We're Asking The Wrong Question About Why Latter-day Saints Leave | E0058 Justin Dyer
Let’s Get Real with Stephen JonesShow Notes
For years, many Latter-day Saints have looked at declining activity rates and wondered the same thing: Is the Church failing? In this episode, I sit down with BYU Studies Editor-in-Chief Justin Dyer to examine what the data actually says about retention, religiosity, mental health, and why people leave faith. What we found surprised me. While religious participation has declined dramatically across the United States, the data reveals that Latter-day Saints continue to retain active members at higher rates than nearly every other Christian denomination. The question may not be, “What’s going wrong with the Church?” but rather, “What is happening to religion, community, and identity as a whole?” We discuss the four major groups of people who leave the Church, why many never completely close the door on returning, how politics increasingly shapes religious belief, and what predicts whether someone stays connected to faith over time. We also explore a striking idea found in Doctrine and Covenants Section 1: that God foresaw the challenges of our day and provided guidance for navigating them. According to Justin’s research, the strongest predictor of whether someone remains connected to their faith isn’t simply church attendance or religious habits. It’s whether they consistently experience God in their lives. Whether you are a parent worried about a child who has left the Church, someone wrestling with questions about faith, or simply trying to understand what is happening in our culture, this conversation offers both data and hope.
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Why did Joseph Smith receive the gold plates on September 22, 1827?Historian Don Bradley began asking that question while reconstructing the timeline surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. What he found was a striking sequence connecting the events that followed to the Jewish fall festival season.The first aligned with the Feast of Trumpets. The next with the Day of Atonement. Then came the Feast of Tabernacles.Three festivals. Three events. Three for three.As far as Bradley could determine, the pattern had been sitting unnoticed for nearly 200 years.But then the festivals ran out.Bradley kept counting.In this episode of Let’s Get Real, Don Bradley walks Stephen Jones through the historical sources, ancient Israelite traditions, and chronology that led him to one more unexpected connection hiding in the timeline.
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