It has been a long time coming, but I have finally written my resignation letter. I would appreciate any suggestions you have. Also, does anyone know if the email option still works? Thanks!



Member Records Division, LDS Church:


I am writing to formally resign my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, effective immediately. With this action I withdraw my consent to being treated as a member, including being subject to church rules, policies, beliefs, and discipline. Since I am no longer a member, I direct you to immediately and permanently remove my name – and any other information pertaining to me – from your membership records. My resignation should be processed immediately, without any 'waiting periods.' I assure you, I will not be changing my mind. The information you may need to process my resignation is as follows:

My full name is: Elphaba

My date of birth is: Month, Day, Year

My address is: Street, City, State, Zip Code

I became a member of the church at eight years old because that was what was expected and I had no reason to question my parents' belief system. That changed soon after my baptism with the 1978 revelation that men of African descent could now hold the priesthood. This announcement was the first I had heard that there had been any such prohibition, and I was aghast. This is not what I had been taught in Primary. What happened to "Jesus said love everyone?" Treating a group of people as 'less than' because of the color of their skin is not love. Little did I know this was only the beginning of a pervasive bigotry within the church.

I soon began to hear about the church's opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. I remember asking my parents why the church would be against my mother and I having the same rights as my father and my brother. Their only answer was to trust God and someday we would understand. In spite of my young age, I knew that wasn't right. These were just some of the issues that resulted in my decision to stop going to church at the age of 11.

Though I have been inactive for most of my life, my name has remained on the rolls of the church because it didn't matter to me one way or the other. My feelings about that began to change significantly with the church's involvement in Prop. 8 in California. I have since become aware of the church's efforts against same-sex marriage in other parts of the country and around the world – both before and since Prop. 8. I do not understand, nor can I condone, the church's relentless agenda to keep homosexuals from their civil right to marry the one they love.

I have read Dallin Oaks' claim that marriage equality is a threat to religious freedom. As an attorney and a former Utah Supreme Court Justice, Mr. Oaks knows as well as anyone that this claim is a blatant lie. No church will ever be required to perform marriages, or any religious ordinances, for same-sex couples. Yet Mr. Oaks, with the church's blessing, continues to spread this fallacy to scare people of faith into fighting against marriage equality. This is dishonest, at best, and seems more like the behavior of a politician than a man of God.

After the backlash following Prop. 8, it was clear that the church was attempting to put on a kinder face for the public and I was hopeful that they had learned their lesson and were beginning to change. But the propaganda war against gays continues, even as I write this. Very recently the church's mouthpieces (KSL / Deseret News) couldn't wait to report on a study that denigrates same-sex parents. While every reputable news source has reported that this study is seriously flawed, the church's news organization has touted it as proof that same-sex couples should not be parents. More lies!

I've come to realize that it's not a coincidence that high ranking mormons are closely associated with groups like Evergreen and the National Organization for Marriage. The church claims to love their gay members, but no one could confuse Boyd K. Packer's hate speech for love. The church counsels those with gay family members or friends to, in effect, "love the sinner, hate the sin." This simply gives them permission to judge – not love – and only results in families being torn apart and teenagers being kicked out of their homes just for being gay. Worst of all are the growing number of suicides of young gay mormons – and the hundreds more who are still hurting in silence, because they have been told by their church that who they are is evil.

If that wasn't enough (and it is) I now hear about the billions of dollars spent to build a mall and condominiums in downtown Salt Lake City and I can't help but wonder how many people that money could have helped. I think about my sister's family and how much they truly need the 10% of their income that they give to the church. While they struggle to support their family, the church uses its wealth to build more great and spacious buildings and buy more property.

Ultimately, it has all become too much for me and I have come to the point where I can no longer have my name associated with an organization that does so many malicious things in the name of Christ. I, therefore, reiterate my direction to immediately and completely remove my name from your membership records. I am well aware that this action "cancels the effects of baptism and confirmation." As I have not been an active member for many years, there is no reason why this matter requires contact from local ecclesiastic leaders. In fact, I want no further contact from representatives of your church at all, except a single letter confirming that I am no longer listed as a member. I expect this matter to be handled promptly and I demand full confidentiality.

Sincerely,
Elphaba

Well said.

