NARRATIVES OF RETURN : Faith is Not Blind

Narratives of Return

These are the stories of reconversion – narratives about rekindled hope, the rebirth of faith, and the rediscovery of testimony. We can’t wait to share them with you.

After collecting a sample of 50 Reconversion Narratives, we analyzed them to discover both narrative and rhetorical patterns to see what we could learn from these stories.

We’re continually adding to this collection of stories, and we’d love to learn from your experience too. If you have a story about reconversion that you’d be willing to share with us please reach out using the form below or email faithisnotblindstories@gmail.com

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Narrative Analysis

One analytic approach we took was simply identifying patterns across the various stories. That meant learning from both commonalities and differences in terms of not only what “happened,” but also in how people narrated and “made sense” of the situations in unique and similar ways.

Narrating Departure: Understanding the Exodus

How do people narrate and make sense of their prior departure from the Church, especially now that they are back in full activity again? Leaving something or someone you love (or used to love) is, by nature, intense, dramatic, emotional, sensitive, personal, heart-wrenching. Just ask any...

Disrupting the Narrative: Momentum-Shifting Moments No One Anticipated

What is it that leads a narrative critical of the Church that people previously felt entrenched in, to become disrupted fundamentally? As illustrated in the previous section, it’s common for those stepping away from the Church of Jesus Christ to find themselves in a place of intensely negative...

On a New Track: Experiencing Fresh Waves of Insight and Rediscovery

After that critical narrative becomes unsettled in some way, how do people begin moving in a new direction of growing faith? When someone has experienced a profound moment of discovery – whether associated with a new insight, a miracle, or a profound sense of being loved – it’s perhaps only...

A Whole New Feeling: Relief and Rewards

How are we to make sense of the dramatic moments that punctuate the more normal and expected growth in the journey of reconversion? Whereas many people experience a new unfolding of iterative learning, growth and experience following the initial narrative-disrupting moments discussed earlier, it...

Reconciling: Becoming One Again

What does it look and feel like to be reconciled--not only with fellow Saints, but also with God? “Be reconciled unto God through the Atonement of Christ” says Jacob of old. Reconciliation in so many dimensions is a huge part of the experience of those returning to Church. After experiencing...

Return Narrative Collection

Although much can be learned in looking across accounts, there’s nothing like hearing a full story someone shares. We’d encourage you to check out any of this growing collection of inspiring and moving reconversion accounts below. Come back regularly to see new stories we are gathering every week.

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Tami Havey

How a Flood Miraculously Brought an Anti-Mormon Back to the Church She Had Hated

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Dusty Smith

Trial of Faith: Why a Lawyer Abandoned His Mormon Faith, Argued Against It, and Returned to Defend It

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Sam Brown

From Atheism, to Disfellowship, and Back to God | How a Sacrament Prayer Changed Everything for Me

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Don Bradley

Don Bradley is a writer, editor, and researcher specializing in early Mormon history.

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Rhetorical Analysis

A second analytic approach we took examined in greater depth nuances in the rhetoric and specific language used across accounts. This involved investigating distinctive themes in not just what was being said - but how things were being said.

Language and the Choice to Believe

In many of our Reconversion Narratives there is a fascinating correlation between the narrator’s use of language and their perception about the Church, their faith, and themselves. This language and their accompanying way of viewing their relationship to faith can help us understand why...

Anxiety in Returning

The anxiety that surfaced repeatedly in the narratives was surprising, but we can learn a great deal from it, especially as we consider how much people who are returning to Church dearly want to feel accepted and loved . . . The feelings of confusion and even grief are absolutely vital to...

Conceptual Metaphors and Metonymies

The language we use, including our use of comparisons, reveals the truth of our experience and can become a guide to knowing how to better understand and help those who walk similar paths. In these narratives, the dominant comparisons highlight a pervasive sense of alienation from loved ones,...

Spiritual Accompaniment

The specific alignment (or misalignment) between someone’s spiritual state and the actions of people around them plays, in many cases, a critical role in their decisions to leave and also return. The most effective examples of supportive ministry come from those who see their role to accompany...

Reconciling Public and Private Religious Practice

The narratives we reviewed most often begin with some kind of misalignment between an individual's private religious feelings and public religious practices or beliefs. At the end of the narratives, a deeper private relationship with Christ and Heavenly Father virtually always precedes a...

Possibility and Permission

Once our narrators worked through anxiety and appreciated that returning was a real possibility, the way they describe their next steps often indicates that they seemed to need a kind of implied “permission” from an external source to come back. by Sarah d'Evegnée POSSIBILITY: In conjunction with...

Share Your Story

Have you had a personal experience in which you grappled with spiritual questions and found greater peace or understanding? Do you or someone you know have a story of returning to faith after a period of estrangement?

We’d love to hear your story.

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