Mass Re-Resignation Protest

I’m announcing a protest against how the LDS church reports its membership, especially those who’ve resigned.

Why?  Because they out right lied again last Saturday, April 6, in their General Conference.  The LDS church listed annual membership numbers as follows (See http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2013/04/2012-annual-statistical-report.html):

·         Total membership:  14,782,473

·         2012 Increased members: 341,127

o   "children of record": 122,273

o   new baptismal converts: 272,330

If you sum the increase, you get 122,273 + 272,330 = 394,603.  This is 53,476 less than the stated 2012 increase. Where did those 53,476 members disappear to?  Deaths, resignations, excommunications…?

Death rates in the US are about 8.4 deaths per 1,000 (See http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/demographics_profile.html).  The 53,476 equals (53,476/14,782,473) about 3.6 deaths per 1,000.  (Also note that the birth rate on average in the US is about 13.7 per 1,000, and in the LDS numbers above computed as 8.3 per 1,000.  This seems low as well, but not close to as low as the death rate.)

Again, average death rate: 8.3/1000.
Mormon member death rate: 3.6/1000.

Does this mean that Mormons only die 43% as often, on average, as the rest of the industrialized world?  Recall, that 14+million membership includes at least half of its accounted membership from impoverished third world nations.  Likewise, are they having fewer children than the rest of the world?

So what is going on with the numbers?

What seems to be happening is that the LDS church formula assumes nearly 100% retention rates. According to BYU, the church’s university, members born in the church leave at a rate of about 34% (combined 20% never-active with 14% complete nonbelievers). For converts from 50 to 75% leave permanently.    See http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Vital_Statistics.

Apparently, the LDS church does not appear to be subtracting resigned and excommunicated members.  Also it would seem only the deaths of active members are reported to church headquarters and accounted, making its death loss much lower (3.6 in 1,000) than the actual death rate.

Thus, the additions made each year are overstated, and the subtractions are understated. This goes on year after year and the official number of members gets farther and farther from the truth.

If the correct numbers of losses were reported, the actual losses might have gone from 53,476, to around 160,000 (~40%) in 2012.  That's a large force to be reckoned with.

Membership in the LDS church consists solely as a number and record owned by Intellectual Reserve Inc. (IRI) (a church owned subsidiary). That membership number is listed in their Member Information System and other internal databases.  You are not actually a member of the church.  You are a subscriber to IRI by a number held by IRI.  As such, and as a non-profit, they do not have to disclose anything they consider proprietary (intellectual property at Intellectual Reserve) about you or information they hold about you. 

What happens if you resign?  When you resign, you're not removed. I verified this by re-resigning twice. Each time you re-resign, they confirm to you that they have a record of you already having resigned. And furthermore, there is evidence that they still count you in their records as still being members in the ~15 million persons (latest claimed numbers) listed in their IRI database (and counting).

The LDS church has been lauded in the press as “leading way in U.S. religious growth”.  It gives the impression that the stone cut without hands is growing by leaps and bounds.  And yet, the church misleads, severely, on this stone growth.

Book of Mormon DNA critic Simon Southerton, PhD, has reported on this misleading information here: http://simonsoutherton.blogspot.com/2012/04/google-apostasy-spreads-to-united.html and you will find great analysis at his site.

I am formally announcing my call to Protest the LDS Church’s misleading membership numbers by calling for a Mass Re-Resignation.  Yes, RE-resignation.

Former members can resend our information into Salt Lake, (even if you've already resigned previously).  The possible flood of extra, redundant paperwork should get SLC-LDS-COB attention.  That which costs them money gets their attention.  Until the church acknowledges our resignation in its reported numbers at conference and to census takers, I say we annually remind them that they mislead everyone about the membership, especially our family and friends.  A Re-Resignation Protest might bring more enlightenment to inactive members.  It could encourage those who left the church but never bothered to resign to join the protest and formally resign. Publicity about the church's unethical membership accounting could have impact on many, even providing Church Office Building employees job security amidst the lay offs in LDS-land.

The date of the protest could occur between May 19 – May 25, 2013 if there's enough support.  We could also hold it at the same time as the already planned first-timer's Mass Resignation on June 29.  Let's see how others respond to this call for protest and decide on a date.

Next year, if needed, we will move it to the same weekend they report the numbers in the April 2014 General Conference.

