> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Still Good - URL: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/books/still-good/ - Published: 2026-08-02T05:49:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-02T05:49:00.000Z - Description: Leaving the church changed what I believed. It did not take my family, my conscience, or the goodness I carried with me. - Author: Mike Baker - Tags: #book, #what-we-carry, #Import 2026-08-02 10:18 [Buy on Amazon →](https://a.co/d/03mjUDdY?ref=mikebakerhq.com) [Free companion workbook](#workbook) Paperback and hardcover · First edition, 2026 ## Why this book exists I loved being Mormon before I left it. That matters because this story makes no sense if I pretend everything that came before the questions was false. I grew up in a house where my mom always seemed to have cookies and people knew they were welcome. Our front porch held long conversations. The neighborhood was full of bikes, second moms, summer nights on trampolines, and adults who watched out for kids who were not their own. The LeGrand Ward was part of that life. Good people gave their time, taught us to serve, and made a child feel known. I still carry those people with gratitude. The church was wrapped around many of the things I loved most, which is part of why leaving hurt so much. I served a mission in the Spokane Washington Mission, mostly in farm towns like Quincy, Umatilla, and Zillah. I came home, married Kellie in the temple, and started building the life I had been taught to want. We raised our children in the church. I accepted callings. I served as elders quorum president. I was not searching for a way out. I believed the structure was good, and I was trying to be good inside it. The first real crack came when I visited a family that had stopped attending. I arrived believing I was there to understand what had gone wrong with them. I left realizing they knew things I had never been taught clearly. One question led to another. Church history, Joseph Smith, polygamy, the treatment of women, money, power, worthiness, and the claim of being the only true church began to look different once I stopped protecting the conclusion before examining the evidence. For years, I lived in the middle. I still attended while trust was disappearing underneath me. I smiled in hallways, sat through meetings, and brought the tension home. I left web pages open because I wanted Kellie to understand what I was finding and did not know how to begin the conversation. I thought silence was protecting our family. Over time, I had to face the truth that pretending was already doing damage inside our house. The moment that finally gave us room happened while I was driving through Montana. I pulled into a rest stop and talked with Kellie under a wide sky while she named what I had been unable to say cleanly. Church was no longer helping me become more loving, steady, or whole. We needed to take a break. I had spent years fearing honesty would break our family. That conversation showed me honesty might help save it. Leaving still hurt. People worried about us. Some worried about our marriage, our children, and our souls. I went through angry years and did not always carry that anger well. I said things with too much heat. I sometimes pushed people I loved because I wanted them to understand the cost of what I had discovered. This book does not turn that version of me into a hero. He was grieving, defensive, scared, and still learning how to tell the truth without letting pain write every sentence. I wrote Still Good for the person sitting in church with a tight chest, clearing the browser late at night and wondering what honesty might cost. I also wrote it for the spouse, parent, sibling, or friend who stayed and wants to understand why someone they love could no longer remain. I wanted to tell the whole truth. There was goodness in what raised me. There was also harm I could no longer excuse. Leaving changed my life, but it did not make my childhood fake or turn the people I love into villains. After all we could do, we left. We were imperfect, and we were still good. > Love that only survives agreement is too fragile to carry a family. ## Who it's for This book is for the person whose faith no longer fits but whose family, history, and memories are still tied to it. It is for former Mormons, questioning Mormons, mixed-faith families, and people from any high-demand religious background who are trying to separate love from authority and conscience from fear. It is also for faithful people who love someone who left and want to understand why leaving rarely comes from laziness, offense, or a desire for an easier life. ## Who it's not for This book does not try to pull anyone out of a faith they love. It does not treat faithful Latter-day Saints as foolish or cruel. I still love people inside the church, and I honor the sincerity of their faith. This memoir tells why I could no longer stay in mine. ## Questions it answers - How do I leave Mormonism without rejecting every good part of my past? - What happens to a marriage when one or both people lose faith? - How do I tell my family when I know they will fear for me? - Will my children be okay without the church? - How do I move through the anger without living there forever? - How do I rebuild morality and meaning after certainty disappears? - What do I keep from the life that raised me? - How do I love people who stayed without pretending the institution still has my trust? ## Inside The book begins with the world that formed me through chapters including The House With Cookies, Farm Towns and Mission Shoes, The Door That Opened, and The Kids We Were Trying to Raise. It then moves into the questions and breaking points through The Family That Stopped Coming, The Years in the Middle, The Montana Rest Stop, The Sunday We Stayed Home, When People Found Out, The List, and The Angry Years. These are the parts of the story where belief stopped being an abstract question and began affecting our marriage, children, Sundays, family relationships, and sense of safety. The later chapters look directly at the issues I could no longer reconcile, including The Church That Warned Me About Churches, Polygamy in Our Living Room, Women Could Serve, But Men Held the Keys, and The Mall With Jesus Next Door. The final movement turns toward rebuilding through The Larger World, I Don’t Know Anymore, What Stayed, Still the Same Mike, The Ones Who Were Quiet Too, To the Person Still Sitting There, and Still Good. ## Before you start This memoir includes discussion of religious trauma, family strain, grief, anger, identity loss, institutional power, and the emotional impact of faith transition. The resource section also addresses despair, panic, and suicidal thoughts. Readers in the United States who feel unsafe or fear they might hurt themselves are directed to call or text 988. ## A note from me I did not write this book because I believe everyone should leave the church. I wrote it because I remember what it felt like to sit there wondering whether the problem was me. For a long time, I believed changing my mind meant I had failed. The church had been tied to goodness, family, service, and identity for so long that leaving felt like walking away from all of it. Life taught me that those things were larger than the institution. Love stayed. Family stayed. Service stayed. My parents’ goodness stayed in me. The best parts of my childhood were still mine. Some things changed because they needed to change. I became more honest about power and more careful about certainty. I stopped assuming obedience was the same as character. I learned that saying “I don’t know” could hold more integrity than repeating an answer I no longer believed. I also had to face my own behavior after leaving. Anger helped me stop being afraid, but it sometimes made me careless with people I loved. I am sorry for the times the heat got ahead of the love. Leaving did not make me finished. It gave me a chance to keep growing without pretending. The people who stayed are still people I love. The person I became outside the church is still me. Changed, freer, and more honest, I hope. Still imperfect. Still trying. Still good. Paperback ISBN 9798181226098 · Hardcover ISBN 9798181365360 First edition, 2026 · Published by Mike Baker ## Continue reading - Still Here, Still Trying. Explores the honest work of continuing after life stops following the plan. - Human First. Looks at connection, belonging, and how we keep seeing each other when certainty and agreement disappear. - The Optimist’s Way. Explores hope that survives contact with grief, disappointment, and real life. Print it, fill it in by hand, keep it somewhere you will actually see it. The Tight Chest PageWhat Stayed, What I ReleaseBefore I Tell ThemSunday Without the ScriptWhen the Anger Is Running Hot [Download the workbook (PDF) →](https://www.mikebakerhq.com/assets/downloads/still-good-workbook.pdf)