Update: Mormon blogger, facing excommunication, resigns from church

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Rather than wait for possible excommunication, Mormon blogger David Twede has resigned his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Twede – who was accused of apostasy for writing critical online essays about Mormon history, temple worship and contemporary issues – took the action during an "open mic session" Friday (Oct. 19) at the Exmormon Foundation's annual conference in Salt Lake City.

"While I've been in serious doubt about the veracity of LDS claims for some time, I had become so disillusioned with how my situation was handled," Twede wrote Monday in an email, "that I just wanted to be free."

Twede is managing editor of MormonThink.com, where most of his critical pieces, including ones about GOP presidential nominee and fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, have appeared.

On Sept. 16, Mormon officials in Orlando, Fla., summoned him to a church disciplinary council for "apostasy," which they attributed to his writings.

The Florida blogger initially said the threatened church action was due to his Romney remarks. Later, Twede told The Salt Lake Tribune his church leaders never brought up the candidate in their exchange with him. The next day, Twede returned to "a feeling in (his) gut" that his Romney comments had triggered the now-delayed disciplinary council.

By the end of September, the disciplinary council had been postponed indefinitely.

The LDS church declined to comment on Twede's situation, spokesman Scott Trotter said, but added that "church leaders are always saddened when an individual, whether through his or her actions or personal choices, decides to leave the church." —The Salt Lake Tribune