I know there's a number of ex-bishops here but I'm curious to know if any former SPs lurk around here or if anyone knows of any? How was your experience of resigning/being ex'd after being in such a high profile leadership position? How did GAs/area authority 70's treat you during this difficult process? How did the general stake membership react? How do you feel now as you reflect on presiding over church courts etc, particularly those focused on apostasy?
Just curious.....

My brother's mission prez was ex'd for committing adultery while he was still mp.

Years ago, while on a high council, I was involved in courts for a former SP (who had gone gay, so to speak) and a former member of the 70 (part of an area presidency).

As you all know, in the end the SP running the court makes the decision, and the council just raises their hands.

Both the former SP and the former 70 were ex'd.

Do you know if they gave up on the church, or did they repent and work their way back in?

A former bishop of mine who went on to become an SP is in prison right now for molesting a couple of girls. I'd love to know if he's working his way back, but unfortunately don't have any contacts left in that ward.

One of my really good friends Dad served as a SP, bishop, seminary teacher, and he even worked for the church in the educational department. 5 years ago he was ex'ed for finally coming out of the closet. That's the only SP I know that left the church, or, rather, the church left him.

I also know of a couple of SPs that were ex'd for adultery but I'd also be really interested to hear if any SPs left because they had the same experience as the rest of us i.e. discovered problems with doctrine, history etc and decided the church wasn't true. The reason I picked SP is that apart from mission pres, it must be one of the more senior leadership roles in the church, yet not at the level where you start to see financial perks like the GAs do and therefore perhaps less of a barrier to remain active even after discovering the truth.

...because I found out the church was not true. I could not live a lie regardless of the benefits.

You pose some interesting questions, Sherlock, and I keep promising to respond in detail. Perhaps that should be a New Year resolution for me.

esp, the 2nd annointing experience. Kudos to you for sharing your experiences. Much appreciated.

Steven Wrote:
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> esp, the 2nd annointing experience. Kudos to you
> for sharing your experiences. Much appreciated.


Anointed One has his 2nd Anointing experience already on the website. Just google for lds 2nd anointing and it will come up

Jerrell Chesney resigned his membership after having served as president of the Oklahoma City South Stake and soon after being released as the President of the Oklahoma City temple.

I googled Jerrell Chesney and found this little tid bit from mormonthink. http://www.mormonthink.com/testimonyweb.htm
"Scores of bishops, several church Education System teachers, at least five stake presidents, at least one Temple President, at least two Mission President (Wendell Hall) and several Church Historians also have left the church in the past few years over historical problems with the Mormon Church. These are just the people we know of (as of Jan 2008). Who knows how many other members in high positions have also left?

Also, many more members remain in the church after losing their testimony (not unlike some of the writers for this site). One CES employee told us that he knows of 11 CES instructors that have lost their testimony as a consequence of studying church history"