Read the Introduction to the Lost Witnesses of the Restoration Series. William Law was an Irish-born, Scotch-descended, Canadian doctor. He was converted in 1836 under the influence of John Taylor's Saja-Boys-worthy vocals (not the first or the last). He was four years younger than the American Prophet of Mormonism, but as time would show, his maturity far outstripped Joseph's. Law was trained as a doctor and if his manner elsewhere reflects his health care, he was quick, efficient, and caring as a practitioner.

Belief in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (COJCOLDS, Mormons) has always been rather legalistic. Members are eager to "prove" the validity of their claims with evidence ("where did the Book of Mormon come from if not from God?"), by demonstration ("the Church is growing so fast!"), by expert testimony ("so-and-so is smart and believes, therefore it must be true."), and…

Q: "Don't You know how disrespectful it is to laugh at the Lord's anointed like this? How dare you make light of something we hold to be sacred!" I hear you. The loud laughter can be kind of prickly when you are still living on the "inside." Let me just say this: I have been accused of being a murderer of Joseph Smith, a murderer of babies, and a murderer of Christ…

This is the crazy backstory you never heard. On June 7, 1844, in a zealous frontier town in Illinois, a newspaper was published. It was simple enough. Four sheets of newsprint in cramped columns. A marriage was announced. Penmanship classes were advertised. A quaint romantic horror dominates the first page. But that paper, flimsy as it was would change the trajectory of the world.

Q: "...you chose to have a faith crisis." You know what's weird? This idea: members calling our faith crisis as our "choice." Every time that phrase comes up, I want to say, "Wait, you think we just woke up and 'chose' to have a faith crisis?" As if faith crises are akin to choosing whether or not to wear a turtleneck,

Q: “How could you turn your back on all your ancestors/parents/leaders/ Professors/Bishops/Visiting Teachers/friends like this?” 🎤 Conference weekend came and went and with it came a fresh harvest of name-calling for those in crisis. I think it was Neil Anderson’s talk that provided the heaviest estrangement but there were many other smaller references to be wary of people who leave and speak about it.

Q: "You are just full of darkness now." 😔 Most Post-members have to field this kind of cutting comment at least once along their journey. It’s another one of those dismissive in-group lines that is used to alienate those who “fall into apostasy.” 🧠 From a psychological perspective, this serves an important purpose in the minds and attitudes of still-active/believing loved ones.

Q: "It sounds like you just think all Church Member are stupid for believing in this." 😔I hear this. I feel it. I didn’t know what post-members thought of me, after they would leave. That not-knowing would make me so uncomfortable that I would usually drop contact. I didn’t mean to be “soft-shunning” anyone, even though that’s what such behavior would be called, I was just self-conscious and afraid of asking about their whole experience.

Q: "You used to love the Church, the Gospel, the Book of Mormon. What happened?" And, in many ways, I still do. 🛵Mormonism is a pretty good ride. It fuses Christianity, the Enlightenment and a magical worldview in some pretty interesting ways and it offers a lot of creative explanations for why humans work the way we do. Many of those explanations make a lot more sense within a 19th century American mindset, but even today, people find interesting ways to…

Q: "The Church you describe sounds nothing like the Church I am experiencing." 🎭One of the weird things about the the LDS (and maybe all religions? Idk) is that there are simultaneously thousands--maybe millions of versions of it being lived or believed in around the globe. 🧠This creates kind of a fractured experience, in which we (as members) shoulder a good deal of…

YouTube video by Ricardo Ignacio Podcast

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