How many people resign and come back? Do a fair number come back, or do almost none come back?

If quite a few come back, it supports the idea that people who left because they became convinced the Church is not true were deceived, and that the reasons people give for the Church not being true are not very strong. It would suggest that Jesus would have mercy on these people and would provide ways for them to come back. Jesus would show them why the reasons that they thought the Church wasn't true were really not good reasons. He would want them to come back, and some of them really would come back. I'm not sure how many, but the percentage might be in the neighborhood of 5-20%, or even higher.

On the other hand, if almost nobody comes back, it would suggest that the reasons that convince people the Church is not true are very powerful reasons, and that they really do prove the Church is not true.

I'm talking about people who resign, not people who are excommunicated, since people who resign are more likely to be unbelievers than are people who are excommunicated.

If the number of people who come back is less than 1%, it suggests that Jesus is not trying to convince these people to come back, and that logic and human persuasion are not convincing them to come back either.

Many of the people who resigned did so reluctantly. They wanted the Church to be true, and they were shocked when they learned it wasn't. They tend to be decent people, and they would join the Church again if they could find a way to believe again. So if the reasons they thought the Church was not true are really not that strong, we would expect a lot of people to come back.

It would be interesting to see statistics on this.

If people who resign almost never come back, it would be powerful evidence that the Church is not true.


(Jesus, if He exists, might want people to attend churches that are not true for some reason, but that is another subject.)



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2020 04:46PM by behindcurtain.

When you formally resign and the word reaches Jesus, he calls Holy McGhost and talking like Don Corleone says, “Yo, McGhostie, that guy who just resigned, you know who I mean? ...he is dead to me! You hear me? He is dead o me!!”

And then McGhostie puts a hit out on you...

I never fail to attend LDS post-funeral potlucks, the six annual Stake picnic at Liberty Park and the occasional free foods served, complete with hand car washes. No matter how rancid Zion becomes, they do know how to cook.

Yes. An ex-missionary companion. And not just once: twice.

Knowing a bit about her family situation--the demands for perfection, the guilt, the self-punishment, the need for acceptance--I believe the pattern was deeply pathological.

If they come back.....they were never really gone.

Agreed.

Or they were never really in and never really out, which says something about their psychological sense of belonging.

If someone officially resigns from the church and later comes back and gets re-baptised, it's like divorcing and re-marrying the same person. I wouldn't try to judge the motives of the person in this case. But I would see that they made a mistake by re-joining the church. Joining the Mormon church is always a mistake whether it's the first time, the second, third...

I think one of the Mormon based podcasts recently had a guy on who resigned and then came back. Can't remember which one, it just caught my eye as I was scrolling through some podcasts.

>
> (Jesus, if He exists, might want people to attend
> churches that are not true for some reason, but
> that is another subject.)


I think you mean God.

They are one and the same. Did you fail Trinity 101? ;)

Jesus wants you for a sunbeam, dude.

I know people who have been ex’d and have come back. But I know of no one who resigned their membership voluntarily and wanted to rejoin. I’m sure there are a few but it would have to be a very insignificant percentage. And probably even then, it would be for social or family reasons. Once you’ve seen the man behind the curtain, you can’t unsee him. It’s why the cult tries so hard, and more often than not succeeds, in scaring people so they won’t pull the curtain back.

Not only don't we have any idea how many resigned and returned, we have no idea how many resigned, period. LDS Inc of course has precise numbers for both statistics, and there is zero chance they will ever tell us.

I suspect the number of rebaptized resigners is vanishingly small.

behindcurtain Wrote:
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> they really do prove the Church is not true.
> They wanted the Church to be true.


Apart from people I've met on-line, I don't personally know anyone else who officially resigned besides myself.

If you'd told me a few years before I resigned that there was actual evidence that the Church was not what it purported itself to be, I would have doubted it. Friends would say to me, "Okay, so I can't prove that it's true, but you can't prove that it isn't either."

Actually, you can and it shocked me. I'll never forget the moment that I rocked back in my chair, put my hand over my mouth and thought, "Oh my gosh! It's not true! It's really, actually not true!!" It was quite a shock.

