Five myths about why Mormons leave

Ask a believing Latter-day Saint why people leave and you will usually hear one of five answers. They have been repeated from the pulpit for generations. In 2012 John Dehlin tested all five against what 3,086 former believers actually said. The full report is here.

Before you read on, guess

Pick the three reasons you think former believers named most often as a major factor in losing belief. Then see what 3,086 of them actually said.

Myth 1

“They were offended by someone.”

What the data shows

Of twenty-one reasons respondents could rate, this came last. Four percent called being offended a major factor, and the trend line was falling. Loss of confidence in local leaders, the closest thing to a grievance with a person, was named by 24%; loss of confidence in the general authorities, by 50%. People were far more often let down by the institution than by their neighbor.

In their words

No one offended me. I enjoyed the ward members and still consider them my friend. I obey the law of chastity and WOW. I am faithful to my wife. It's the history and it's not just a single issue.
— Respondent 3129

Myth 2

“They wanted to sin.”

What the data shows

Second to last, at 4%. The respondents were bishops, missionaries, Relief Society presidents, and temple workers, and most had kept the commandments for decades after they began to doubt. Those who did cite it were mostly under thirty and were usually describing coffee, alcohol, or a relationship, taken up after the theology that forbade them had already collapsed. The order matters: they did not leave to sin; they stopped believing the rules were God's, and then lived accordingly.

In their words

Most of us are good, honest, ethical people just trying to live honest lives. We are not out to ruin anyone else's faith and we love our LDS friends and family and the last thing we want to do is cause them pain.
— Respondent 1732

Myth 3

“They never had a testimony to begin with.”

What the data shows

Every respondent had once believed the Church was "the only true and living church"; that was the screening question. 73% of the men had served full-time missions. More than half of the men and 40% of the women had served in leadership. Twenty had served in stake presidencies. The median respondent had been active for decades. If these people never had testimonies, the word has no meaning.

In their words

I love the gospel and desperately want it to be true, but I have a hard time believing in a church that rejects critical thinkers and feminists as "too willful" or "dangerously intellectual."
— Respondent 394

Myth 4

“They got lazy and stopped praying and reading the scriptures.”

What the data shows

The data point the other way. Respondents left because they studied more, not less: 70% named studying Church history as a major factor, and the written comments are full of people who read the Joseph Smith Papers, the Journal of Discourses, and the Church's own essays. "Not receiving the promised spiritual witness" was named by 21%, most of whom described years of sincere prayer. The trouble was never a lack of effort. It was what the effort turned up.

In their words

Even a cursory study of the church's history will bring up major issues, many of which strike at the heart of the church's doctrinal claims.
— Respondent 783

Myth 5

“They read anti-Mormon literature and were deceived.”

What the data shows

The sources respondents cited were overwhelmingly primary: Joseph Smith's own 1832 account of the First Vision, the Egyptian papyri, the Journal of Discourses, the affidavits of Joseph Smith's plural wives, the Church's census of its own membership. Since 2013 nearly all of it has appeared on the Church's own website in the Gospel Topics essays. The most-repeated theme in the written comments was not that critics had lied, but that the Church had not told the whole truth.

In their words

The problem was not so much the history of the Church, which is readily accessible in many good general history books. Rather, it is the discrepancy between what I was learning about Joseph Smith and Church history, and the sanitized version that I had been taught by LDS leaders my whole life.
— Respondent 1857

Watch the 2012 presentation

So why do they leave?

Because of what they learned, and because of what happened when they tried to talk about it. The reasons pages go through each issue. The research page has the numbers. And for believing family and friends is what the people in this survey asked of you.

The presentation on the left was recorded in 2012 for Mormon Stories, and is preserved in the archive.