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Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:17 pm
by Ustlach
I am trying to find out if members of the church can investigate/inquire about someone else's membership status. For example, could my LDS neighbor, who is an active member in good standing, inquire and get information about another neighbor's membership status. Just to see if he/she a member or not, if he/she is active/inactive/apostate, whatever?
Perhaps at the Church genealogy building in SLC, where people go in and do research about family members?
Thanks for your help.
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:29 pm
by Marcus
Ustlach wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:17 pm
I am trying to find out if members of the church can investigate/inquire about someone else's membership status. For example, could my LDS neighbor, who is an active member in good standing, inquire and get information about another neighbor's membership status. Just to see if he/she a member or not, if he/she is active/inactive/apostate, whatever?
Perhaps at the Church genealogy building in SLC, where people go in and do research about family members?
Thanks for your help.
What does it mean to be an “active member in good standing”?
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 8:47 pm
by Ustlach
Sorry. I am not up-to-date with current church vocabulary and expressions. I suppose I mean members who would not be denied access to the membership status of other people. To be completely open about this, I am wondering if the rather cool treatment I get from some of my siblings, who are very active, dedicated members of the church, is because while they know I do not attend church, that I am disaffected, if that is the correct expression, and that I have not had anything to do with the church in many, many years, they might now know that I actually resigned my membership 15 years ago. But I suspect because some of them have been bishops and in stake presidencies, they may have access to information about my membership status. And while they used to seem fairly tolerant of my inactivity and distance from the church, they now know I am a whatever it is called....son of perdition, one caste into outer darkness, whatever, and one to be avoided. At least not someone to be embraced and made or kept welcome in the family. I see them rarely because I live about 1500 miles away. But I don't get calls anymore and the calls I initiate are kept as short as possible, by them, and very superficial. We have never talked about my disaffection. I don't talk about any of it, neither do they. Thanks for your help. I do at least think it is most likely that a bishop or stake president would have a way to find out the exact membership status of anyone else, so I am sort of coming to an answer for myself. I would just like some confirmation of my suspicions.
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:20 pm
by BeNotDeceived
Unlikely.
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:16 am
by malkie
Ustlach wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:17 pm
I am trying to find out if members of the church can investigate/inquire about someone else's membership status. For example, could my LDS neighbor, who is an active member in good standing, inquire and get information about another neighbor's membership status. Just to see if he/she a member or not, if he/she is active/inactive/apostate, whatever?
Perhaps at the Church genealogy building in SLC, where people go in and do research about family members?
Thanks for your help.
I expect that the easiest way to find out if someone is a member, is active, and is in good standing (not disfellowshipped) is to be on good terms with a member of the Ward Clerks team for the ward whose boundaries include that person's home.
It would not surprise me at all if an active ward member who expressed concern about a person (especially a family member) was able to get some information from the Ward Clerk, or the Assistant Clerk for Membership. It would be totally unofficial, and they are not supposed to do it, but it's possible that a suitable "story" might be enough - e.g., "I'm worried about person X, and would like to help them to be completely active and progressing in the gospel. Any ideas about them? Can you help me to help them?"
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2023 10:10 pm
by IHAQ
Ustlach wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 8:47 pm
Sorry. I am not up-to-date with current church vocabulary and expressions. I suppose I mean members who would not be denied access to the membership status of other people. To be completely open about this, I am wondering if the rather cool treatment I get from some of my siblings, who are very active, dedicated members of the church, is because while they know I do not attend church, that I am disaffected, if that is the correct expression, and that I have not had anything to do with the church in many, many years, they might now know that I actually resigned my membership 15 years ago. But I suspect because some of them have been bishops and in stake presidencies, they may have access to information about my membership status. And while they used to seem fairly tolerant of my inactivity and distance from the church, they now know I am a whatever it is called....son of perdition, one caste into outer darkness, whatever, and one to be avoided. At least not someone to be embraced and made or kept welcome in the family. I see them rarely because I live about 1500 miles away. But I don't get calls anymore and the calls I initiate are kept as short as possible, by them, and very superficial. We have never talked about my disaffection. I don't talk about any of it, neither do they. Thanks for your help. I do at least think it is most likely that a bishop or stake president would have a way to find out the exact membership status of anyone else, so I am sort of coming to an answer for myself. I would just like some confirmation of my suspicions.
Does their shunning and unchristian behaviour bother you?
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:48 am
by Don Bradley
Ustlach wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:17 pm
I am trying to find out if members of the church can investigate/inquire about someone else's membership status. For example, could my LDS neighbor, who is an active member in good standing, inquire and get information about another neighbor's membership status. Just to see if he/she a member or not, if he/she is active/inactive/apostate, whatever?
Perhaps at the Church genealogy building in SLC, where people go in and do research about family members?
Thanks for your help.
If you have a membership record in the local ward, then you are probably in the ward directory in the LDS tools app. But, in answer to your broader question about whether others can access your membership record, say by searching in the Family History Library, speaking as a historian of Mormonism, I would say, absolutely not.
The church is extremely fastidious with its privacy rules. And records of church discipline are kept confidential even long after the people involved are dead. In fact those records are permanently restricted.
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:49 am
by Don Bradley
Family members, even if they have had leadership callings, would have absolutely no access to your membership records.
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 7:23 am
by Marcus
Don Bradley wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:48 am
The church is extremely fastidious with its privacy rules.
it absolutely is not.
Don Bradley wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:49 am
Family members, even if they have had leadership callings, would have absolutely no access to your membership records.
Again, not accurate.
Re: Church Membership Status - who can find out and how?
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 6:38 pm
by Dizzy
You need to be in "good standing" to buy garments.
You do not need to be a current temple recommend holder.
If you were ever endowed, and someone could convince a Distribution Center clerk they were you, they could find out if you were currently purchase-eligible.
I don't know what, if any, safeguards are in place.