{"id":26293,"date":"2015-06-26T13:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T17:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=26293"},"modified":"2015-06-26T19:26:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T23:26:17","slug":"june-26-2015-former-mormons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2015\/06\/26\/june-26-2015-former-mormons\/26293\/","title":{"rendered":" Former Mormons"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has responded publicly and openly to some of the most contentious issues of its past, quietly posting a series of essays on its official website in response to large numbers of young Mormons leaving the church because they no longer believe in the accuracy of LDS history and teaching. Contributing correspondent Deborah Potter spoke with a Mormon church elder about what he hopes the essays will accomplish, and also with former Mormons or \u201cPost-Mormons\u201d trying to adapt to the world outside the Mormon church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We want people to understand the history of this church,” says Elder Marcus Nash, a leader of the LDS church who worked on a series of essays about questions of faith and contested church issues. But while this generation of Mormons may be \u201ccraving a more complicated narrative\u201d about the church\u2019s past, as Mormon historian Paul Reeve has said, former Mormon Edward Hoefer thinks \u201csome people will accept the essays…and be comforted,\u201d while for others \u201cit will just accelerate their process\u201d of leaving the church behind. More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":26330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[5141,3287,5129,1403,2071],"class_list":["post-26293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-internet","tag-mormons","tag-polygamy","tag-salt-lake-city","topics-culture-and-society","topics-faith-and-spirituality","faith-mormon"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Mormons | June 25, 2015 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Mormons | June 25, 2015 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly\" 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