I just now telephoned the Confidential Records office and asked the young man for the office's e-mail address.

He said, "For what purpose?"

I said: "To submit a member's resignation from the church."

He immediately gave me: msr-confrec@ldschurch.org

That implies, to me, that such an e-mail would be honored.

I thanked him, and he wished me a nice day.

My suggested wording for an e-mail resignation:

To: Confidential Records <msr-confrec@ldschurch.org>
Subject: Resignation of membership in LDS church

My full name is ______; my date of birth is ____________ . [I was baptized on ___(date). My membership number is ______.] My residence address is _______ [in the ________ ward/branch].

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.

mr and mrs admin,

can we make this a "sticky" post? it deserves a spot up there.

Thank you so much for posting this!!! I sent my email to Dodge on the 9th and according to didtheyreadit, it still hasn't even been opened and I would like to get this show on the road!!

The didtheyreadit service uses "web bugs", which are image links in your e-mail to see when it has been read. When the recipient's e-mail software downloads the image from the link registered to your e-mail, the service then knows that the e-mail has been read.

A lot of e-mail reader software, probably including most corporate systems, does not automatically download images from links, and in fact may even recognize the type of links used by services such as didtheyreadit and strips them out automatically.

Bottom line: you can't trust services like diditheyreadit to give accurate results.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 08:46AM by Concrete Zipper.

If ANYONE is in a hurry to resign, isn't it wise to address the Bp & SP, cc to SL?

If you are in a hurry to resign the best way to do it is go straight to the bishop. Schedule a meeting with him and have the letter in hand. Refuse to get into any detail of why you want to leave - simply keep the discussion at the level of I want to resign effective immediately. Request that the 30 day waiting period be waived.

The SP & Salt Lake will just forward it to the bishop anyway.

I've read somewhere that if the bishop hasn't done anything in 60 days that Salt Lake will go ahead and remove your name from the records, but I don't know if this is true.

So there are only 2 logical ways to resign:
1) Go straight to the bishop. He's going to get forwarded the resignation anyway and be the one to process it.

2) If you are really uncomfortable meeting with the bishop send the letter to Salt Lake and then dodge the bishop for 2 months. (I'm not sure if this works or not.)

I took route #1 and got my "your name has been removed" letter from Salt Lake in under 3 weeks.

I would go straight to the bishop, but I got baptized in Russia last May, and I haven't attended a church meeting since the Sunday I got confirmed. Since then, I moved back to Canada and now I'm living in America so I haven't even the slightest idea who "my" bishop here would be...I don't even know where the closest LDS church is...and when the ward clerk in Russia emailed me to ask where I wanted my records sent I told him member records in Salt Lake City, so that's where they should be- I have no idea how any local bishop or SP would be able to do anything or speed things up at all. I just want this to be done!! Haha. Thanks for the advice though!

They have the power to expedite the process. The church's policy of routing resignations through the local leaders is an artifact of prior times when resignations were rare, and they wanted the bishop to chat with you and try to talk you out of it. All the bishop does is fill out paperwork and send that to Confidential Records.

If you send your resignation directly to Confidential Records, the folks there usually forward it to your bishop (per policy) who is then supposed to interview you and fill out paperwork to send back to Salt Lake. If you word your resignation right, saying that your resignation is immediate and final, include sufficient identifying information (so they they are confidant of pulling up the right records) and tell them that you will not meet with local leaders, the people at Confidnetial Records will often process your resignation immediately.

CZ

Exactly what I have recommended of late. While lots of people write letters (like I did in 2002) as was the custom, I don't see any need. It just adds clutter to piles of paper.

A simple, clear identification and the point of the letter is all that is needed. Clear, simple, to the point, gets the job done.

This is a different email than what we have seen before.

i think MSR is the name of their membership records system

msr is the "Member and Statistical Records" division. They handle church records including who attends where, dates of various ordinances, addresses of members, etc.

confrec is "Confidental Records", the portion of MSR that Greg Dodge used to run. They handle the records for excommunications and other church discipline, as well as for resignations and "name removal".

Those who write long letters explaining their reasons for the resignation are only gratifying themselves.
This corporation doesn't understand the benefits of an exit interview & could not care less what your reasons are for leaving.
You can't seriously believe they read those long letters.

Just short & to the point saves a lot of effort.

Yes, please have this info at the top of the site, maybe on several different pages.

