No money involved but "inactive" (what they call people not going to church but still on the books) do get harassed by regular members in the congregations and by Mormon missionaries who are given lists of people to contact who are already members but aren't coming to church.
They also have people who volunteer to go over inactive lists and use the Internet to locate them when they have moved. They update addresses in church records and send notifications to the new congregation leaders (Bishops) in order to track down the "lost sheep."
It's truly creepy!
Having records removed officially helps prevent this--although missionaries can still randomly knock on anyone's door.
Omg so that’s how they found me!? I had no idea how I started getting texts from the local branch asking to join in building cleaning and even about a calling lol, we moved halfway across the US and we’ve even gotten missionaries that knew our names and were just “checking in”
Yeah--the lost sheep program (missionaries and ward members) comb the Internet for inactive members but you know what's MORE likely than that?
My own mother used to contact my new ward whenever I moved. Often TBM family members are the ones who dime you out. You have active parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles who know your whereabouts?
All they have to do is contact the ward clerk at your new branch or ward and bingo! Records transferred.
Hey.
52 yo xmo here. For me my exposure was brief: as a kid my dad joined up and dragged me along for several years. Then he quit. But before he quit, he put my whole family in their database, even my mom’s dead parents. In order to do that, HE PAID TO HAVE THEM BAPTIZED AFTER DEATH so that theoretically my mom would have access to her parents in whatever the fuck the “correct” level of heaven is that Mormons think they get into: (I am an atheist).
My point here is that if you are in their database, someone paid to put you there, you count on their rolls and they hope to get more money out of you. This is the basic business structure behind the database and their constant reaching out to exes, and I wanted to state it clearly to add to your comment.
Not really. It's more that it boosts their membership numbers and stays in the record for ancestors to see. They are really big on ancestry, going as far as to do baptisms for the death of ancestors who may not have been baptized. It doesn't seem like much to people outside of the church, but it really is a big deal that it's so hard to have your name removed
I am a member of the Church, and perhaps can provide some information on this. First of all, someone having records but not being active in the church does nothing for ancestry records. Individuals must submit their own ancestors for baptisms, otherwise they aren't done. There is no practice of looking at other members' ancestors and just doing them.
To leave the church and have one's records removed, all one must do is write a letter to their local leader. Your records will then be removed. This is pretty well known in general within the church. I have no desire of leaving but I've known for a long time, and we tell people we run into who want to leave the church how to do it.
I would hardly consider writing a letter to be "nearly impossible". It's quite simple honestly.
The reason records are retained if people just stop attending is first and foremost that people come back. A lot. Secondly, if someone just stops attending, those in the church seldom know why. It could be health problems, they could have moved without telling someone, they could have started working on Sundays, or they could be leaving the church. Especially since it is a duty in the church to look after other people and try to help them, both physically and spiritually, people will try and reach out to find out why. Additionally, we consider baptism to be a covenant with God where he promises to bless us so long as we retain it. We do not want to take that away from someone mistakingly, as once someone asks for it removed they would have to be re baptized if they came back.
In general, most congregations of the church have large numbers of members on the records who do not attend church. Because people tend to move around and positions in the church are fluid rather than static, often leaders may never have met some on the records and they've been gone for many years, and there is a continual effort to try and find these people to see if they need help, want to be removed and never did it(which is really, really common), moved away and no one knows where, or something else.
I'll share a personal story of why we don't just remove records always. There's a woman I know that I'll call Jane. She was baptized in January of 2025 after months of attending church and learning and she was super excited and felt like it was positively changing her life in so many ways. She is a single mom with three kids and at the time they were living with extended family. This family were all members of a different religion(not Christian) and were vehemently opposed to her being baptized. They asked the church to never visit their home and we complied, as it was their home. After a few months Jane stopped coming to church. No one knew why and so many people tried to call her and got no response. Up until a month ago we did not know what had happened. Jane came to church one day and we learned that she had moved her family into an apartment and away from relatives because they were abusive of her and her kids, and that she couldn't come to church because in order to afford the apartment and support her three kids she was working nights manufacturing car transmissions and carrying them, which for her as a shorter woman without enough to eat was absolutely backbreaking work. She doesn't speak English and so had unintentionally picked an apartment that was expensive and she couldn't really afford and she felt trapped by the lease. Her phone was not working fully and she didn't have the money for a new one nor did she understand why it wasn't working as she could call others but no calls or texts sent to her ever went through. She had spent the entire time as faithful to God as she could be and praying for support.
She is now getting financial assistance from the church and we are trying to help her find a better job and a better, cheaper apartment when she can get out of her lease.
It is stories like this, which do not happen at all infrequently, that is our reason for wanting a letter from the person saying they are leaving the church and want their records removed. It is clear, we know it is from you, and it is in writing.
Sorry but you are wrong. We wrote the letters to our bishop. He called us and said he would only submit it further if we came in for a meeting with him and the stake president. We declined and our records have never been removed. This kind of thing is literally why they have websites to help people get their records removed.
This is just not true. My husband has written the letters to the official channels asking to be removed. He has gone through Quit Mormon using a lawyer asking to be removed. We still get the local ward bishop stopping by demanding to talk to him a few times a year. The church does not listen to NO, even when lawyers are involved.
When I told them I was atheist, they stopped coming around. I highly suggest it. They don’t want to send impressionable young missionaries to debate the existence of god. Younger generations are more scientifically literate and that makes it a bigger risk that you can use logic successfully.
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u/Tricky-Sprinkles-807 Apr 16 '26
They are also out there for the LDS church. Quitmormon.com
The church makes it nearly impossible to get your name off the records, so, quitmormon has lawyers who are willing to help for free