Once I realized this, it wasn’t much of a leap out of religion altogether once I flew the Mormon coop. I simply wanted to be free from organizational groupthink. I escaped from the stuffy attic of religion's ‘pray, pay and obey’ mentality into journalism’s open laboratory of ‘who, what, where, when and why’. Steve Benson, essay Goodbye to God, 1997
I consider Mormonism to be a non-Christian cult that is deeply deceitful, historically dishonest, chauvinistically controlling, absolutely authoritarian, pathologically anti-individual, patronizingly anti-woman, viciously anti-Gay, homophobically anti–Lesbian, racistly anti-Black, obnoxiously pro-White and inherently anti-American in its lack of tolerance and respect for pluralism, diversity and self-expression.
Put another way, I regard Mormonism to be a clannish, backward religion, founded by a notorious charlatan named Joseph Smith who bedded other men’s wives, who slept with under-aged girls, who mistreated and abused his own spouse, who squinted at so-called ‘peep stones’ inside of his hat pretending to translate supposed ‘ancient scripture’, who invented these alleged ‘scriptures’ out of the thin air of his own imagination (with the help of his co-conspiring friends), who never saw or talked to God or Jesus floating in the trees behind his house, who never communed with angels, who never dug up any golden plates, who was found guilty of fraud in a New York court for making false treasure-finding claims, whose ‘sacred’ temple endowment was nothing more than a clunky, amateurish rip-off of secret Masonic rites and who died in a hail of bullets from fellow Masons after being unmasked as a party to a patently unconstitutional effort to shut down a newspaper which had dared publish accounts of his philanderous, adulterous, polygamous behavior and the lies which he told his followers as he denied it all.
Given my views on these matters, I would sincerely appreciate it if, in the future, you would cease and desist from any and all efforts to bring me back into the Mormon fold. Steve Benson, letter to family members Holly and Karl
A Mormon student surfs the Internet for a school assignment and discovers that Mormon founder Joseph Smith had multiple wives, even marrying a 14-year-old.
A returned Mormon missionary, preparing a Sunday school lesson, comes across a website alleging that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from a novel.
Surprised by what they find so easily online, more and more Mormons are encountering crises of faith. Some even leave the fold and, feeling betrayed, join the ranks of Mormon opponents. Peggy Fletcher Stack, article The Washington Post 1st February 2012, ‘Mormons Confront Epidemic on Online Misinformation’
I sat on the stand, just to the right of the bishop. I sat suffering through yet another Sunday. The day before, like too many Saturdays before it, I had become sick to my stomach knowing that I had to wake up the next morning, go to bishopric meeting, PEC, sacrament, Sunday school, interviews, and visits.
I needed it to end. It had been over eighteen months since my accidental research had led me to the painful, yet inevitable conclusion, that my faith since childhood was based on fraud, misrepresentation, superstition and deceit. I had been candid about my questions, research and fears. The bishop had struggled with me. But in the end, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t believe and I couldn’t fake it anymore. Requests for my release were ignored and delayed. The only official response was for me to stop researching history ...
That morning, I had to force myself into the shower. I put on my suit, grabbed my church briefcase and headed very reluctantly to my car and drove the dreaded seven miles into the parking lot. As I got out, I glanced at the temple just behind the chapel. Once upon a time, it had meant something to me. Now, well it seemed so pointless an edifice ...
I was just an empty suit in an empty religion ...
I was startled by the emotions I had begun experiencing. Depression was replaced with a surging anger. I hadn’t felt this level of annoyance in many years. Adrenalin surged through me.
My ability to exist in that atmosphere, already strained, reached the breaking point in that very moment. My impulse was to stand and leave. I looked down at my wife and children. I turned to the bishop and asked why he had betrayed me in this way. He mumbled something and began sweating ...
The bishop had been previously fair with me. But I emotionally could not endure another second of it. Walking off the stand would relieve me, but embarrass my wife, children and the bishop. I fought the urge. I turned to my left and whispered to him that after sacrament meeting I was leaving. He nodded.
