1 ."0.1.Well, it is a very good church and teaches a lot of very good things. I just no longer happen to believe that itis started the way they say.
I could write for days on this subject, but to answery your specific question, as to why I left Mormonism: A few years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine, who was also Mormon (LDS). At the time, I was a Ward Mission Leader, which meant I was in charge of missionary work in our neighborhood. This friend told me something about the founder (and First "Prophet") Joseph Smith that sounded terrible. I thought, "This friend of mine is either badly mistaken, or he is a liar." So I investigated this terrible thing that my friend had said about Joseph Smith, to prove my friend wrong. When I read the church-approved history books, it seemed to show that I was right and my friend was wrong, so I told him so.

He told me, "No, you have to look deeper than THOSE history books and into actual Church documents and archives. Which is something that hardly anybody really ever does. So I took his advice, and dug into actual documents and archive papers of the church. I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I read, right there in official (but not public) Mormon history, that my friend was, without question, telling me the truth.
I felt sick,because it was just the opposite of what I had always thought to be true, and just the opposite of what Mormon-approved history books said. I asked myself, "What ELSE in these Mormon history books has been changed from the true story?" So I started digging, and I found that, virtually, EVERYTHING in "official" Mormon history is not true (in other words, contradicted by actual historical documents, contemporary journals etc.).
Like a house of cards, everything, from the Book of Mormon to the Pearl of Great Price, to the true history of polygamy (plural marriage) fell apart.

None of this, of course, will help with a Mormon who is not ready to REALLY study. They are programmed to say "I KNOW the Church is TRUE..." etc. Logic has a real hard time overcoming emotion.

G.