| Mormon Stories Podcast | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | John Dehlin (primary host) |
| Genre | |
| Publication | |
| Original release | September 2005 |
Mormon Stories Podcast is a podcast principally hosted by psychologist John Dehlin featuring interviews with individuals and occasionally scholars on Mormon topics. The podcasts are noted as a platform for individuals critical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), skeptic and dissident individuals.
In September 2005, after finding reasons to stay a member of the LDS Church despite a crisis of faith, John Dehlin created the Mormon Stories podcast as an open discussion of Mormon issues with the intention of giving listeners reasons to remain in the church. [1] Through interviews, Mormon Stories focused on varying Mormon experiences and perspectives, including antagonistic, apologetic, intellectual, gay, black, fundamentalist, feminist, and dissenting. Several notable Mormon figures were guests on Mormon Stories, including Gregory Prince, Todd Compton, Grant H. Palmer, Darius Gray, Margaret Blair Young, Richard Bushman, and Margaret and Paul Toscano. Mormon Stories has been featured in many venues, including being broadcast on KVNU in Logan, Utah. [2] In June 2007, John Dehlin was quoted for stories by The New York Times and Good Morning America , discussing Mitt Romney and Mormonism. [3] [4]
At times personally conflicted about continuing Mormon Stories, Dehlin stopped and restarted the project a few times. [5] [6] In January 2010, Dehlin resumed the blog and podcast, focusing on faith crises, mental illnesses, and notable guests, [7] beginning with interviews of Joanna Brooks and John C. Hamer. [8] [9] Among numerous other regular hosts who have joined Dehlin in conducting interviews for the podcast were Dan Wotherspoon, former editor of Sunstone magazine, and Natasha Helfer Parker, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist.
In 2015, Dehlin said Stories episodes had "tens of thousands" of listeners and that the webcast's "goal has always been to alleviate suffering. It's an act of love." [10] Dehlin was excommunicated for apostasy by the LDS Church in 2015.
In 2016, the Open Stories foundation reported Dehlin's 2017 salary and bonus was $82,500 and $27,000 respectively. [11] Dehlin's compensation rose to over $226,000 in 2018, [12] and $236,000 in 2019. [13]
In 2013, a critical review of Mormon Stories by Gregory L. Smith was published in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture . In the review, Smith alleges that "Dehlin is frequently uninformed of the often controversial material he discusses with interviewees, and that he promotes views hostile to the foundational beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". [14] [15] The pending publication of the piece catalyzed within the Mormon studies community a discussion (referred to by some as the "Dehlin affair") [16] [17] [18] about the roles of apologetic and non-faith-based scholarship, respectively, within the academic study of Mormonism by Mormons. [19] [20] [21]
Featured guests of the podcast include Latter-day Saints considered orthodox, "curious," doubters, and heretics. [22] Guests have included a number of "NeverMos" (short for "never-Mormons") and former Mormons [23] who have either backgrounds in "comparative religions/cults" or histories of being associated with the LDS Church without ever becoming members. [24]
Mormonism is the theology and religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects of the Latter Day Saint movement, although there has been a recent push from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to distance themselves from this label. A historian, Sydney E. Ahlstrom, wrote in 1982 that, depending on the context, the term Mormonism could refer to “a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture; indeed, at different times and places it is all of these."
The September Six were six members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by the church in September 1993, allegedly for publishing scholarly work against or criticizing church doctrine or leadership. The term "September Six" was coined by The Salt Lake Tribune and was used in the media and subsequent discussion. The church's action was referred to by some as evidence of an anti-intellectual posture on the part of church leadership.
Dennis Michael Quinn was an American historian who focused on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1976 until he resigned in 1988. At the time, his work concerned church involvement with plural marriage after the 1890 Manifesto, when new polygamous marriages were officially prohibited. He was excommunicated from the church as one of the September Six and afterwards was openly gay. Quinn nevertheless identified as a Latter-day Saint and continued to believe in many LDS teachings, though he did not actively practice the faith.
FAIR , formerly known as FairMormon and the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR), is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that specializes in Mormon apologetics and responds to criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FAIR comprises volunteers who seek to answer questions submitted to its web site. It was founded in November 1997 by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who wanted to defend their faith on AOL message boards. The members of FAIR are international volunteers. FAIR holds an annual conference where topics of current apologetic issues are presented. The organization also publishes a monthly electronic newsletter and a daily news-clipping service.
Grant Hart Palmer spent thirty-four years in the LDS Church Education System, teaching institute and seminary, and served as a chaplain at the Salt Lake County jail for thirteen years. In 2002 Signature Books published Grant’s book, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins, in which Grant scrutinized many of Mormonism’s foundational stories. Grant went on to publish two additional books, The Incomparable Christ in 2005, and Restoring Christ: Leaving Mormon Jesus for Jesus of the Gospels.
The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, or Maxwell Institute, is a research institute at Brigham Young University (BYU). The institute consists of faculty and visiting scholars who study religion, primarily the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The institute is named after a former LDS Church apostle, known for his writings and sermons.
