My Father Lost Everything to Addiction—Then Found His Way Back to the LDS Church
My father’s story is one of the strangest and most complicated stories I’ve ever encountered in Mormonism.
Born in 1941, my father grew up around the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, served a mission in Scotland at age 19, married my mother in the Salt Lake Temple, raised five children, and became a successful dentist in Utah.
But behind that story was a lifelong struggle with addiction.
My father battled severe alcoholism and opioid addiction. His addictions eventually contributed to the collapse of his marriage, estrangement from some of his children, and the temporary loss of his medical license. For nearly 25 years, he was essentially inactive in the Church.
And yet, something about his story always fascinated me.
As far as I knew, my father never actually stopped believing.
Even while living a life that was completely incompatible with Mormon standards, he never told me that he thought the Church was false. He never told me he was an atheist. He never rejected God. In fact, when I was a teenager living with him, we would occasionally read the Bible and Book of Mormon together.
My father even ordained me to the priesthood while I knew that, by Mormon standards, he was not living a “worthy” lifestyle.
Then, after decades of addiction and inactivity, my father became seriously ill.
He had suffered enormous physical consequences from his years of drinking and eventually required dialysis and was placed on the transplant list.
And then something completely unexpected happened.
He went back to Church.
He told me he was attending every Sunday. He put his garments back on. He accepted a calling as a Sunday School teacher and, as far as I know, began paying tithing and became temple-recommend worthy again.
After almost 25 years away.
My father died while I was overseas.
At the time, I was still a believing Latter-day Saint, so I believed that I would see him again someday. I believed that death wasn't the end and that we would eventually meet again in the celestial kingdom.
Years later, after I deconstructed my faith, I had to mourn his death all over again.
Without my former belief in the Mormon afterlife, I could no longer rely on the hope that I would someday be reunited with him.
This video is my attempt to tell my father's story—not as an argument for or against Mormonism, but as the story of a complicated human being who spent much of his life fighting battles he couldn't win.
His body and behavior left Mormonism long before, but perhaps his mind never did.
And somehow, near the very end of his life, he found his way back.
At the end of the video, I've included a personal tribute to my father featuring some of the things he loved most: water, skiing, boating, his Jeep, flying his single-engine airplane, graduating from the University of Utah, and much more.
This one’s for you, Dad.
#Mormonism #ExMormon #LDS #Addiction #Faith #Family #MormonStories
Please consider making a donation by joining our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/MormonNewsRoundup
Email: kolob@mormonnewsroundup.org
Website: https://mormonnewsroundup.org/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mormonnewsroundup
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mormon_news_roundup/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dives.lazarus/
X: https://twitter.com/NewsMormon
New episodes every night at 9:30 PM Eastern.
Please like and subscribe and hit the notifications bell. Remember remember, no unhallowed hand can stop this podcast from progressing!
The Mormon News Roundup is NOT affilated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.