SerpApi.Org
Many celebrities grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but not all remained in the faith. Several pop stars and Hollywood actors have shared their reasons for leaving the Mormon church behind.
Keep reading to find out which stars stepped away…
MORE: Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more
David Archuleta left the Mormon church after coming out as queer
American Idol star David Archuleta, who was raised Mormon, is leaving behind his “squeaky clean” image and opening up about the trauma he experienced in his new memoir.
Archuleta, a longtime member of the Mormon community, left the church in 2023 after coming out as queer. The singer told The Daily Mail that he chose to let go of the perfect image he had projected for so long.
“It’s a heavy book, but I wanted to go there. I felt like I’ve always kind of been like, happy and look how good my life is … teen pop star and Mormon, squeaky clean,” he said about his memoir, Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself.
In 2021, Archuleta publicly came out as LGBTQIA+, saying, “God made me how I am.”
“I’ve tried for almost 20 years to try and change myself until I realized God made me how I am for a purpose,” he wrote on Instagram. “And instead of hating what I have considered wrong I need to see why God loved me for who I am and that it’s not just sexuality. So many other traits of who I am come from how I’ve been created.”
His faith ultimately clashed with his sexuality, leading him to “step away” from the religion. “I just had to take a step away, take a break from religion — because for my own sanity, I did not want to weigh out whether it was better for me to live and exist, or if it was better for me not to exist,” he told People.
Paul Walker’s beliefs didn’t align with the Mormon church
Paul Walker ultimately left the church as an adult.
The late Fast and the Furious star told GQ in December 2013 that choosing to work rather than stay home with his daughter, Meadow Walker, clashed with the parenting principles he was raised with.
“I went to a born-again Christian high school, was brought up in a traditional Mormon family where these ideas about parenting are of structure and sacrifice,” he said.
“To think outside of that idea of family and parenting that I’ve grown up with is tough, but also very freeing,” he added, explaining that his daughter wanted him “to keep acting so she can travel around the world with me.”
Looking back, Walker said leaving the Mormon church helped him form his own beliefs. “I’m a Christian now. The things that drove me crazy growing up was how everyone works at fault-finding with different religions. The people I don’t understand are atheists. I go surfing and snow boarding and I’m always around nature. I look at everything and think, ‘Who couldn’t believe there’s a God? Is all this a mistake?’ It just blows me away.”
Ryan Gosling identifies as ‘religious but nondenominational’
Before becoming one of Hollywood’s leading stars, Ryan Gosling was raised in a small Canadian town by his parents, Donna and Thomas Gosling, who were devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“My mother admits it. She says, ‘You were raised by a religious zealot.’ She’s different now, but at the time, it was a part of everything — what they ate, how they thought …,” he told The Guardian in 2007.
Although he was raised Mormon, Gosling has been clear that he never really saw himself as part of the church. In a 2002 interview with The Village Voice, he described himself as “religious but nondenominational.”
“Maybe I’m too selfish, or I’m jealous of their humility — that somebody can say, yeah, it doesn’t make sense but I’m going to believe it anyway,” he said.
Amy Adams left the Mormon church after her parents divorced
Even years after leaving the church, Amy Adams said she can’t shake the guilt from her Mormon upbringing.
“I grew up as a Mormon and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I’m afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie,” she told The Sun in June 2013. “I’m very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over, too. You can’t really misbehave without feeling badly about it — at least, I can’t.”
Adams said that the church’s strict rules, including its ban on coffee and alcohol, still trouble her. “Even when I go out with friends and we go overboard at bars or clubs, I wake up the next morning feeling a bit conflicted about having had too much fun,” she added.
The Enchanted actress left the church with her family when she was 11 years old, following her parents’ divorce. “Religion can also be a positive thing in people’s lives. It provides a support system if you embrace it, despite all the controlling and guilt-ing aspects of religion that I grew to resent.”
Katherine Heigl’s family turned to Mormonism after her brother’s death
Katherine Heigl’s family joined the Mormon church after her brother, Jason Siegel, died in a car accident.
“Both my parents felt a great desire for answers, and they found an answer in the Mormon church — or answers they could live with, anyway, because there really are none,” she told Vanity Fair in January 2008. “I give my parents unbelievable credit for pulling it together, and I give the Mormon church a lot of credit for helping them to do that.”
Even though she no longer practices, Heigl’s Latter-day Saint upbringing still played a role in her relationship with Josh Kelley, whom she married in December 2007.
“I … didn’t want to live together before we were married. I still have enough Mormon in me — not a lot, but enough — that I wanted to keep that a little bit sacred,” she told the outlet.