I wish we could have a group "Reaffirm Your Resignation Day", and we could all resign all over again, en masse!

has been assigned/hired to replace Greg Dodge? If we ever find out I will organize another "congratulations and welcome aboard" effort like Cheryl, Jerry the Aspousestate and I did a decade ago for Mr. Dodge. LOL

I might fly out and join you cricket! Haha.

Or call up Confidential Records and ask for Greg Dodge. When they say he doesn't work there anymore, ask who his replacement is.

I figure you would have done this already, Cricket. :-)

Whoever it is probably needs a morale boost. I suggest that we band together and send them Starbucks gift cards.

CZ

Concrete Zipper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Or call up Confidential Records and ask for Greg
> Dodge. When they say he doesn't work there
> anymore, ask who his replacement is.

I did that already, and the result was my original post.

I dialed the direct number for Greg Dodge, and got voice mail (Dodge's voice: "This is Greg Dodge. I am not available right now...") I then dialed another direct number I had, for David Wood. Another person answered, and I said I was trying to reach either Dodge or Wood. That person said Wood no longer worked in the department, and Dodge was not in the office that day. He commented (without my specifically asking) that Dodge is "head of the department."

As I posted on another thread, the rumor that Dodge is no longer at Confidential Records appears to be false.

You were more than generous to include my small contribution in the effort then and now.

Formal resignation is a U.S. requirement to protect your rights and not "hoops" the LDS Church makes you jump through.

Now, their delay tactics are quite a different thing...

The law allows people to leave or join any religious organization. The law doesn't stipulate that there must be speciic hoops or formal procedures for leaving.

It's like leaving employment. A person can write a formal letter and follow the company directives or they can say bad words to the boss and slam the door on the way out. Either way, the message is clear when they don't show up for work after that.

It's stupid in the extreme if an empolyer or a church continues to send out employee/church related materials, work evaluation updates, paychecks, employee benefits, newsletters and such when someone has said they're no longer interested or connected.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 11:59AM by Cheryl.

From Guinn v. Church of Christ of Collinsville, generally speaking, a church cannot be held liable for disciplining a church member or terminating his or her membership. Courts generally do not scrutinize closely the relationship among members of a church. Churches are afforded great latitude when they impose discipline on members.

By not formally resigning you allow yourself to be treated and judged as a member of the organization. This may include things like slander (or libel) remarks that take place during an excommunication proceeding and/or announcement to a congregation.

As originally stated, to protect your rights from actions like this formal resignation is the way to go in the U.S.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 01:57PM by mechwerks.

It is not the only legal way to quit an organization as I pointed out in my reply.

A person can legally prove they've quit if they have documentation to that effect and their actions don't contradict the proof.

For example, I have paperwork at the local police station that clearly points out the different ways I've told mormons that I don't belong to their church, that I consider them trespassers, and that they'll be again sprayed with a garden hose and arrested if they show up on my property. The police chief copied this material and sent it to the bish, SP, and MP with a directive that must leave me alone as I am not part of their organization.

The intent is every bit as clear as a formal resignation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 02:20PM by Cheryl.

means I was a minor, and legally unable to enter into a valid contract.

I suppose further participation after the legal age would be confirmation of "the contract," though.

I wonder about all those who leave before 18, or have done nothing in the church since that age. According to my understanding of business law, they could just say "I am/was a minor," and make it go away.

Thank you RPackham. You have been such a great resource to all of us. I hope you're in good health at this time.

I resigned 3 years ago by sending in my letter and the talking to the BP and SP, along with a host of others trying to save me. It got messy and a lot of pain was involved. Living in the Rexburg, Idaho area is difficult when you leave the faith.

My wife on the other hand, took your advice a year and a half ago. She sent in an email resignation. The SP wanted to talk to her, but she refused. 2 weeks later her letter from SLC arrived confirming her resignation.

If I had to do it again, I would have followed your advise and sent the email.

Thanks again for all you do,

Larry Angell

I am going to do the e-mail very soon and "dodge" all their hoops. I won't be meeting with any of their brainwashed helaman army members. Thank you all. I am ready to have my name off their rosters.

About two weeks ago I submitted my email and within a week I got a letter from SL saying they were forwarding my request to my Bishop and SP. then yesterday I got my letter from bishop condemning me but telling me he was honoring my request. All pretty painless so far. Other than the condescending tone from the bishops letter which I mentioned in a thread yesterday. Let the floodgates continue to open!!!

Who did you send your email to??

I'd be interested in doing this, but there's one problem: my husband and I threw away all our LDS stuff, including paperwork that lists membership numbers, baptism dates, etc. I don't suppose there's any way to get that info online without having to place a call to SLC and/or the local ward, is there?