A group of Utah activists is seeking information from former Mormons about any harassment or difficulties they encountered when getting their names removed from the membership rolls of the Mormon (LDS) church. The group is planning to sue the church for harassment based on varied difficulties that members have encountered after requesting that the church remove their names from the records.

Kathy Worthington, the contact person for the lawsuit, recently obtained and released documents that proved that the Mormon church had begun a well-orchestrated campaign to raise funds for the Knight Initiative in California. Until Worthington revealed the evidence, church representatives had been denying that any organized fundraising was being done. The action to remove their names from the church records is in response to this and other unethical actions the church has taken.

There have been at least two court cases about a member's right to resign from a church. Competent legal counsel will tell you that every person has a right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to unilaterally terminate memberships from churches. This right was confirmed in the case of Guinn v. The Church of Christ of Collinsville (1989) 775 P.2d 766, a case which followed the Montana case of Davis v. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Kathy Worthington has received several messages from people who've written letters asking that their names be removed from the records of "the church" and have encountered difficulties. It seems the leaders of the church are less than willing to cooperate with people who wish to leave without hassels.

Kathy shares a few of the stories:

A woman in Kentucy notified me that her letter was returned to her, indicating that she needed to write to her local bishop.

Several young men in the Salt Lake area were told they had to meet with their local bishop. Not knowing they didn't have to do that, they met with him and he tried to get them to admit to transgressions so that he could excommunicate them rather than just remove their names as they'd requested. Failing to do that, he told them they had to write new letters, addressed to him, in order to get their names removed from the records.

A woman in the Salt Lake area said she got an unwelcome drop-in visit from her bishop.

Another letter writer in the SLC area said there was a message on his machine Tuesday from his bishop, and that the bishop called again yesterday (Wednesday) morning and spoke to the letter-writer's wife, who "let the bishop have it."

So Kathy is meeting with lawyers to discuss a possible lawsuit for harassment, "and whatever else we feel the need for." She hopes this would work as a class action lawsuit to protect individuals who in the future want to get their names off the membership rolls of the church.

Kathy has created "a new sample letter which can almost guarantee that your resignation will be taken care of quickly and without hassles, thanks to the legal assistance of Nadine H."

Additional information may be obtained by writing Kathy at:

Email: KathyWUT@aol.com

Kathy Worthington
3262 Oakeson Circle
Taylorsville UT 84118-3040

Phone: 801-963-7922

Instructions from Kathy:

1) Let me know if you are going to write a letter of resignation to the church so I can put you on my list. That way if anything happens that you need to know about, I can contact you.

2) Read these instructions and then write your letter. Feel free to use the sample letter below exactly as is or rewrite it or add to it in any way you care to. Print it out.

3) Take your letter to a public notary to get it notarized. Don't sign the letter until you are with the notary. The notary does NOT need to read the letter, so stop them if they appear to be reading it and you don't want them to. They should ABSOLUTELY NOT share it's contents with anyone else. The notary usually needs to note what kind of a document it is. "Letter to the LDS church" is all they need.

4) PLEASE send me a photocopy of your notarized letter(s). . . send the original to the Member Records department at Church headquarters in SLC. If I have a photocopy of your letter, I can go to bat for you with the church if the attempt to delay complying with your resignation or if they attempt to hassle you about it. (not that they should, especially with the latest version of the letter)

5) MAIL the original. I strongly urge you to send the letter certified mail with return receipt so the church can't claim they never got it and you'll have a record of when your resignation was effective. It will cost you over $2 to mail it, but it's worth it.

On one side of the return receipt, you put YOUR name and address. Be sure to do that, and print it CLEARLY or it won't come back to you. (can you tell I sort mail for the Post office?) There are a bunch of boxes on the other side of the return receipt. A church representative will stamp the receipt or they will sign and date on that side when they receive the letter. One of boxes is where you put the address the certified letter is addressed to. There is a place for you to put the Certified number too. In the "to" box, I recommend you write:

Letter of resignation
Member Records
LDS CHURCH
50 E North Temple
SLC UT 84150

Thanks again for being a part of this effort. Please write to me if you have any questions or comments.

SAMPLE LETTER

Date

CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS
LDS CHURCH OFFICES
50 E NORTH TEMPLE
SLC UT 84150

RE: Resignation from the Church

Your full name and address
and your date of birth

This letter is my formal and legal resignation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Because I am no longer a member, your church has no right to retain my name on your membership rolls.

Because I am no longer a member of the church, I am no longer subject to church discipline. You have no right to take any form of disciplinary action, including but not limited to, convening a church court or discussing my resignation or any other facts about me with others. I shall consider any such actions or communications to be attempts to defame my good name, and I will not hesitate to enforce my legal rights in a court of law.

I do not wish to be contacted regarding this matter, except to receive a letter from the church notifying me that my name has been removed from its records at my request. I shall consider any other contact to be harassment and an infringement of my legal rights. Any contact with anyone else about this matter, including my family members or friends, will be considered attempts to defame my good name.

ADD HERE YOUR REASONS FOR DOING THIS, IF YOU LIKE.

Sincerely,

Your signature
Your name, printed