Hello,

Per the Resignation page, I sent an email to the membership office stating

I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, effective immediately, and request you to remove my name permanently from your membership records.
I wish no further contact from representatives of your church except to confirm that my name has been removed from your records. I expect to receive that confirmation within a reasonably short time.

I got this back:
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Our office has been asked to acknowledge your request for resignation of membership from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We have also been asked to inform you that the Church considers such a request to be an ecclesiastical matter that must be handled by local priesthood leaders before being processed by Church employees. Therefore, your membership resignation request and a copy of this reply are being sent to President blah blah of the blah blah stake. He will have Bishop blah blah of the blah blah ward contact you concerning the fulfillment of your request.
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So, the verbiage here is hinged on the word "request." I did send the email which technically said "request you to remove my name". I'm obviously not under their authority, but can they sit on the "request" indefinitely?

> but can they sit on the
> "request" indefinitely?

As a real-world event, sure they could NEVER act on your request, such as in the (normal) situation of sending word to your bishop of record for him to follow up on, and somehow or other he, the bishop, ended up not acting on it.

There's no penalty that you can enforce against a church headquarters made up of fallible human beings acting as mere employees of a corporation; they have no say regarding ecclesiastical matters, which is why the attempt was made to send it to the correct party, the Daddy of the Ward, your bishop.

I've heard of emailed requests for membership removal to church headquarters being acted on with alacrity, but for sure, the mailed-in requests get farmed out to the bishops, and then it's bishop roulette.

Ask 10 people for their advice on the best way to resign from mormonism and get 6 to 12 responses.

My personal favorite is to use a magic marker to write the request on a pair of one-piece soiled garments, with mention that the DNA in the poop-stains is yours, and they are welcome to run the necessary tests, at their expense. (I just made that up, and it even sounds gross to me!)

Rest easy. You were legally out the moment they received it. Their reply confirms receipt.

Their response is standard boilerplate that uses "request" even if you hadn't put it in. That maintains the illusion in their little mormon minds that they still have some power over the process.

Same with the bit about "ecclesiastical matter." The bishop may try to contact you, but only to confirm that it's really you and not some prank. You don't have to meet with him. It's all just paper-shuffling on their end.

No, they can't sit on it. If you haven't received your final "out letter" from SLC within 60 days or so, then you can email them again muttering darkly about "legal action" and HQ will light a fire under the locals.

Oh, and names are never permanently removed as in wiped clean off the books. They're simply checkmarked and moved into a different database. That's just the way it is, like it or not. But you'll still effectively be considered no longer mormon.

outta the cult Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rest easy. You were legally out the moment they
> received it. Their reply confirms receipt.
>
>
https://www.mormonnomore.com/legal-precedent

Just wave this at the bishop and slam the door.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2021 05:22PM by tumwater.

Answer #2 of 12:

Short answer, no, bishop cannot just sit on it. If he responds to HQ quickly, you can have your final confirmation letter from HQ quickly.

It appears they give the bish up to 30 days to respond. If he does not respond by then, they proceed without his response. It used to be that the bishop could just sit on it, but about 15 years ago, give or take, they changed policy to put a time limit on the bishop, I assume because they were getting too many angry phone calls. Since they knew they were going to have to confirm the resignation in any case, why create a lot of abuse for themselves, so they put a leash on the bishop.


#3) As for them calling it a request, I think that is one of the reasons, perhaps the main reason why they use the term "name removal". It sounds like something you would request. They really hate taking orders from members. As far as they are concerned, they give orders and the members take them. That is the true order of their universe. "Resignation" is you giving them an order.

There is a perfectly ordinary, well understood English word for what you did. You resigned your membership. It is not a request. It is a notification of your action, letting them know they need to update their records.

The "confirmation letter" confirms that they have updated their records. It does not confirm that you are no longer a member. That became true as soon as they got your resignation.


#4) Though you didn't ask, the bishop may or may not try to contact you. Bishops probably hate making the contact as much as exMos hate receiving it, so it is pretty hit-or-miss. You have no obligation to talk to the bishop in any form, and anything from silence to FU will have no effect on your resignation. If contacted, I recommend "yes, I have resigned. Please process your paperwork immediately. Thank you and good day. <click>."

