Sat, 20 April 2019
When the crime documentary 'Abducted in Plain Sight' was released on Netflix, Jan Broberg (the woman at the centre of this seemingly bizarre story of multiple kidnappings, an alien mission and sexual assault while a child) was full of regret and worry. Her parents, Maryann and Bob Broberg, were publicly mocked and vilified for what seemed to be their complicity with the abuser Robert Berchtold.
But a 90-minute crime documentary cannot hope to capture the complexity and nuance of a story that has spanned several decades. This was a story, not just about the violation of a child, but about the manipulation and grooming of a whole family.
The Broberg women sit down with me in order to set the record straight about their beloved parents. Their only motivation in telling this sometimes excruciating story is to have families, churches and communities speak up courageously about the banality of grooming and sexual abuse among our own. |
Tue, 26 March 2019
Sara Hughes-Zabawa joins me for the final episode of the Fowler's Stages of Faith series. |
Tue, 12 March 2019
Jana Riess discusses her study 'The Next Mormons' and how the changing worldviews of Millennials will impact the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. |
Mon, 4 March 2019
Joanna Brooks and Kalani Tonga join me to discuss their book of women's blessings and poetry, 'We Hold Your Name' (2019) |
Mon, 25 February 2019
Richard James is a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles, the lead missionary quorum of Community of Christ. He is assigned to the Eurasia Mission Field.
Richard was born in Swansea, South Wales.
In the spirit of LDS Restoration ecumenism Richard joins me to discuss how Community of Christ has developed as a vital expression of the Restoration. |
Fri, 22 February 2019
The Psalms are unique in scripture. The Psalms strip away all decorum and show the fragility and wildness of the human condition. The Psalms tell us that God invites our disappointment, our anger and our confusion. The Psalms tell us that sometimes, there's no polite way of talking to God and that God is fine with that! |
Mon, 18 February 2019
The Rev. Tyler Doherty, Priest in charge at St. Marks Cathedral Church in downtown Salt Lake City and parishioner Cody Hatch. |
Wed, 13 February 2019
John Hamer comes from a family who has long been a part of the Latter-day Saint movement. Once a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, today, John pastors a bustling downtown Toronto Community of Christ congregation. |
Tue, 29 January 2019
Craig Vernon has represented clients in several high profile church and clergy perpetrated sexual abuse cases including cases involving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
Mon, 21 January 2019
We shouldn't be more worried about Faith Crisis than we are about our response to it. A poor response to faith crisis can cause spiritual havoc and immense emotional damage.
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Thu, 17 January 2019
David Hayward is popularly known by his cartoons, his blog, and his books as The NakedPastor.
And for many years he his drawn his way through his own difficult relationship with the church that he both loves and laments. |
Tue, 8 January 2019
When Maxine Hanks returned to the LDS Church after being excommunicated with the September 6 in 1993, she returned to the LDS Church having taken a spiritual formation pathway in the Gnostic tradition. One of her great passions upon her return to Mormonism has been to surface the LDS Church's own spiritual formation pathway. In this discussion, we consider the Liturgical Calendar, so important to the sacramental traditions. We consider what the 'church year' from Advent to Pentecost, can offer us in helping us live more intuitively into the story of Jesus Christ and thus more kindly attend to our personal spiritual journeys. |
Tue, 1 January 2019
Join Sarah Hughes-Zabawa in this guided meditation to accompany our discussion about Fowler's Stage Five. |
Tue, 1 January 2019
Sara Hughes-Zabawa and I discuss a spirituality that pays attention to both the church's tendency to spiritually wound and spiritually enliven. We discuss Fowler's Stage Five in the context of spiritual practice and suggest those moves that we can make to support our living with a complex spirituality that refuses the easy binaries and judgements of either/or and right/wrong. |
Tue, 1 January 2019
Royleane Otteson joins me to discuss how to be a faithful witness to another's spiritual journey. Using the Advent reading of Elizabeth and Zechariah as a story of community witness, we unpack what friendship means to those of us who have embarked on our own journeys of spiritual seeking. |
Thu, 13 December 2018
Without any effort to contextualize or indigenize the LDS Church in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Māori are often asked to accept ways of being that get imported from Utah. This 'Utah' worldview is too often presented to LDS Māori as the way Jesus Christ would do things and is called the 'Gospel Culture.'
