Religious change terminology

Ryan Cragun has written an interesting dictionary for religious change (source).  Since this is embedded in a pdf here are the highlights broken out:

exiter any person who leaves a religion

• disaffiliate a person who leaves a religion by formally requesting their name be removed from the membership roles of the religion
• disidentifier a person who leaves a religion by no longer self-identifying as a member of the religion
• apostate a person who leaves a religion and then fights against that religion
• deserter a person who leaves a religion with no intention of returning

switcher a person who leaves a religion and joins another religion

• within family switcher someone who leaves a religion and joins a religion that belongs to the same broad religious family (e.g., Methodist to Baptist)
• between family switcher a person who leaves a religion and joins a religion that belongs to a different broad religious family (e.g., Catholic to Buddhist)
• taster a person who repetitively joins and leaves religions
• defector a person who leaves a religion with the intent of joining a rival group

convert anyone who experiences a change in religious identity

• deconvert a person who leaves a religion

none a person who does not associate with a religion

• re-none a person who leaves a religion and becomes a religious none
• native none a person raised without a religious identity who has not joined a religion
• religious independent a person with no religious affiliation
• dropout a person who leaves a religion and becomes a religious none
• unchurched a person raised without a religious affiliation who has never joined one

identifier a person who self-identifies as being associated with an organized religion

• affiliate a person who claims formal membership status in an organized religion
• stayer a person who was raised with a religious affiliation and remains religiously affiliated later in life, regardless of any changes in affiliation.
• loyalist a person raised with a specific religious affiliation who maintains that affiliation later in life. 

It gets better and Mormonism

In dealing with the very high rates of homosexual suicide there is a movement called "It gets better" aimed at convincing kids not to take drastic action.  Generally the videos are aimed at middle to high school aged students.  This is a similar video aimed at BYU students.



 In 2007 BYU stopped expelling gay students and in 2010 they allowed the creation of a gay alliance movement on campus.  The results are, as is obvious from this video, obviously positive.  This is keeping with the broader direction of the church.  In 1998 many officials within the LDS church stopped using "so called gays and lesbians" effectively denying the existence of homosexuals. It appears that more officially the last few years the church has shifted position and no longer considers the homosexual inclination to be a result of sinful behavior, nor even sinful.  

They still encourage people with same sex attraction to enter into heterosexual marriages, with no acknowledgement of how devastating that can be for both parties.  They still, officially and culturally blame homosexuals for homophobia because of their political activities which to me is reminiscent of anti-Semites blaming anti-Semitism on Jewish obnoxiousness.   They support Evergreen International, a "pray away the gay" scam.

So certainly the LDS continues a shameful history of anti-gay activism, but the last decade shows hope are addressing it and making some rather dramatic progress.  Hopefully seeing their children not have to leave the church and instead make videos like the above, is a source of pride of their progress.  For me it is wonderful to see a conservative church, especially one that has consistently focused on encouraging homophobia and anti-gay activities moving in the right direction.