Top 10 Most High-Profile Mormon Excommunications (2015–2025)
For most of its history, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has claimed that excommunication is rare, loving, and purely spiritual. Since 2015, that claim has become increasingly difficult to defend.
In the internet age, church discipline no longer happens quietly behind closed doors. It unfolds in newspapers, podcasts, television interviews, and viral social media posts. From child-protection advocate Sam Young, feminist activist Kate Kelly, and CES Letter author Jeremy Runnells, to podcasters John Dehlin and Bill Reel, and even sitting General Authority James Hamula, these cases reveal a clear pattern: when influence extends beyond the chapel, discipline follows.
On this episode of Mormon News Roundup, we count down the Top 10 most high-profile Mormon excommunications of the last decade — many covered by CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Time Magazine, and international media.
These are not resignations.
These are not quiet exits.
These are members who were formally cast out — and whose stories the Church could not contain.
🔟 The Countdown
10. Peter Bleakley – UK high councilor turned public critic
9. Natasha Helfer – Licensed sex therapist and mental-health advocate
8. Sam Young – Founder of Protect LDS Children
7. Nemo the Mormon – Evidence-based YouTube critic
6. Bill Reel – Former bishop and podcaster
5. Kate Kelly – Ordain Women founder
4. Denver Snuffer – Charismatic dissenter turned movement founder
3. John Dehlin – Mormon Stories Podcast
2. Jeremy Runnells – Author of the CES Letter
1. James Hamula – Sitting General Authority Seventy
🔚 Conclusion
These cases don’t just reveal who gets excommunicated — they reveal why. Quiet disbelief is tolerated. Private doubt is managed. But public dissent — especially when it reaches beyond Church control — is punished.
Excommunication in modern Mormonism is no longer just about belief. It’s about narrative control, institutional authority, and reputational risk. And in the digital age, every attempt to silence a voice has only amplified it.
📺 Clips play throughout
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