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Wed, 12 December 2018
Advent marks the beginning of the Church year, and Jody England Hansen and Melissa Beh join me to discuss the Way of Love as part of our Advent Study series. |
Thu, 22 November 2018
270: Serving Up Children to Paedophiles: The LDS Church and the West Virginia Michael Jensen Sex Abuse Case: Tom and Juliette
Lawyer Tim Kosnoff, recently remarked that he thought that churches largely were harmless. That was until he uncovered a system of cover-ups, and he witnessed first hand the immoral and callous lengths that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will go to deny the rights of sexual abuse victims to seek justice. |
Mon, 19 November 2018
In the United Kingdom, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a registered Charity overseen by the Charity Commission. This means it is must provide a public benefit and it needs to be transparent. In this discussion, Chris Mace joins me once again to dive into the public record to see what the latest figures and sums reveal about the LDS Church's financial operations in the United Kingdom. |
Mon, 12 November 2018
A few years ago, Nancy Ross and Jessica Finnigan set about trying to find out something about the relationship that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have with their temple garments. Around 4,500 Mormons responded to their question "What do your garments mean to you?" |
Mon, 5 November 2018
Mark Pugsley is a lawyer in Salt Lake City Utah who specialises in recovering money lost by investors due to bad advice or misconduct. |
Thu, 25 October 2018
Sara Hughes-Zabawa offers a guided meditation to accompany our journeys into Stage Four: The Individuative-Reflective stage of faith. |
Thu, 25 October 2018
266a: Fowlers Stages of Faith: Developing a Healthy Individuative-Reflective Faith: Sara Hughes-Zabawa
Sara Hughes-Zabawa returns to discuss one of the most emotionally and spiritually challenging stages in Fowler's Stages of Faith; the development of an Individuative-Reflective Faith. In high demand or fundamentalist faith traditions Stage Four is poorly understood and often poorly responded to by families, hurch friends and leadership. |
Mon, 22 October 2018
As my interview with spiritual trauma therapy specialist Kathleen Shannon will indicate, a definition for religious abuse is difficult to nail it down. But according to Caswell and Swindle (2018) religious abuse occurs within three categories.
There is a good amount of literature about religious and spiritual abuse and what comes up, again and again, is that firstly, religious abuse is ubiquitous in conservative and fundamentalist faith traditions. And secondly, religious abuse has a profound effect on personal well being and mental health. In this interview, Kathleen and I will be talking about the dominant forms of religious abuse which are:
What’s interesting in this interview is that as two people who come from two different backgrounds we soon realise that we have a great deal in common. Which begs many questions about what is going on society that Christianity that denominations have been captured by a form of church that has great potential to cause harm.
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Fri, 19 October 2018
Jan Tyler has been an active campaigner for women's rights since the early 1970's. Her first job was at Weber State University as the Women's Dean. It was there that she met the incoming President, Joseph Bishop. He became so problematic that she eventually hired a lawyer and took out a discrimination case against him.
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Wed, 10 October 2018
Sam Young was recently excommunicated from the LDS Church. His sin was 'advocating' for a change of policy to prevent Church Leaders from asking children sexually explicit questions. He had collected the testimonies of hundreds of abuse victims, but this was not enough to prevent his ousting. Sam's Disciplinary Council and Stake President were more disturbed by his challenging the Church leaders than they were by the hundreds of instances of abuse he presented to them. In this interview, we explore the spiritual journey that brought Sam to a reckoning with the church to which he has given his life. |
Sun, 30 September 2018
LDS sacrament meetings are decidedly low church but without the possibility of any variation or innovation - anywhere in the world. And it's been that way for decades. |
Wed, 26 September 2018
261: Understanding the Conditions that lead to Church Related and Clergy Perpetrated Sexual Abuse: Dr. Rocio Figueroa
It comes as no surprise that the Roman Catholic Church is suffering a crisis of credibility over its handling of cases of church-related and clergy perpetrated sexual abuse. Rocio specializes in issues related to women's studies, and reciprocity between men and women. In the Holy See she was responsible for the Women’s section in the Pontifical Council of Laity (specifically creating networks between the different international Catholic associations which promote the dignity and value of women).
