Since my story first appeared on this site, I have received a lot of e-mail from members of the Mormon Church. A couple of things stand out from all these responses that I feel are worth noting.

First, I have long felt that there are a vast number of LDS with serious doubts about the truthfulness of the claims the church makes. This has been abundantly confirmed by the many members who have written to thank me for my story and to say they were troubled by a lot of the same things I wrote about. Several have written who are working their way out of the church. Some have said they feel they can’t leave because of family situations, and the very real fact that many who have, are cut off from family, friends, and business associates. (This from “Christian”, loving people?) I have felt privileged to be able to help some of these people with my thoughts and ideas. Most gratifying has been the instances where I have been able to show someone sources to study that clearly show the many changes in Mormon doctrine, history, and scripture over the years. The church has done a very good job of appearing more “mainstream”. The all too familiar TV commercials for the Book of Mormon have even now been replaced with ones offering a free KJV of The Bible. No mention of The Book of Mormon! It seems to be working. The church claims nearly ten million members now. However, as one returned missionary wrote in a letter on another site, many if not most of these are coming from South America where the converts are mostly the poor and uneducated who very willingly follow an authoritative figure (as the missionaries appear to them to be). Then, within weeks they become inactive. All of the inactive worldwide, as well as unbaptized infants, are counted in this ten million. I fully believe that it would be generous to believe that there are five million active LDS.

Another interesting aspect of the letters I receive is the ones that are negative. I receive letters from supposedly good LDS people who would claim to the world that they are full of the love of Christ. These letters are mean spirited and abusive without any serious questioning or demonstration of faith. Letters of disagreement are one thing. However, the person who writes in a contentious fashion shows himself to be of weak intellect. I usually ignore these. It has been an interesting time to see how my story was received. It has been gratifying to find that many, many LDS are questioning the leadership in Salt Lake in favor of what their own heart and intellect tells them!

Rick