‘Like a Cord Snapping’: Toward a grounded theory of how devout Mormons leave the LDS Church

Abstract

This study describes the cultural, cognitive, social, and emotional work that once-devout members of the LDS Church must engage in to leave the church and divest themselves of Mormon culture. A Grounded Theory approach with a multi-modal memoing process showed that, for the devout, leaving the LDS Church and Mormon culture is not a singular event, but rather a process of gradual transformation that requires time and effort, passing through a series of punctuating events. Formerly devout ex-Mormons had to confront various problems, including the LDS Church’s truth claims and ethical contradictions from within the particular Mormon framework that leavers believed in and followed, which in turn had shaped and constrained both their leaving process and their post-Mormon selves. Interview data revealed a necessary reconstruction of post-Mormon emotionalities. And devout women who left Mormonism bore an added burden of overcoming internalized misogyny.

Leaving religion: deconversion

“…Thus, the majority of early-and mostly interview-based, retrospective-studies on deconversion have focused upon exiters from NRMs [5,[7][8][9][10] with special attention to their search for freedom and autonomy, but also to their emotional suffering, crises, and wellbeing after deconversion. The study of deconversion from NRMs has continued to the present on a smaller scale, while deconversion research generally expanded its focus to include fundamentalist and evangelical Christians [11,12], Mormons [13,14], Orthodox Jews [15**,16], Muslims [17][18][19], and deconversions from a broad range of religious traditions [5,20].…”

Born again: Narrating the mental health journeys of religious exiters

“…One interviewee provided a striking visual metaphor – “it's like you're riding down a slope and you see ahead of you that the path splits into two and you have time, but you have to choose” (Davidman & Greil, 2007, p. 210). This metaphor highlights the agency of the exiter in choosing the correct path, but many exiters view the “decision” as less of a choice than an inevitability or an unstoppable “realization” which they are compelled to follow (Lee & Gubi, 2019, p. 174; Ormsbee, 2020, p. 305).…”

“…In the brave, new, uncertain world, they are confronted with existential or moral dilemmas that they may not have been conscious of previously (Fazzino, 2014, p. 258). The questions of morality Ormsbee’s (2020, p. 306) participants faced included reframing non‐Mormons from “sinners” to fellow human beings and releasing internalized notions of moral superiority that led them to judge and condemn others' actions.…”

“…What is stated in the present might be cleaner than what “really” occurred (Fazzino, 2014; Nica, 2018; Payne, 2013), and usually comes with vested interests in justifying the narrator's decisions (Pannofino & Cardano, 2017, p. 3). Additionally, the process of obtaining retrospective narrative accounts can be prone to researcher influence; co‐construction of personal narratives can occur in an interview setting, and experiences an interviewer shares with participants can color the content of their narratives (McSkimming, 2017; Ormsbee, 2020).…”

“…Integrating the self into the hero's journey narrative can promote personal resilience. Within their new narratives, some reframe the past by channeling hatred toward the exited group (Smull, 2002, p. 215; Streib et al., 2009, p. 162) while others seek to incorporate positively viewed aspects of the past, like their religion's emphasis on social activism, into the present (Collins, 2016, p. 12; Ormsbee, 2020, p. 305).…”