I sent a letter to the bishopric 2 months ago stating that my wife and I no longer believe, we resigned from our callings, and stated our attendance would be fairly limited. I haven't heard from anybody in the ward. Finally this past sunday a member of the bishopric showed up around 8pm. I could tell he was uncomfortable. After a few minutes of chit-chat he spent the next 2 hours discussing with me all of the problems with the church. He did most of the talking. He was open and honest about his feelings. He was careful with his words. However, it was very clear he no longer believes. He knows he will have a problem explaining his beliefs/feelings to his wife. Needless to say I was shocked. It was however a great validation for me. I greatly anticipate the day he gets the courage to join me.

That's really cool! Here's hoping for a good outcome for him.

home teaching in reverse. Interesting.

Wow! Very cool!

And very cool that he admitted it while still on the bishopric (even if I'm sure you were less "threatening" since you're already out.

Maybe he was using the conversation with you as a "test run" to try to decide what all he may share about his disaffection whenever he decides to go public!

there are lots of closet doubters, when I asked my FB friends if I should stop questioning to stop hurting family feelings I got several private responses that voted to keep going, some surprised the hell outta me. some were as Peter and Molly as it gets or so I had thought.

I realized that by continuing I was giving others the chance to see reality.

Wow! That is amazing and really awesome. I wish there were a lot more people who think!

in my ward, when i was a mormon, there was actually a former bishop who helped me to get out of mormonism. i'm not kidding. he told me about smith and polyandry, polygamy, the fake bank in kirtland, how much money the cult makes a month in tithing alone, etc.

but, he said he wanted to remain in the church because of his family. so he stood up every month to share his testimony, he had a calling in the stake and this and that..but secretly, he didn't believe; his wife didn't really believe either.

Let's just get one thing straight. When you lie, you do it to protect yourself. You can dress it up by saying you don't want to hurt your family, but it's yourself you're protecting. This guy doesn't believe, neither does his wife, he gets accolades up the corporate chain, shares his fake testimony, and persuades others to give up their money and their time for something he knows is a fraud, but he keeps up the charade out of love for his family. Right.

I had a fairly open chat recently with a member of the bishopric who is a friend. He knows all the issues but currently chooses to believe. He didn't even bother to resolve my concerns and admitted he's a pretty liberal mormon, is pro-gay marriage and says he has lots of personal views that he'd never dare share at church.

I think there's probably quite a few with a similar mindset who just comply with the norm and go with the flow on a Sunday.

Thanks for sharing happy news. We need more of that here.

Thanks for sharing.

Some Ex-mo friends of mine had the RS president show up at their home. As soon as they opened the door she said something to the effect of, “Listen if you don’t want me to be here I totally understand. I don’t believe the church either. I’ve been trying to talk my husband into moving just outside the ward boundaries so we could just quietly stop attending. But before that happened they called me to be RS pres and I didn’t have the courage to say no. So I’m stuck here for at least a little bit longer. Then we’re out, too.”

Wow, that was unexpected!

I guess you just never know who really believes what.

I wish something like that would happen to me. Preferably someone from Bishop Jackwagon's family or bishopric. I need to start thinking positively. Congrats on having the answers for this guy - it helps to be prepared and informed. Good job.

You never really know--the TBM-est people can turn out to be closet atheists. Being in a leadership position can be a major challenge to someone's faith.

When I left last year, my one remaining TBM friend and I agreed to respect each other's beliefs and protect our friendship. Seven months later, she was out, too.

The more pressure a group exerts to keep members from leaving,
the more members it has that secretly would leave if they could.
This is true almost by definition. Although it does require time; the group and pressure must both be in place for many years to
develop large numbers of private nonbelievers.

Of course TSSC has these characteristics. So it's a good bet
that a high percentage of members are doubters or outright
unbelievers. We might expect leadership positions to have
a less high percentage, but still quite a few.

When I asked, at my trial, if ANY of them believed in the Book of Abraham, not one rose to say they did. Of course, no-one openly agreed it was a fraud, either. Most people keep quiet until and unless they see others standing up and saying what they think. The counselor was finally free to let out his doubts because the OP had opened up.

It's an epidemic of reason!