Over the past six years or so, I’ve watched a number of my friends and acquaintances—and one family member—leave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve heard many of them (but by no means all of them) say something like the following when explaining or defending their decision to leave: “I can’t in good conscience (variant: in good faith) remain a member of the Church.” Often (but by no means always), this formula appears in the course of expressing a set of relatively traditional convictions regarding Mormonism’s faith claims: “I believe there’s much truth in the Church” or “I reverence the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph” or “I identify deeply with Mormon culture” or more simply “I love the Church.” Every time I encounter this phenomenon, I find myself more than a bit confused. I can’t for the life of me make sense of the claim.
(Let me note at the outset that this post gets a bit more philosophical and, therefore, thicker than usual. So if you want the simpler version, skip to the last three paragraphs. Hopefully, they’ll tease you into reading the rest. . . .)
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