This audio program is hosted by Bill Reel, an active faithful Latter-day Saint who has himself gone through a difficult and painful faith transition and has remained active in the Church. This program is for the loved ones of those struggling in hopes for understanding and a safe space to have conversations.
You likely received this audio program from someone you love who is going through a hard time. They need you as a trusted friend and they treasure your relationship and are hopeful you will listen to this episode in hopes that you can better understand their struggle of faith. In the end the real solutions to a crisis of faith is love, empathy, compassion, and support and most importantly validation. May this be one step to such things.
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Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis
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Bill – one of your very best episodes to help others share with their fully believing friends and relatives. Great job.
This was a fascinating discussion! Your quote from Reza Aslan was particularly interesting. Do you think there are many people within Mormonism who hold a view similar to Aslan’s? At first, I thought of people like Terryl Givens or Richard Bushman, but I think they still hold a mostly literal view of Mormon truth claims, and I’d guess they believe Mormonism is truer than other faiths in many ways. Aslan’s view seems more like what I imagine John Dehlin was working towards, at least at one point. I don’t personally know anyone with a perspective like that who has remained engaged in Mormonism, but maybe that’s because they simply can’t speak out.
I’d be curious to know if people who get to the later stages of faith in which they re-engage with their faith communities are usually people who had mostly good experiences within their faith to begin with. Perhaps a person with positive feelings toward his tribe’s faith will return with more nuanced views. It seems less likely that someone who has experienced serious “spiritual trauma”, as you discussed in a previous podcast, would want to return to the same faith. Faith crisis within Mormonism have a lot of potential to produce that kind of trauma.