For me, it was From Housewife to Heretic. This book opened my eyes to how the morg really views women. I read it 30 years ago.

I had pretty much drifted away from, and disavowed, my Christian Science upbringing, but Martin's book articulated much of what I had come to understand, with new (to me) information. He also had a long chapter on LDS, and by examining LDS, in which I had no vested interest, and seeing many similarities, I was able to come to the conclusion that I had been brought up in a cult.

Much of what Martin wrote back then was new material to the secular and Evangelical worlds. They knew something was screwy about LDS, but didn't know just what. Martin addressed that knowledge gap. Much of what he wrote was based on the research done by the Tanners.

Wasn't a book. I never read any of them. The actions of an overzealous member did it for me.

Lethbridge Reprobate Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wasn't a book. I never read any of them. The
> actions of an overzealous member did it for me.


Same. But family members droning on and using guilt to get their way.

Jerald and Sandra Tanner's big blue book from the late 1960s. I don't remember the name. The coverage of the Papyrus and Joe's translation of it left no doubt in my mind.

Mormonism - Shadow or Reality?

For me it was the Book of Abraham, and Nibley's Improvement Era articles about the BoA papyri. I knew academic BS when I saw it.

Housewife to Heretic came out a few years later. I was already (just recently) out, but it was a great comfort seeing what happens when you leave Mormonism, through another person's eyes. Before that, I felt totally isolated.

Two

First The Golden Bough. Reading about other religions from modern to ancient. Western, Eastern and indigenous.

Once I realised the commonality of all religions it made them all seem unnecessary.

Second, for Mormonism

The History of Joseph Smith by his Mother.

Who best to rat you out than your own mother?

Seriously I learned that the visions of Lehi were the retelling of Joseph Smith Senior's own visions.

I learned Joseph spent time in Salem and would have heard tales of pirates and treasure and the story of the first US submarine the Turtle.

I learned Joseph often told his family stories about "the inhabitants of this continent to include their manners of agriculture, building, dress, warfare and religion "

I learned both Joseph and Emma stole a wagon the night Joseph "received the plates". The church never tells you Emma was there.

There are a lot more things but this is a good sample.

I don't remember the title of the book but there was a Mo published history tome I borrowed as a TBM from the FIL that was mainly focused on the BY era. It was a cult publication and it made me feel barfy. So much contradictory stuff between publishing eras in the church, so many stories changed from what I was currently being spoon fed. I tried to shelve it, but it was pretty irritating in the back of my mind.

Oh yeah, Lucy Mack Smith's "History"...read that one while TBM too. It made my shelf SO heavy. Iirc, isn't there some kind of apologetic pabulum in the foreword that sort of airbrushed the text, kind of telling the reader to take a mobot approach to interpreting her prose?

Either I read "she's a bit wacko but she was his mom so ignore the stuff that creepifies you" or somebody who knew I was reading it told me that. Can't remember.

I only started to read real criticism after I got on the net. I think I read Secret Ceremonies, then No Man Knows My History, and Wife No. 19.

There was an anti-fauxChristianity written by some evangelical author, name and title are long forgotten, but for the kind of book that Christians write to point out the heretics they don't want you getting involved with, it was surprisingly balanced, mentioning the Jupiter talisman and treasure digging stuff as flirtation with folk magic rather than inflating it to JS having sacrificed babies to Stan.

It's really funny, though, the real world critics only confirmed my suspicions and made me feel confident about leaving. The books that did the most damage were written and sanctioned by the cult itself.

An old boyfriend, who taught at BYU loaned me a book to read, saying, "I think you will find this interesting," and he gave me an intent look, "Let me know what you think."

It was "Mormonism and the Magical World View." I read it 2-3 times, but I suspended my judgment, and returned the book to him without making any comments on it, but the seeds had been planted! About 5 years later, I discovered that the priesthood leaders had been bullying and hitting and kicking my little boys, and that the bishop's pervert son had molested my little girl in front of a whole group of other kids, and no one had said one word. That was the moment those seeds took root and burst into full bloom.

