There is a common response by both Mormonism and evangelical Christianity that reveals the deep problems of both movements. Indeed, it also shows how both are cult like. It deals with explaining people who lose faith, and those who walked away from both Mormonism and evangelical Christianity.
“Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.”
Nicole Sobon
I was in college in Helena, Montana in the years from 1993 until 1997. It must have been during the year of 1996, but I was engaged in a deep discussion with Mormon missionaries. They had the keys to a local ward (Mormon church for those who don’t speak Mormon) and I was sitting on the couch with a Mormon Elder discussing the LDS faith. At this point in my life I was deeply considering becoming a Mormon for a number of reasons. If you look back through this blog you will find a number of articles written about the Mormons. The Mormon missionaries were speaking with me about my questions concerning a person walking away from the LDS faith. So one of the Mormon missionaries engages me and says the following. “Dave this is what happens…when a person leaves the LDS church its because they do not have a testimony to the truth and works of the Prophet Joseph Smith. When a person leaves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints its because there was not a true conversion and they were not a member of the church to begin with.” Pay attention to what I just wrote….if a person leaves the LDS faith it was because there was not a true conversion and they never were a Mormon after all.
This explanation had problems, but as I would later learn this explanation is deeply flawed and shows the cult like behavior in Mormonism, and yet this blog would like to point out there are many evangelicals who say the same thing. Let me explain….
A Conversation With Campus Crusade Staff in Milwaukee
When I was a student leader in Campus Crusade in Milwaukee we had a situation. A person in Crusade had left and was engaged in sin. I was speaking with my Crusade staff person Erick Lettner on the phone in my grad student housing one evening. He spoke with me about the situation and we were talking. I explained that we had to doubt the faith of the person who left. And Erick Lettner said, “That’s correct, when a person leaves the Christian faith, they did not have a true conversion. They had a false conversion. They were never an evangelical Christian to begin with.” Me, who was drinking the Kool Aid nodded my head in the discussion in agreement and accepted that as the reason why people left. My other Crusade leader Steve Papez once told me that he expressed his frustration that some members went to Lutheran churches, which in his view were not Christian.
A Common Explanation That Links Evangelical Christianity and Mormonism
Its something that has stuck with me and has bounced around in my brain over the years. But especially after becoming a refugee from American evangelicalism. I’ve long been ashamed of my dive into Mormonism, and it haunted me for years. Likewise when it comes to evangelicalism I have similar feelings. Shame, shock, and the feelings of “What happened?” And you probably can layer PTSD on top of this issue as well.
As time has passed it has struck me in reflecting back as to how evangelical Christianity and Mormonism are linked by having a similar explanation as to how people leave. Its really a explanation that arises from being in an echo chamber that is cut off from society and culture. Evangelicals, like Mormons are extremely successful of creating environments that are reinforced by group think and limiting critical thinking skills. One of these days I need to do a blog post about the positive factors of deconstruction which is a hot buzz word inside evangelicalism today. The common explanation of the convert who leaves never being a convert to begin with is a particular disturbing as it reveals the fear that people have of those who leave. In the end the paranoia of a Mormon missionary in Montana and a Crusade leader in Milwaukee are really linked. Part of being in such a system is to live your life in fear of the outside world. And really what it shows is that many of these systems are really cult like or a cult. And really this thinking you can encounter in many evangelical churches or ministries. The behavior between both in how people exit or leave is basically the same. Ironic isn’t it? Especially when many evangelicals would consider Mormonism to be a cult.
People Who Leave Evangelicalism Because of “Sin”
There is another issue that this blog wants to raise that goes along with this topic. When I was in evangelicalism there is a common explanation made to help explain why people leave. That is the following, “XXXXXX just wanted to engage in sin.” Its shoddy, lazy and simplistic to claim that anyone who leaves evangelicalism just wanted to sin. Is the doubter just looking to get drunk or have a one night stand with someone he meets in a bar? Is a victim of religious abuse who leaves just using that abuse to want to sin? This is garbage, but yet its commonly explained. These are some quick thoughts that I wanted to get up in this blog post.
Wondering Eagle 
“Part of being in such a system is to live your life in fear of the outside world.”
This^^^^. Absolutely this. And when someone within that system refuses to accept that fear as a principle part of their faith, they are ostracized just like the outside world.
I have been a member of an atheist message board for decades. When I casually mentioned that fact in a small group at church, you could almost feel the air being sucked out of the room and the fear settle in. I couldn’t understand why because isn’t that what a Christian is supposed to do – meet people where they are and show them Christ’s love?
Apparently not. Very quickly I found that the majority of the church membership no longer wanted anything to do with me. It was like I had been contaminated with a deadly disease.
I have never been so disgusted in my life. I think that is when I started pulling back from organized religion. I will never lose my faith in God – but I sure lost faith in the groups that are supposed to be His followers.
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“Part of being in such a system is to live your life in fear of the outside world.”
Fear of Losing Your Salvation.
Fear of God’s Wrath.
Fear of The Coming Antichrist and The Great Tribulation.
Fear of The Great White Throne — “BEGONE FROM ME YE CURSED INTO EVERLASTING FIRE! JOIN THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS!”
