If you step away

If You Decide to Resign

What formally leaving actually involves, what it changes on paper, and what it cannot touch.

The point in one sentence

The Church’s own Handbook lets an adult member ask, in a signed letter, to have their name taken off the membership records. This page walks through what that involves and what it does and does not change.

Read this first You never have to do this, and nothing on this page is meant to push you. It is here for the person who has already been asking, “What would it actually involve?” A name sitting quietly on a record is not a problem you have to solve. If it is not for you, skip it with a clear conscience.

The record you did not write

If you grew up in the Church, you were probably given a name on a record long before you could have chosen anything. A baby blessing, a baptism, a confirmation: each was written down. The Church’s General Handbook says membership records “include members’ names, contact information, ordinance details, and other vital information” (an ordinance is a ceremony such as baptism), and that they are kept in a ward by the bishop and the ward clerks.

Most members never think about that record. It sits there, and it does not need to bother anyone. It is also the reason the membership page counts names on records, not people who would say they belong.

For some people, a name on that record starts to feel wrong. Maybe it is the line in a Sunday School lesson that no longer rings true. Maybe it is a child whose parents had them blessed, or a spouse who has already walked away. Others never feel that way and stay on the record for life, and that is a fine answer too. The Handbook has a section for the people who do want it closed, and it is worth reading what it says before deciding anything.

What the Church says it does

Two passages from the General Handbook carry most of the weight. The first is about the sealing, the temple ceremony that Latter-day Saints believe joins a couple and their children for eternity.

General Handbook, section 38.4.1.11, “Effects of Resignation or Withdrawal of Church Membership”

After a couple has been sealed in a temple, if one of them resigns Church membership or has his or her membership withdrawn, his or her temple blessings are also withdrawn. However, the personal blessings of the sealing ordinance for the person’s spouse and children remain in effect if they remain faithful.

Section 38.4.1.11 covers couples sealed in a temple, meaning a couple married there. A member who was never sealed is not affected by this section. It treats resigning and having membership withdrawn the same way. It adds: “Any children born to a couple after one or both of them have resigned their membership or had their Church membership withdrawn are not born in the covenant.” Born in the covenant means children of a sealed couple are counted as already sealed to them.

Read the Handbook on churchofjesuschrist.org

General Handbook, section 38.2.8.5, “Persons Whose Church Membership Was Withdrawn or Who Resigned Membership”

Persons whose Church membership was withdrawn or who resigned membership may be readmitted by baptism and confirmation. They are not considered converts.

A person who resigns can come back by being baptized and confirmed again. The same section adds, “Missionaries do not interview them for baptism.” It sends the reader to section 32.16 (“Removing Formal Restrictions or Being Readmitted to the Church”). The next section, 32.17, is titled “Church Activity, Ordination, and Restoration of Blessings after Readmission.”

Read the Handbook on churchofjesuschrist.org

Resigning is not a punishment the Church hands you. It is a request you make.

The Handbook treats it as a choice the member makes, which is exactly what it is.

How it is done

Two ways to do it: give your bishop a signed letter, or send it through a service such as QuitMormon.com. This page describes both, with dates, and does not recommend either. The Church could change its rules at any time, so check the current wording before you act.

Route 1: a signed letter to your bishop

The Handbook section that covers this is 32.14.9. The steps below follow it.

Decide it is what you wantNo one else has to agree. People take years over this step and that is normal.

Put it in writing and sign itThe Handbook says the member “gives the bishop a written, signed request.” Ex-Mormon guides such as wasmormon.org suggest including your full name, date of birth, address and membership number, and saying clearly that you want your name removed. Keep a copy.

It is handled by your local leadersThe Handbook says the bishop passes the request to the stake president through the Church’s records system, and that the stake president “then reviews and submits the request through that system.” It adds, “Leaders should act on requests promptly.” The sentence before this in the Handbook begins “If the member still wants to resign,” so there may be a conversation first. Read the section on the Church’s site for the exact wording.

Ask for written confirmationAsk the Church to confirm the removal in writing. Reports differ on whether you will get a personal letter, so note the date you sent your request and keep your copy.

Route 2: send it through QuitMormon.com

QuitMormon.com is a free service started by Mark Naugle, a Utah immigration attorney, who began by offering resignation letters on Reddit. The Salt Lake Tribune reported in August 2019 that he had sent more than 40,000 letters to the Church since late 2015. The service describes the process this way: you enter information about each person who wants to resign, sign online, and its system submits the resignation to Church headquarters. It is not run by the Church, and you can resign without it.

In August 2019 the Church began requiring that resignations sent through QuitMormon include a notarized letter (Salt Lake Tribune, Aug 4, 2019). The Church’s attorney, Daniel McConkie, said: “In other cases, signatures have been forged and the names of minors have been fraudulently removed without the knowledge and authorization of parents/legal guardians.”