I think my "potting soil" needed a touch more excrement for fertilizer. I have never been able to get rid of the evil stench of Mormonism.

Most of the reading since has been on RFM. I don't want to give that much more attention to an idiotic cult.

Oh, I did read some of my ancestors' diaries, in their own handwriting, and there were some very damning things about JS and BY and their polygamous, criminal behaviors. The BYU talked my aunt into "donating" the journals to the church, and they have disappeared. I wish I could remember, word-for-word, or that I had made copies, but I was just a child, and didn't have access to copiers. Actually, I wasn't supposed to be reading those journals in the first place.

My ex-husband read "No Man Knows My History," which his bishopric brother gave him. Both brothers became inactive right away.

The Book of Mormon. If I had found any of it interesting or inspiring, I might have (probably not) remained active.

Good one! I might've said the same thing, except I never *finished* the BoM. There is just no getting past Mosiah for me. Don't get me wrong, 1 Nephi was not a good start anyway, but it didnt take exceedingly long before it came to pass that I hardcore dissociated or had narcoleptic episodes while studying the BoM. I hit a wall at Mosiah.

I tried really hard, skipping to later books, but it came to pass that I found Alma and Helaman every bit as exceedingly unreadable as Mosiah, so I cherry picked depending on what we'd been told to repent about in SM that week.

Of all the "holy" books I've read, I remember the least out of the BoM, quotewise or in meaning/content.

So I've read Plato and Confucius, Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. Read the Bible numerous times, waiting for the light to go on for me. Trod the bumpy path of the translated Quran twice, studied the Baha'i Kitab-i-Aqdas/Iqan, Bagavad Gita, numerous Buddhist writings and hundreds of pages of smaller cult new age woo "scriptures". I've read prophets, gurus and theologians galore. Theresa of Avila, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Rumi, Gibran, Krishnamurti, Dogen.

So in other words I have read some religiously and philosophically meandering, massively convoluted, ancient, culturally disconnected and brain-meltingly boring doodoo. And I'm not a fast reader, just a patient and disciplined one, but I have almost never not finished a book I felt compelled or was assigned to read. I couldn't do selected chapters of Mein Kampf for a school paper and I couldn't do the BoM. Maybe poorly written self-aggrandizing flagrant horsecrap written by racist megalomaniacs just isn't my cup of hot drink.

I love this, ptbarnum.

Yes, "The Book of Mormon" was my most hated book that I ever read, and I have read a lot of books from a literary standpoint. I've often wondered what a religious scholar would think of the BOM, and now we know! Thank you for your input!

Likewise, I have sat through many classes, business seminars, and tedious business meetings, and have never been bored. I was always able to learn something new, or to be reinforced in something I already knew, or to gain a new perspective on something old, or to be buoyed up in spirit and motivation--there was always something to be gained by even the most boring sessions. But--Book of Mormon classes numbed my mind into a soporific state. I was unable to pay attention, unable to memorize the garbage, or make sense of it, or care about it, or do well on tests. At BYU, I was convinced that I had "stupor of thought". I sat in the back and wrote letters home. In my other classes, I got straight A's, but in religion classes, I got C's.

I was manipulated into reading that darned BOM 5 times, and it never did make sense or resonate with me. The only parts that were tolerable were the parts that JS plagiarized from the Bible. It was the only book I ever considered burning. (I never read Mein Kamph). No, I didn't burn our Mormon books, but recycled them, to avoid other people reading that junk.

All along, I was convinced that there was something wrong with me, that I didn't love the BOM. I was taught that I was supposed to read it every night and/or every morning, and I know many Mormons who claimed that they did that. What a punishment that would have been, every day of my life!

Just like the temple being pushed as "The greatest spiritual experience, ever." the BOM was NOT "The most true, the most pure testament of Christ, ever."

Right?! I have to wonder if there's a subconscious internal librarian that decides "this content is indigestible" and just keeps sending torture feedback until the rest of the mind catches on.

Glad it wasn't just me that had that experience.

"Mountain Meadows Massacre" got my ex out.

I was out already, but "Massacre at Mountain Meadows" by William Wise is one I would recommend.

