I'm just trying to get an accurate idea of how high the truth is really penetrating...

EQP's and RSP's?
Bishops?
SP's and other Stake leadership?
MP's?
GA's?

(This list isn't exhaustive, obviously, but representative of the "chain of command," so to speak.)

Thanks.

EQ 1st counselor. Called to that 1 month after I started having serious issues with doctrine, must have been inspired...

Sithlord was called to the stake high council after not believing any longer, but before he outed himself.

I have been in the RS presidency, when I left I was the Primary pianist and RS compassionate service leader.

Thanks. I was Financial Secretary and EQ Instructor as I discovered the truth. Served as AP, EQP, and Ward Sec in the seven years before that...

I want to make it clear that I'm not interested in how high somebody is per se, but trends about who is discovering the truth etc. Feel free to include any and all callings.

I can't remember if I was first or second councilor if it matters.

I was in a Primary presidency (for the second time) when I left. Prior to that, I'd held almost every calling a woman can have at the ward level, including RSP.

Other people in the ward left at the same time I did. These people represented more than a third of the ward's leadership plus some people in stake leadership positions.

Why did so many leave at once?

I wrote about it a little bit at the beginning of this post:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,585426,585651#msg-585651

Basically, someone gave a sacrament meeting talk about the different versions of the D&C and how the current doctrine of the Trinity evolved. Hell, that was news to me, and a few others!

I wonder if the bishop caught hell for "allowing" such a talk in SM...

I stopped attending two weeks later, so I'm not sure if anyone (the speaker or the bishop) was punished or reprimanded. The person who spoke was jackmo who married into one of the local Ruling Elite TBM Families, so there was probably no punishment there.

I was called as Ward Clerk the first time I was seriously doubting.

I was called as EQP after I had decided I was an atheist - they had a little mix-up with their inspiration on that one. In my case I wasn't ready for the impact on my marriage of being a non-believer.

I feel you. How did you deal with that?

Since I didn't believe the church was true I really didn't have much problem lying about a temple recommend and such. I figured morally my family was more important and that was their problem - hard to feel bad lying to a liar I suppose.

I actually enjoyed being EQP actually. I avoided every testifying or pretty much anything spiritual. If I ever had to give the lesson I always made it about being a good Dad or something along those lines.

As far as my interactions I just did my job socially. I figured my job was to be friendly and if people wanted to come back to church at least they knew someone there and had a friend.

At the time I was under the false impression that the church was a good organization, just not true. I've changed my opinion on that - rather drastically in fact.

With my wife it was a challenge. I just figured she was happier not knowing and so that was the best choice. Eventually I decided the relationship needed to be real. I was right about both - she was happier not knowing but the relationship was also less real.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2013 02:41PM by bc.

RM, MIT
I was told BY the bishop that I would have been called as bishop of the ward, but I moved out of it. He was younger than me and had fewer kids, so it's plausible.

I was ward Young Single Adult President. Since I was an irresponsible single person, I couldn't be trusted with a more important job. Because you understand, single people are just so untrustworthy. It was really hard to work the calling around my schedule, since I worked odd hours as a police officer.

You should have lived in my city as a TBM. Young singles are routinely put into EQ, RS, SS, and YM/YW presidencies in family wards here. Mind you, we singles are still considered irresponsible and less than human, but the bishoprics overlook our frailties to allow us to serve 20-40 hours every week in hardcore callings. Maybe it's to keep us from masturbating.

LMFAOLOLOL!

I was a god in training!

YM president, Ward Clerk, but it was when I was a Gospel Doctrine teacher when I started doubting.

EQP, YM 1st counselor, ward clerk and resident wise ass. I found that as I got older and less interested in burying my nose in someone's ass my callings became less and less important.

HP group leader and pretty much all other callings except bishopric.
I was struck with an illness and had to skip church for months. Then i realized we were all happier. A quick research without the constant brainwashing before i finally got the real truth. :)

EQP for me and Primary President for my wife.

I served in two Bishoprics and as Stake YM President. I also have been High Priest Group Leader.

RM, 2nd Counselor Elders Quorum Pres., Discovered truth on mission, but was NOM until age 24.

I left in 2001 when I was 47, this was before Grant Palmer wrote his book. Prior to leaving the church, I was in the stake presidency as excutive secretary for nearly 6 years, high council, ward mission leader, Sunday School teacher, High Priest teacher, Deacons advisor, ward executive secretary, Elder's teacher, etc. My ex wife was both primary and relief society president at different times.