That concern shows up in how the service handles children. Naugle said on the Mormon Stories podcast in April 2021: “Our form actually provides a signature for both parents. So they’ve decided that they’ll only honor both parents signing if the child’s under 18.”

What the Handbook does and does not say The Handbook sentences on resigning are short (quoted below). They do not give a processing time, describe a confirmation letter, or say how a child under 18 is handled. The details above come from news reporting and from the people who run the outside service, with their dates, so check them before you rely on them.

What we could not confirm We could not confirm from a Church source how long a request takes, what a confirmation letter says, whether a letter handed to a bishop must be notarized, or what the Handbook says about a person under 18. We also could not confirm whether resigning changes anything beyond the membership record. Ask in writing if it matters to you.

The record in the Handbook

Exhibit A

General Handbook, section 32.14.9, as quoted by a Church Tech Forum moderator

Quoted Jan 5, 2022; current text may differ.

“If the member still wants to resign Church membership, he or she gives the bishop a written, signed request. The bishop submits the request to the stake president through LCR. The stake president then reviews and submits the request through that system. Leaders should act on requests promptly.” (LCR is the Church’s records system.)

What it establishes: The sentences are short and procedural: a signed request, a bishop, a stake president, and a reminder to act promptly.

Church Tech Forum post quoting 32.14.9

Exhibit B

General Handbook, section 33.6, “Membership Records”

Current Handbook

Membership records include “members’ names, contact information, ordinance details, and other vital information.” Members can view their own record, and their young children’s, in the Member Tools app.

What it establishes: The Church makes the record. You can ask to close it.

General Handbook chapter 33

What changes on paper, and what does not

	After you resign	Why
Your membership record	Your request asks the Church to remove it.	Handbook 32.14.9.
Your own temple blessings	Withdrawn, if you were sealed in a temple.	Handbook 38.4.1.11, quoted above.
Your spouse and children’s sealing blessings	Stay in effect for them if they remain faithful.	Handbook 38.4.1.11, quoted above.
Coming back later	Possible, by baptism and confirmation.	Handbook 38.2.8.5, quoted above.
Your legal marriage	Unchanged. A civil marriage is recorded by the state, not by the Church.	Your temple sealing is covered in the rows above.
Your family	They are still your family. Their memberships are theirs.	Resigning changes only your own record.

What is true on the other side

A faithful Latter-day Saint hears this differently. To a believer, the covenants you made at baptism and in the temple are the most important promises of your life, and a formal request to cancel them is not clerical. The Handbook’s words, “temple blessings are also withdrawn,” show how seriously the Church takes it. That is why a spouse or a parent may grieve when they hear. The loss they picture is real to them, because it is the future they were promised.

How a believer hears it

A serious step with lasting spiritual consequences.
A door the Church says stays open: readmission by baptism and confirmation.

In plain terms: what the record can and cannot do

It can close your name on a list.
It cannot decide whether any of the Church’s claims are true.
It does not decide what you believe or who your family is.

The Church’s own response, from spokesman Daniel Woodruff to the Salt Lake Tribune in August 2019, was: “Each makes their own decisions about their participation and church membership. Regardless of their choice, we love them and wish them well and hope they will find the support and answers they seek.”

Both of those columns are true at once. Nobody has to pretend the first one is small to say the second is also real. For help living alongside people who see this differently, read A Marriage Across the Divide.

The common rebuttals

“If you no longer believe, why bother with paperwork? Just stop going.”

Many people do exactly that, and nothing on this page says they should do otherwise. The reason some choose paperwork is simple: the record exists, it carries their name, and it is counted. Closing it is a way of saying the count does not include them. The Handbook provides the process for that reason. It is a normal use of the process, not a protest.

“Resigning cuts you off from God and your family forever.”

The Church’s own Handbook is more careful than that sentence. It says the resigning person’s own temple blessings are withdrawn, it says a spouse and children’s blessings remain in effect if they remain faithful, and it says a person who resigns may be readmitted by baptism and confirmation. A later section is even titled “Church Activity, Ordination, and Restoration of Blessings after Readmission” (32.17). Whatever one believes about eternity, the Handbook does not describe a permanent exile. It describes a status that can change.

“They will put you through a Church court first.”

Church membership councils are in a different part of chapter 32 and deal with serious sins. The resignation section is in 32.14, “Reports and Membership Records.” Its sentences describe a signed request passed from the bishop to the stake president. A Church spokesman told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2019 that “no ecclesiastical proceeding is required.” If you want to be sure, read 32.14.9 on the Church’s site.

If you are financially dependent, wait If losing your family’s support would cost you housing or school, the request can wait and this page will still be here. The same warning applies on the homeschooling page.

Whether you ever do this is up to you.

You can ask next week, in ten years, or never.

What this means

The Handbook lets a member ask, in a signed letter, to have their name removed from the Church’s membership records. It says what happens to your own temple blessings and what does not happen to your spouse’s and children’s. And it says the way back stays open.

Whether you ever ask is yours alone.

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