They just want the legal stuff covered.

Bag all the reasons and just do the following:

Member Records Division, LDS Church
50 E North Temple Rm 1372
SLC UT 84150-5310
This letter is my formal resignation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and it is effective immediately. I hereby withdraw my consent to being treated as a member and I withdraw my consent to being subject to church rules, policies, beliefs and 'discipline'. As I am no longer a member, I want my name permanently and completely removed from the membership rolls of the church.
I resign according to legal precedents established in Guinn V the Church of Christ of Collinsville and Norman Hancock Lawsuit against the LDS Church. The LDS church shall exercise due diligence in carrying out this procedure. I hereby notify you that you have 90 days, far more than enough time to provide written confirmation of my voluntary removal from the LDS church. Delays beyond this may result in my engaging legal counsel to pursue other options.
We are required to list on the form "reason for leaving", please indicate "at member's request as he is not a believer." I insist that my records show the only reason my name has been removed is that I requested it to be so, and insist the word excommunication or any other derogatory word not be used as there is no basis.

I have given this matter considerable thought. I understand what you consider the 'seriousness' and the 'consequences' of my actions. I am aware that the church handbook says that my resignation "cancels the effects of baptism and confirmation, withdraws the priesthood held by a male member and revokes temple blessings" I also understand that I will be "readmitted to the church by baptism only after a thorough interview". (quotes from the current Church Handbook of Instructions)

My resignation should be processed immediately, without any 'waiting periods'. I am not going to be dissuaded and I am not going to change my mind.

I expect this matter to be handled promptly, with respect and with full confidentiality.

After today, the only contact I want from the church is a single letter of confirmation to let me know that I am no longer listed as a member of the church.


Sincerely

I used to think that the simpler the better, but now I think that resigning is about taking your power back. They may or may not care why someone's resigning, but it can be very cathartic to list the reasons why you are leaving.

So I say write a novel if you want to.

Great, write all that then just send in the stuff you need.

Here is what I wrote in my letter:

I resign from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Please remove me from the records of the church.

That's all it took. No need for me to waste more time on them.

+1 They're going to stop reading at the point where you say your are resigning. They couldn't care less what your reasons are.

I tend to agree with keeping it to the basics, and I'll tell you why. They're not going to read it, for one, and two, it would only benefit LDS Legal in the long run. The moment you start listing things they've been trained to ignore, they'll put your letter down and just annotate your records. For certain.

I say tell your story here, or to local leaders and members if they ask, but keep your dealings with SLC as simple as possible. If for some reason you ever needed to pursue legal recourse for them not taking action or whatever, they could well use the extra words to try and justify the delay. I would LOVE to hear your story, we all would. When dealing with any records and legal entities, I always say just voice the business, what they are to do and not do, and leave it there. Then they have nothing to stand on that "while you said to do this immediately, it was clear that your doctrinal differences could be explained, so we wanted someone to make an appointment with you just to be sure..." Of course it's BS, but just don't give them ANYTHING.

Just my two cents. Do it however feels comfortable for you :)

Just keep in mind that all the reasons and rationale for your resignation, whilst cathartic for you, are irrelevant and of no interest to them.

I know for a fact that my bishop and stake president read my letter (I was there while they did). Yeah, SLC doesn't care, but you may touch someone else.

Great read, thank you for sharing it!

While it's true that they may not read your reasons, it's great that you're willing to speak them openly.

I'm still waiting to see if the local church leaders try to contact me, or if they just sign off on it and consider me gone. (Most likely since I was in a different city when active, so no reason for them to care about me now.)

They don't actually read them for content, so this makes your letter too long. If you need to vent, you can easily vent to us and we'll lend an ear. If you vent to them, they think of you as Grandpa Simpson. Of course, they will process your resignation. But keeping it simple and relying on the facts is easiest and achieves the same purpose.

Glad you write "direct" them to remove your name rather than "request". I liked that you listed your reasons; you never know, a worker bee might read something that plants a seed in its little brain that starts him/her on the way out.

Let us know how the process unfolds, please. It seems to me from reading this Board that TSCC is streamlining and speeding up the resignation process. Hopefully, resignation will become a "rough stone rolling" - cant remember the rest of the quote.