Stake presidency meetings exposed me to how little inspiration LDS leaders really have. Mostly, a stake is run like any other organization. Nothing very spiritual about it at all. Names were submitted for callings by various bishops and auxilliary leaders. The stake presidency would normally either give the thumbs up or thumbs down after a nominal amount of discussion. It was amusing to me when someone who had been called to a certain position would get up in testimony meeting and tearfully tell the audience how inspired the calling was. With most callings, we would have done just as well by randomly pulling names out of a hat.

m.P.

All joking aside, this was a similar experience for me. Just seeing how uninspired the leadership was, was a last straw experience for me.

I've been:

Full-time missionary, SS teacher, Ward SS President, Counselor in Stake SS, Ward Mission Leader, Elders Q. Presidency, Bishopric, and (drumroll....) I was also a hometeacher!

In most cases I found myself somewhere in the Sunday School.

Even if you consented you were groomed for it as a child.

LOL!

I held very lowly callings (very little penetration): Inservice teacher (only did one session at which I told them everything I knew, so why do a repeat); VT (hated it); RS teacher (pretty fun 'cause I ignored the manual); and Bulletin Board President (for the glass cases in the foyer). I faded away during that one and they never saw me again.

I was a temple ordinance worker when the inconsistency shelf broke. If the temple is the Lord's holy house, a sacred edifice on earth, those that work there were less than spiritual, rude, had axes to grind, self-serving, and a few were obnoxious. After several months of enduring the stupidity, I had to resign myself to the fact that being within the temple walls was no longer the oasis that I had claimed it to be when I attended as member.

Sadly, the shelf that I had piled all of the inconsistencies I had encountered during the previous twenty five years, collapsed. If this was the true church, it was seriously flawed.

I made it all the way up to eagle scout. I say this because accomplishing this actually took some work as compared to receiving a "calling" and I stopped attending church before my 18th birthday. My eagle project was to make building improvements to a child development center that worked with children suffering from many different kinds of development issues. I'm certain that this work has done more for children and adults than all of the "work" done by missionaries and anyone else ever to come out of my small hometown. Outside of Utah, however, mormon scouts are not taken seriously (and for good reason) and it was extremely difficult to get past the final review but somehow I did.

I will soon be sending in my eagle scout badge/pins and all other badges, however, because I don't hate LGBT's and I know that I didn't work as hard as other scouts because of the pathetic way that the church operates their scout troops. I'll always have the memories though and will think back fondly on trips to scout camp and the fun we had.

I had just been released from EQP after moving to another ward, so I had some free time to think about things. I went on to be Stake Exec Sec and on the HC before finally getting out.

Lesson for Church: Keep people so busy they don't have time to think about anything else.

That is straight form the 1984 manual...

My wife was in Young Women's presidency and I was in Young Men's. She had been primary president before.

One of my best friends was EQ Pres when him and his wife left.

I haven't heard of many higher-ups leaving though.

Thanks for all the responses, folks. I hope it keeps going... It seems reasonable that not too many higher ups are leaving (too deep, too connected, too much at stake financially if GA etc.). Mostly just curious about any trends in an informal way (I don't see any developing yet...).

There are a few ex bishops that post on the board but didn't respond today - Sam is one of them that comes to mind offhand.

EQ counselor. Did the PPI's and all. Total crap. SS teacher. Called to ward choir director, but turned it down right away - laughed in their faces.

RM, Then held a bunch of primary callings. I tought a lesson on Noah's Arc, and thought what a bunch of BS. That led to my "downfall". I was recently selected by the inspiration of the Lord to be on the Scout Committee. I was fully prepared to say no. But decided it was a better move to keep peace with the wife by accepting something completly meaningless. I had been without calling for 2 years.

EQ Pres'cy,
Stake YM Pres,
Ward Mission Ldr,
Bishopric Counselor,
Bishop,
High Council 3 time

Like Grant, taught fulltime in CES - 1975-2002. Seminary Principal, Institute Director

The cracks all started forming when I was on the High Council. For the previous 30 years I was always involved in music (organist, choir accompanist, etc), which I actually enjoyed and blame for keeping me content in TSCC for so long.

Deacons quorum pres, teachers quorum pres, priest quorum first assistant, Mission AP.