"Blood of The Prophets" by Will Bagley is one that I asked my husband to hide from me. It told the horrors of Mormonism in ways that will traumatize you. Unless your heart is as cold and hard as Smith's sewer stone, don't touch it.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows BY William Wise is the book that got me out. It was the book my public library had available. I was a True Believer, however, and I never would have read anything critical of the church (let alone check it out of the public library) until after I personally saw corruption in the church AND my attempts to get church authorities to do something about it were turned down by the General Authorities in Salt Lake.

The refusal by General Authorities to address corruption caused me to wonder if something was wrong with my church. That's the only reason I was willing to read information. I had a Testimony - I already knew the Church was True.

“Candy”, by Terry Southern. Very moving...

in sacred loneliness and Mormon Enigma were the books that finally pushed me over the edge.

No Man Knows My History, and Blood of the Prophets; both books are excellent but Blood of the Prophets was the biggest influence for me to resign.

Secret Ceremonies

The Encyclopedia Brown series. Things must make sense to be true.

Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders

and

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins

"Letters From the Earth," by Mark Twain leveled Christianity like intellectual napalm for me. He burned it all down.

Reading "A Gathering of Saints" about the Mark Hofmann debacle was the first major item on my shelf.

I read it and tucked it up on the shelf. Great book.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.

A work friend read it and said, "Hey you're Mormon right?" I said I was sort of Mormon. (I attended, but miserably and didn't claim it, or believe it much.)

The book quotes No Man Knows My History in order to explain why the story happened the way it did.

I remember thinking, this writer isn't Mormon, he has no reason to make things up good or bad.

From there I read No Man Knows my History. The end.

I wrote an email to a university asking what were the chances:-

1. There was no death of any kind on this planet prior to 6k years ago.
2. Humans are all descended from 2 adults who lived approximately 6k years ago.
3. There was a worldwide flood approximately 4500 years ago.

The answer was zero percent to all three. All 3 are core beliefs of the Mormon church and specified in their scriptures, BoM and D&C. That was my start out, then there were plenty of books that I read.

“Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them)” by Bart D. Ehrman.

I spent the first half century of my life as a devout Mormon, but doubts had gradually entered my thinking. It was getting more and more difficult for me to do the mental gymnastics necessary to maintain my “testimony.” I decided to step back from Mormonism and just focus on Jesus. I figured if I strengthened my understanding of, and appreciation for, Jesus, I could move forward in Mormonism with a firm foundation of Christ. But it didn’t work out that way. The nagging doubts I had about God just got worse. I found that I absolutely could not accept the idea of eternal punishment and eternal reward.

“Jesus Interrupted” was very important for me because it presented evidence of things I had long suspected. The Bible is so full of contradictions and is so lacking in logic that there is no way I can accept it as the words of a divine being. The Bible isn’t fictional fraud in the way the Book of Mormon is, but it requires the same cherry picking, wearing blinders, and constantly spinning of the words to believe it.

Many of the teachings attributed to Jesus are admirable (love everyone, take care of the poor, etc.) but who knows what he actually said? Nothing he taught was ever written until it had been passed word-of-mouth for decades. Even if he was a great moral leader, that doesn’t mean that my eternal destiny is dependent on my acceptance of him as a savior.

So, without a reason to believe in the divinity of Jesus, my inability to accept am immoral God, and problems with the Bible being far more serious than if being “translated correctly,” I had absolutely no reason to have anything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

it was "Miracle of Forgiveness." It was not helpful in any fashion in my journey to figure out my life as a straight woman in a gay/straight relationship and then marriage. I pretty much had the chapter on gays memorized.

I was already out when I read "In Sacred Loneliness." I skimmed "No Man Knows My History." I have other books I've purchased, but I can't seem to read them as my mind shuts down when I read about JS.

Mormon Murders is a great read, I've read that shows the church for what it is. I've read that probably 10 times in my younger days, I inherited my grandfathers well read copy, it's seen a lot of love over the years.

