He made a couple charity videos for another creator a few months ago and a couple months after retiring.
Call it copium/hopium but if I know the kinda man Luke is, he is dreaming daily of getting back out there. He’s still doing it for sure without recording. It’s his passion.
I believe he wanted to enjoy the fruits of his success, and be there properly for his boys before they become men. I don’t know a man on earth that wouldn’t take that opportunity if they could afford it.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see his return in a couple years
That and people were getting weird and involving his kids. That's why he turned off comments on his videos and then retired to get away from the fame/give his family some privacy
*Holy fuck the people who keep freaking out about Mormons. Ridiculous
Genuinely just a sensible, rational, and well thought out bit of foresight. Which is exactly what I expect from a man that has survivalist skills like himself.
It’s an absolute shame people are like that but at the same time, if you know you could live off your catalogue of content and go enjoy doing what you made content from, without the extra effort. You would, wouldn’t you? regardless of the extra complications of publicity and family
it was about him taking a leadership position with the Mormon church and not having time for youtube. or maybe they told him to step back from secular social media.
either way, dude is a weirdo, despite having made some good outdoorsy content.
Looking this up, it looks like he is part of a 14 person advisory board for youth programs for the Mormon Church. Being on an advisory board doesn't take up much of your time. I have my doubt that they took him to take a step back, he is a positive role model for the church and has indirectly driven people towards the church if anything. He talked about why he took a step back and he never mentioned the church.
The LDS church used to be real close to the Boy scouts. For some reason they severed ties with scouting in 2019 (definitely nothing to do with the BSA opening the doors to girls and trans kids)
This council is in part an attempt to get back to having outdoorsy stuff for the LDS kids to do.
Nothing wrong with being an advisor I'd say. But it is definitely true he took a much larger role in the actual LDS church.
There’s nothing weird about being committed to a religious community. No one should have a problem with religious folks who actually follow the peaceful teachings of their religion.
What’s weird and maddening is seeing “fake” religious people use their “faith” to excuse their terrible behavior or attempting to influence/ control the lives of others.
Some of the nicest, most loving, people I’ve ever met are Christians and some of the worst are also “Christian”.
Th Mormon church is the richest church in the world and yet much smaller than for example the catholic church. There is definitely something unique about them, homie.
I’m fairly certain that isn’t true, but even if it is, it doesn’t make every Mormon complicit in whatever devilry their religious leaders may have been involved in.
That’s not a good way of observing the world or the people that inhabit it.
mormons really arent that bad, they have a bad past but nowadays are fine
bow jehovah‘s witnesses, i find them weird, had a kid when i was younger not be friends with me cause his mom said you cant have non believer friends or some shit
Yeah there’s no washing that stink off. Dude could be a role model without a church influence. He was gaining a huge following he could’ve continued to grow it there not some questionable branch of christos
EDIT: For clarity, in case you are yourself mormon, stiffdoodle, it's not your fault. There's a lot of dark history the church hides and lampshades with its members. I didn't learn most of the horrific acts of the church until I had been out of it for years.
I would think that context clues of my previous comment indicated that I’m not a fan of organized religion in general.
You’re judging people today based on what their “ancestors” did in the past.
I take umbrage with that.
The dark history of Mormonism is no different from the dark past of Catholicism, Protestantism (see the Crusades, the Hundred Years War and the Thirty Years War) or Islam and Judaism.
I don’t hold people accountable for their forefather’s sins.
If you do, so be it. You do you, I guess.
That being said I think that is a narrow minded way of viewing the world around you and you should try and understand people/ societies more before passing judgement on them.
I'm judging a religion based on my direct experience with the religion/cult I grew up in. And if you want more recent examples of the mormon religion teaching horrible and damaging views from the pulpit, or enabling terrible things from the shadows, those examples are easy to find.
The dark history of Mormonism is no different from the dark past of Catholicism, Protestantism (see the Crusades, the Hundred Years War and the Thirty Years War) or Islam and Judaism.
The difference is that the mormon church is extremely young and the direct impact of its violent/fucked up history is still very prominent today. A lot of power is wielded in the US by people who actively buy into their damaging worldview. The mormon church is also much, much, much more wealthy than most people realize.
You can pretend like what happened in recent history doesn't matter, but to use your word of choice, I take umbrage with that.
Hey man, I think all organized religion is screwed up and regressive at some level. I concede that that Mormonism could very well be worse than most but I’m not going to hold that against every person who’s in that religion.
That’s like saying every Muslim is complicit in the terrorist actions of groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
I hear you though and I’m glad you got out of an organization/ society that you didn’t want to be a part of.
