Disenchanted Lives: Apostasy and Ex-Mormonism among the Latter-day Saints

Mormonism and Becoming a Social Worker: Applying an Intersectional Lens During Qualitative Data Analysis

“…While the main thrust of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of using an intersectional lens in qualitative data analysis, this paper also contributes to research on leaving faith communities. Similar to previous studies (Brooks, 2018;Hinderaker & O'Conner, 2015), current findings showed how the researcher-participants invested significant analysis into the faith leaving process by weighing the cultural and familial costs. Also, value conflicts with the Mormon faith were grounded in divergent ideologies related to gender and sexuality (Riess, 2019).…”

“…Similarly, other studies note that leavers weigh social costs, cultural costs, organizational values, and personal values as they move through the process, taking between 6 months and 20 years (Hinderaker & O'Connor, 2015). Brooks (2018) also found that leavers were not marginal members necessarily, and that the process involved significant analysis, seeking to resolve the tension between Mormonism and personal values. Further research found that such value conflicts were commonly rooted in political ideology and sexual and gender identity (Riess, 2019).…”

Let’s Talk about Gender

“…When E. Marshall Brooks (2018) describes the bodily experiences of his interlocutors who have left Mormonism, with regards to gender he mentions clothing and modesty. However, a structural analysis of gender is absent.…”

The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space

“…Views on gender, sexuality, and race are not monological in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; furthermore, Church doctrines on these issues have been reconfigured in the past, and there is every sign that doctrines regarding sexuality and gender are capable of being reconfigured yet again in the future (Petrey 2020). Further, while many progressive Mormons find themselves leaving the Church (Brooks 2018), there is also a respectable number who remain within the Church, even if they are nowhere close to forming a plurality, let alone a majority. Still, while there is some evidence that generationally (Riess 2019), Mormon views on this issue may be shifting, on the whole, opinions on this subject among other elements of the Church would not be in line with the anthropological consensus.…”

“…Seeing religious eschatology as a human, technical achievement (albeit one that was perhaps facilitated by a super-human intelligence when it created either the species, the world, or the universe) did certain work for Latter-day transhumanists who had come to doubt tenets of their religion when it is couched in traditional, "supernatural" terms. Religious doubts, sometimes about the supernatural, sometimes about the history and operation of the institutional Church, are increasingly driving Mormons to disbelief; paradoxically, it is often those who start with a serious investment in the truth claims of their religion that end up becoming skeptical of it (see Brooks 2018). The ideas promulgated by the MTA allowed these Mormons to still present themselves as members in good standing of the Church (though perhaps slightly odd members).…”