I just got an invitation from a random church guy I don't know to participate in an interview for about an hour.
He claimed something like they want to investigate why people become less active. It actually comes from
Research Information Division. He also claimed in his mail, that it is a world wide thing. Has anyone heard about this or got an invitation like this? What is going on there? His email said also, that I am free to show up in casual dress and that there are no right or wrong answers. Sounds weird to me.

I bet it's legit. Do it and return and report.

May be the church is starting to take inventory of why its members are leaving in droves.

Does it really take a survey for the knuckleheads to figure it out? :)

All they have to do is read exmo sites. It's a no brainer. We're all more than happy to talk about why we left.

All of the tens of thousands people aren't making this shit up.

I'm sure they have read all the exmo sites. However, they still need to do their own research under somewhat controlled conditions.

I don't know whether they'll actually do the research right, but interviewing people and performing controlled polls are an important step to getting statistical validity.

I encourage all who get such an invitation to participate and tell the researchers the unvarnished truth. Note that the researchers may or may not be LDS. They could be employed by an outside research firm.

They're desperate enough to do market research. I'll bet they hired a marketing consultant. Too bad they won't believe the results of the research.

True no matter what I or other tell them why we leave or no longer feel welcome in TSCC they won't recognize it and just continue to drone their BS.
I am undecided to go I think it might be interesting to hear what they ask and want to know on the other hand I will waste my time and energy anyway

You ever hear the phrase "entropy explains everything"?

I guess its obvious these businessmen only know how to use business tactics to try to maintain their sucker base.

This sounds like a marketing focus group. They might try out some "explanations" for your concerns or some sales speils and ask you if you find them plausible or convincing.

Either that or its a trap and you've been invited to a "court of love". In any event you should go and report back.

Any incoming information will be discounted due to them believing that the current conditions are ok enough -- to do otherwise it going to require a massive upheaval.

I seriously doubt they will face the facts of the truly dire situation that is enveloping them. Modern people with access to a variety of information, and lots of outside pressure, are unlikely to continue to give large sums of money to them for the pain the will receive in return.

Send them here.

Dear "Research Information Division":

I'm going to save you a ton of money and effort.
We left because your church isn't "true."
Joseph Smith was a lying con-man who made up the BoM, BoA, and the D&C, and who took his followers' money and slept with their wives and daughters.

More than ample evidence demonstrates that none of it is true.

That's why we left.

You're welcome.

ifi

I agree (and well written)...don't waste your time to visit with them, except to reply with something similar via email.

I'll write it again: always there when they need you.

I've seen this a couple of times before: once when my mission experienced profound problems and lost a bunch of missionaries, the other when there was concern about why a particular country was losing all its well-educated members.

The problem with both investigations was that if you had left or were disgruntled, you didn't qualify for inclusion. In other words, they only wanted faithful Mormons to fill out the surveys.

The results revealed by both studies? The church is fine; there are no problems.

Tell them to tell Tom Monson to go ask God.