To resign or re-resign, please follow the instructions here.  And please add more ideas below and elsewhere this protest is announced.  I don't need to keep control or lead it.  It's for everyone!

 

Rumor Rumor, Every Where, Nor Any Fact To Think?

Rumor rumor, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Rumor rumor, every where,
Nor any fact to think?
(with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, RIP)

On April 6, 2013 Grant Palmer, former CES teacher and author of two outstanding books (1 & 2) on issues in the LDS church, released a statement through an anonymous blog about his meeting with mission presidents and a first quorum of the seventy member of the LDS church. 

Many many people have called the account fable and rumor.  I’ve heard these experiences since last November, and Grant alluded to them (with the mission presidents) in the exmormon foundation conference (where he also mentioned my public resignation) last October (2012).  Late Sunday (April 7), Grant reconfirmed to me personally that the account is indeed from him and that the unnamed General Authority (GA) is fully aware of its posting.  That does not mean that the opinions given by the mission president or GA are fact.  I want it to be very clear that I believe Grant Palmer is of the highest integrity. That some of the claims aren't factual doesn't mean Grant has failed in reporting what he has experienced. It is what it is.  Grant told me: "I even find some of it hard to believe. But the report is a chance to shake the tree and see what will come of it..."

Here are some of the statements and claims, bulleted. 

Most probable factual claims

• The mission president and GA wish to remain unnamed/anonymous
• The GA went to MormonThink.com regularly and there found a link to Palmer’s book.
• The GA and his wife read Grant’s Insider and determined neither the church nor its foundational claims are true.
• The GA gave the book to the mission president, who is also a closet doubter.
• The GA and MP have met with Palmer three times since October 23 (a month after Mormonthink was bantered in national media).
• They are now meeting monthly (hopefully watching their collective asses now that LDS-COB know Grant is meeting these unnamed high level dissenters).
• None of the apostles have ever admitted directly to him that they did not believe.
• The apostles are entirely enmeshed in every detail of their lives in the church.
• The anonymous blog is named “journey of loyal dissent” (apparently posted by Christopher Ralph, UK member/dissenter).
• The GA and mission president both attend church each Sunday and feel hypocritical and trapped.

Less probable factual claims

• The GA had one-on-one conversations with apostles sometime in the past.
• The primary consideration of election of a new apostle is being “church broken” and fully loyal to the other apostles.
• The six senior apostles mentor the junior six who are told to obey, listen and learn.
• The six senior apostles run the show in the quorum.
• The Q12 is quite isolated from the several Q70s, which used to enjoy more contact with apostles when there was only one Q70.
• The first presidency was involved in the decision of Grant Palmer’s disciplinary court.

Highly speculative

• Each new member of the Quorum of the 12 apostles receives one-million dollars for financial obligations.
• The million dollars is called a “gift”.
• It takes two or three years for a new apostle to learn the church is in fact false.
• D. F. Uchtdorf took longer because of his non-Utah heritage.
• The GA has learned indirectly by interaction with apostles that eventually they all learn the church is not true.
• Apostles talk amongst themselves about how the church is false. (It’s not clear how this could be known)
• The apostles obedience/loyalty to each other are part of the reasons keeping them from blowing the whistle on the church.
• Apostles justify staying the course because people need the church. (It’s not clear how this could be known)
• Apostles do not like to discuss truth issues with Q70s members.
• The apostles would rather die defending the church than admit it is false.
• The church is a weakened dam about to burst with apostates.

Many of the speculative claims contradict some of the less probable or more probable claims. For example, if the GA  never heard one of the apostles ever admit directly to him that they did not believe, then how could he know they talk amongst themselves about the falsity of the church?  How could he know how they justify staying with their sure knowledge of its falseness?  How could he know they get paid so much hush money?  (Well, they could have talked about forgivable loans/gifts without referring to it as hush money.) How could he know they would rather die than to admit it’s false?

For these contradictory reasons, I have place some claims in the speculative group.

However, I have received corroborating statements (rumors) about some of the less probable and some speculative claims. 

1) an unnamed source who works with land development told me independently that properties are purchased by the LDS church for apostles through a developer named Ivory Homes LTD. 

2) One such home is still listed under Ivory, but presumably will be possessed  (Parcel 00-0020-5898)  by Apostle David Bednar soon.