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Thu, 20 September 2018
Few institutions are more equipped to peek in on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with more understanding, sympathy and even critique than the Community of Christ. They too have been dealing the same history with which the Mormons have been struggling. But they are a generation or two ahead of the Mormons, suffering the natural convolutions and troubles that come from any institutional reckoning. As a result, they know what it means to pay the price for, and then to enjoy the spiritual liberation that comes from squaring up to your tradition's past sins. |
Wed, 12 September 2018
Tom Mikota has designed special effects on such blockbuster movies as Avatar, King Kong, Tintin etc. But it wasn't until he was shoulder tapped to work on the 360 degree Joseph Smith film on Temple Square that things began to occur to him. After a lifetime of faithful service, he was introduced to the contradictory first vision accounts that he was employed to represent as an employee of the church. |
Tue, 28 August 2018
258: Taking the Mormons to Court: Defending Sexual Abuse Victims against the LDS Church: Tim Kosnoff
Tim Kosnoff is a US attorney who has spent the last two decades representing victims of sexual abuse. His introduction to the LDS Church and their lawyers was when he represented Jeremiah Scott who was sexually abused by a serial paedophile Frank Curtis. His work, in this case, appears in Lisa Davis' legal thriller, 'The Sins of Brother Curtis.' Tim joins me to discuss his experiences as a representative and advocate for sexual abuse victims against the LDS Church. |
Mon, 20 August 2018
257: The Sins of Brigham: The granddaughters of Brigham's wives speak out: Jacobs, Jensen & Chamberlain
While Mormons claim Joseph Smith as the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is still very much Brigham Young's church. Brigham's leadership was formative in shaping the LDS movements as it is today. The husband of 55 wives Brigham's influence was more than organisational. He was also responsible for establishing a patriarchal structure and suite of doctrines and practices that affirmed that loyalty to the highest priesthood office in the church was the church's primary orthodoxy, and the feminine role was to honour that priesthood. So, what of those who directly inherited Brigham's legacy. What of his female posterity? |
Sun, 12 August 2018
Duane Jennings is the author of the two-volume series "Stumbling Blocks and Stepping-Stones." In this conversation, we consider (notwithstanding current LDS policy) an LDS queer theology through the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.
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Sun, 22 July 2018
In 1990 the Pace Memorandum reported the findings of General Authority Glenn Pace in which alleged victims described ritual abuse. This was followed by a Utah State Legislature investigation in which hundreds of alleged victims were interviewed. These testimonies were later dismissed as 'false memories.' Yet, research indicates that the undermining of these testimonies was not best professional practice for the mental health community. Tara Workman-Tulley is a Provo based therapist who specializes in complex trauma. Many of her clients continue to report childhood experiences of ritual abuse that have uncanny similarities. Tara joins me to discuss sexual abuse and sex trafficking in Mormon communities. |
Wed, 18 July 2018
Benjamin Knoll and Cami-Jo Bollin discuss their new book, 'She Preached the Word: Women's Ordination in Modern America.' Their study uses novel survey data that reveals a surprising relationship between political orientation and an acceptance of women's ordination. This, of course, raises one of America's most pressing questions: How strongly are America's religious sensibilities shaped by their much polarized US political scene? |
Sun, 8 July 2018
A meditation to accompany our thinking and feeling into how we once or are currently living in Fowler's Stage Three: Synthetic-Conventional Faith. |
Sun, 8 July 2018
253: Revisiting Fowler's Stages of Faith: Stage Three - A Synthetic-Conventional Faith: Sara Hughes- Zabawa
Sarah Hughes-Zabawa rejoins me to discuss Fowler's Stages of Faith: The Synthetic-Conventional Stage. Stage Three is usually entered into during adolescence. It's that stage in which we imagine that our views represent an accurate and faithful totality of truth. This stage also sees us looking at institutions as the bearers of that truth, and we reward those institutions with our agreement and consent to their authority. During this stage, we come to believe that there are goals to accomplish and in meeting those goals we'll please God and receive blessings. But, as we'll discuss, stage three also has its complications.
