I'm so touched. The past two days were amazing. The outpouring of kindness and generosity from both friends and strangers is something I will never forget.
I needed the last two days - especially after the very long past few years. I'm working on thanking each one of you individually who have donated. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
I saw some common questions and themes across the boards and Facebook so I wanted to take the opportunity to answer them here.
Absolutely. I'm currently in the process of moving into a 501(c) non-profit. A requirement of a 501(c) non-profit is to publicly provide an annual Income Statement showing both revenues and expenses. I will do so and will share publicly.
It will be. As mentioned above, I'm currently in the process of moving into a 501(c) non-profit. Please don't let this stop you from giving what you can as time is of the essence and anything helps.
When I say "full-time," I'm saying that instead of working under the weight of two full-time jobs like I have been the past few years, I'm willing to work full-time on just the CES Letter project - if there's enough monthly support - until I have completed all of the needed tasks to get the CES Letter project where it needs to be.
After the CES Letter project is where it needs to be and it's in excellent shape? And it no longer requires my full-time attention? I will move on with my life and career.
I'm not interested in doing this full-time for the rest of my life. I'm not interested in being a "professional ex Mormon".
Path A draws the line with the CES letter project now while leaving the project unfinished and incomplete.
Path B is working full-time on the CES Letter project until its tasks are complete and the project is in great shape. Then I'll move on with my life and career while occasionally maintaining the project after the grunt work is done.
Paypal works best for me but for those who prefer something other than Paypal:
Why would it? This idea that some people who provide value and quality information/services which benefit others must not receive anything monetary in exchange for their time, energy and efforts is quite an asinine idea.
The fact is that all of my work with the CES Letter project has been and will continue to be free for everyone. The fact is that I have given of myself freely the last few years. Whether people wanted to give me taco money or not made no difference in their being able to access all of the information. It still doesn't as this information will continue to be free.
However, the situation has changed in my own life to where I can no longer keep giving of myself freely at the expense of the well-being of myself and my family. There are still many things that need to be done for the CES Letter project but I am unable to continue to work on these tasks burning the midnight oil and weekends like I have been doing the past few years. This is why I wrote CES Letter at the Crossroads: to ask if others see value in my work enough to help me create a healthier sustainable arrangement and environment for me to be able to complete the necessary tasks to get the CES Letter project where it needs to be.
Asking for donations is no different than what others on both sides are doing. FairMormon asks for donations. Daniel C. Peterson's Mormon Interpreter asks for donations. Neal A. Maxwell Institute asks for donations. Ditto for Mormon Expression, Mormon Stories, MormonThink and others. They are all providing value for their audiences (yes, even FairMormon to a certain point).
If someone is not willing to read the CES Letter because its author is asking for help after years of generously giving away his time, energy and over 1,000 pages of high quality content for free? Help to complete additionally important, necessary and very time-consuming tasks? Well, you'd have to ask if anything will at this point in their journey.
It's easier said than done. It's still a lot of work even with help as you're still dealing with, delegating and working with human volunteers, who despite great intentions and good will, often end up not completing tasks or projects because life happens or they're just over Mormonism. I've been lucky to find a few gems of individuals who have been consistent and amazing but they're very busy professionals offering their time and services on the midnight oil and weekends as well.
Folks often do not realize how much work is truly involved. "Oh, I can translate the letter this week." They quickly find out that translating an 83 page document requires commitment and dedication. Some of these folks are still working on translations after many months. This same concept applies to other areas as well.
I've learned from experience that the way things are going to get done quickly without compromising high standards, in terms of quality and consistency, is to do most of the work myself. I delegate what I can but I've learned from experience that assigning many different tasks to different individuals creates inconsistent results that do not match my voice and vision or the quality that people have come to expect from the CES Letter project.
Unlike other organizations (FairMormon, MormonThink, etc.), the CES Letter is tied very publicly to me as an individual. It's part of my name and story. What goes out on the website is my responsibility alone. It all reflects back on me as an individual. I simply cannot outsource Jeremy.
Mormon apologists with lots of time on their hands are always looking for something to attack me with in their rabid obsession of trying to discredit me and the CES Letter. Guess who has to deal with responding to their attacks on content on my website, even if someone else wrote it? Me. It's my problem after the volunteer says "whoops, my bad" and takes off. This just creates more hassle and stress.
By mostly or completely outsourcing everything to others, I risk killing the voice and style that resonates with others and which makes the CES Letter project what it is today.
I'm not making major or even moderate changes to the CES Letter. I'm looking to make minor changes to the tone and some wording that I've been thinking of making for some time. This includes removing the "Why I Lost My Testimony" subtitle, which was added later and was not included in the letter to the CES Director.
I will list the exact changes I have made for everyone's reference.
In my Mormon Stories interview, I stated that I see the CES Letter as a "living document." An example of this is that the Church's new essays (www.mormonessays.com) didn't exist when I wrote the CES Letter.
Adding in the essays was critically important as the CES Letter wouldn't be as effective without the references to the Church's essays in it.
There has been new information which surfaced after I wrote the CES Letter (Late War, First Napoleon, etc.) that I felt needed to be put into the letter.
The updates I seek to make are minor tonal edits as well as providing resources at the end - for both staying and leaving - for folks to go to after they're finished reading the letter.
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Born and raised in Southern California, Jeremy is a seventh generation Mormon of Pioneer heritage who reached every Mormon youth milestone. An Eagle Scout, Returned Missionary, BYU alumnus, Jeremy was married in the San Diego Temple with expectations and plans of living Mormonism for the rest of his life.
In February 2012, Jeremy experienced an awakening to the LDS Church's truth crisis, which subsequently led to a faith transition that summer. In the spring of 2013, Jeremy was approached and asked by a CES Director to share his questions and concerns about the LDS Church's origins, history, and current practices. In response, Jeremy wrote what later became publicly known as the CES Letter (originally titled Letter to a CES Director).
The CES Director responded that he read the "very well written" letter and that he would provide Jeremy with a response. No response ever came.
“I believe that members and investigators deserve to have all of the facts and information on the table...to be able to make a fully-informed and balanced decision as to whether or not they want to commit their hearts, minds, time, talents, income and lives to Mormonism. Anything less is an obstruction to the free agency of the individual.”
- Jeremy Runnells