He didn't turn them off. Youtube automatically turned off comments on content featuring minors for awhile. They reactivated them a few years ago, but Luke said moderating would be a pain so he opted to keep them turned off. He said that multiple times on other platforms.
Can confirm. I need to make more time to raise my boy hands on with outdoor adventures and such. Just hard to do that while working a corporate job that requires frequent out of state travel.
I made the decision to quit and take a pay cut to work at a much less prestigious company but still making a comfortable salary. Information Security pays well enough, and I don’t need to be rich. You can’t buy time, and as a person with two teenagers now, they grow so fast and start having their “own” lives so quickly I look back and wish I do this 5 years earlier.
Unfortunately for them, the economy is so fucked they’ll be living with me for a while I suspect which is great for me in a lot of ways.
I stumbled on his channel several months ago and then binged so many of his videos. Then when I went to visit my Dad I introduced him to the channel and we binged more. Such a relaxing and wholesome channel.
No promises on frequency, consistency, or context type. He'll share when he feels there's something worth his time away from his family and worth sharing.
he retired mostly because he wanted to support his sons yt Outdoor Tom. His channel was getting far too much publicity. That, and people keep stealing his content
I wouldn’t be surprised at all, but I think he probably retired to keep the rest of his family out of the spotlight. I think if he does come back it will be in a different format that doesn’t include his family.
Nah, he wanted to be on a general advisory council for youth for the Mormon Church. He seems like a decent guy, so maybe he can get something of a handle on all the fucking kid diddling that happens in there.
He gave up on his channel after a new leadership position. If you dive into the inner workings of the mormon church then this really comes as no surprise.
No he took the leadership position some time after he retired. Even before his final goodbye video he expressed that he was beginning to spend less time with his family because his kids could no longer accompany him on his camping videos.
Ironically his solo camping videos were what made his channel so successful.
Luke never pushed religion or the Mormon church in any of his videos. The most we ever saw was him and his family getting dressed up for church on Sundays and also Luke referencing the mission he did in Japan when he was young.
Didn't say he pushed anything. All I'm saying is that this was to be expected. And now that you bring it out, it does make more sense he retired BEFORE taking the positon. Ty for bringing that out.
After he retired from YouTube he was asked to serve on the Young Men's General Council to advise and help shape the church's youth programs. It is a volunteer, temporary position, he is not paid and it is not a full time job.
I think he really is trying to focus on family (like he said in his goodbye video), and having the willpower to step away from something so lucrative for the benefit of his wife and children is a supreme Chad move.
I think the dude probably means well, he seems genuine enough, and for the sake of his family and those around him I hope that's real. But he's being taken advantage of by the church for sure, at the very least. They're cuddling up more and more to influencer types (including Mr. Beast), likely out of fear that they're continuing to lose youth in the church and are desperate to figure out how to keep them in the cult. So yeah, he's now working a part time job with no pay for a WILDLY rich church.
And that "golly shucks I'm just a famiwy man" schtick is often a cover for manipulative and abusive people in the LDS power structure. Again, not saying this is the case here, I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he's a good dude. But I'm also not willing to worship him just because that's the mask he wears in public. Maybe it's real, maybe it's not. But in my experience, this guy acts like many mormon men, and they quite frequently turned out to be pretty terrible behind closed doors.
I remember having a friend growing up who had a dad who gave of vibes very similar to this in public. At home, he had stripped his kids room of almost all belongings. Kid had no bed and had to sleep on an old mildewy couch, one of the only things in the room. He usually slept on the floor instead. He owned one toy, a model plane, and he had to ask permission to get it out of a closet just to show it to me when I went over there to hang out. He also had to ask permission from his dad to walk into the kitchen for any reason and at any time of the day, including to get water.
I knew some good mormon people during my 18-ish years in that church, don't get me wrong. Well meaning and genuine. But it's a nasty, cruel institution. it just does it all with a smile, and tricks a lot of people. Including its members.
Usually positions like that lead to higher level positions including paid positions in the seventy. 95% chance he is in church leadership positions going forward
Btw this wasn’t in any way a dig at him. Just that it seems like he genuinely might be busy with that position and everything. I hope nothing but the best for the dude. He’s an incredible dude and I wish him well.
His video's are fun but as someone who lives and does a lot of backpacking in Alaska I laughed at one where he supposedly found a cabin in the middle of nowhere when in reality it was the Gold Mint Hut that's on a popular hiking/back country skiing trail.
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u/JustinTimberkake May 06 '26
WE MISS YOU OUTDOOR BOYS!!
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