Ex-Mormons: What was it like leaving the church? Did they shun you?

Answer 1

I was born and raised a Mormon in Utah, and was never really exposed to any other religion (or lack thereof) while growing up. One of my ancestors was a scout for Brigham Young when he first entered Utah in 1847 and was a founder of the town I grew up in. So my Mormon roots are about as deep as they come, and all of my family are Mormons. Eventually, I left the church -- but it was a fairly long process -- triggered by my attending college in a different state, becoming better educated, being exposed to a wider variety of people and beliefs, becoming skeptical of things in general including Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon story. My Mormon relatives never shunned me, and I remain in contact with them. They never try to push the religion back on me -- they probably know better. We just agreed to disagree, I guess.

Answer 2

There are, unfortunately, a few Mormons who shun those who don't join or who leave. This is NOT taught by our prophets and apostles. We are taught and advised that we should keep being friends with non-members, and those who have left. There is no earthly or Godly reason to shun anyone, unless they are those who would use that to cause trouble or would abuse your friendship by actively trying to get Mormons to leave the church. That would be the only reason I would "shun" someone who left the church.

Answer 3

I first I was a little scared to leave. I had been a member for the the past 13 years. After I was out for a while and started going to other churches,I felt wonderful. There are actually churches that talk about Jesus, that read from the Bible, and that sing songs about Jesus. I am so glad to be out of that church, I don't miss it one bit. I haven't really spoken to my LDS friends lately.If I called one of my LDS friends they would speak to me. It would just be very hard to talk to them about religious things, because we no longer have the church in common. I wouldn't want to be very open about my feelings and the things I discovered.

Answer 4

I was a member my whole life, and became inactive when I was 19 years old. After getting married I started going again, and them my husband got baptized too and we are both very active. For the 6 years that I was inactive I was not shunned. I was encouraged to go back to church by a few friends, but most respected me and weren't rude to me at all. The reason I went back is because I had a child and I felt it was the best thing to do. I also now realized that no one is perfect and the church is run by people who are imperfect. I was holding the church and the people up to expoectations that they couldn't meet.I think growing up I didn't understand that very well and blamed others for me not going anymore, but I then realized that I had to take responsibity for my own actions. No church is perfect, and I definitely do not agree with actions of the church in thr past, but the people that go are good people and our church is centered around Jesus Christ and that's all that matters to me.

Answer 5

I am a life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. WE DON'T SHUN PEOPLE! You are thinking of the Jehovah Witnesses. They shun people.

My son left the Church. He was not shunned. He just isn't active.

Why do you have to make us sound like such horrible people? You are totally WRONG!

Answer 6

I was LDS from birth until about 19. I never really fit in all that well, but I was never really "shunned".

It was terrifying to leave the church.

Answer 7

when my family first left the church we started getting visits and then invitations to parties and other events from people in the ward (some we didnt even know).anyways the second week we didnt show up at church my mothers so called friend called her to ask why she hasnt been going and if she was ok my mother told her that she no longer beilved and wansnt going back, well the friend told the bishop and then called us back and told us thet the bishop told her not to talk to us anymore and she didnt speak to us again, nor did any one else in the ward.

Answer 8

Heh, I was never a mormon, but spent 2 years just north of Salt Lake City.

When we first moved in, our neighbors were awesome. They helped us unpack and gave us cookies and made us feel welcome. It was great. They would come over and hand out with my wife and kids. Every now and then someone from the Ward would stop by to talk to us about the book of Mormon and ask us to go to church. We did a couple of times, but it wasn't really our thing so we stopped going. For about three months we recieved visits, we were always polite, invited them in and spend several hours with them. Finally two older men came by and solomly told us that there are only so many chances people get to become Mormons, and that if we refused this time it was our last.

We thanked them for coming by and told them that we didn't feel 'led' to join the church. They walked out and cleaned their feet on our doormat on the way out very deliberately. Quite strange, I later found out that it was meant to represent wiping the dust from their feet.

After that day, our neighbors stopped talking to us, they shunned my wife, who was home all day with the kids. They would have neighborhood cookouts and invite everyone but us. It was very hurtful, because these were people we though were our friends. My wife took it the worst.

We finally left SLC after talking to my sons first grade teacher. She recommended joining the church or moving, because the other kids were starting to pick on him, and it would only get worse. She said that she didn't believe in the LDS faith but went to the ward because she had to to keep her job. She also said that she had seen other non LDS kids grow up with terrible self estime problems because of the teasing that took place in schools.

That was it for me. I left in disgust. I feel sorry for them now, but was really angry at first. It is a sad religion that causes families to shun one another

Answer 9

when i was in high school i used to date (corrupt) this mormon boy....i got him to sneak out, do "bad" things....his parents told me that the church was going to excommunicate him if he saw me again, so he broke up with me....too bad, i used to be a lot of fun.