Great, great-great-grandson of Joseph and Emma Smith, Lachlan Mackay, is a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles in Community of Christ.  

A native of Independence, Missouri, Lach argues that context is absolutely critical when doing church history. Unbundling theology from history offers these disciplines the integrity they both need and deserve. 

This has been important to Lach both professionally and personally as someone who sits in a faith tradition founded by a great-grandparent who continues to be one of America's most controversial religious figures.

John Hamer, the Pastor of Centre Place in Toronto,  joins me to talk about how digital technology has radically changed his congregation. 

The Toronto community has had a long and continuous presence in Canada since the very early days of the Restoration. 

Now, from a congregation of dwindling numbers, the pastorate team have transformed Centre Place into a community without borders which, during the COVID-19 pandemic,  has welcomed nearly 1000 weekly participants from 26 different nations.

The Navajo Nation has approximately 356,000 people living on the reservation and from the Navajo Times on Monday 27 April 2020 we read:

 “As of Monday evening, there are 1,769 positive COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation, more than one per cent of the residents on the reservation...The total number of deaths remains at 59.”

For comparison, New Zealand has a population of 5 million and has had 1472 cases and 19 deaths.  

Something is clearly amiss and to discuss the urgent situation on the Navajo Nation, Jo Overton (Lakota) joins me.

In this episode, my guests Nancy Ross from St George and Brittany Mangleson from Saratoga Springs discuss the Utah response to Covid-19 including some of the philosophical, ideological and religious issues with which this disease intersects.

What happens to Easter when a member of the LDS Church Alumni Association can no longer believe in one of Christianity’s greatest stories? What happens when there's too much religious hurt caused by an emphasis on literalism and religious authority that made about 150 too many supernatural claims that became tests of fellowship? Could Easter ever offer hope again?

This episode is for those who find themselves in this sometimes lonely corner of the Christian world where there's still faith even when literal belief in Christianity's more persistent supernatural claims are no longer.

Dr Joanne LaFleur is Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Utah. Joanne has taken an interest in questions that lie at the intersection of science and morality.  In this state of lockdown, there are surprisingly many things to see as science, public health, politics, economics, morality and philosophy generate many new questions for all of us.  Whose lives are worth saving?  How is life-saving to be done?  Does this moment expose the flaws in our economic systems?  Does Covid-19 bring us into conversation about alternative ways of understanding the structures we depend upon for human survival?

Not, all of these questions will be answered in this conversation, but I hope Joanne’s reflections on this moment as a scientist and an epidemiologist and as a regular person who is entering into the question with refreshing honesty and humility, will give us permission to wonder anew this thing we call life.

Rome stands out because of its Christian history and now, even churches have shut down leaving Rome almost empty of the crowds who for centuries have arrived daily to make their pilgrimage to the eternal city.

To discuss Italy's lockdown, its cultural impact and the comfort hope he’s found in online Community of Christ ministry, Michael Wright joins me from the Eternal City.

Duke Divinity School graduate and Baptist Pastor,  Rev. Dr Fatimah Salleh and Exponent II Chief Editor, Margaret Olsen Hemming team up to give the Book of Mormon a Social Justice Reading.  The Book of Mormon for the Least of These is the result.

Refreshingly, and without making any origin or belief claims,  Fatimah and Margaret offer a new perspective on the Book of Mormon arguing that there are yet spiritually useful things to pay attention to that goes beyond our squabbling about whether or not the book is what the church says it is.

As Marcus Borg argued, "believing something to be true has nothing to do with whether it is true.”

One of the most important issues confronting those who have left fundamentalist faith traditions is what to do about their faith life.

In this episode, I discuss deconstruction and reconstruction from a personal perspective for those who are curious about how others proceed across the bridge of what once was a reconstructed spiritual life. 

Of course, one's faith reconstruction will be done on one's own terms and in one's own way, but it might be useful to hear another’s story!

"When Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19), the term “lay-up” did not simply speak of having possessions, but of your possessions having you. “Lay up” could be better translated “hoard” or “stockpile.” - Greg Laurie

Theologically what are we to make of a church that religiously taxes its adherents, demands their labour for a lay clergy and then banks its money only to watch it accrue? 

Is it justifiable?

Most actively participating and paying Mormons won’t question it.  They’ll call it good stewardship and an indication of the care with which the LDS Church Corporations treat its donor revenue.    For others, including my guest, former Salt Lake City tax attorney Mark Barnes, there are more than legal reasons to question the LDS church’s outsized fortune.