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svcw, you are clearly emotionally involved and upset over this (obviously) and probably justafiably so. A such some times you make some very wide ranging and generalized statements, IMHO.

You may have had experiences since 1962...but it has been with a relative few members of the church with whom you have these issues, and then with other discontent folks who also have had bad experiences...and that’s most of your world as regards the LDS Church. So the experiences you have had, and the experiences I have had naturally are with completely different populations. I deal, for the most part, with active, engaged members who are glad they are there and wish to share their happiness with others. You deal with people who are upset at the church and have left it for those reasons. Outside of your own relatives and others who have wronged you, you probably do not deal with active, engaged, and content members of the Church very often.

I have been dealing with Wards and Branches and Stakes all over the country and around the world...and have not seen the types of negative things to the extent you have, though there are certainly, as I stated, some experiences. In my own role as a home teacher, in bishoprics, as a quorum president or leader, I have had to deal with people who were dissaffected for one reason or another, usally some member offended them for some reason or another...somtimes even unaware that ehy had done so. and I have been able to, with a lot of prayer and working with both sides, for the most part help them reconcile their differences. But not always.

But regarding “millions and millions” who have left the church. This is, IMHO, somewhat exagerated when there are only just over 14 million members altogether. Millions and millions implies quite a bit more than three or four million and I believe such a number is an exageration, though I certainly do not know an exact number.

No doubt there are many who have left, whatever that number is...as there are with any large denomination. But the church has continued to grow and retains far more than it looses throughout the time period. Otherwise it could not have grown from a couple or three million in 1970 to 14+ million today.

Anyhow, again, so very sorry for your difficult and untoward experiences, and I pray you and those who have treated you badly can reconcile and be caring and helpful to one another.

Jeff, mormonism is not a "large denomination". The 14 million claimed includes many who have been baptized and are not active, yet will be carried on the rolls until their age would be 110. It also includes many, many children who are baptized at the age of 8, when many Christian churches baptize at a much later age. There are at least 60 such "members" in my own extended family.

In the US, there are fewer than 2% of these "members" (remember, they are reported as such even if they haven't set foot in a mormon church for years.)

"Attendance at sacrament meeting varies substantially. Asia and Latin America have weekly attendance rates of about 25 percent, Europe averages about 35 percent" (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1527.)

"Canada, the South Pacific, and the United States average between 40 percent and 50 percent." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1527.)
"The percentage of adults in a temple marriage varies from about 45 percent in Utah to less than 2 percent in Mexico and Central America." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1531)

"For the U.S. as a whole, only 59% of baptized males ever receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. In the South Pacific, the figure drops to 35%; in Great Britain, 29%. In Mexico (with almost 850,000 members) the figure is 19%; and in Japan, only 17% of the male members ever make it past the Aaronic Priesthood. (Lowell C. Bennion and Lawrence Young, Dialogue, Spring 1996, p.19.)

LDS Membership Indicators

Generalized statements which IMO you are prone to make without sourcing to unbiased sources are sure to be challenged as "propaganda".

Well, Jeff what can I saw, yet again you discount what I have said.
Am I emotionally involved you betcha, I have seen my lds families destroyed, I have seen aunts and uncles weep, yet are terrified to leave.
The tipping point for me was when my cousin put a bullet in her brain because of how she was treated by her “god” “priest” husband, the bishop and stake president.
Your assumption I have experiences with relative few people, is a condescending statement.
I have had personal experiences over many states and hundreds of people since 1962.
I told you most of my lds family traces their beginning to JS and BY, this is not a small group in a tiny area of some mythical state. These people are in the hundreds over many states.
I have friends who are lds in many states and their experiences are what I am reporting to you .
I only have three cousins who have left (yes and they have been shunned, ignored berated by their lds family and former friends), the rest just dutifully follow the rules, hoping for their own planet/godhood, whatever.
Even my uncle who sings in the MTC, has little good to say about lds.
It is not as easy to leave lds, a person has to be willing to give up family, friends, home and harth, maybe a job.
I know of only one lds member who glowingly talks about mormonism and that is you.
You used the word “reconcile” what is there to reconcile? If I chose not to be lds or leave lds, I will be shunned, berated, ignored......a whole host of other things. It sounds almost as if your “counseling” is more of a ‘you better come back” sort of deal.
According to the lds articles of faith, I am free to beleive what I want (apparently only as long at it mormonism).
(As a side note lds is not growing, hence the many articles write by lds publications this year about shrinking membership)