The ID Letter is my answer to the CES Letter. I ran into the doctrinal and historical issues of the LDS church back in the 90’s and stopped attending about 10 years ago (2015). I searched for years to find a spiritual path within Christianity that I felt comfortable with.
After much searching I stumbled upon the book “The Perennial Philosophy” by Huxley, and recognized truth in it!
Jeremy Runnell did an excellent job with his CES Letter, but like all of the disclosure stuff it basically showed one out the door of the church on a winter day with nowhere to go. This isn’t his fault, it’s just the nature of things.
People leave the church for many reasons, and for a lot of those reasons the person can usually find another church that fills his or her needs.
But when we leave the church over a truth crisis we feel betrayed and it’s harder to trust another institution.
We want the truth. We want to find connection to the Divine in a real way.
I struggled, trying to find this in an institution for years, but never found the truth in an institution.
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It’s really weird how things happen. On Halloween night of 2025 I went over to my sons house to go trick or treating with my grandchildren. They scampered off of course, leaving the adults behind. I wound up talking with an acquaintance of my daughter-in-law from a different ward. After the initial small talk I asked the person’s occupation.
Institute Director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!
What in the world? We got into a conversation about issues facing the church, including several of the CES Letter items.
I also mentioned some of what I’d been studying, but by that time our long conversation had run out of time. We said something like it would be nice to get together and continue the conversation, etc.
I wanted to say more about my spiritual path. I’d previously been taking some notes out of books and decided to formalize my thoughts by writing a letter to the Institute Director.
I had a hard time finishing the letter, and kept adding to it week after week until finally in the Spring of 2026 I had it finished, whew!
At this writing I haven’t received a response from the Institute Director.
You’ll find in this letter what I believe to be the spiritual fundamentals upon which all religions are built.
So, my answer to the CES Letter as expressed in the ID Letter is one of hope, that there is a path for Mormons who have left, and deeper understandings for those who have not left.
In no way am I advocating leaving the LDS Church, most should stay.
I’m not an authority by any means, but I do lots of searching and verifying. I wish you the best on YOUR search for truth.
The ID Letter is available as a PDF on this site. Please feel free to look it over and comment.