What Is the CES Letter?
The CES Letter is an anti-Mormon propaganda website created by an apostate Church member, Jeremy Runnells in 2013. It was originally presented as a series of questions and doubts he had about the Church, which he claimed to be sincerely asking a CES director after his “grandfather” had introduced him to.
By claiming that a CES director was “unable to answer his questions,” it frames the narrative that Runnells uncovered facts about Church history and doctrine that the Church is hiding. It appeals to the reader emotionally, creating sympathy for someone who had “honest questions” that supposedly could not be answered. Adding the note about the grandfather strengthens the compassion narrative and builds the conclusion that the author was a good man with a close connection to his dear grandfather.
What the CES Letter Really Is
If he even sent the letter to a CES director, he did not wait for any answers. Instead, he immediately published the letter and encouraged other ex-Mormons to help it go viral in an attempt to cause doubt and confusion. The letter itself was developed, tweaked, and crowdsourced in ex-Mormon Reddit groups, where the author collaborated with others to determine the best methods and approach to make it emotionally appealing and likely to be read by believers. It continues to change and evolve and has had thousands of tweaks and edits over the last twelve years.
In reality, Jeremy Runnells was never looking for answers. He was trying to create an emotionally compelling story to get believing Latter-day Saints to read anti-Mormon material they otherwise would not consider. Every point made in the CES Letter can and has been debunked, revealing the lies, deception, half-truths, and out-of-context arguments designed to overwhelm readers and create the feeling that doubt is the only honest conclusion.
CES Letter Book
The CES Letter has also been published as a paperback book. It sells for a minimum $18.95 “donation” to his illegally run “nonprofit” organization CES Letter Foundation website.
CES Letter Summary
- A long document (about 90 pages) of anti-Church arguments
- Framed as a personal letter but crafted for mass distribution
- Filled with recycled claims, outdated scholarship, and misrepresented sources
- Structured to provoke emotional reactions rather than honest inquiry
Who Wrote the CES Letter?
The author of the CES Letter is Jeremy Runnels. He is not a historian—he’s a business and marketing guy. He gathered information from anti-Mormon sources and packaged it in a way that made him appear educated, sincere, and authoritative. Knowing marketing, he understood the power of storytelling and emotional connection. He also knew most Church members avoid anti-Mormon material because of the dark, unsettling feeling that comes when the Spirit withdraws.
So he branded his work as a “sincere quest for truth” to draw in ordinary, faithful, compassionate members.
Runnells’ Real Background
- Not a historian
- Not a scholar
- Not a researcher
- A marketer who used emotional presentation to make tired anti-Mormon claims look new and credible
Crowdsourcing and Influence
Evidence shows that Runnells collaborated heavily with ex-Mormon activists online. Many parts of the CES Letter were produced collaboratively in ex-Mormon forums, not through personal study or original research.
How Does Runnells Make Money From the CES Letter?
Like many other anti-Mormons, Jeremy Runnells has used an established business model to make full-time profits from his business of creating doubts. Behind the scenes, he promoted it aggressively, created the CES Letter Foundation, asked for donations, sold printed versions, and turned the entire project into a personal livelihood. He did this while simultaneously accusing the Church of hiding its finances, yet refused to disclose his own income.
CES Letter Foundation
The CES Letter Foundation was formed as a Nevada-based nonprofit organization in 2015. It failed to file legally required nonprofit reports after 2019 and was revoked by the IRS in 2023. Despite losing its tax-exempt status, it continued to present itself as a charity and solicit donations, leaving donors with no transparency about where their money goes. Jeremy Runnells continually demonstrates a pattern of revoked filings, hidden finances, and continued fundraising that raises questions about the legitimacy and honesty of the entire operation.
Ways He Profits
- Donations through the CES Letter Foundation
- Paid paperback sales
- Coaching/Speaking engagements
- Branding tied to his anti-LDS platform
The more people lose their faith, the more money his organization makes.
What Is the Purpose of the CES Letter?
The Letter claims to be written by someone seeking answers, but the evidence shows he had already rejected his beliefs before writing it. The “letter to a CES director” format was a calculated disguise to appear open-minded.
Actual Intent
- To create doubt as quickly as possible
- To use emotional manipulation to pull readers in
- To overwhelm with quantity instead of accuracy
- To make the Church look evasive, even when nothing evasive happened
He weaponized his interactions with Church leaders to create the impression that “no one would answer him,” when in fact the Letter itself was never written to be answered—it was written to spread.
