The church is launching a new initiative to track down inactive members and re activate them so like get ready for people you knew growing up to come try to get you back in the cult or for them to give your address and contact info to the missionaries for them to come bother you
It does not include those who have had their records removed. Many are suggesting now is the time to submit a formal request to be taken off the church records
Quitmormon
Quitmormon.com made leaving so easy! A friend of mine battled it out by requesting his bishop remove his records, it took years and multiple missionary visits. Quitmormom.com got my record removed in weeks and I’ve never ever been reached out to since. I highly recommend it.
So I grew up in Salt Lake City and became inactive in my early 20s. I moved to California shortly afterwards and never bothered to tell my bishop so my address within church records wouldn’t be updated. A few years later, I found out my mother had updated it for me when I started getting love-bombed by the local bishop’s wife. One time she left me cookies on my door step with a note introducing herself, another time she mailed me a copy of the Book of Mormon with a card on my birthday, I started seeing missionaries in my neighborhood more often, etc.
If you try to resign by going through your bishop, it will be nothing but a parade of psychological damage. He will grill you about what you’ve been watching/reading/listening to, who you’ve been talking to, he will demean your intelligence by telling you “smarter men than you have read [the Book of Mormon] and believe it’s the true word of God”, he will do whatever he can to make you doubt your decision right then and there. If that doesn’t work, you’ll be asked to submit to a disciplinary council, where basically the exact same type of shaming will happen, but now with more participants on the bishop’s side. In addition to sending missionaries to visit you (keep in mind that most missionaries are 18-19 year old kids fresh out of high school coming to your house to tell you that you’re living your life wrong and they have the answer) they will also send you any sort of testimonial pamphlets they can find from the highest authorities in the church. In addition, they will often threaten to publicly announce your excommunication to the entire local congregation, meaning if you’re doing this without telling your true-believer family members, they could find out that way.
If you send your information to QuitMormon, they’ll contact the church on your behalf as your pro-bono legal representation. They’ll tell the church that you wish to have your records removed, you do NOT have any sins you wish to confess, you will NOT agree to a disciplinary council, you do NOT want to be sent any proselytizing material or contacted by anyone with connections to the church (such as missionaries, your bishop, etc.)
Mine took a little bit longer than usual, but within 4 months my resignation was confirmed and not once was I harassed by anyone at the local congregation.
