The information age is hurting them in the recruitment area and not doing much for retention either.
PR can only do so much when the product is faulty to begin with.
They are getting nervous, defensive.
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They are. Several years ago there was a ‘new order Mormon’ (one who is a member but no longer believes) who worked in the Name Removal office. He posted the name removal requests for several years in the 1990’s on exmormon.org, iirc.
The year I left there were 1200 name removal requests. The last year he posted the number had jumped to 200,000.
the difference? The rise of the internet and the publication of the name removal process.