In and out of faith

WHILE I wish Richard Dutcher well despite his abandonment of Mormonism [“Out of the Picture,” by Chris Lee, Aug. 19], I also wish to remind the readers of The Times that far more people join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints every year based on similar “self-realization” and “existential [crises]” than abandon it. And while Dutcher’s is a noteworthy story about the evolution of an artist, hundreds of thousands of stories could be told about ordinary people (and not so ordinary, i.e., Gladys Knight) whose personal crises brought them to the “enlightenment” that Mormonism can change a life for the better.

Derek White

Orem, Utah