Episodes
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Accepting the Shadow and Light of the Church
The shadow and light of the church are a part of the same story and integrating the suffering and the healing that the church created is part of our necessary preparation for the next part of our journey. Acceptance of our past life in church with its blessings is a wholesome alternative to…
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381: The Reconstruction Series: Encountering Fear at the Threshold of Leaving
It’s one thing to know that letting go is possible and even necessary. But it’s another to stand at the threshold of leaving without feeling fear. Most of us will carry some fear. In this episode I discuss the DNA of Mormon fear of leaving the church.
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380: Letting the Church Go With Graciousness
In this episode: "Letting go needn't be truly feared. Letting go can become a friend to us, releasing us into the flow of an abundant and growthful life."
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379: The Beginning of the End: Gina Colvin
This episode opens up the last chapters of my time as host of A Thoughtful Faith Podcast. I aim to hang up the mic at the end of the 2022. The remainder of my time with the podcast will be devoted to faith reconstruction and exploring how to have a good church ending and an even better spiritual...
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378: When the Church isn't Enough: Tali Aitofi
Some years ago, Tali Aitofi found Mormon podcasts and became hooked. But Tali isn't Mormon, he's Pentecostal. His faith journey has played out with the hum of Mormon faith crises in the background. Tali recently came out as gay; he left his family church, and is currently suffering from a life...
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377: Bright Spark: The Reconciliation of Artist Trevor Southey: A Conversation with Director Nathan Florence
Painter, now documentary film maker and producer Nathan Florence joins me to discuss ‘Bright Spark: The Reconcilation of Trevor Southey’ For eleven years, artist Nathan Florence documented Trevor Southey's life with his heart and with his lens in order to tell an unfolding story that ended in...
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376: Doing Our Inner Work: Jana Spangler
Utah based life coach, Jana Spangler, reflects on her extensive work with Mormons who are in the thick of deconstruction and reconstruction. She argues that being in healthy relationship with our bodies will yield precisely the wisdom we need to make critical life decisions.
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375: Let's Cancel Christmas! Nicola Petty
If you love Christmas, then this episode isn't for you. But, if you or someone you know doesn't approach Christmas with merriment and cheer, then this conversation between me and my good friend Nicola Petty might be worth listening to. Both of us are avowed Grinches and as a concession to those…
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374: Trauma & Moral Injury in Mormonism: Dr. Sean Aaron
At Syracuse University, moral injury is defined as, "… the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct." In this episode, clinical psychologist Dr....
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373: The LDS Church's Response to Sexual Abuse: Neville Rochow QC
Child sexual abuse in the church is pernicious and confounding. Why anyone purporting to be Christian would sexually abuse a child is beyond the imagination of many. Yet it happens, and far too often to be dismissed. The Royal Commissions of Inquiry into Sexual Abuse in Ireland and Australia, and...
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372: The Spiritual Formation of Children: Amanda Suarez and Drew Hansen
Author of the Spiritual Child, Professor of Psychology Lisa Miller writes in ‘The Spiritual Child’: “Spiritual development through the early years … provides a protective health benefit, reducing the risk of depression, substance abuse, aggression, and high-risk behaviors.” It’s for this reason...
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371: The LDS Church & Its Business: Neville Rochow QC Part 2
Australian barrister Neville Rochow QC has offered the LDS Church legal advice over the years and has appeared for the church at parliamentary committees on the question of religious freedom. For two years, he also represented the church at the European Parliament in Brussels. He has been...
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370: The Church and its Legal Machinations Part One: Neville Rochow
Australian barrister Neville Rochow QC has offered the LDS Church legal advice over the years and has appeared for the church at parliamentary committees on the question of religious freedom. For two years, he also represented the church at the European Parliament in Brussels. He has been...
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368: The Illegitimacy of Jesus: Mark Crego
Mark Crego and I met around eight years ago, fellow sojourners in the quest to understand our shared faith in the LDS church. We had a similar curiosity about the spiritual life and consequently we both completed a Masters degree: He in theology and me in ministry. Having taken a Christian...
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367: The Law of Chastity or Sexual Ethics?: Linkhart, Ross & Mangelson
While the Mountain Saints speak of the Law of Chastity being the iron clad rule that anything sexual should happen in marriage, the Praire Saints have a statement of Sexual Ethics. The Statement of Sexual Ethics is the distillation of years of discussion with church leaders across the world and...
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366: Breaking Up Well: Dr. Nicola Petty
When I began questioning the LDS Church, I did not expect the Stake Relief Society president to join me. Nicola Petty went from orthodox and loyal member guided by the priesthood to a Stake Relief Society President who had been woken up by the Ordain Women movement. It was in this capacity that I...
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365: Sealed: A Memoir by Katie Langston
Born and raised a devout Mormon in Utah, Katie Langston chronicles her unexpected conversion to orthodox Christianity with candor and theological depth. Her remarkable debut memoir explores themes of religious fundamentalism, mental illness, and family belonging—culminating in her surprising and...
