How is it possible that LDS leaders know the research (book of Abraham, changing doctrines, etc.) and they don't leave the church? It is blatantly obvious that it is all a farce...so how can they choose to use lies and deceit and stay Mormon? I couldn't stay from the instant I discovered the truth!

I'm still mad that the truth was known 10 years before I was even baptized, and yet they still presented it to me as scripture.

and let's face it, it's a smoking gun

wooden submarines.

people told you that with a straight face.

a wooden submarine.

right before flying reindeer and right after pink bunnies.

wooden submarines.

all together now, everybody...

during the Revolutionary war

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/sub_turtle.htm

did not carry a menagerie of poop across an unspecified ocean.

which ocean was it, btw?

did Noah's upsidedown arc land on the eastern or western coast of the Americas?

and what did that wooden submarine do with all the poop?

Of all the silly-assed stories in the BOM, the Jaredite voyage has to be the most silly-assed of all.

not subjected to the same evidence rules as other kinds of claims.
Comments from a prior post on: Why Do Mormons Believe An Overview

The power of the spiritual witness is dependent on the emotional attachment,bond to the beliefs which are either literal, or strictly spiritual. The power of that spiritual witness in the supernatural claims of angels, visions, translations, for instance, that no evidence of any actual factual elements is necessary.
There is no need for actual, golden plates, for instance as the spiritual witness in the claims by Joseph Smith Jr. is sufficient. In religious God Myths, the power of the belief by faith supersedes/overrides any need for factual evidences. In fact, it is a manifestation of great faith in God, to not ask for or require any factual evidences.

Do the General Authorities, and other leaders and testimony bearing members believe in Mormonism's claims as literal? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't really matter.
The spiritual witness aka testimony is not dependent on producing golden plates, for instance.
Supernatural claims are never dependent on physical factual evidence. They are believed as true and real as other kinds of claimed events.

In conclusion:
I have concluded that the best way to understand Mormonism is as a generational, cultural, societal, familial, traditional tribe that was solidified in isolation by Brigham Young in the middle to late 1800's in Utah. The elements established by that isolation continues today in many of the customs and culture in how Mormonism is lived, depending on whether it's in a largely Mormon community or as it is part of a larger community, which is often very different.

from post:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,112094,112094#msg-112094

Power, prestige (from the Mormon masses), $$$$$$$$$ ("living expense," free travel, book and tape royalties, sitting on the boards of LDS companies, "consulting fees," etc.), all of which feeds their egos.

The same reasons for which Joe Smith founded it, $$$$$$ and power.

Well, you gotta live and they gotta live. They are already invested in the United Order they have and leaving would cost them personally.