Witness to all the nations is another very important work, written by a witness to the BOM. It doesn't get nearly the attention that it should. There are text right now in the BOM attributed to Oliver cowdrey about the translation but nothing from David Whitmer. This is his inside account of what really happened.

All the scriptures, all the magazines, all the manuals, all the handbooks, all the GA books...

None of it ever impressed or inspired me. None of it ever made me think, "Wow! Yeah! I'm really glad I'm a Mormon! My testimony is unshakable now!" Most of it was boring and some of it -- like The Miracle of Forgiveness -- was evil.

Definitely the Book of Mormon. The BoM is the most anti-Mormon book that I've read. Going way back to high school seminary in the late 1960's, I dreaded the BoM lessons because they were so embarrassing to me. The teacher was my foster father, and he really bought into all of it. He also bought into all those dumb rumors that circulated then. For instance, he told us that the Smithsonian Institute was using the BoM to study the civilizations in South and Central America.

Hi all!

I do read a lot of books pertaining to mormonism - although it was my experience with the members and the realization that the Church teaching were incompatible with who I was that led me to leave the church.

However, the more you read serious scholarly works about the History of the Church - including books and articles written by LDS historians themselves - the more you tend to question the legitimacy of this institution. Of course, there is Brodie's No Man Knows My History but also Lawrence Foster, D. Michael Quinn's works, Sunstone and Dialogue publications, just to name a few. When you study the History of the church in depth, many aspects of it prompt you to question mormonism or have serious doubts about its doctrines and intellectual honesty. Here is a short summary:

- Revelations often appear to be very convenient. Leaders seem to be enlightened when they endure hardships or when "mainstream" society criticizes the Church.

- Many tenets over the years have contradicted themselves. For instance, as far as plural marriage was concerned, Orson Pratt did not entirely agree with Brigham Young's Adam-God concept.

- Many facts point to the idea that Joseph Smith may not have written the Books of Mormon, but may just have taken over the belief that an Indian massacre had happened along time ago in the State of New York. Many historians were fascinated by the mounds built in the area. Not to mention the Spalding Manuscript and other works telling the story of ancient inhabitants of the continent. Once again, the aforementioned details are found in books authored by lds serious scholars.

- The practice of polygamy within the Church - including after the 1890 Manisto was promulgated - is much more complex than what the Church officially teaches us.

- A fair amount of scholars - among whom the September 6 - were disfellowshipped or excommunicated for exploring the Church's dark past. D. Michael Quinn, for instance, used the archives made available by the Church to support his scholarly work. He did not draw his sources from anti-mormon literature.

Even though the General Authorities pay lip service to knowledge, they subtly discourage the members to read works not officially condoned by the Church. I was appalled to see how ignorant some of my Utahn friends were. There are very few books at their house except for the Scriptures and Ensign. And I am talking about graduate school graduates!!!!!!!!!


It is always a pleasure to exchange with you, guys.


Best.



ldsandatheist

I sooo wish I could remember the title!! It was an academic book printed by Utah State University. It was a treaties on the journals of JS's "spiritual" wives. I stumbled upon it by accident at USU. I had been trying to take the series "Know Your Religion" without success so was simply trying to learn more about the church. This book opened my eyes big time. I even went so far as to ask the institute teachers if what I was reading was true. They had to admit that it was all true. The book was researched and verified very well so none of it could be denied.

I learned J. Smith was a dog!

Several -

*Book of Mormon - trying to muddle through it did not match with the rave revues it was given by seminary teacher, bishop, etc. Found reading about war, war and more war, repent or perish jargon just went on and on and was sooooo boring and repetitive. Plus, the book seemed to be made-up and not steeped in real history. I promised myself over and over to try again, only to forget it again and again.

*University books and lectures - the world opened up with geography, anthropology, astronomy, music, art, philosophy, etc.

*No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie -

One of the big influences was the BoM itself--the unlikelihood of it's being as the church claims it to be.

I have not been X'd (but came very close to it!), but never go.

My standing is still as a member of the church, for such as my husbands funeral services (someone has to provide this service), and I suspect my children who are still active will see to it that I, also, have such a service. It is a blessing to know that such funeral services will be provided for me by my family.

