagers who are under the age of consent. The Catholic Church takes those things far more seriously.
I could go on and on, but those are the main bullet points. Those items alone are enough for anyone of reason to leave the church. There is a guy who’s done a lot more work than I on the wacky beliefs of the LDS church. You can read the aptly-titled CES Letter here.
What am I going to do now? I’ll be moving out of Albany to parts unknown.
I do wish the LDS people well, it just stopped being the right thing for me. I bear no ill will to anyone, with the exception of one person, a person whom I forgave at one point but whom I have now unforgiven because of his guilt by association.
An Albany Police Department detective, he has been stalking my website by visiting on a variety of devices. He doesn’t realize that I see all of that and that I know it’s him and everything he sees and does. This site’s privacy policy prevents me from discussing details of his visits.
He holds a lot of authority in the Albany area of the church, but he no longer has any form of authority over me as far as the church is concerned. In the LDS church, he is considered to be a high councilman and holds the priesthood office of High Priest.
That article that I linked you to discusses my allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of APD detectives and county deputies. I should make it clear that he is not one of the detectives whom I am accusing. As far as I know, he’s done nothing wrong, but he is still guilty by association. At one point, I was willing to forgive him for what he did to me as detective back in 2017, but I have revoked my forgiveness.
And yes, when I say I would stand idle if an APD officer or detective were having a health emergency, that includes him. Hi, detective.
Anyway, now that I am no longer a member of the LDS church, I no longer have to be nice to them. And now I can drink to my heart’s content. And I can link to amusing jokes such as this.
It is finished (John 19:30).