A Brigham Young University Professor’s Escape from Mormonism
The summer of 2006, my husband and I mustered the courage to drive two hours away from our largely Mormon community in Utah to attend a non-Mormon church on a Saturday night. That way, no Mormon friends or priesthood leaders could possibly see us. We were paranoid, worried that if someone from Brigham Young University saw me at a non-denominational Christian church, I would lose my ecclesiastical clearance and my job as a professor.
The first night we were there, the pastor preached directly from the Bible about the cross on which Jesus had paid my debt. This was a foreign concept to me. Mormons don’t revere the cross. They see it as an instrument of death, not the place where Christ became the savior.
Our son had faced similar dangers. He risked everything—faith, family, friends, girlfriend, college scholarship, respect—by stepping out of Mormon belief. This son stood before a roomful of fellow...