This category offers reflections and insights into the challenges, discoveries, and growth that come with transitioning away from the Mormon church.
I was about ten years old the first time I truly feared the world might be ending. I remember lying awake imagining our garage stacked with barrels of wheat and rice, our basement filled with canned food. If the apocalypse came, I worried desperate neighbors would storm our house to steal our stockpile – and…
If you had told me years ago that one day I’d be sitting down to write about the exact moment my faith in the Mormon Church crumbled, I would have dismissed you outright. My entire life was built around the idea that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the one true church….
For a show that has built its reputation on mocking everything from politics to pop culture, South Park’s take on Mormonism is surprisingly… nice. Unlike some of its harsher religious parodies, the 2003 episode “All About Mormons” doesn’t portray Mormons as sinister or oppressive. Instead, it presents them as overly wholesome, aggressively friendly, and—at least…
Imagine an afterlife where you get to rule your own planet, populate it with spirit babies, and live like a celestial boss. Sounds wild, right? Welcome to the Mormon afterlife, a cosmic board game where the stakes are eternal and the rules are… well, let’s just say they’re complicated. Grab your “devil’s bean juice” (or…
If there’s one thing Mormonism is good at—besides creating a network of genealogists—it’s encouraging journaling. As a former devout Mormon girl, my journals are like time capsules of my younger self: awkward, deeply religious, and slightly embarrassing. The idea behind it? To chronicle your spiritual journey so your future kids can marvel at how committed…
When I first stepped onto the campus of Brigham Young University (BYU), I had no idea that I was entering what could only be described as a surreal, highly controlled microcosm of Mormon culture. For those unfamiliar, BYU is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and students are required…
The first time I stepped into a Mormon temple, I was brimming with anticipation. My upbringing had painted the temple as the most sacred space on Earth, a place where God Himself walked the halls. For years, I had gazed at photos of temples hanging in every room of my home, sang songs about my…
Alright, let’s just rip the Band-Aid off—I don’t believe in God. At all. And yes, I know that probably makes some of you clutch your pearls, but stick with me. Here’s the thing: I wasn’t always an atheist. I grew up very Mormon. Like, prayed-morning-and-night, got-married-in-the-temple, knocked-on-strangers’-doors-to-convert-them Mormon. God wasn’t just part of my life—He…
Growing up Mormon, I was taught that the Book of Mormon was the most correct book on the planet—a miracle of scripture that brought me closer to Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed it was a translation from ancient golden plates buried in the Americas. But years later, as I researched and…