You are not alone, and you are not broken
Support for leaving, questioning, or staying in the Mormon Church. A faith crisis is survivable.
If your belief in the LDS Church is cracking, or has already gone, this site is for you. Guides for every stage of leaving the Mormon Church or making peace with staying, written by a psychology Ph.D., a coach and a therapist who have walked thousands of Latter-day Saints through exactly this. Free.
🧭 Not sure where to start? Answer five questions 🗺 See the map of stages
Find your situation
Every path has plain-English guides, the best resources we know, and real stories from people who have been there.
Mormon Stories episodes that help most
All 20 picks, and stories by situation →Two thousand episodes is too many. These are the ones we send people to first.
Ten Things NOT To Do In Your Faith Deconstruction w/ Britt Hartley | Ep. 2011
Britt Hartley's list of the mistakes almost everyone makes in the first months. Watch this one first.
Ten Things TO DO In Your Faith Deconstruction w/ Britt Hartley | Ep. 2013
The companion list: what actually helps.
332: Navigating a Mormon Faith Transition
John's original overview of the whole arc, recorded in 2012 and still the map most people are handed.
How to Leave the Mormon Church – Alyssa Grenfell | Ep. 1850-1851
Alyssa Grenfell and John on the book: deciding, telling people, protecting your mental health, the first coffee.
Relief Society President Stays Active after Losing Mormon Faith (PIMO) – Shannon Lamb | Ep. 1894
A Relief Society president who no longer believes and still attends. What that life is like.
Navigating a Marriage When One Loses Their LDS Testimony | Ep. 182-185
Four hours on the mixed-faith marriage, from both sides. Still the fullest treatment we have.
Our Adult Mormon Daughter Lost Her Faith! w/ Neal & Christa Rackleff | Ep. 2018
Believing parents on what it was like when their adult daughter left, and how they kept her.
Overcoming Religious Shame and Scrupulosity – Marc Oslund | Ep. 1598
Religious OCD and the shame underneath it, with someone who treats it.
Healing & Joy Beyond Mormonism – David Bokovoy Pt. 4 | Ep. 1878
A former BYU religion scholar on healing and joy on the other side.
The podcast
The Gift of the Mormon Faith Crisis
74 episodes with John Dehlin, Margi Dehlin and Natasha Helfer: the deconversion process, grief, telling your family, marriage, parenting, sexuality, and rebuilding a life. Recorded 2018–2019, with full searchable transcripts for 21 of the recordings.
The directory
167 resources, each one chosen
Books, podcasts, videos, films, websites, communities and people, with a one-line note on why each one matters and which side of the question it comes from. Filter by topic.
Tools
Scripts and letters
What to say to your spouse, your children, your parents, your bishop and your ward, with copy buttons. Starting points, not formulas.
Data
What the research says
Why people actually leave, who they tell, and what it costs, from our 2012 survey of 3,086 former believers and the Church's own 2013 study.
Why this site exists
Every year, tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints discover something about Church history or doctrine that they cannot un-know, and find that the people around them have no idea what to do with that. The result is usually silence, fear, and a lot of unnecessary damage to marriages, families and mental health.
We started answering this in 2005 with Mormon Stories, in 2016 with Mormon Transitions, and in 2018 with The Gift of the Mormon Faith Crisis podcast. This site gathers all of it into one place, adds what we have learned since, and organises it around the question that matters: what is happening to you, and what would help right now?
Keep it free
Support this work
The Open Stories Foundation is funded by people like you, not by ads or the Church.
Something missing?
Tell us
A resource we should list, a broken link, a story we should hear. Contact us.