The church is also losing members,

both to increased numbers of formal resignations and to member disillusionment

and inactivity, none of which is reflected in their official numbers.

Recent pronouncements by church authorities deplore the large numbers

"falling away."

Missions are being closed in

Europe because of lack of success. The number of converts who remain active

members after one year is less than half, and only a quarter in some areas.

A major cause is probably that

the standard missionary procedure is to baptize as quickly as possible,

before the convert has a chance to think or investigate thoroughly. Many

converts from other Christian denominations are quite surprised, for example,

to find after their conversion that Mormon doctrine resembles very little

of the Christianity they were familiar with.

The press at the Olympics was

not nearly as uniformly enthusiastic about Mormonism and the Mormons as

your article implies. Many articles in the international press exposed

a side of Mormonism that the Mormons did not want to the world to see.

And some of these articles were retracted when vocal Mormons objected

to them.

Such is the influence of Mormon

power on the free expression of ideas. (A long Mormon tradition: Joseph

Smith, its founding "prophet," died as a direct result of his

destroying a newspaper press which dared to criticize him.)

To get a taste of the other

side of Mormonism, I suggest that you talk to those whose experience was

not as wonderful as those whom you interviewed (apparently you interviewed

only active members of the church). You will find a great deal of such

information on the Internet, particularly at www.exmormon.org (over 150

former Mormons talk about why they left the church), or at www.ExmormonFoundation.org

(the official website of The Exmormon Foundation, with special links to

contacts for the media).

There are two sides to every

questions, of course. I hope that you will follow up with an article on

Mormonism showing the other side.

Richard Packham (Former Mormon)

President, The Exmormon

Foundation