Reciting the reasons may not matter to SLC but it has got to feel good. In a figurative sense, you are flipping them off. Yea, they don't care but you do. Write away.

Years ago they didn't call this name removal. I used to be an Elders Quorum president. They told me that if someone wanted their name taken off the records of the church we were told to tell them to write a letter saying as such and then they would be excommunicated from the church. That would usually make them even more angry. My parents joined another church years ago and the local ward held a disciplinary council and excommunicated them. My parents were furious, because they'd done nothing but join another church.
It surprises me a little (I'm new to this site) that people are concerned that the church only "removes their name from the records" rather than excommunicate them. Take it from a former bishop, as far as the church is concerned, its all the same thing. They feel they've stricken you from the "Lamb's Book of Life." This "name removal" is just a euphemism.
I sent my resignation letter over four months ago, and I was serving on the High Council at the time. My name is still on the records but I couldn't care less. In fact, I think I'd rather go out in a blaze of glory with an excommunication. Why not? It means nothing anyway. They've excommunicated you from their church, not from God. Once you've left the church they have no power over you anymore. Never forget that.
Consider how many layers of "authority" they put between you and God. Why do you need someone standing in the way? You can talk to God just fine on your own.
Ponder those "binding ordinances." Isn't that an interesting word: "bind?" In the LDS context it means roughly "to endure beyond this life", but that's a bit of a stretch. Look up "bind" in the dictionary.
You'll see things like "tie-up", "restrict", "constrict". Isn't being "in a bind" a bad thing? Sort of counterintuitive to the free agency they promote.
In the big scheme of things it doesn't matter if you are excommunicated. You've broken loose from all those things they've used to bind you up. You are free.

I think every resignation should include some element of mystery and warning. I've included a sort of template that I put together to guide you through this process. Please don't hesitate to use this use the following passages in your own resignation letters:

---------------begin mystery and warning paragraphs----------

Being born and raised as a Mormon, I always thought that I had a good grasp of Mormon pricinples and doctrine; however, after hearing about Sister Thompson's experience, I realized that I knew nothing, and now I know that the Mormon church is not true. Since you probably haven't heard about Sister Thompson's experience, let me explain:

A couple of Summers ago, Sister Thompson's father fell ill, and because of her close relationship with him, she was busily surfing the internet trying to book a flight to Maine where her father lived.

As she pointed and clicked, she started to smell something burning.

She ran around the house, but, failed to find the source. As she sat back down at the computer desk, she noticed that the smoke was actually coming from the computer!

She panicked and started running around her house, packing her children into a briefcase. As she dialed 911 on the cell phone, she swung open the front door and there it was.

An estranged ostrich was sitting on her front porch drinking wine and smoking a cigar. Startled, it violently pecked at Sarah in both of her eyes until she couldn’t see, blinding her for life. Her children started screaming, Ostriches always mistake the sound of children screaming as a sign of food, so, the fierce beast ate all of the children.

If you don’t send this to at least 10 people in the next minute, your computer will begin to smoke and set your house on fire and an ostrich will eat your children and peck out your eyes.

If you send this to 20 people you’ll still have your sight, however, the ostrich will eat your children. And possibly any cute pets like kittens or puppies that are living in your house.

If you send this to 30 people, then eventually and inevitably you'll die.

295 people have gotten aids by not sending it to 30 people.

I myself read this letter 45 seconds ago, and then I immediately sent this letter to 30 people, and of those thirty, you are the last one to receive it.

You have 1 minute,

---------------------------------------------------------

You see, with this kind of a story in your resignation letter, not only will you curse the COB with blindness, but then you will also convince everyone at the COB that you are completely insane which in turn will speed up the processing of your resignation.

Thank you for your comments. I know it's unlikely that anyone at the COB will read all that I've written, but that's okay. I wrote it for me. This process has nothing to do with them and everything to do with me finally saying I don't belong to them. Like Brian said above, I guess I'm figuratively flipping them off. They may not care, but it feels good to me!

Does anyone know if the email option is still working? I can get this sent off a whole lot faster if I don't have to go to the post office. Thanks!

Yes, the email option is still working I sent in my resignation in the middle of April and received my letter earlier this week. Had no contact from any church officials either.

Save copies to pass out to relatives who might want details...

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