Former LDS member Carrie Sheffield wrote an op-ed in USA Today provocatively entitled, “Why Mormons Flee Their Church.” I know op-ed writers don’t get to write their headlines, so I’ll assume Ms. Sheffield wasn’t responsible for this one, but sheesh. USA Today, rather than using “leave” or “depart” whipped out their “Thesaurus of Sensational Words” and went with “flee.” To flee is, “To run away, as from danger or pursuers,” or “To move swiftly.” Assuming this choice of words wasn’t meant as a comment on the swiftness with which Mormons leave the LDS Church, we’re left to conclude that those who leave are running away from “danger or pursuers.” To be fair, people who leave the Church are often pursued . . .by kindly women bearing cookies and men offering to fix some shelves or mow a lawn. Using the word “flee” evokes – purposefully, I imagine – a harried truth-seeker being pursued by bearded polygamists on horseback. And it really has nothing to do with the substance of Ms. Sheffield’s column. Pretty lame, USA Today.
Let’s turn our attention to Ms. Sheffield’s main points, the first of which is that there is a “growing reform movement within the Mormon community” that is providing much-need help in adapting “to the modern world.” Well, all of that turns on one’s opinion of the extent to which it is desirable for the LDS Church – or any other – to adapt to the modern world. While Ms. Sheffield takes for granted that such adaptation is desirable and even necessary, it should come as no great surprise that many Mormons would disagree.
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