If I am interpreting "The Handbook of Instructions" as it is written in the section defining apostasy, a total atheist who does not believe Mormon doctrine at all could state this to his Bish and would not qualify for church discipline as long as he/she did not talk to others or openly advocate against church doctrine.

Who thinks this is true?

Yes, this is certainly true. You can't be disciplined simply for not believe any more, as long as you keep it to yourself and don't "affiliate" with other atheists.

Basically, you can believe whatever the f*** you like, as long as you openly profess Mormon beliefs and pay your tithing, you will be left alone.

The sad part is that so many members do just this.

Openly profess Mormon beliefs? I haven't done that for years. Doesn't seem to have affected my "membership." I don't consider myself a member, even though I still am one of record and go to church once in a while to apease DW.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2012 05:13PM by rationalguy.

It's how it played out for me in my early atheist days. No one knew so no one cared. The spirit does such a good job of informing them of these things.

Even if you tell your Bishop, there is a pretty good chance he will tell you to pay, pray, keep quiet and obey. If you are married he will almost certainly use this to emotionally blackmail you for the sake of your family. Whilst he probably wouldn't consider you for a significant calling ever again, he would welcome the tithe dollars and rather you kept his attendance numbers up.

I don't pay, pray or obey at all. Seems that they don't care, as long as I don't picket the building.

That he saw it as a "red flag" but didn't see any reason why I could not serve a mission. I told him in my mission interview that I was struggling with atheism. (Actually, I was struggling with Mormonism.)

When I told my bishop I was an atheist he immediate took my temple recommend and told me to stop performing my calling. However there was no other action - for example he did not instruct me to stop taking the sacrament - and this bishop would have if he could have...

One clarification - it could be construed in your post to think you are saying that you can't be disciplined for any reason if you are an atheist whereas it seems you are saying that you can't be disciplined because you are an atheist.

When I first told my bishop about my complete and utter lack of belief in anything supernatural, including god, he said that he would contact the stake president about a disciplinary hearing.

I told him to go back and read the handbook of instructions, because lack of belief is not in the list of why have a disciplinary court. I never heard back from him again.

(Literally. Other than bumping into him when I was meeting someone at church for an Eagle scout board of review -- where he shook my hand and turned around and walked off -- he hasn't said a word to me in one year.)