Direct download: Sara_Hughes-Zabawa__Stage_Four_Final.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:38pm NZDT |
Fri, 29 June 2018
In June 2014 Kate Kelly, the vocal spokesperson for Ordain Women, was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for apostasy. |
Mon, 25 June 2018
Sabine (name changed) served faithfully in the church for years. Then several incidents involving her children occurred causing her to act swiftly to protect them from bullying and shaming from adult leaders. The result was a fall-out with her local LDS community followed by a request that she no longer enter the church premises. |
Fri, 22 June 2018
Brian and Gina discuss the complexity of the experience of Mormonism when confronted with eyes wide open to both its past, its present and its changing contexts. |
Fri, 1 June 2018
248: What happened to the Cross?: Michael Reed on Free Masonry, Roman Catholics and Mormonism's perplexing relationship with the Cross
Mormons don't have a robust theology of the cross. They are more inclined to say that, 'We celebrate the Living Christ, not the death of Christ'. Though Mormons claim to be Christian this defining sign of Christianity is missing, while other symbols taken from Free Masonry are abundant. Michael Reed, author of 'Banishing the Cross: The emergence of a Mormon Taboo' joins me to discuss how this circumstance came to be. |
Wed, 16 May 2018
006: Women's Bodies, Motherhood, Sex and Oblivious Husbands: A Review of Tully: The Cheeky Mormon Movie Review
Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin get real about the price of motherhood in this somewhat Mormon flavoured review of Tully by Jason Reitman, starring Charlize Theron. |
Mon, 7 May 2018
In Part Two the World Ministry Tour of President Russell Nelson, Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, Elder Jeffrey Holland and Sister Patricia Holland comes under fire. |
Mon, 7 May 2018
Peter Bleakley offers optimistic and enthusiastic commentary on the new ministering programme currently being rolled out to replace Home and Visiting Teaching. |
Mon, 30 April 2018
Gina and movie reviewer Derrick Clements discuss Love, Simon. |
Mon, 30 April 2018
246: "There's a world of ideas competing for access to human brains": Souls, Brains and the Divine: Dr Michael Ferguson
Dr Michael Ferguson is a research fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. He works at the intersections of culture and brain. His active research includes cognitive neuroscientific investigations of intelligence, memory, depression, religiosity, depression and spiritual experience.
Michael joins Gina to discuss the relationship between religion, church, spirituality and God. They go deeply into the question of where and how we feel the spirit, and how the spirit is ultimately an embodied experience. |
Mon, 23 April 2018
The Old Testament can be a bit confusing. Biblical scholar Prof. David Bokovoy, joins Gina Colvin to discuss the things that are handy to know in order to really appreciate the Old Testament as a sacred text worth considering today. |
Tue, 17 April 2018
Historian Newell Bringhurst discusses the background to his seminal work, "Saints, Slave and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism." |
Fri, 13 April 2018
"There's no point at which we can say, 'I've got it.' Always and forever, mystery gets you. Our searching for God is a search for symbols, analogies and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. That's the best human language can achieve. We must absolutely must, maintain a fundamental humility before the great mystery. If we do not, religion always worships itself and its formulations, and never God." So says Fr. Richard Rohr, and thus contemplates art historian and medievalist Professor Nancy Ross. Nancy reflects on the place of art in religion in the West and how that has shaped her own spiritual development.
