About Me

Hello everyone. My name is Tom.

I come from a multi-generational Latter-Day Saint (LDS or ‘Mormon’) family, with two brothers and a sister, in addition to my two parents who have been married for thirty-eight years. My upbringing was fairly standard for those of us born into the Church: I attended church each Sunday, was baptized when I was eight years old, received the Aaronic Priesthood when I was twelve, attended early-morning seminary classes before high school each day, and enjoyed the youth social events put on by the Church. I currently have many strong ties to Mormonism, since nearly all of my immediate and extended family, and close friends, are active members of the Church.

After I graduated from High School, my friends all started to prepare and leave on their missions. This is when I took my first step outside of the Mormon framework; I told my family I wasn’t going to go on a mission. This was the hardest thing I had ever had to do. I had also just started dating my future wife, who wasn’t Mormon and never intended to be. Six years later, I married my wife in a civil ceremony, officiated by my childhood Bishop-turned-Stake-President. My attendance to Church was sporadic prior to our wedding, and then non-existant afterward. I grew disillusioned and discussed with the Church’s superficial ‘friendships’ and its increasingly narrow-minded teachings. After 10 years of being ‘less-active’, I wrote an essay entitled, “My Apostasy From The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”, which contained a detailed analysis of how my values and beliefs conflict with those of the Church. It also contained much of the research I had done on the Church up to that point. I gave this to my close family & friends on Fabruary 6, 2011.

It’s because of my values, and the way in which they clash with the fundamental principles of the Church, that has lead me to research further into its doctrine and history. This opened my eyes to the numerous skeletons hidden in the Church’s closet. It’s harmful doctrine, rewritten history, and ignorance to facts and evidence, have shown me that the Church has been dishonest with its members, and the world. This, in addition to the its political involvement and bigotry, has lead me to conclude that I can no longer associate myself with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have submitted a request to Church headquarters to have my name removed from the records of the Church, effective immediately. I feel that this step is necessary for me to grow beyond the confines of the Church; to ensure that my actions are not seen by others as a representation of Mormons, nor their actions as a reflection of me.

I have enjoyed many of the friendships that were born from my Mormon upbringing, and I have many kind words to say about the members. Some may ask why I couldn’t continue to live quietly on the fringes of Mormonism, and my response would be that I simply cannot support an organization whose power and authority over it’s people would encourage them to follow blindly, without questioning beyond the context of their approved sources, lie, and rewrite history, and claim that their discrimination (even distain) toward others is condoned by God. In my mind, the good that the Church does, in terms of charity and teaching good morals, doesn’t compare to the damage it causes, nor its abuse of power.

I have created this blog as a way for me to share my experience, opinions, and beliefs of life after Mormonism, as I have found that others have helped me this way. I hope to be able to further explore my religious, political, and societal views, and share them with you. I encourage questions, comments, and challenges to anything I write here. It is my opinion that we should all find ourselves in that uneasy state-of-mind, where we challenge our core beliefs, on a much more frequent basis, as this is when we truly learn.

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You can read my essay online here, or download it in PDF or ePUB formats.

If you’d care to read my story of where my first seeds of doubt were planted, then read: Life After Death: A Recount of The Worst Day of My Life