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364: Death By a Thousand Cuts: Ordinary Mormon Trauma: Lindsay Hansen Park
We were made for tenderness, gentleness, openness, authenticity, vulnerability, compassion and caring. We are threaded through with the strands of genuine goodness. Our true selves, our inner landscapes are beautiful and potentiated for wholeness, fullness and love. Mormon trauma is most…
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Why the RLDS Reformed but the LDS Didn't: Prof. David Howlett
Some people say that Community of Christ is just LDS lite. This simply isn't true. Despite their common roots, you would be unlikely to find two more differently wired faith traditions than the Community of Christ (RLDS) and the LDS (Mormons). To discuss how this came to be and why the RLDS set...
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362: 'That Was Not of God': Natasha's Witnesses Speak Up
Ambivalence, ambiguity, lack of accountability and spiritual abuse characterize Natasha Helfer's membership council. Her witnesses speak out about their experience.
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361: American Excommunication: Spencer Wells & Isaac Barnes May
Spencer Wells and Isaac Barnes May seek to put the recent ex-communication/name removal of Natasha Helfer from the LDS Church into the broader context of church boundary maintenance in America.
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360: Perfoming Art with Bread: Andi Pticher Davis
As a performance artist, Andi has been feeding her culture with bread for many years. She bakes, graffitis and gifts her bread warm to those in need. Artistically weaving mountains, fire, lament and bread comes from an elemental and a cosmic drive to make the spiritual immanent. Andi and I talk...
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359: When a Woman's Professional Expertise Becomes a Question of LDS Apostasy: Natasha Helfer
Natasha Helfer (LCMFT, CST, CSTS )is a licensed clinician and mental health professional who has been summoned to a LDS Church trial for her public stance on sexual health. Taking offence at the idea that the LDS Church is a toxic religious home for our LGBTQIA+ community, and that masturbation…
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358: The Spiritual Advice Line With Katie Langston: March 2021
This month, our discussion comes from listeners' questions about; white supremacy, intra-faith marriage, community belonging, spirituality and the true church!
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357: An Ordinary Unordinary Life as a Polygamist's Daughter: Mary Jayne Blackmore
One of 150 siblings, Mary Jayne Blackmore is the daughter of Mormon leader Winston Blackmore. Mary Jayne Blackmore grew up within the closed-off polygamist community of Bountiful, BC. Her family’s staunch Fundamentalist Mormon faith imposed fanatical doomsday preparation and carried an instilled...
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356: The Spiritual Advice Line: February 2021
Today Katie Langston returns to the Spiritual Advice Line. We discuss spiritual abuse; unhelpful images of God; spiritual direction; the necessity of community, and how to read the Bible. If you would like to submit a question you may do so by going to katielangston.com (These discussions are not...
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355: Eco-spirituality, Eco-justice and Eco-Feminism: The New Christianity: Emily Rose
Emily Rose is the Campus Minister for Faith, Justice and Solidarity at a Jesuit University in Kansas City, Missouri. In this episode, Emily Rose joins me to discuss eco-spirituality, eco-justice and eco-feminism and the way that the environment undergirds her relationship with her faith, the…
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354: The Spiritual Practice of Earth Care: Prof. George Handley
Eco-humanitarian and eco-theologian BYU Professor George Handley joins me to discuss his immense concern for the Earth and its future. Professor Handley argues that humanity must be seen in light of our intimate and dependent relationship with Earth’s natural systems. The Earth sustains and...
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The Spiritual Advice Line with Katie Langston: December 2020
Katie Langston joins me to discuss Christmas; Why it's perfectly fine not to take the Bible literally; Why Jesus is not the Jehovah of the Old Testament; Finding new images and symbols for God, and the power and versatility of spiritual practice.
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352: Part Two: Rigid Mormon Parents and Their Disaffiliated Children: Liz Brown-MacDonald
Liz Brown MacDonald was curious about the effect of the behaviour of religiously rigid parents on their children who disaffiliate from the LDS Church. This is Part Two of the discussion.
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352: Part One: Rigid Mormon Parents and Their Disaffiliated Children: Liz Brown MacDonald
Liz Brown MacDonald was curious about the effect of the behaviour of religiously rigid parents on their children who disaffiliate from the LDS Church. 'It's never good,' she concludes, 'to complicate a parental relationship with an expectation of your children's life long affiliation to your...
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351: An Advent Reflection on the Suffering of Mothers: ReNee McDonald & Kristin Jensen
While we honour the expectant Mary at Advent, we rarely discuss her in the context of the suffering of pregnancy and birth. Our sacred texts and Christmas stories leave out the intensely feminine experience of a mother's body, bruised and broken for the sake of Jesus. Too often written out of the...
