Just wondering, was it the church and people with their pettiness and rules and gossip and cruelty and hypocrisy, or the scripture being made up fantasy, which made you leave?

1. Being lied to

2. see #1

The church.

Scriptures have nothing to do with the church. They don't follow them. They rewrite, ignore or interpret them at will. None of the silly rules are in the scriptures.

The 'church'.

I agree- it's not the scriptures...

It's the sheer falsity, utter recklessness and sacreligious ego-centricity, not to mention the rediculous ignorance and stupidity of it all.

As a child. I didn't like being tortured, punished or misled.

Therefore, I walked.

M@t

Mainly doctrine I knew had no leg to stand on but it was a real kick in the gut when the BOM “the truest book on earth” basically said dark skin was a curse. I’m not black but I found it preposterous and devastating and I think anyone with any sense and moral compass would. Then there were contradictions in the BOM from one verse to the other as well as doctrine vs. scripture contradictions.

The "doctrine" was the problem (scriptures, faith-based claims) for me.

I did my homework and found there was nothing factual about their extraordinary claims. Faith is simply an excuse for not having facts. My standards are much higher to verify claims.

I am not so petty that a few jerks would keep me away if the doctrine was actually true.

Does this make sense: "Sorry Jesus. Sister Pettymouth gossiped about me so I guess I'll pass up the Celestial Kingdom even though it is true."

No. That doesn't make sense to me. Facts first.
Dealing with human nature would come second to me.

If the scriptures were somehow impressive and "true," I would feel like I had some obligation to try to reconcile my disagreements and doubts about the Church as a whole...or somehow try to find an explanation as to why the modern leaders were out of harmony with the scriptures.

But, truth be told, I was not particularly impressed by the scriptures. Grandiose verbiage, vaguely promising great things, but often contradicting themselves and never living up to the promises.

I read the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover several times and was bothered by it. I knew (after the manner of the Emperor's New Clothes) that I was expected to be edified and enlightened by it. The reality was that I found it to be stupid and cartoon-like. The story of the beheading of Laban was idiotic and had too many holes in it. I tried to imagine how it would play out as a movie and it didn't work. No convincing case was made that Laban was a bad man who deserved to die. No case was made that there really was no other way to get the plates. Magic was involved to deceive Laban's servant and to get out undetected (despite the fact that Nephi should have been covered in blood). So if magic was possible to facilitate a gruesome beheading, why couldn't magic have been deployed to get the plates without the gratuitous violence?

That's just one example of how stupid all of the stories in the Book of Mormon are. The characters are so cartoonish that they make Archie comics look like Dostoevsky and Shakespeare characters by comparison.

Combine the obvious problems with the scriptures with the easily observable fact that the leaders, contrary to their claims, are just ordinary men--and less virtuous than many of the people they lead at that--and I couldn't stay active in it and maintain any kind of integrity at the same time.

As for the Mormons around me, I found most of them to be honorable, decent people. Socially, it was harder for me to walk away than it would have been to stay in. My best friends, my social support groups, my family, my community were close to 100% Mormons at the time I left.

Scripture.

All of the above plus the real history of the church. Multiple first vision accounts. The Rock in a Hat! Bank scandals. Reasons the Mormons were 'driven from place to place'. Translation of the BOA from funerary scrolls. Joseph Smith and his lies to women. The gunfight at Carthage.
Then there's Brigham Young and all his speaking as a man. Etc and so forth.

I agree about the fact that people would not keep me away if I truly believed in something. The way people misuse their freewill does not take away truth if it’s actually there because people will be imperfect regardless. However, as a Catholic I remember reading from the book of Judith and then when investigating reading the part in the BOM about Laban. It didn’t dawn on me til a little later how the story of Judith beheading Holofernes is strikingly similar to the story of Laban. Long story short Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was about to destroy Judith’s home and while he’s drunk she beheads him. It’s odd that so many stories in the BOM are basically rip offs of stories found in the Bible that we as Catholics call the duertocanonical books (secondary canon)or called the Apocrypha to most If not all Protestants. JS had access to this scripture in his home but oddly enough taught that members should only read this scripture if they were basically well-learned in scripture and capable of truly understanding the books. When I received my patriarchal blessing I asked if I could still read them because as a Catholic I truly enjoyed these books especially Sirach. He said I could because I seemed to have a clear understanding of them but to depend on the BOM first and foremost. I feel like now JS basically hid the “Apocrypha” because the similarities of his stories in the BOM would prove him a fraud, however, I’m not entirely sure.

The BoM is supposed to be the keystone of the religion. Without it, all bets are off. I learned that there’s no way the BoM can be what they claim. That means they’re either deluded, stupid, or lying. I couldn’t go with any of those, so I left.

Once I accepted that there is no way the Book of Mormon can be real, the whole house of cards collapsed.