I yield the floor to answers 5 through 12.

Because in the churches mind, the bishop might be able to talk you into staying. To them, its worth the last ditch effort. Heck, the bishop might even assign a friend to you from the ward! Think of the fun you'll have!

I want to send my letter in, I didn't know you could email it. Where did you send yours?

msr-confrec@ldschurch.org

Thank you for your reply, sorry I am just seeing it. This is all crazy! I just want my name off the record LOL. It literally sounds like a cult to even leave it. I haven't been to church since I was 16 (im 37 now). Hopefully it goes smoothly.

Something weird???? I send mine, my husbands and our sons ( he is 16) ...They sent me three letters back...Mine and my husbands said " We can't just do that , We informed your bishop, blah blah blah" but my sons ...They said "okay bye, let us know if you ever want to be baptized again" WTH?????? LOL

Sent* not send...Ugh

That is the same response I received from them nearly 15 years ago when I resigned. I did not use the word “request” in my letter at all, so that had no influence on the reply I got. Just their standard answer.

As mentioned above, they have acknowledged receipt of your resignation, and all that’s left is for them to go through their formalities. If or when the local bishop contacts you, he will likely want to discuss it with you but you do not owe him any explanation. Reiterate that you’ve resigned, tell him to process it and say goodbye.

Congratulations, welcome to the exmo club!

Why not copy the letter from church headquarters and mail the copy to your local bishop? Just add a post-it note stuck to the page that says "Please do not contact me. Just make it happen".

Why bother? The bish may not contact you, and if he does, he can be dealt with in about 15 seconds. In my case, I had no idea who my bishop was, nor where he lived.

It's the standard response. If you don't receive the final confirmation within 60 days, email Member Records again, and they will finalize it.

It's boiler plate. The church always sends that same letter, no matter the finality of your letter. It's a final gasp to let you meet the bishop and talk about "concerns" If you're like most of us, you don't have "concerns." It's far too late for that. And anyway, legally you're out already.

I wonder if there will ever be a press release from the church along the lines of,

“2021 saw an upsurge of resignations, with August setting a new one-month record of 896 or just under three per day. But this was easily outstripped by baptisms, both member children and converts, of 2,884. When asked how many of those baptized in August were still attending, the response was, ‘Most of them, we hope!’

“Asked to comment on the notion that for every resignation there were two members who just quit attending, a church spokesman responded, ‘That’s pure speculation, but we’re going to do a survey, in Jesus name.’”

"Give "the (MORMON) 'church'" The FINGER and It'll Give You The BOOT!"©M@t™ [FAIR TRADE?]

That and/ OR (dye - or don't - the font water [red or whatever]) bathe NAKED in the "swimming pool", until you "get caught"...

Or Pinch A Loaf on the white temple carpet...

Or make love, or even like, with someone of the same - or OPPOSITE - Sex, in a locked adjacent room, with an escape window, During Sacreligious Meating...

Or?

There are fast ways to get rid of the "Mormon Tick" (yes, I just made that up, and yes,you can quote me on that) and there are FAST WAYS.

I can think of faster ways (just ask, and pay the fee, which is free) but NONE Fast Enough!

I wonder if this would curtail all the responses of "local matter" and 30 days waiting period, etc...

In the resignation email give very specific details:

I Cheezus, member number, who was endowed approximate date, in temple X, with New Name XXXXX wishing to give back the tokens and signs ....written out. Tell them to "Read the Words on This paper" 3x. Does hereby resign from the cult you know as COJCOLDS.

Then invite the Q15 to F-off....


Or something like this. Maybe they would get the idea.

and request you to remove my name
I believe that stating it this way gives them the option of removing or not.
I think that it would be better put to say

"and DEMAND that you immediately remove my name from your roster!!!"
However any reply that you recieve from them indicates that they have recieved your resignation and I believe that you are legally O U T !!!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2021 01:10PM by thedesertrat1.

After I received basically that same letter back 9 years ago, I got a phone call from "my bishop"...whom I had never met...asking me if I was certain of my decision...to which I replied "yes"...to which he replied "well I'll waive the usual 30 days waiting period and process it right away...goodbye",
And that was that.