What Are the Steps Leading Members Out of the Church

I have a book on my shelf to read soon that dives deeply into why Christians are leaving churches. I suppose it will review polls which ask, "What is your religion?" So many answer with "None." I'm sure this is not the only book available and many more will be written. I wonder if any will be as good as the You Tube site, Mormon Stories. 

That site has long, I mean looong, interviews probing into the minds of people who left Mormonism. Perhaps readers here are also interested in the steps people go through as they unbelieve what they once believed. 

One woman explored the question by speculating on how much being a member of the Mormon church was intertwined with the rest of a person's social, political and professional life. Perhaps, she suggested, when it becomes obvious the entire narrative of Mormonism, Joseph Smith talking to Jesus, the "plates" and polygamy are all an evil and outrageous scam, this may be easy to dismiss if everything else is working well. Everything else may include a spouse and children who are doing well in the church. 

But, this woman speculates, life often throws in factors that change the balance. A child is gay or a child leaves the faith. Or, another Mormon does a crooked business deal. Then, the absurd narrative of Smith and polygamy might be re weighed and the dishonesty rises in importance. The woman, now an academic, went through a Mormon faith "crisis" when she came to see Smith as a crook. But she thought there was a good God somewhere and got a master's in religion hoping to find the real God. Ultimately, she concluded, as many of us have, there is nothing better out there. Joseph Smith and Moses both talked to God but no one saw it. 

Somewhere out there is an understanding of why people can, at one point in their lives, believe and support absurd ideas, and later see there is nothing there. We haven't mastered this yet but we're maing progress.