BYU and Leaving Mormonism

[_silentkid]

I recently reconnected with a friend from BYU. We had some email exchanges in which I learned that he was no longer a believer in Mormonism. He told me of a couple more mutual friends that are no longer believers. I decided to compile a list of my BYU friends and their status with regards to the church. I will list them by initials (keeping them anonymous for crocket’s sake;)) and their current status. These are real people, all of whom were active, believing members of the LDS church during the time I knew them at BYU. I won’t list the initials of the faculty members I talked with who are closet doubters.

Definitions for the sake of this anecdotal study:
Non-believer—doesn’t attend church, doesn’t believe in Mormonism, may still be on the records (in fact, none of my friends that are non-believers have officially resigned)
Closet Doubter—goes to church for social and/or family reasons, doesn’t believe in the tenets of Mormonism but is still perceived as an active member
Active Believer—goes to church and believes the majority of the tenets of Mormonism, may or may not be temple-worthy

Initials Status
Rosebud non-believer
BJ non-believer
my wife non-believer
KM closet doubter
CM closet doubter
DL non-believer
MC non-believer
KH non-believer
DH non-believer
JM non-believer
Joseph Smith non-believer
JT active believer
KK active believer
MM active believer
MB active believer
BJe closet doubter
TW active believer
GA active believer
KF non-believer
JF active believer
JMc closet doubter
DF non-believer

50% of my good friends from BYU now consider themselves non-believers. When you add in the closet doubters, the minority of my BYU friends are active. This is surprising to me. I know this is an anecdotal study and has no statistical significance, but I find it interesting nonetheless. Is this a trend that any other BYU alumni who post here have noticed? What do you fellow MDBers think?

[_Who Knows]

I've bumped into a couple guys i went to BYU with, and they're both still active.

Me and my wife (both went to BYU) aren't active anymore though.

So that's 50/50.

[_Some Schmo]

The only two people I know that went to BYU that I currently know the status of are two of my brothers: one's now an atheist, and the other still believes, so...

50% here too.

You cannot dispute these findings, based on the ginormous size of the sample.

[_silentkid]

Ha. I think we can confidently conclude, based on the above data, that one out of every two people who attend BYU lose their faith in Mormonism. Case closed.

[_Who Knows]

SK - Damn! You knew a lot of people. One of the popular guys eh?

I got married shortly before transferring to BYU (after 2 years at UVSC). So I had no friends. haha.

[_silentkid]

SK - Damn! You knew a lot of people. One of the popular guys eh?

I got married shortly before transferring to BYU (after 2 years at UVSC). So I had no friends. haha.

I was there forever...4 years undergrad, 4 years grad school. Also, I played in bands and met a lot of people that way. Don't tell anyone, it may bias my sample (those damn liberal musician/artist types).

[_asbestosman]

How many of those who say they're active believers are actually closet doubters?

[_silentkid]

How many of those who say they're active believers are actually closet doubters?

Good point. Of the active believers I listed, one of them (MB) could very well be a closet doubter. He's aware of all the "issues" but isn't an apologist and isn't a critic. He's what I'd describe as a liberal Mormon, maybe a cafeteria Mormon (though I don't like that term). Another active believer (KK) was in the same grad program as me. He's also aware of all the "issues" but takes more of an apologist stance. We've talked a lot about the DNA issue as we were both at BYU when the Murphy paper came out and were around when Dr. Whiting, Dr. Crandall, and Dr. Marshall addressed it. I'd only consider two people on the list (TW and MM) to be TBM's.

[_mbeesley]

I recently reconnected with a friend from BYU. We had some email exchanges in which I learned that he was no longer a believer in Mormonism. He told me of a couple more mutual friends that are no longer believers. I decided to compile a list of my BYU friends and their status with regards to the church. I will list them by initials (keeping them anonymous for crocket’s sake;)) and their current status. These are real people, all of whom were active, believing members of the LDS church during the time I knew them at BYU. I won’t list the initials of the faculty members I talked with who are closet doubters.

Definitions for the sake of this anecdotal study:
Non-believer—doesn’t attend church, doesn’t believe in Mormonism, may still be on the records (in fact, none of my friends that are non-believers have officially resigned)
Closet Doubter—goes to church for social and/or family reasons, doesn’t believe in the tenets of Mormonism but is still perceived as an active member
Active Believer—goes to church and believes the majority of the tenets of Mormonism, may or may not be temple-worthy

Initials Status
Rosebud non-believer
BJ non-believer
my wife non-believer
KM closet doubter
CM closet doubter
DL non-believer
MC non-believer
KH non-believer
DH non-believer
JM non-believer
Joseph Smith non-believer
JT active believer
KK active believer
MM active believer
MB active believer
BJe closet doubter
TW active believer
GA active believer
KF non-believer
JF active believer
JMc closet doubter
DF non-believer

50% of my good friends from BYU now consider themselves non-believers. When you add in the closet doubters, the minority of my BYU friends are active. This is surprising to me. I know this is an anecdotal study and has no statistical significance, but I find it interesting nonetheless. Is this a trend that any other BYU alumni who post here have noticed? What do you fellow MDBers think?

Wouldn't have anything to do with the types of persons you attracted as friends, would it? :D

[_silentkid]

Wouldn't have anything to do with the types of persons you attracted as friends, would it? :D

LOL! I bring out the worst in people. A lot of my friends tended to be more liberal in their beliefs (the musicians/artists), but they were still active and still had testimonies. I'm not sure what changed that. The one friend whose email prompted this post said that he went through a big change while serving in the Peace Corps. Three of the people on my list are expats.