The meeting ended. I picked up my briefcase and found my wife. Her face reflected an acknowledgement that a boundary had been crossed. I told her that I loved her but that I couldn’t be a Mormon anymore. I left the building and headed north. Skeptical (Odell Campbell), board post 26th October 2007, ‘My Last Sunday Attending an LDS Church Meeting’
Mormonism will also die. Like the political system that supported the Berlin wall that fell, Mormonism is being exposed for its corruption and will also deconstruct. It is corrupt to its core – its misrepresentation of its own history, its calculated and manipulative theology, its racism, sexism and active homophobia – all these negative belief systems are being exposed by truth-seekers of the information age. Mormonism will implode. It is just a matter of time. Kay Burningham, blog 2013
Mormonism is possibly intelligently designed rather less intelligently. Richard Dawkins, In Conversation with Dan Dennett, Oxford 2012
One of the most egregious groups operating on American soil. Christopher Hitchens, article Slate magazine 17th October 2011
We’re not a cult. I’m not an idiot, you know. I’ve read a couple of books and I’ve been to a pretty good school, and I have chosen to be in this church because of the faith that I feel and the inspiration that comes. I’ve met people, and if people want to call us a cult, they can call us a cult and you can call us a cult, but we are 14-million and growing, and I’d like to think that your respect for me would be enough to know that this man doesn’t seem like a dodo. Elder Jeffrey ‘Dodo’ Holland, interview This World: The Mormon Candidate
We’ve never had a period of – I’ll call it apostasy – like we’re having now. Marlin Jensen
There’s a real anti-intellectual strain that’s been there for some time. Professor Margaret Toscano, excommunicated
There’s something vicious about niceness. Professor Margaret Toscano
One thing is clear. The genie is out of the bottle and it cannot be put back. Facts uncovered and the questions raised by the new Mormon historians will not go away. They will have to be dealt with if we are to maintain a position of honesty and integrity in our dealings with our own members as well as our friends in the larger religious community. Wallace B Smith, president emeritus of Church of Christ, Saints’ Herald 139 April 1992 ‘Exiles in Time’
I went to the theatre last night, and had a good opportunity to study the character of the Mormons. There was about two thousand people assembled, and I must say they were the worst looking crowd in every way I saw. It was a fair sample of the population, and it confirms my previous opinion that they are ‘the scum of the Earth’. Mark Twain, letter to Wisconsin State Journal
And this is Mormonism! These are the people who are eternally talking of Gentile persecution! Yes, they have been persecuted, as debauchees and felons usually are, but never on account of their religion. They have ever been a bubbling and seething cauldron of pollution, and can no more be tolerated in the bosom of civilized society, than gangs of counterfeiters and thieves. The New York Times, article ‘The Mormonites’ 19th July 1853
Mormonism was born amid secrecy, and throughout its existence as a religion it has sustained a close yet complex relationship to the arts of silence. Noah Feldman
Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith. Franklin Graham
Mormonism, it seems to me, is – objectively – just a little more idiotic than Christianity is. It has to be: because it is Christianity plus some very stupid ideas. Sam Harris, ‘The Problem With Atheism’, September 2007
We thank thee, oh God, for depression
To guide us through our latter daze
We thank thee for opening our eyes
Helping us see through the Mormon haze. Bob McCue
Apologetics can also be understood as the opposite of real scholarly pursuit ... Academic institutions like Brigham Young University regularly lose credibility with their peers as a result of their so-called scholars participating in apologetic endeavours. An apologist in academic robes wears a particularly offensive form of sheep’s clothing.
... In the Internet age, more believers are going to get to know their apologists and the line between apologist and believer, along with countless other lines, will be blurred. This does not mean that Mormons will suddenly become adventuresome and head for the border of their faith community in droves. Rather, it means that the border is moving toward them. It is no longer at some distant frontier. Rather, it is a vast area accessible at the click of a mouse, spilling out of news headlines, beckoning from Oprah’s magazine and, in areas where Mormonism is a significant social force (like most of the Western US), being talked about by co-workers over coffee. Bob McCue, board post 19th February 2006, ‘Mormon Apologetics: A Guide For the Perplexed’