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Jeremy Runnells — whose 2013 "Letter to a CES [Church Educational System] Director" gained widespread attention on the Internet by outlining numerous questions about Mormon theology and history — has resigned from the LDS Church.
A YouTube video shows Runnells making the announcement Sunday night while speaking to supporters from the back of a pickup truck outside a Mormon meetinghouse in American Fork.
"I have excommunicated the LDS Church … from my life," he told the small crowd, which had gathered while Runnells was inside the building, huddling with his local lay leaders for a disciplinary council to determine his membership status in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "I handed in my resignation letter just a few minutes ago."
Runnells complained that his church leaders failed to answer any of his questions Sunday night or in the past three-plus years. "It has become very clear to me," he added, "that the church does not have answers to its truth crisis."
The Utah-based LDS Church had no comment.
David Noyce