3) A COB employee who handles financial work has seen evidence suggesting payments made for the apostles and others are part of a loan they receive which have no payment schedules correlated (i.e., gifts disguised as loans).

4) MT’s current managing editor has said that Apostle Holland told him that as a new apostle he was at the “beck and call” of senior apostles who took up most of his time when he was a junior. 

5) A current exmormon who was being groomed to be a general authority said he was told by a COB employee who worked with him that the employee’s number one role was to get the man “church broke” (the first time the man had heard that term). 

6) a COB lawyer affirmed that all high level church employees and volunteers who have access to any financial information at the church sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA). 

7) The NDAs are life-long binding agreements whose violations have strict civil penalties and can result in having any and all property used by the employee/worker/volunteer removed immediately; force repayment of all past and current considerations, benefits and perks retained or enjoyed by the employee; revoke any and all associations, contracts (book deals) or other financial arrangements owned, leased or facilitated by church companies; and potentially revoke academic or other honors bestowed upon the employee or family of the employee which are assigned to them through their association with church companies, universities or other institutions.

8) Reported by various persons (former members in public forums) is that family members of high-level authorities in the church receive many financial and vocational opportunities of employment or business dealings because of their father/brother/grandfather’s church ranking. 

9) There is legal action occurring abroad against the church which may force the financial information to open further and reveal more about the truth behind these rumors.  Stay tuned.  (these things take time and legal funds.)

10) Grant Palmer and Tom Phillips have been informed that likely all general authorities receive their second anointing which is another covenant to keep loyal to the church and not reveal its secrets; though not as binding as a legal NDA, it is much like a fraternity of life-long business and political associates who pledge at Ivy League. 

11) In June or July, there is rumored to be another foreign GA that will come forward and even in an interview disclose additional information on these matters.  Stay tuned.

My thoughts...  How likely is it that all the apostles are absolute doubters?  Each of them individually may fall in the spectrum of deluded conned man or full-out evil conman. But to believe that they are all deluded says that every last one of them is ridiculously idiotic about the reality they are supposedly defending. Of course, on the flip-side, one can argue, if they're all evil liars, that's a difficult-to-believe conspiracy.  Many will argue that such a conspiracy is unlikely to keep a lid on. Conspiracy is a bad word. This is a corporation with corporate trade secrets. These kind of secrets are kept all the time at the top of most large, diverse companies, with the knowledge compartmentalized with those having a need to know.  Even CEOs do not know all the trade secrets of the company because such details are far beyond a single human capacity to know. The kind of deals and financial arrangements made in any corporation is held tight. Secrecy in other (government) organizations is obviously not compromised as well.

But is this a criminal conspiracy? Not to the Q12/first presidency.

First of all, these men do not actually control the finances of the church. They're at its mercy. Much of their adult lives have been spun up and dedicated into one system. They are running the front-face of a massive corporation. The machinery is beyond them. But the rock-stardom it gives them reaches far into their extended family.  They're all surfing a wave created by doctrinal policy sausage grinders they couldn't themselves stomach if they knew it all.


They have a lot of perks.  They have fans. They have trips.  They have ranches, hunting preserves, malls, cultural centers and throngs to enjoy.  They have books ghost written and command austere obedience on demand.  Not only do they already have many more book deals with their own bookstore (deseret book), they have families with prestige in the state of UT that brings about business opportunities for their children and many of their grandchildren.

Not one of them is actually that talented at this late point in life in scriptural scholarship or academic studies. While they may not need it to write a church dismantling tome, they will need the credibility when one of them alone stands, as an old (potentially senile) man, against a unanimous quorum. Without significant credibility, charges of senility will absolutely ring true for 99% of members.

A single book deal exposing it will fall flat. The family of that man will be utterly disgraced. The business they built and reputation they have will be dismantled. Not the church.

Better to stay the course and slowly reform it without upsetting the family apple cart.

The church has become stagnate and decorated like described in another stanza of Coleridge's poem:

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship,
Upon a painted ocean.

The anonymous GA is leading people to truth in a frozen land of hidden financed schemes.   Will the church leaders pursue the dissenting, closeted GA?  Are they going to kill the albatross and hang it around their necks? 

I'll post more rumors here in this blog as they come to me in the next week...

Hidden things won't stay that way for long.