Terryl Lynn Givens is a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University (BYU). Until 2019, he was a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he held the James A. Bostwick Chair in English.
The Strengthening Church Members Committee is a committee of general authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who monitor the publications of its members for possible criticism of general and local church leaders. If criticism is found, the committee may forward information to local church leaders, who may bring charges of apostasy, which can result in excommunication.
Simon G. Southerton is an Australian plant geneticist and co-founder of Gondwana Genomics, an Australian technology firm specialising in Marker-assisted selection for tree breeding. Southerton published the book Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church. The book uses genetic evidence to examine the historical accuracy of the Book of Mormon and related claims about the Lamanite people.
John Parkinson Dehlin is an American podcast host. He holds a PhD in psychology. Dehlin founded the Mormon Stories Podcast, as well as several other Mormon-themed podcasts, blogs, and web sites. He was an influential early participant in the Mormon blogosphere, and blogs at Patheos.com. He has advocated for the rights of skeptics in Mormonism, LGBT rights, equality for women, and other individual views outside mainstream Mormonism.
By Common Consent (BCC) is a group blog featuring commentary and discussions, especially regarding the culture of and current events within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was founded in 2004 and is one of several blogs in the group known as the Mormon Bloggernacle. According to the blog's mission statement, BCC was founded to "provide a thoughtful, enjoyable, and reasonable place to post and discuss Mormon topics."
Stay LDS / Mormon is a collaborative blog featuring discussion and commentary about Mormon issues, beliefs, culture, thought and current events. It was created by Brian Johnston and John Dehlin, formerly of the Sunstone Education Foundation.
Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of individuals and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious movement associated with the Book of Mormon, though not all churches and members of the Latter Day Saint movement identify with the terms Mormon or Mormonism. Denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the largest, as well as the Community of Christ (CoC) and other smaller groups, include some categorized under the umbrella term Mormon fundamentalism.
John C. Hamer is an American-Canadian historian and mapmaker. His research has focused primarily on the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, authoring several books on the topic. Hamer is a leading expert on various schisms within especially non- far-Western (U.S.) portions of the Latter Day Saint "Restoration" movement. Raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hamer left the religion before joining Community of Christ in 2010 and now serves as Pastor of its Toronto Congregation.
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is a nonprofit, peer-reviewed, and educational academic journal published by the Interpreter Foundation primarily covering topics related to the canon of scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon studies, and Latter-day Saint apologetics. It was established in July 2012 by the Interpreter Foundation with Daniel C. Peterson as founding editor-in-chief. Peterson had previously been the founding editor of the FARMS Review, which in 2011 had been renamed the Mormon Studies Review (MSR) by the heads of the Maxwell Institute (MI). The MSR launched soon after Peterson's release from MI without direct apologetics as one of their goals. Peterson believed that direct apologetics was a necessary feature of a publication like the MSR while others did not. This philosophical difference between Peterson and the editors of the MSR led to the creation of the Interpreter Foundation, which retained apologetic content.
Denver Carlos Snuffer Jr. is a Utah lawyer, an author of Restorationist devotional books, a lecturer, a speculative theologian, and claims to be a “revelator to fellowships of the remnants movement,” a spiritual movement in schism with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The movement has a few thousand adherents, many of them members or former members of the LDS Church. He was excommunicated by the LDS Church in 2013 for refusing to cease publication of his 2011 book, Passing the Heavenly Gift which challenges many points of LDS orthodoxy. He subsequently has been identified as a prophet by many, and several of his teachings have been canonized as scripture.
Ordain Women is a Mormon feminist organization that supports the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was founded on March 17, 2013, by Kate Kelly, a human rights attorney from Washington, D.C., with the website launch containing 19 profiles of individuals calling for the ordination of Mormon women. As of May 17, 2014, the website featured more than 400 profiles.
Lindsay Hansen Park is an American Mormon feminist blogger, podcaster, and the executive director for the Salt Lake City-based non-profit Sunstone Education Foundation.
Remnant fellowships are a loosely organized branch of the Latter Day Saint movement formed by individuals who accept alleged divine revelations received by Denver Snuffer Jr.. The Remnant Fellowships generally feel called to personal and social renewal preparatory to Christ's eventual second coming. According to movement beliefs, participants anticipate a coming time when remnants remain within the full restored covenant with Jesus Christ: an allusion to a belief that "The Bible, Book of Mormon, and modern revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, prophesy that the gospel of Jesus Christ would shift from the Gentile stewards of the gospel back to Israel in the last days." The movement places a renewed focus on individual communion with God, gifts of the spirit, tangible expressions of faith, and the eventual establishment of Zion. While the movement has no official name, the term "Snufferite" has been used to denote followers. Other designations include covenant of Christ movement and Denver Snuffer movement. Participants sometimes reference each other as "covenant Brother," "covenant Sister".
Grant Hardy is professor of history and religious studies and former director of the humanities program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He earned his BA in ancient Greek in 1984 from Brigham Young University and his PhD in Chinese language and literature from Yale University in 1988. Having written, cowritten, or edited several books in the fields of history, humanities, and religious texts as literature, Hardy is known for literary studies of the Book of Mormon.
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