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The long-awaited survey data and analysis results about “Why Mormons Question” was released today by the Open Stories Foundation. There will be some significant press coverage on this. 3,000+ members surveyed and asked a long list of questions about their experience of disaffection and faith crisis.
Well that certainly knocks the “most people leave because they were offended” line into a cocked hat. Personally I wouldn’t say that the homosexual issue is a major one for me, but it seems to come up on an ever more frequent basis.
I was surprised about the female/male divide. I had always assumed more men left or became disaffected. My wife and I have discussed this once, and she pointed out how the culture might generally give men confidence to make decisions like that. It turned out different (slightly). Men who became disaffected were slightly more likely to stay than women. I suppose the same reasoning could be applied?
Brian, I was also surprised by the gender divide. Others that were interesting to me:
– More education = more likely to remain active – I guess I kind of thought more education would be more intellectual, and more likely to delve into the history, which was a major factor for some groups
– Mission had no significant impact. I would not have guessed that.
SamBee wrote:Well that certainly knocks the “most people leave because they were offended” line
into a cocked hat… What?
🙂 cwald wrote:SamBee wrote:Well that certainly knocks the “most people leave because they were offended” line
into a cocked hat… What?
🙂 Stuff like –
“So and So left, because they were hurt by what Such and Such did.”
The obvious thing here is that people aren’t leaving mainly because of arguments with people in their ward, relationship break ups, feeling insulted by individuals etc… other factors are coming into play. Unfortunately for the church as an organisation, this survey reflects on the church’s history, doctrines, and policies, rather than a “s/he hurt me” type thing.
Yet, whenever we tend to hear about people going inactive, it’s usually assumed someone in the ward did something to bother them, or they just took the hump.
I thought this was an interesting survey and I’d like to explore it further. I’m glad the “got offended” reason is low on the list. I found it interesting that the people they tell the least about their dissafection are Ward members, and the person they tell the most is their spouse. What does that say about teh warmth of our Chuch? Does it mean acceptance and love is reserved only for the believing? I posted this link to my FB page. I got an very interesting response that I asked to share. Quote:I agree, very interesting. Living in “the field” my eyes have been opened to so much more than little old [Mor Cor town] provided. I live in very large ward that continues to grow at a crazy rate. Love that. I know active people (I have no clue, nor does it matter to me if they are actual members, just happy to see them there) who have had sex changes, gay couples(return missionaries) and couples that live together unmarried.
I love it, because where I come from those people would not choose to be attending and if they were, it would be because they were reactivating and would be going through the repentance process. They are GOOD people. I just love that they have a relationship ship with God and have a desire to learn of him and worship him. They have their own personal testimony of Him as do I. I have no rights to question, judge or worry about their testimonies or faith as I am entitled to the same respect and acceptance. How they chose to live is between them and the Lord, it has nothing to do with me.
My hope is they feel love and acceptance and continue to attend meetings. Through doing so they will be feed and their testimonies will be strengthened. I have also witnessed many very active members leave the church for the reasons that have the highest % rate on this survey.
There are some gems out there.
I’d love to share back with her your reactions to her comments.
Also, another fellow commented that he found it very interesting that people who no longer believed still attended the temple because he is a believer and doesn’t make it very often!
I’m not sure too many people looked at the link. I did not get any negative responses.
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