Mormon Whiplash

The sudden painful feeling that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel when:

(1) Leaders abruptly change "inspired" doctrines or policies that were supposedly revealed by God, but then have been changed for marketing, social or political reasons or due to survey research

(Implementation of the 2015 ban on allowing children of same-sex parents to be baptized, then completely reversing the ban in 2019; Reversing the ban on blacks having the priesthood and being able to go inside the temple in 1978; teaching members that polygamy was required to enter the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom after death but then banning the practice when forced to by the U.S. Federal government. )

(2) Leaders admit previously hidden embarrassing facts about the church that were not taught truthfully for decades or since the church was founded in church materials (e.g., Joseph Smith's professed "translation" of the Book of Abraham from Egyptian papyri doesn't match the characters in any way.)

(3) Leaders change or abandon church practices that were rigidly enforced previously for decades due to social pressures and market research (e.g., changing the lengths of the sacred temple undergarments so that women could now reveal their shoulders in public when they were previously shamed into believing showing their shoulders was immodest and immoral.)

Members of my ward experienced severe Mormon whiplash when they were taught by a visiting Church leader that Joseph Smith was a polygamist who was sealed in marriage to women who were currently married to another man, pairs of sisters, mother-daughter pairs, and 14- and 15-year old girls.

Mormon Whiplash by Explorer505 June 25, 2026