Former TWT editorial writer and former reporter for Politico and The Hill Carrie Sheffield gives the dirt on Mormonism in today’s WaPo Opinion pages. She’s now a writer and political analyst based in Manhattan.

The highlights:

1. The church she was raised in insisted on obedience. For her, this caused “trauma and cognitive dissonance.”

2. While studying at Brigham Young University, she “spiritually imploded” after learning doctrine outside the church. A “disturbed” Sheffield met with a “high-ranking Mormon leader” who told her to stop reading historical and scientific materials because they were worse than porn.

3. Her parents shunned her from their home for five years.

4. For years, her faith was “unshakable” but she became distraught.

5. With a current public focus on Mormonism, she hopes the church will be exposed for its anti-women, homophobic beliefs.

Read the whole piece here.