Letter to a returned missionary

Cleaning out some old files, I found a copy of this letter, which gives expression to some of my thoughts about the Church.  As a Bishop, I composed this letter to a young returned missionary and father who had requested his name be removed from Church membership (sad):

TAYLORSVILLE GARDENS FIRST WARD, TAYLORSVILLE UTAH CENTRAL STAKE
October 2, 2001
Dear _________:
     I acknowledge receipt of your letter requesting to have your name removed from Church membership records.  I have reviewed your request with President ________ and at his direction am initiating the process to accomplish your request.
     In your letter you seem to express an understanding of the major personal consequences of your request being fulfilled, including canceling the effects of your baptism and confirmation into the Church, withdrawing of the priesthood, and revoking temple blessings.  Yet I wonder if you have really comprehended the extent of the negative results that will follow.  I like you and have some feelings like a father might have for a son and hope for your success and happiness.  Yet I expect that this action, if completed, will have profound negative implications on others' lives, such as, children born to _______and you in the future, including the baby she is now carrying, will not be born in the covenant.  This act may likely compromise your ability to bless your family members when they are sick, to perform Church ordinances when they reach the age for things like baptism, and in general to provide spiritual leadership to your family over the years.  Somehow this reminds me of my own growing up in a household with a non-believing father, where I as a teen (whether rightly or wrongly) rejected him and made him non-significant in my life because, as it seemed to me, he had abdicated teaching and leader responsibilities that he should have born in our family.
     For me, attending priesthood as young married man was a very significant and positive influence in helping me to become a more sensitive and responsible husband and a more effective and loving father.  I am concerned that the loss of such influences will detract from your future relationships, joys, and ability to exercise positive influence on those closest to you.
     I fear that you have succumbed to your own worst tendencies, that you have isolated yourself with dark and doubting literature and thoughts, and have crowded out the remembrance or rationalized what you once knew--that faith grows stronger in a context of prayer, scripture study, humility, obedience to God, and service to others.
     Your have drawn some conclusions about the "truth claims" of the Church based on what you say are logical grounds.  Without going into detail, I would say that I too have grappled with these "truth claims" over the course of many years, coming from a somewhat similar position as you, but have arrived at entirely different conclusions.  The comprehensiveness, the logical consistency, the uplifting nature of the doctrines of the Church have great appeal to me. I do not see significant ways in which science and reason contradict the beliefs of the Church and find many confirmations.  I love the position that the Prophet Brigham Young took that all truths, wherever found, are a part of the gospel of Christ.
     I also draw different conclusions about confirming spiritual experiences across various religions. I have had many experiences and associations with various religions.  Their approaches to deciding what to believe seem significantly different to me.  For example, my experience with many Protestants is that they rely primarily on reasoning to justify their beliefs, and unfortunately come up with a multitude of different conclusions.  I have not heard described by members of other religions the full range of spiritual responses that I have personally experienced, although our doctrines are sufficiently broad to encompass their having such experiences.  For me, what I experience of spiritual direction, insight, comfort and joy in the context of our religion is real, seems to have origins external to myself, and is logically consistent with experiences predicted in the scriptures. So, I feel impelled to follow them.
     My wish for you is that you recapture a desire for faith rather than a desire for doubting, in the manner of Alma chapter 32.  I invite you to exercise the option that is always there for you, in order to rekindle a faith and joy that I think you once possessed.
     At this point however, according to your request, the name removal process will proceed forward. It can be rescinded by your sending a written request for such recision with 30 days to the stake president.  If he has not received your request to rescind the removal of your name according to these terms, the action report will be forwarded to the office of the First Presidency to complete the processing of the removal.
     Sincerely,
     Robert E. Lewis, Bishop Taylorsville Gardens 1st Ward