Today, a conversation with author David Pace about the growing numbers of "ethnic Mormons," those who grow up Mormon, but for various reasons leave the church, and how Mormons may need to mage a bigger tent to include them.
1. When I first started to articulate some of my doubts about Mormonism with non-Mormon friends, they asked me why I didn't create my own church. Take what I loved about Mormonism and move on. Or find a splinter group that matched my own ideas better. It's a very Protestant view of religion, and I struggled to explain to them that the choices in terms of splinter groups were slim and grim pickings. As for creating my own church, growing up as Mormon meant that I had an abhorrence of "priestcraft," quite apart from my introverism and general disinterest in organizing large groups in any form.
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