My First Post After Leaving Mormonism

Welcome to my new website! This is my first official post here as a non-Mormon. As you can read on my About page, I made the life-altering decision to leave the Mormon church last year, and now, as I begin in earnest on my new course, I am ready to share my journey.

It has been a very difficult decision just to start this site and I struggled with the parameters I would follow about how much I would share. My journey out of Mormonism includes some wonderful, positive things, but it also includes some very personal and negative things. Some of those things are painful to discuss, and some experiences naturally involve shared experiences with dear friends and family.

For now, I have chosen to maintain a certain level of anonymity because some family, friends and dear associates (in and out of the church) would certainly be very hurt to retread some of the experiences we have shared. And some things would certainly embarrass the church, even in the best of light. So out of respect for my friends and family I will try to keep things a bit more abstract as best as possible.

For those who stumble upon this website and think that the purpose of this website is to attack the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or its members, you might be tempted to think how “convenient” it is that I am anonymous for now, i.e.: What would prevent me from fabricating my story since I will provide theoretically few personal connections to verify?

That’s a good point, and my simple answer is that this website is not meant for attack purposes or what you might consider “typical anti-Mormon” type of thinking in general.

In fact, in a way, this website is not primarily about Mormonism at all, but rather the journey into the marvelous new world I’ve been amazed to discover on the other side of the door after leaving Mormonism. I debated for weeks about the title/domain of this website, and considered many permutations with the word “Mormon” in the domain name. But then I realized the domain name should be defined by my future, not by my past. By the fact I have discovered my own life.

The primary purpose of this site is therefore simply to document and share my story — take it or leave it — and, yes, both the painful and wonderful things I have experienced, and will certainly experience in years ahead. There are other reasons as well, and I’ll expand on those in future posts, since I basically think this format is the ideal format for recording my running story as it happens. But again, the core purpose of this site is simply to share my story, from my eyes.

My intended audience includes many people, starting with my immediate family and loved ones — a few at first, but more of them in the future, since one day they will know who wrote this, as it happened.  Additionally, the audience includes me. While there are many things I do want to forget in my past, there are some things that I don’t ever want to forget. And there are some lessons that came from experiences that I want to capture and explore here, and then continue to grow from them. 

Also, my audience includes anyone else out there who might be interested, including people from my past and total strangers, or people who might be similar to me or who live in similar situations — my audience includes anyone that might benefit from reading about the journey of another kindred soul, whether or not they agree with my point of view or choices. I’ve often taken comfort and hope from reading about other people’s journeys, not to mention growing and learning from other people’s human experiences. Perhaps there will be some of that here, for others in return.

So, this is the tiny first step of this website. I will be posting much more in the months to come, and I also look forward to your comments.

If the story of this journey interests you, please feel free to return and read a bit more. If not, I wish you the best on your own journey, wherever it may lead you.