After isolating him at the Mission Training Center for monthsâno phone calls, no visits, no access to the Internetâthe Mormon Church sent teenage "elder" Greg Hawkins to the Philippines for two years, where he lived in vermin-infested living quarters, used non-flushing toilets, and gradually lost his faith. Bullying a poor Mormon convert into giving the Mormon Church 10% of his meager income caused Hawkins to doubt his faith:
In order to be baptized a Mormon, you must commit to tithing. To Mormons, tithing means giving the Church ten percent of your gross income for the rest of your life. Ed had a wife and four children. And he made the equivalent of $177 a monthâworking 84 hours a week.
My missionary companion just couldnât understand Edâs reluctance and was convinced that we needed to work on Edâs faith. He needed faith to see that if he just gave $18 of that income to the Church every month, the Lord would provide him with blessings. And blessings would help see him through these troubled times. After all, Jesus told the parable of the widowâs mite. âHow selfish could Ed possibly be?â he asked me one night while we were having dinner at McDonaldâs.
Hawkins returned from the Philippines full of doubt but fluent in Tagalog.
[Then] I ran across a YouTube video of David Fitzgerald giving his talk âThe Hereticâs Guide to Mormonism.â I recall reeling in my chair after watching the video. He must have been lying. Surely the things he said werenât true. I had to research this. Against the council of my church leaders, I took my studies to the internet to prove him wrong. He wasnât.
Hawkins isn't a Mormon anymore.