A Few Things First

Some of you may be wondering why I'm telling you this.  As a youth in the Church, whenever I would see people speaking out against the Church or criticizing its teachings, I would just assume they were misinformed, full of hatred and deceived by Satan.  "Why don't they just leave us alone?" I thought, "Why do they keep persecuting us?"  I would ignore what they had to say and take their persecution as a sign of the truthfulness of the Church.  You see, when someone goes out of their way to dissuade Mormons from their beliefs, it's called persecution.  But if a Mormon does the same thing to them, it's called missionary work.  Now I realize that they were just making some valuable information more accessible, and they wanted us to know the truth.  I sincerely appreciate those who have gone through the trouble to study the Church's scriptures and historical documents to bring this information to light.  By writing this letter, I hope to do the same thing.

Also, before you jump to any conclusions, let me tell you some reasons that aren’t the reason I’m leaving the Church.  I’m not leaving because I was offended by someone.  This is probably one of the least valid reasons for someone to stop believing in the Church.  It could only make sense if they based their faith on the condition that everyone at church is nice to them.  The truthfulness of the Church’s fundamental claims has nothing to do with people being nice to you, as long as the Church doesn’t use that as evidence for itself.

            I’m also not leaving because I want to justify sinful behavior.  I was keeping the commandments of the Church to the best of my ability both before and after I started to have doubts.  Also, disbelieving something because you don’t want it to be true is just as unsound as believing something because you want it to be true.  It’s just wishful thinking, and it doesn’t help you find the truth.