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I am not resigning from anything. Even when I was in NSA, there was no need for "resignation," as I was not an employee.
The purpose of officially resigning one's former membership is to do whatever is possible to get one's personal information out of that organization's books and to stop that organization from claiming one as a member (and thus inflating their membership rolls). If they continue to use your personal information after you have officially resigned, you have grounds for filing a lawsuit against them and there have been $$,$$$ judgments against religious organizations that refused to honor former members' resignations. If anyone is interested in the legal precedents: [
www.mormonnomore.com] [
www.mormonresignation.com]
There are a lot more issues (financial) involved in being a documented member of a particular religious group in some European countries than in the US, where it's more about privacy issues and falsified statistics.
The Mormons, for example, keep any member on the books until that member's 110th (some say 120th) birthday (calculated from the birthdate on the member's data). Even if that member has joined another religion. Even if that member has made it clear that s/he is completely done with the Mormon church. It's supposedly so that, if and when that member comes back, they will be ready to move him/her right back into active status. Yeah, right. It's all about propping up their collapsing numbers, and the SGI is in the same boat. In about 2007, I was at a Soka Spirit meeting up in LA, and one SGI staff member - either an older YWD national leader or recently graduated - got up to speak. "I have introduced over 400 people to this practice and helped them get gohonzon!" she said. Much applause. "Do you know how many are still practicing? TWO." That's the reality the SGI is facing, though you'll rarely hear it acknowledged.
The only way to get your name off the Mormon church's books is to send them a letter of resignation. They are then required to send back a confirmation - the SGI has not sent me my letter of confirmation yet so I'm getting ready to send a follow up letter. Of course, no one knows what's going on behind their closed doors, as religious corporations are not subject to audit and we all know they'll do *ANYTHING* to continue to appear relevant.