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Sun, 1 April 2018
General Conference is often scheduled at the same time as Holy Week. While there is much in LDS History to suggest that the formal organisation of the church occurred not coincidently with Holy Week of 1830, we are according to Bob Rees, still missing out on the most important season of the Christian year. |
Sat, 31 March 2018
Sara Hughes-Zabawa returns to discuss Fowler's Stage Two: The Mythic Literal stage. |
Wed, 28 March 2018
Mormon feminist writers and commentators Sara Katherine Staheli-Hanks and Tresa Brown Edmunds respond to the MTC President sex-scandal, and generally to the problem of sexual abuse in the LDS Church. |
Sat, 24 March 2018
Laurie Dipadova-Stocks, a former Stake Relief Society President; Royleane Otteson, a former Ward Relief Society President, and Laurie Lee Hall a former Stake President and now an excommunicated transwoman attending Relief Society discuss women's ministry in the LDS Church. |
Thu, 15 March 2018
A couple of years ago Jena and Glyn Jones sold up everything they had and went on the road on a hunch that God had a mission for them. On their last dollars, and to their great surprise they ended up parking their RV in Short Creek and from there everything changed. |
Wed, 14 March 2018
Faith change or Impasse is often met with a resistance to our early life stories of the Divine. |
Fri, 9 March 2018
In this episode, Jana Spangler (Salt Lake City) and Peter Bleakley (London) have a hard conversation about what is troubling the LDS Church and they seek to grapple with these questions. Is there any hope for change in the LDS Church? Should the church change? What could change? Who could bring that change? And whether or not change in the LDS Church is even worth hanging around for? |
Tue, 27 February 2018
Thomas Merton poses a question for Lent, "Where do we turn for Forgiveness?" |
Sat, 24 February 2018
William V. Smith joins me to discuss his forthcoming book, ‘Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation.’ |
Mon, 19 February 2018
Lindsay Denton, Melissa Beh and Josh Brazier and I are members of a Lenten Study Group for Mormons. Together we discuss the journey into renewing our spiritual practices. We talk about Lent and how it serves as an ideal time for contemplation and the renewal of our faith lives. |
Sat, 17 February 2018
Who is God, Blaire? |
Tue, 13 February 2018
A guided meditation from Sara Hughes-Zabawa to companion our reflections on Fowlers Stage 0-1. |
Tue, 13 February 2018
In thinking about Fowler's stages model, adults don't tend to discuss the childhood phases. Yet, we all have parts of each stage present in us, whether some have been mostly passed through, and others are nascent.
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Thu, 8 February 2018
How racist was Joseph Smith? Can the LDS Church really claim Jane Manning James as an example of Joseph Smith's progressive ideals? There's plenty of evidence to suggest that Joseph Smith had a theological imagination for Indigenous Americans, but what did he really think of African Americans? |
Wed, 31 January 2018
Co-authors Judith and James McConkie discuss their breakthrough historical Jesus primer for Mormons; 'Whom Say Ye That I am?: Lessons from the Jesus of Nazareth. |
Mon, 22 January 2018
Thomas McConkie offers a healing meditation. |
Mon, 22 January 2018
Mindfulness teacher; author of ‘Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis’; and Founder of the Lower Lights Sangha, Thomas McConkie, joins Gina to discuss contemplative Mormonism and some of the spiritual practices that are attached to the contemplative traditions. Thomas also offers January 2018’s guided meditation on ‘Healing’, and we chat about some of the resources available that support the Mormon contemplative community. |
Mon, 15 January 2018
With all of the chatter happening in Mormon circles about Prophets, Apostles and Presidents I talk to two people about prophets and prophecy. In Episode 227, Chris Kimball the grandson of the 12th president of the LDS Church, Spencer W. Kimball, talks about what it means to have a Prophet in the family. |
Mon, 15 January 2018
226: Prophets and Prophecy from the outside and the inside: Rev'd Megan Herles-Mooar & Chris Kimball
With all of the chatter happening in Mormon circles about Prophets, Apostles and Presidents I talk to two people about prophets and prophecy. |
Sun, 7 January 2018
Two former Bishops who have both experienced a faith crisis respond to the question: 'How can LDS leaders behave more sensitively and with more wisdom to those experiencing a faith crisis?' |
Thu, 4 January 2018
The 2018 A Thoughtful Faith Podcast theme is 'Faithful Change.' Every month we provide a Homily, a meditation on spiritual matters. For January Gina shares a reflection on Divine Absence.
