David Archuleta is opening up about his decision to “step away” from the Mormon Church after coming out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I’ve had a faith crisis this year,” Archuleta, 31, told ABC News. “So now I’ve had to deconstruct everything.”

Archuleta said the church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was “very invested” in him after he finished in second place on American Idol in 2008. He said that shifted when, in June 2021, he announced that he was “maybe a spectrum of bisexual” after having come out to his family as gay in 2014.

Archuleta said leaders within the church, known as “apostles,” didn’t listen to him when he discussed his sexuality and tried to change him. “I think three times in that conversation he said, ‘Well, maybe we just need to find you a good girl. Maybe you can find a good girl,'” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘That’s not the solution.'”

Since coming out, Archuleta said he sees himself marrying a man one day — a far-cry from how he almost married women on three different occasions and once considered suicide.

“You’re trying to decide what’s worse,” he said. “Is it worse for this feeling of being desiring men to finally explode where I can’t control it anymore and you look at it as that’s Satan trying to take over my soul? Or is it better for me to end my life and, that way, I’m free from that temptation?”

Archuleta said what helped him overcome those thoughts was coming to the realization that “there’s value to me still living.”

These days, Archuleta is focusing on his music and “reconfiguring my life and my purpose, my identity, because it was so deeply rooted in my religion.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.

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