By the way, I have told all my family that I want to be cremated before being buried--as I do not want to wake up in a coffin still alive, as unlikely as that is to happen.

We bought 4 plots from an ad in a newspaper from someone who moved away from this area and wanted to sell his four lots for a bargain price. So, my son and his wife will inherit this site in Hollywood Hills as well--and for free! (Who doesn't love a bargain, even in this business?)

I apologize for getting a bit off topic.

"The True Believer" Eric Hoffer
"The Illusion of Immortality" Corliss Lamont
"The Mormons" Thomas F O'Dea

Read-'em-before-the-mission-ly yrs,

S

Insider's View of Mormon Origins
did it for me.
I was done after reading that.
No way you can justify Joseph's Myth after reading that, even though Grant Palmer figured he could.
I asked him one time in a Q&A after reading his book at an ExMo Conference, which got him disfellowshipped, if he would still draw the same conclusions now that he drew at the end of ISVoMO, that the church was essentially true, it just needed to focus more on Jesus than Joseph and it'd be just fine. He said he would. People couldn't believe it.
This one lady stood up and said, "But, Joseph Smith was a fraud. he was a pedophile! How can you say that his church is just fine?"
He didn't have an answer. he just moved on.
I went up and talked to him afterwards and we talked about Zina Jacobs and Henry Jacobs and how BY and JS both cuckolded him and abused their power to have sex with his wife. he told me that JS had over 60 women accuse him of sexual abuse, and those are just the ones who spoke up! Now if you had over 60 women who accused you of sexual abuse, would you expect people to still sing your praises? No. Well, this is your fight now. I'm too tired of fighting. It's your fight."
Not long after that he died.

There are many well written books that expose the church for what it is and isn't.
Kay Burningham's "An American Fraud - one lawyers case against Mormonism" is one that I appreciate.

I honestly don’t think reading a book changes you; rather it provides the stage on which to perform and some dialogue for the part you need to play. Yay for having the guts to use the support offered.

Age of Reason by Thomas Paine which was ironically written before the church started. Joseph Smith did not do anything new.

No Man Knows My History and Insiders View of Mormonism are also must reads.

There were several, but I'd say that Todd Compton's book "In Sacred Loneliness" had the greatest impact on creating a big crack in my testimony. I was starting to feel disillusioned and worn out with Mormonism, but after reading that book I became more motivated to get to the bottom of everything and more incensed about LDS, Inc.

I first learned about this book on an Evangelical website critical of the LDS Church, so I wasn't sure how legitimate the book would be or how actually reading it would compare to what the website purported about Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy. The other ironic thing about all this is that I found the book at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU and read it there (didn't dare check it out).

Anyway, I had the following takeaways after reading that book:

1. The documentary evidence that Compton presented was always far more damning than anything Compton wrote. If anything, Compton often tried to put a semi-faithful spin on things.

2. My default was no longer to trust Joseph Smith or church leaders. No more benefit of the doubt.

3. Joseph Smith not only practiced polygamy, but leveraged his position as God's prophet and President of the LDS Church to gain sexual access. He promised salvation to his prospective wives and their families, and sent men on missions so he could marry their wives. As for many, the whole polyandry aspect was totally new to me. This demonstrated to me that polygamy was not only about sex, but also about abuse of power and influence in the name of God.

4. If we accept that eternal families as preached by the church is true, we would also have to accept polygamy. Now, you can believe in eternal family ties absent priesthood authority, sealing etc. but as the LDS Church says you can attain an eternal family that's inextricably tied to polygamy and polyandry.

Also extremely influential in my decision were Grant Palmer's "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins," Simon Southerton's "Losing a Lost Tribe," and George Orwell's "1984." There were other non book resources that were very helpful including Richard Packham's website, Robert Ritner's Journal of Near Eastern Studies article on the breathing permit of Hor (the Book of Abraham papyri), the Church is Not True Podcast, the very early iterations of Mormon Stories, Bob McCue's online writings, and of course this website which had hundreds of stories like mine.