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Fri, 29 December 2017
In a frank discussion, Rebecca Sachiko Burton talks about being the mother of seven children and how she manages parenting with wisdom and openness on the 'Big Tent' side of Mormonism. |
Sun, 24 December 2017
Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin give a quick nod to Thor: Ragnarok and then provide a thoroughly Mormon review of Star Wars VIII. |
Mon, 18 December 2017
Mormon Temple policy doesn't change a great deal from year to year, so the 14 December 2017 announcement that extends the rights of Baptistry officiation to 16-17 year old boys was a surprise. While this might bring gasps of pleasure for the boys, there are, naturally, questions and concerns with respect to the impact this has on Young Women who have been given administrative duties. |
Mon, 11 December 2017
It seems most unMormon for anyone to receive a call to ministry. Mormons are supposed to wait for someone in the church to extend that call and as things stand no call for women in the LDS Church involves ordination. But what happens when Mormon women hear the call? |
Mon, 4 December 2017
220: When Mormons need a Psychiatrist: Neuroplasticity, Scrupulosity, and Children Hoarding: Dr. Bill Bunn
Dr.Bill Bunn is a BYU psychiatrist who specializes in adolescent and young adult psychiatric disorders. He joins me to discuss mental illness, the brain and neuroplasticity. We also consider how scrupulosity and anxiety disorders present among young Mormons and missionaries. |
Tue, 28 November 2017
With the promise of education, social mobility and gathering to Zion, many Tongan and Samoan Mormons have made Utah their home. But what are the challenges for Polynesians growing up in Salt Lake where wealth, church leadership, education, and opportunity continue to be a racial privilege? What are the psychic and cultural costs for those children who live between two worlds without really being grounded in either? |
Mon, 27 November 2017
In May 2015 Gina Colvin & Nathan McCluskey recorded a frank conversation about how faith crisis was affecting their marriage. Two and a half years later they find that their differences are now even more marked. Yet, in spite of their now occupying different moral worlds, their differentiation has given rise to new and more profound ways of being in relationship with each other. |
Tue, 21 November 2017
Manhattan-based Psychotherapist Wendy Christian discusses patriarchy in the LDS Church and how this imbalance hurts everyone including men and boys. |
Tue, 31 October 2017
Tom Christofferson's spiritual journey as a gay man took him from Mormonism, out, and back again. Rima Tamaiparea-Puke's spiritual journey as a gay man took him from Catholicism to Mormonism and back to Catholicism. Both stories attest to stories of deep faith and religious devotion. Both stories speak to the need in all of us to be reconciled in one way or another to the faith of our families.
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Mon, 23 October 2017
215: When a Former Mormon Becomes Your Prime Minister: Reflections on Jacinda Ardern and the LDS Church in New Zealand
Ganeshji Cherian, Sarah Howard, Quintin Howard and Nathan McCluskey discuss the cultural mismatch of American Mormon culture with New Zealand culture in the wake of Jacinda Ardern's becoming the Prime Minister of New Zealand. |
Sat, 30 September 2017
Tom Christofferson is gay and he's Mormon. His recently published book 'That We May Be One' is a touching memoir of love, loss, and faith. We discuss the story within his story that our life's journey be underscored by a demonstrative, kind and gentle love, particularly for our LGBTQ brothers, sisters and children. |
Thu, 28 September 2017
Filmmaker, Kendall Wilcox and I delve into the question of why the LDS Church has poured so much legal and political energy into the preservation of heterosexual marriage and its corollary debates over religious freedom. |
Tue, 26 September 2017
Ian Thomson is a public defender in Boise, Idaho. In this podcast, we deconstruct the ideology and practice of excommunication. We also discuss how enmeshed LDS excommunication is with the US judicial system. |
Sun, 17 September 2017
Amiee Flynn-Curran is a non-Mormon ethnographer who did her PhD fieldwork in the Oakland First Ward of the San Francisco Bay Area. Amiee’s was interested in finding out how a conservative Christian church community negotiates the question of gender and sexuality inclusivity. For 18 months Amiee participated in the life of the Oakland First Ward as a participant researcher. Amiee shares some of her research conclusions as an observer looking into how social politics is played out in an LDS ward widely hailed as one of Mormonism's most liberal congregations. |
Fri, 15 September 2017
Melissa Inouye is Chinese, Japanese American and grew up as a Mormon in California, aware of her cultural and ethnic differences from the general LDS population.