Fear of all those Heathen and their Master SATAN out there like a roaring lion, all targeted on YOU! YOU! YOU!
Fear of DEMONS.
Fear of SATAN’s Vast Conspiracy.
Fear of SATAN slipping a Woopee Cushion under your butt when you sit down.
Fear of SATANISTS getting Your Christian Children for sacrifice. (Extracting Adrenochrome or baking their blood into Matzoi for Passover, no difference.)
Fear of Christ spewing thee out of His mouth on the last day because of every little SIN. Or not Witnessing to somebody who died Unsaved. Or not studying/memorizing SCRIPTURE enough. Or saying the wrong thing just once. Or not being Spiritual enough just once.
“GOD OR SATAN – WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON???????”
FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR.
And you can take God’s hell-gun pressed to the back of your head with one up the spout and the safety off for only so long before you crack up, go crazy, or kill yourself.
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David, the principle is the same
leaving the Shriners,
leaving the Democrat party,
leaving the PTA,
leaving the Masons,
leaving the H.O.A.
leaving the Knights of Columbus.
If you left you weren’t truly committed.
Your narrative doesn’t stand a closer examination.
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Seneca I needed a good laugh. So when l sell my condo and leave my HOA they are going to say that l was never a believer to begin with? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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@senecagriggs: I find it very offensive that you question someone’s faith when they leave a group which makes it clear that you aren’t a “real” believer if you don’t accept all their truisms as the gospel.
My faith has never been stronger, but I refuse to associate with people who “other” everyone outside their insular little group. Keep in mind that Jesus only chastised people within the faith community who despised those outside the group.
Your narrative is lacking in comparison to how Jesus treated outsiders. He never avoided the church’s “outcasts” and neither should we. Any church that is teaching or showing otherwise is not following the gospel Jesus taught.
To be blunt, if I was an unbeliever I would find your attitude repulsive and it would drive me further from faith. It is clear that you don’t care about those outside your faith community.
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As time has passed it has struck me in reflecting back as to how evangelical Christianity and Mormonism are linked by having a similar explanation as to how people leave.
Mormonism and Evangelicalism are also linked by a common place, time, and culture of origin — the “Burned-Over District” of Upstate New York in the early 19th Century, Weird Religion Capital of the USA at the time. “Burned Over” by Revival after Revival after Revival after Revival until everybody was just burned out. Hundreds of new weird religions came out of the Burned Over District; the Mormons were just one of the few (including Spiritualism and Seventh-Day Adventists) that showed staying power and survived to the present, primarily because of Joseph Smith’s successor Brigham Young who reorganized a one-shot personality cult into a self-sustaining system.
But Mormons came out of the same cultural milieu as Evangelicals, the same church culture as Evangelicals; of course they would develop similar attitudes and behaviors. In all the external metrics, they act more Evangelical Christian than the Evangelicals. There’s even a classic online essay about that::
https://baptistnews.com/article/mormons-southern-baptist-zombies/
Especially when many evangelicals would consider Mormonism to be a cult.
Never Forget: Evangelicals define “Cult(TM)” ENTIRELY by Theology and Doctrine, NOTHING ELSE.
So you got Evangelical Cult Watchers parsing Theology jot-and-tittle under an Electron Microscope, completely oblivious to the Cultic control-freak behavior. This was one of the things that messed up my head in the Seventies (and the damage is still there). Koinonia House Christian Fellowship of Whittier was structured as a Cult, behaved like a Cult, had a closed-off Cult compound (complete with underground barracks), and left the trail of Koolaid-drinking Zombies of a Cult. The only difference from the typical Cult model was they had no single Cult Leader (unless you count Hal Lindsay in absentia); groupthink between the twentysomething-aged Elders made a very good substitute.
The only difference between KHCF and Calvary Chapel was Calvary Chapel not only survived longer but metastasized all over the Southwest. Their Theology and demands upon their people (and the effects) were identical – Wtiness Witness Witness and Save Souls before The End of the World any minute now. (And both came from similar roots, the Jesus People Movement of the late Sixties.)
The only reason I didn’t disappear forever into Koinonia’s Cult Compund (and I was getting seriously love-bombed at the time) was I discovered Dungeons & Dragons and made my first adult-age friends over pencil, paper, and funny dice.
Back to the Cult Watchers. Though KHCF acted like a high-control Cult, its Theology was Correct (“Their Ideology is Pure, Comrades”); it was the exact same Theology as Calvary Chapel and the Cult Watchers: The unholy spawn of Jack Chick and Hal Lindsay and Jack Chick. And because their Theology was Correct, they not only passed under the radar, but took that as PROOF that We Are Not A Cult. Another weapon to use on their people.
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My kids are mixed heritage. Their skin is a touch darker than mine. I was playing with my toddler son in a park one time, many years ago when we were approached by Mormon missionaries. I asked them about “spirit babies” and if that meant my wife and kids souls were more evil because their skin was darker than my pasty pink complexion.
yeah I know they supposedly ditched that doctrine in the seventies but ol’ Joe Smith came up with it, or Humnaba, the magic genie told him or whatever. Means either god is wrong or Joe is wrong.
they didn’t want to discuss further.
they were surprised I knew about it, I think.
like evangelicals, they assume unbelievers don’t read their scriptures.
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