I've been thinking of officially removing my name from Church records for years now. I haven't considered myself a member for about 10 years. I've thought about why I haven't done it yet, and here's what I think...

Little history: I converted at the age of 14 by myself not with family. I was totally drinking the kool-aid until about 20-21 yrs old when I just couldn't take the idea of continuing to live the lie. I was ripe RM missionary marrying age and felt like if I didn't get out now, I'd end up married to an uber MO with kids and that felt like my own personal hell. So I left...or just sort of creeped out the back door. Me being the only member in my family, no one really looked for me and haven't since.

I'm so disgusted with the Church. I'm disgusted that my bishop made me talk about masturbation with him when I was 17. More than that though...WAY more than that, the church is just totally ridiculous. Joseph Smith's history alone is enough to make me run for the hills.

But I think the thing that makes me not make it official is that I think I'll do the paperwork and all will be processed without a second thought. I don't want missionaries to visit me or anything, but I just feel the overwhelming need to tell some church authority to go F himself. I know it's childish, but I just want to bitch at some bishop and yell "how can you believe this SH**"

I should just send in the papers and write a good blog post. thoughts?

Hand in your resignation in person and tell him you're also mailing a copy to Greg Dodge at membership records in SLC.

You're right about your conclusions.

I don't think it's childish at all to want to do any of this, especially the part about wanting to tell a church authoity how you feel. Seems like a reasonable and healing thing to do.

Is there a specific person you are mad at - like that bishop from your teenage years? It's easy enough to locate people nowadays. Send him the letter. Or is it the leadership at the top? Your letter to a GA will just get returned but maybe you can find someone in the COB who will read it - like their secretary. Just to give you a chance to get things off your chest. I like the idea of hand delivering the letter to your bishop too. Once you decide who you would like to express yourself to, you can make your decisions from there. You are right to want to take a stand. Good luck.