Additional Purposes of the CES Letter
The CES Letter Depends on Black-and-White Thinking: The Letter only works if the reader believes prophets must be perfect, scripture must be flawless, and history must be simple. By pushing a rigid worldview, the CES Letter makes normal imperfections or complexities look like deception.
The CES Letter Presents Old Criticisms as “New” Discoveries: None of the issues in the Letter are new. They have been discussed openly for decades, but the Letter frames them as shocking revelations to make readers feel betrayed.
The CES Letter Replaces Context With Suspicion: Instead of explaining historical, doctrinal, or cultural background, the Letter removes context and inserts accusations. Lack of context is framed as dishonesty.
The CES Letter Uses Shock as a Persuasion Tool: The Letter purposely dumps issue after issue with no pacing to overwhelm the reader emotionally. That shock is then used as supposed “evidence” against the Church.
The CES Letter Repeats Issues to Create an Illusion of Volume: Many claims appear multiple times in different sections to exaggerate the number of “problems.”
The CES Letter Confuses Data With Interpretation: The Letter presents real historical facts but immediately attaches negative conclusions to them and sells the conclusion as if it were the fact itself.
What Aspects of the CES Letter Are True?
Some topics he mentions have elements of truth, such as the use of a seer stone, the existence of polygamy, or the fact that punctuation changes were made to the Book of Mormon.
But these truths are incomplete and deliberately stripped of context, which changes their meaning entirely.
Surface-Level Facts the Letter Uses
- Joseph used a seer stone
- Early Saints practiced plural marriage
- Later editions of scriptures were corrected or standardized
- Early Church history had complexity
These facts become distortions when presented without the actual doctrinal, historical, and practical context.
Should I Read the CES Letter?
Only if you like that dark feeling of being alone and abandoned, or want to see how Satan works by mixing half truths and emotional framing to create doubt and confusion. The CES Letter is written not to show facts or truth but to convince a reader of a conclusion that was already made.
Anyone who reads it should know what it actually is before doing so. It is not a document written in faith, humility, or sincerity. It was not written to find truth. It was written to persuade, to mislead, and to create the impression that the Church has been hiding things. Without the missing context—which the Letter intentionally strips away—it is easy for readers to be thrown off balance.
If you do want to read it, don’t pay the $18.95 to buy the book. Instead, read the CES Letter PDF for free with this link, with actual references to context and sources.
What Parts of the CES Letter Are Taken Out of Context?
This guy is flat-out dishonest. When you learn about him you can feel the hostility he carries, and his goal is to make the reader believe that Joseph Smith and the Church are the ones lying.
Major Context Removed
Translation
He frames “stone in the hat” as secret and hidden, even though witnesses talked about it openly for generations.
Book of Mormon Witnesses
He quotes secondhand hearsay from critics while ignoring dozens of firsthand statements where the witnesses reaffirmed their testimonies.
Polygamy
He removes legal, cultural, doctrinal, and practical realities and replaces them with insinuation.
Scripture Changes
He treats printer punctuation and spelling corrections as if they were doctrinal shifts.
DNA, geography, and history
He relies on outdated research and ignores modern scholarship.
What Parts of the CES Letter Are Lies?
Some claims in the CES Letter are not just misleading—they are false.
False Claims
1. “The Book of Mormon originally taught the Trinity.”
This is factually wrong. The passages he cites do not reflect Trinitarian creeds.
2. “The Church hid the seer stone.”
False. It has been discussed in public sources for nearly 200 years.
3. “The Witnesses denied their testimonies.”
False. None of the Three or Eight Witnesses ever denied their testimony.
4. “The Church hides history.”
False. Most of the material he cites has been publicly available for decades.
5. “This was a sincere request for answers.”
False. Runnells was already out of the Church and built the Letter with ex-Mormon collaborators for the purpose of influencing others.
Final Note
Runnells knew how to use emotion to gain empathy and draw people in, but underneath it all, it was a manipulative effort to make readers assume that because “the Church lied” about some things, everything about Joseph Smith and the gospel must be false.
The CES Letter was not written to find truth—it was written to mislead, to influence, and to destroy faith through calculated manipulation and misinformation.
For more information by actual scholars and those who do the research, read this.
Or listen here.
Who are you going to trust—Church leaders who consistently show good fruits, who do good, who serve others, who carry light and lead others toward it, or angry, bitter ex-Mormons driven by hate and influenced by the adversary?
As for me, I will choose to believe those who emulate and lead to light.