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Tue, 5 September 2017
Low retention and a failure to contextualize means that the LDS Church continues to be a minority faith tradition in South American. Missionaries who are called to serve from nations outside, are more often than not culturally incompetent to proselyte in this region of the world and sometimes do more mischief than good. With complex economic and political conditions and even more strained historical relationships with the United States, missionaries and General Authorities too often speak into a cultural void, organising the LDS Church around ideas that work in Utah but have little relevance anywhere else. Samy Galvez (Guatemala) joins me to discuss the Latin American Mormon context and to critique the issues of class, religion, politics, race, culture and ethnicity that are either overlooked or misunderstood in LDS Latin American mission and ecclesial practice. |
Wed, 30 August 2017
Laurie Maffly-Kipp is the Archer Alexander distinguished Professor at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in St. Louis. As an observer of Mormonism, she has researched Mormon mission and the way that the LDS Church replicates it self in places beyond it's Utah centre. In this conversation, we discuss Mormonism as a Wasatch Front cultural transplant and consider the issues that arise for both local cultures and for the church as it seeks to be a relevant and vibrant worldwide faith tradition. |
Fri, 18 August 2017
On August 15, 2017 the LDS church issued the following statement: |
Tue, 15 August 2017
"Rachel Hunt-Steenblik wrote 246 small poems exploring aspects of our Heavenly Mother. And BCC’s own Ashley Mae Hoiland complemented these poems with more than 40 original drawings. The result is an intimate discussion of the deep human longing for a Mother God." |
Wed, 9 August 2017
Lancaster University PhD student, Sheldon Kent discusses the esoteric and mystical influences abroad during the early days of Mormonism. In particular, he discusses Emmanual Swedenborg and the impact that this 18th-century philosopher and church man had on Joseph Smith's theology. |
Sat, 22 July 2017
Rich Vial is a Republican representative in the Oregan State Legislature. He's also a former Mormon bishop who went through a faith crisis during his tenure. In this episode, we discuss how to go about having difficult conversations with those who are ideologically and religiously different from ourselves, and how to do that with grace and compassion. |
Wed, 12 July 2017
Jenne de Normandie Eregiro Alderks was a teenage convert from Unitarian Universalism. When she joined the LDS church her mother, knowing somewhat of the strict gender roles in Mormonism, asked her, 'Can you really be a Mormon woman?' One of the hallmarks of the restoration was Joseph Smith's openness to other spiritual traditions and ideas and this seeking has been kept alive in Mormon feminism. Jenne's spiritual seeking is part of a rich intergenerational tradition of Mormon women who quietly keep alive the faith's mysticism.
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Wed, 28 June 2017
Gina Colvin and Bill Reel (host of the popular podcast Mormon Discussions) get together for a chat about what it takes to still be engaged in the LDS Church when so many of their friends have left. They discuss the development of their young testimonies but reflect on how difficult it has become in recent years to love the church with the same enthusiasm they once had. They consider how LDS Church could be better for those who crave a deeper and a kinder experience at church. They also consider their futures as Mormons. |
Sat, 24 June 2017
Dr Alan Jamieson is the senior pastor at the South West Baptist Church in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is an author of multiple books on faith development. We talk about the implications for those ministering to those in faith crisis and how church leaders and communities can best respond to those with doubts and questions. |
Fri, 16 June 2017
LDS Bishops are at the front line as Mormons facing their own questions, concerns and doubts seek their counsel. Too often these local leaders surmise that the person expressing doubt must have done something wrong to get there. 'This isn't the case', says Bishop Jones, a sitting Bishop in Seattle. |
Tue, 6 June 2017
This week Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin cast their critical Mormon eyes over 'Wonder Woman.' |
Fri, 2 June 2017
Mormons all over the world are gathering online in increasing numbers. They do this to process their past, present and future relationships with the church. It is online that they find people who understand their growing or changing faith lives The increasing size and complexity of Online Unchurched Mormonism attest to its utility. But without the formal rules, manners and ethics found in face to face community, online 'progressive' or post-Mormon communities that provoke challenges that signal the community's volatility and vulnerabilities. |
Thu, 1 June 2017
We review Get out, Jordan Peele's break out satirical horror featuring British actor Daniel Kaluuya, and US actress Alison Williams. While we wouldn't recommend seeing Get Out as a church or a Family Home Evening activity, we feel like it needs to be seen by everyone because of its biting treatment of the dangers of White American middle-class liberalism. |
Tue, 16 May 2017
Join Gina Colvin and Derrick Clements for a fun, cheeky, slightly irreverent but joyful review of the latest at the box office! This week we review 'The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2'
Direct download: CMMR_1_-_Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol._2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:18am NZDT |
Mon, 15 May 2017
Too often the unique cultural identity of Canadian Mormonism gets lost in the noise of their neighbours to the South. In 1977 Canadian author Margaret Atwood, said of the United States:
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