‘Like a Cord Snapping’: Toward a grounded theory of how devout Mormons leave the LDS Church

This study describes the cultural, cognitive, social, and emotional work that once-devout members of the LDS Church must engage in to leave the church and divest themselves of Mormon culture. A Grounded Theory approach with a multi-modal memoing process showed that, for the devout, leaving the LDS C...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ormsbee, J. Todd (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2020
In: Critical research on religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 8, Issue: 3, Pages: 297-317
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Mormon Church / Member / Piety / Leaving the church / Emotional behavior
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
CB Christian life; spirituality
CH Christianity and Society
KBQ North America
KDH Christian sects
Further subjects:B religious disaffiliation
B Mormonism
B LDS
B high-cost religion
B Apostasy
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This study describes the cultural, cognitive, social, and emotional work that once-devout members of the LDS Church must engage in to leave the church and divest themselves of Mormon culture. A Grounded Theory approach with a multi-modal memoing process showed that, for the devout, leaving the LDS Church and Mormon culture is not a singular event, but rather a process of gradual transformation that requires time and effort, passing through a series of punctuating events. Formerly devout ex-Mormons had to confront various problems, including the LDS Church’s truth claims and ethical contradictions from within the particular Mormon framework that leavers believed in and followed, which in turn had shaped and constrained both their leaving process and their post-Mormon selves. Interview data revealed a necessary reconstruction of post-Mormon emotionalities. And devout women who left Mormonism bore an added burden of overcoming internalized misogyny.
ISSN:2050-3040
Contains:Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/2050303220924096