About half of Americans who say they were raised as Latter-day Saints still identify as members of the church in adulthood (54%), according to the 2023-24 RLS. That retention rate has steadily declined since 2007, when it stood at 70%.
A growing percentage of people who were raised as Latter-day Saints now identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” As of 2023-24, 28% of adults who were raised as Latter-day Saints are religiously unaffiliated – double the figure seen in 2007.
As someone who still respects Christianity as a whole, I find it troubling that Mormonism drives people straight out of religion entirely.
In large part it’s because there is minimal room within Mormonism for reasonable nuanced belief. You’re constantly subject to lectures about fictional history, lectures about anti-LGBT morality, and subject to interrogations of your loyalty to the organization.
I don’t blame former Mormons for throwing away religion entirely but there is a whole other world of more tolerant religions out there that don’t ask you to leave your brain at the door.
About half of Americans who say they were raised as Latter-day Saints still identify as members of the church in adulthood (54%), according to the 2023-24 RLS. That retention rate has steadily declined since 2007, when it stood at 70%.
"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Psalm 139:16 ESV
I am glad to see the LDS Inc empire crumble further though....
Me too.
The advent of the Internet has really taken a toll on the church in revealing so much information and distributing it to the population at large. Anyone can learn about the church from the privacy of their own computer, laptop, and phone. But now everything has really changed and will take off exponentially with the advent of AI which will utterly destroy the church and force it to morph into something entirely different than what it was and is. The Church is a changing organization and its survival will force change. The cult has met the end of its days because information and knowledge will not allow it to run as business as usual.
As someone who still respects Christianity as a whole, I find it troubling that Mormonism drives people straight out of religion entirely.
In large part it’s because there is minimal room within Mormonism for reasonable nuanced belief. You’re constantly subject to lectures about fictional history, lectures about anti-LGBT morality, and subject to interrogations of your loyalty to the organization.
I don’t blame former Mormons for throwing away religion entirely but there is a whole other world of more tolerant religions out there that don’t ask you to leave your brain at the door.
The LDS Church does not have a lot of resources for intellectual members. Its curriculum is dull, and it does not foster open discussion.
"He disturbs the laws of his country, he forces himself upon women, and he puts men to death without trial.” ~Otanes on the monarch, Herodotus Histories 3.80.
