Leaving the Fold: Candid Conversations with Inactive Mormons

a site visitor writes:

… It so happens that I just finished a book which I seriously think is a good candidate to include on your site. This book was published in December 1999, and its title is: "Leaving the Fold: Candid Conversations With Inactive Mormons."  The author is Utah resident James Ure.

I authored one of the four reviews currently listed [on the above link]. I am not, and have never been, a Mormon, but, I grew up here in Salt Lake City. I’ve had, and still have, many Mormon friends — some very faithful to their religion . . . some not so faithful. I’ve always been fascinated by the Mormons and their dominant and ubiquitous culture.

I urge you to visit the URL listed above and then give serious consideration to including this book in an appropriate place on your valuable web site.

from the publisher:

In the eyes of their church they are lost sheep. They have fond memories of church, but they have reasons for leaving—which James Ure discovers in these remarkable interviews with eighteen high profile Mormons. The surprising and revealing commentries are as varied as the people themselves.

Politics of gender and politics in general, guilt over unachievable perfection, and an inability to accept the basic tenets of Mormonism are among the thoughtful, often touching expressions by people who left active Mormonism to find their own personal path to salvation and meaning in life.

It is Ure’s hope that this work will help "active" Mormon neighbors better understand their "wayward" friends. Those whom Ure interviewed include: Shauna Adix, Richard Brown, Scott Burton, Betty Condie, Rod Decker, Edwin Brown Firmage, Met Johnson, William Mulder, Loneta M. Murphy, Levi S. Peterson, Calvin L. Rampton, Paul Rolly, Stewart L. Udall, Helen Browning Ure, and Ardean Walton Watts. He also includes conversations with three anonymous participants: a "business woman," a "civic worker," and a "government administrator."

"I wish with all my heart right now that I had a testimony. I envy people who do … the mind is at ease on a matter that it might be troubled about." —former Utah governor Calvin L. Rampton

"I consider myself a spiritual person. I do not consider myself a religious person. I think that adherence to form and structure doesn’t allow for one’s own sense of connection or growth." —Shauna Adix, former director, University Women’s Resource Center

"There are an awful lot of Mormons for whom guilt is a problem." —Levi Peterson, author and university professor

James W. Ure is the author of two non-fiction books, Hawks and Roses and Bait for Trout, Being the Confessions of an Unorthodox Angler. He has written for the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, as well as for national magazines. He is the recipient of several writing awards; for this book he received grants from the Utah Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. A University of Utah graduate, he lives in Salt Lake City and works in advertising and marketing.