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349: Spiritual Autonomy When Gay, Mormon & Samoan: Doron Semu
How does a young gay, afakasi, Samoan, Mormon man put his spiritual life together when he sits across many religious and cultural divides? When the moorings of fixed belief systems that defined prior generations fall away, what of the spiritual life that is so integral to Māori and Pasifika…
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350: The Spiritual Advice Line: Episode One
Lutheran Ordinand Katie Langston and Community of Christ Elder, Gina Colvin get together in this monthly series to offer our responses to Mormons who are grappling with their spiritual and religious deconstruction and reconstruction. Today's topics, Grace; The Trinity; Telling family you no…
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348: Unravelling the Mystery of Utah Politics: Dr Roger Hendrix
For those who grew up in the 'Mission Field', Utah is often referred to as Zion. But, in the 2020 US Presidential elections, Utah seemed anything but Zion. Utah voted for the least Mormon person on the ticket (Donald Trump). About 20% of Utahns voted to keep slavery in their state constitution.…
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347: The Surprise of Section 132: Michael Mathews II
In this conversation, blogger, Michael Mathews II exegetes Doctrine & Covenants Section 132. Mormons socially read Section 132 as pointing to the endurance of familial ties after death. However, Mathews argues, there is no evidence to suggest that this is the case at all. The temple, he further...
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346: Laie, Hawaii: What the Haole Did There: Maoputasi Young
Are unique Mormon communities like Laie, in Hawaii worth celebrating? Absolutely. Mormon communities like Laie on Hawaii's North shore, which are uniquely indigenous Mormon, have made good homes that have been blessed by the confluence of culture, faith, history, structure, spirituality and...
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345: Sex, Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism: Prof. Taylor Petrey
Whatever your position on LDS Studies, it can't be said that the Mormonism is boring. Socially, historically, culturally, politically and theologically its a gold mine of intrigue and interest. Nevermore so than on the topic of sex. Taylor G. Petrey’s history of sexuality and gender in modern...
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344: Mormon Divorce: Les Butterfield
When Mormon divorce happens acrimoniously it's never a better time to observe the LDS church's position on the wellbeing of women and children. The wife of a physician and the mother of four children Leslie felt that she was fulfilling 'the measure of her creation' until she found herself fleeing...
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343: Radical Christian Youth Development: Cat McFedries
Cat McFedries joins me to talk about youth spiritual and religious formation and how some radical pastoring that she received as a young person might have put her off the church, but it didn't put her off the person of Jesus. This disconnect between the heart of the gospel, which is on the…
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342: Polynesian Musings on White Supremacy: Maoputasi Young
In the wake of Joanna Brook's book that starkly presented a case for Mormon white supremacy, Samoan Mormon, Tasi Young, BYU alumna and die-hard Cougars fan wrote to the Salt Lake Tribune asking for the name of BYU to be changed sparking an important conversation among the Mormon Polynesian...
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341: A Community of Christ View of the Book of Mormon: Elray Henriksen
In the basic beliefs of Community of Christ The Book of Mormon is understood as follows: We affirm the Bible as the foundational scripture for the church. In addition, Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants—not to replace the witness of the Bible or improve on...
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340: Out from Under the Sacred Canopy: Prof. Rick Phillips
Professor Rick Phillips hails from Utah and has an impressive Mormon pedigree. He was raised under the sacred canopy of LDS belief and faith. And it was a good life, one that Rick remains nostalgic about to this day. But, his aspirations to be a seminary teacher didn't last as more and more...
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339: Mormon Women Claiming Power: Franzoni Thorley, Ross, Olsen Hemming
Exponent II Editor, Margaret Olsen Hemming says of the Exponent guest edition of Dialogue, " In this issue, we asked women to write about claiming power. We hoped that writers would think creatively about the idea of power, including traditional forms of authority in an organizational hierarchy…
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338: Finding Freedom For the Mind: Luna Lindsey Corbden
The question as to whether or not Mormonism is a cult is a contentious one, but despite your definitions, one thing is for certain, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a high demand faith and as such the exercise of agency and decision making is a charged issue. Wherever you are in...
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337: Mourning America's Brokenness: The Rev. Dr Fatimah Salleh
Liberation theologian James Cone has said: “It is ironic that America, with its history of injustice to the poor, especially the black man and the Indian, prides itself on being a Christian nation.” So, what sense does a profoundly faithful black Christian woman make of America still mired in its...
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336: Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier: Ben Park
Is the USA a democracy, a nascent theocracy, or a mobocracy? Perhaps it's all of those things and all at the same time. The Nauvoo experience gives us a strong sense of the unsettled ideological, economic and religious arguments that remain unresolved in the United States. Powder Keg is what the...
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335: Mormonism and White Supremacy
In this much-needed volume, that follows the evolution of LDS Church thought about race, from its earliest beginnings to its contemporary constructions, Professor Brooks seeks to account for a religious tradition that has never made a definitive departure, nor offered an explanation or an apology...
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334: Women, Pandemic and an Uncertain Future: Prof. Annick Masselot
Professor of Law, Annick Masselot and I reflect on the many gender inequalities that the COVID-19 pandemic has made apparent. With research foci on equality and anti-discrimination law, gender equality, pregnancy and maternity rights, and work-life balance, Annick argues that world leaders are...
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333: Then I stopped listening to Rush Limbaugh: Steve Otteson
One of the great American phenomena is the enmeshment of religion and politics. That relationship is never more present than in the Book of Mormon belt where being Republican is a matter of faithfulness. From Southern Alberta down to Arizona being Mormon means listening to Fox news like its a...
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A podcast that seeks to highlight and model thoughtful faith within Mormonism
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