Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 12 minutes ago

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For years, people have argued that the Church creates toxic perfectionism.

BYU Studies Editor-in-Chief Justin Dyer decided to look at the data.

What he found was surprising.

About 10% of Latter-day Saints scored high in toxic perfectionism. That’s too high.

But among atheists and agnostics, the number was roughly double.

His conclusion wasn’t that church members never struggle with perfectionism. They do.

His conclusion was that regularly hearing messages like “You are a child of God,” “You are loved,” and “You can be forgiven” may be helping more than we realize.

What if we’ve been blaming the cure for the disease?