In my research, I expected to find that it was true and once I realized that, then I'd better haul my butt back to church and stay there for life. I didn't know that there was actual physical proof that showed Joseph Smith to be a fraud. But there is. It takes a lot of courage to investigate it, but it's out there to be studied once someone is ready for the truth to be more important to them than needing the Church to be true.

I didn't know what to do, but at this point I was 100% certain that it wasn't true. That's when I resigned. Before that, I was just inactive.

I have 3 siblings who went inactive in their teens. My older brother went back for a short time after he had a stroke at age 42 and has never been the same. He went to an older singles ward and the bishop told him he couldn't come there, to go to his home ward. He has never gone back again. He will say things about mormonism, but like I said, he isn't himself. He hated mormonism before he had the stroke.

My younger brother is convinced now it isn't true once he realized I didn't believe. I was the most devout of the siblings. This brother wants me to help him resign.

My sister has also been inactive since her teens. She is 58. Now and then she'll like something on fb her friends will put on there about mormonism and sometimes she'll even post something herself. She tells me she doesn't believe and she certainly lives as though she doesn't.

Myself, I left over life experience. I had my issues with some beliefs, but as my exmo therapist says, "We tested mormonism to its very limits and it failed us." You BET IT DID.

What I find extremely ridiculous is all those friends and family I knew who were WILD (and I mean WILD) in their teens and 20s are now active mormon and post about all the wonderful things they are doing on fb. When my disabled brother (I have 2, this one since he was born) goes to the temple and tells me who is working there, I am in shock.

Plenty of people return to the church after being inactive but returning after resigning is EXTREMELY RARE.

I’m sure there’s a few that do but I’d wager no more than 1 out of 100 do. No doubt Mormons will hold these less than 1% of these ex-Mormons as some kind of faith promoting example but they are certainly the exception to the rule.

The only time I heard of people wanting to return are those who miss the community.

I have a step-daughter who has returned to the church now that she has children, but she had never really resigned. She had been inactive, and really isn't full-blown TBM now that she's returned. Both she and her mother (my wife) put on a good show of preaching to the Mormon choir, but neither are model Mormons in their own homes.

My step-daughter married a devout Catholic who is insistent that the kids be raised Catholic, and yet he has somehow agreed to split their time between Catholic and Mormon services.

I have no idea what's going on there. My best guess is that my step-daughter is using Mormonism to push back against the pressure of her Catholic in-laws. I think it's easier for her to resist that kind of pressure with a religion that she is familiar with than to counter with no religion at all.

Mormonism doesn't acknowledge homosexuality or resignation. They only recognize inactivity. If you are inactive long enough they will leave you alone. If that doesn't work one needs legal assistance for them to ignore your existence.

I don't know of anyone that returned. In fact, from I have read, most people that leave don't go to another church. You realize all religion is BS.

I do know several people that don't believe and pretend to protect a job or get along with family, but they are never really totally out. My Bro in law doesn't believe, but his practice in eastern ID is about 90% Mormon so he plays the game. Isn't Mormonism wonderful. So, honest and loving.

delbertlstapley Wrote:
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> Isn't
> Mormonism wonderful. So, honest and loving.

You can buy anything in this world with money like honesty and love.

I know 2 people who have and remain reactivated over 20 years.
One was a returned missionary and the other was a member of 20 years or so when he left but now has been back about 20 years. My own SIL is in the process of going back after a few years of being inactive. My brother remained active and my mom told me recently that SIL will be talking about getting a temple recommend. I hate it because it gives my mom hope about her other wayward children. 4 of us kids and only my brother (the oldest) is active.

Like a rough stone rolling, Mormonism will take over the world making all the dead and living inactives. Just like if Amway were the religious way.

Sounds like you're just talking abut people being re-activated after years of inactivity in the church. This does not equal resigning one's membership.

You'd have to have a few cups missing from your hutch to come back to church after severing ties.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

His name is my name too

His new name is my name too who is dead

The new Mormon Stories has a person who resigned and then was re-baptized.