I agree. ISL was a game changer. Ironically, it strengthened my polygamist sister more in her cult. Suffering is to one a glory and to another a terrible bolster to faith.

Since I'm a nevermo, I never needed to make an exit; though there were a couple books that prevented my entrance.

The first was "Rough Stone Rolling," buy Richard Bushman. Though it was recommended to me by a First Councilor to help me overcome my doubts about joining my wife's church, it actually raised more questions than it answered and directed me to issues about the church that I hadn't even considered on my own.

The second was Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason." Having read it at the same time I was reading the Book of Mormon and researching Joseph Smith, it occurred to me that Joseph Smith was the very embodiment of the revealed religions that Paine had railed against.

"Miracle of Forgiveness" 1973

I knew poison when I saw it. One chapter and I knew that SWK was vile. First and only time I finally got the burning in the bosom and felt the truth in every fiber of my being. My so-called testimony slid off and fell to the floor in an instant and I ground it with my heel as I walked away.

Suddenly everything made sense. I felt absolute joy.

Dick and Jane 1st grade readers.

Learning to read was the death nail of Mormonism.

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? and Greek myths that I read in an elective class at BYU.

Secret Ceremonies, and when I saw a baby blessing as described, I realized that while the "penalties" were removed in 1990, the rest of the temple stuff was probably true. I actually read it a few years before I got sucked into the cult, and the baby blessing was a real eye opener for me.

I would also say the Bible influenced me as I saw how Joseph Smith plagarized the Sermon on the Mount, and that there was a line somewhere in Revelation that said that there was to be no more additions to it. The Book of Mormon also influenced my exit, as I thought the Jaredite barge story was so ridiculous, I had a hard time not laughing out loud about it, plus the overwhelming scientific evidence is against that poorly written Bible fan fiction.

You’ve all given me a reading list. Thanks.

Some of the books were:

Wife No. 19, written by one of Brigham Young's divorced wives. It is very informative about crazy things that went on in the early Church in Utah.

Mormonism: Shadow Or Reality?

Mormonism Unvailed

I am still on the Church rolls, so these books did not influence my "exit" in that sense, but they did influence my unbelief and inactivity.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2020 11:22PM by behindcurtain.

Elijah Abel and the B of A.
outin76

I wasn't a believer when I read
"Welcome All Wonders".

But I thought I was Christian....I'm not.

That book pushed me to resign. I didn't want to be on the
membership roll.

I wanted to say,
"I'm not a Mormon".

Yes, I went to BYU.
Yes, Dad & Mom are Mormon.
Etc.....

Resigned Tutu

Like ragnar above, reading was the key.
The combination of reading, curiosity and education is a death knell for credulousness needed for Mormonism.

Influenced view of Mormonism:
History of the Church series by B H Roberts
Journal of Discourses by BY
By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus, former Mormon and Brigham Young University graduate Charles M. Larson. This book made the fraud of the Book of Abraham obvious.
No Man Knows My History.

Influence views beyond religion:
Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
Demon Haunted World by Sagan
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

So many more!

.

Psychology Today.


My mom gave me a subscription to that. My BIL saw it on my kitchen counter and immediately notified the bishop who showed up at my house the next day alone (which I thought was odd) and lectured me on my indulging in “such heresy as Psychology Today.”

I went back into my Amazon history to see if my memory was correct. I had purchased two books exactly 12 months prior to mailing my resignation to SLC.

Night by Elie Wiesel

The Men with the Pink Triangle

My Ex also had a lot of holocaust books she bought through the school that we both read.

When the bishop visited our home following my resignation he asked why I no longer believed. I told him that during the primary program I realized the feel good, supposed testimony, was only indoctrination like the Hitler’s Youth program. My Ex banned me from reading any more holocaust books.

Prior to resigning, I was trying very hard to be a perfect Mormon. I would not have read any of the supposed anti literature. Amazon history shows I ordered Mormon Enigma and No Man Knows My History about six months after resigning.

Others I’ve purchased and enjoyed that first year

The Passion of Raptor Jesus

An American Fraud: One Lawyer’s Case against Mormonism

Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World.