Singer-songwriter David Archuleta on his new memoir

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published March 6, 2026 at 7:25 AM AKST

Singer-songwriter David Archuleta joins us to discuss his new memoir, “Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself.”

Archuleta first rose to fame as a teenager when he came in second place on the seventh season of “American Idol.” In his new memoir, he writes about coming to terms with his sexuality and leaving the Mormon church.

By David Archuleta

We need to have the courage and wisdom to question and challenge what is being told to us when all there is to back it up is “God told me.” I know it’s easier to just follow blindly and say, “That’s just how faith is. You don’t always know why. You just follow and trust.” But it’s so essential in order to find more truth, and seek more light by asking, seeking, and searching. You can’t find more truth and more of who God is without challenging your mind, being conflicted, and saying to yourself, “I don’t agree with that; something isn’t right. Let’s discover what the truth is, rather than just what I was told to believe without questioning or reasoning it out myself to know if it’s valid or not.” Because despite what church leaders claim about the power of their words, they could very well be misleading us by convincing us to believe anything they say so that they maintain authority, even though it’s not the godly authority that they claim it to be. This was the beginning of my unraveling of Mormon doctrine. For the first time, I wasn’t afraid to ask questions and find answers to them, even if it meant going against what LDS church leaders had always declared as God’s words. The church home I knew all my life was about to shatter, as I realized that the fortress I once thought I was in was actually as fragile as glass, and only took one tap on it for it to fall to pieces.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.