Latter Day Struggles

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part I of IV]Welcome to the first of a WONDERFUL four-part mini series with guest Christian Kimball, author of the beautiful book Living on the Inside of the Edge.   In today’s episode Chris and Val will focus on the topic of how prone we as Latter Day Saints (as are others in early stage spiritual and psychological development) are to think in BINARIES:  good/bad, right/wrong, in/out. Their invitation is to break out of binary-thinking and begin to see your relationship with the church on your own terms, emphasizing that your relationship with your current spiritual practice WILL CHANGE, because our life’s experiences change us all.  In Friday’s episode Val and Chris focus on finally *truly* growing up in our relationship with the church! This episode digs into the concept of obtaining a differentiated [read: adult-to -adult] relationship with the church and how this adult-to-adult dynamic might look on the ground in real life relationships, especially with your bishop. Helpful podcast-related resources:Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide, Christian Kimball⁠Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Valerie shares her findings on the main causes of LDS faith crisis, including emerging issues in 2023. She discusses the psychological perspective of those in crisis and the relational suffering due to rhetoric. Valerie also talks about the interventions she uses to help people heal and how they look and feel as they recover. The podcast covers diverse demographics, challenges faced in relationships, and the importance of recognizing faith crisis as a normal part of growth.

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Tribute to Carol Lynn Pearson's Groundbreaking Play "Mother Wove with Morning" [Part I of II]Following last week’s deep dive into the talk “To the Mothers in Zion”, you are likely struck by the need to better understand the fraught roll of women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 20th and 21st century.However, the struggle to understand the unequal status of women is not just an LDS in nature.  It is MUCH bigger than that.  And it is deeply connected to the loss of our collective knowledge of the feminine divine.This is what this week’s Latter Day Struggles episodes plans to explore.And who better to take us on this journey than own beloved poet laureate, author, and feminist extraordinaire—Carol Lynn Pearson.The specific topic of this two-episode series is Carol Lynn’s one-woman play titled “Mother Wove the Morning”.In Carol Lynn’s typically beautiful and dramatic way, we learn all about women throughout the ages their ongoing search for the divine face of God.Monday’s episode offers context to the creation of this play—her personal experiences that led up to the realization of this idea, where, how, when it was performed and how it was received.She shares her experience deciding to address the feminine divine in an era where feminist and heavenly mother scholarship was under the critical scrutiny from the leadership of the church and how she decided to answer the call notwithstanding the risks.In Friday’s episode Carol Lynn will delight us all with an overview of the cast of characters whom she selected to perform through her and actually performs a portion of the play for us all to enjoy!If you loved the little portion that you heard on the podcast, don’t hesitate to go to her website carollynnpearson.com and buy the entire play and the book that goes with it.  It is time for a resurrection of this amazing one-woman play in the ongoing celebration of the feminine face of God with whom so many of us are finding deep connection.Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Former leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Ezra Taft Benson, discusses his infamous talk 'To the Mothers of Zion.' The podcast explores the historical context behind Benson's stance, including the Red Scare, feminist movement, civil rights movement, and the LDS church's commitment to codified gender roles. It also delves into Benson's involvement in the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title:  How & Why Power Hierarchies Were Created [Part V of VI]In today’s and Friday’s (final) episode of this series we will be covering several recommendations given by the brilliant scholar Gerta Lerner on how we as individuals within our own systems can break down hierarchical systems of oppression.The recommendations explored today are as follows:Accept differences in others.  Don’t just tolerate them.  Val and Nathan go into some detail about how this might look on the group within the culture and theology of the LDS church.Once we acknowledge, honor, and accept the differences of unique others  in our individual relationships, allow them to be a complex composite of a a multitude of characteristics (not simply a representative of their grouping that makes them different).Although we enjoy these loved ones in 1:1 situations and don’t focus on their differences, we DO NOT “move on” in social situations where institutionalized marginalization is taking place.  ***Tune in for much more on this topic!Personally notice when we move into stigmatizing others.  Val and Nathan talk about how this is such a human self-preserving temptation.FRIDAY’S final episode of this series breaks down the last few recommendations that we can each integrate into our own growth journeys as we endeavor to become more and more capable of truly loving our fellow humans.  Books referenced in this episode:Decolonizing Mormonism, edited by Gina ColvinUniversal Christ, by Richard RohrSupport the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: How & Why Power Hierarchies Were Created [Part III of VI]Welcome to part three of this diving into why and how human beings create hierarchies of power.  So far in this series we have explained the psychological phenomenon itself, zoomed in on how this plays out on the ground in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and now we are going to spend the next two episodes walking through the six-step process of how humans create those groupings whom we choose to dominate, subjugate, and marginalize.This episode tackles in detail the first three steps:Mark the difference in a group of people who are unlike yourself.Stigmatize the difference.Institutionalize the discrimination practiced against the group.FRIDAY’S episode four tackles steps 4-6.In these next two episodes (today’s and Fridays) Val and Nathan will offer both historical and current examples of how each of these steps in the creation of marginalized “out-group” populations looks both within the LDS faith and in other contexts. Get ready to have your mind further expanded.Referenced in this series: Living with History: Making Social Change by Gerta LernerSupport the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: How & Why Power Hierarchies Were Created [Part I of VI]In this mini-series Val and Nathan will be covering in-depth one of Val’s recent Sunstone Symposium presentations exploring the psychology around human civilization’s tendency to organize themselves into hierarchies. These hierarchies consist of an empowered group whose authority is dictated by selecting a different group over whom they dominate. These disempowered groups are sometimes called “out-groups” or “deviant others”.In Episode 1 of this series Val and Nathan will explore why collectives organize themselves into a dominating few who find identity in their rule over designated disempowered out-groups, how those in power use differences in others to dominate them, how some disempowered ‘out groups’ are common throughout time and place [gender, class, race], and how unique out-groups are arbitrarily selected within micro-cultures.This Friday’s episode Val and Nathan will discuss how this concept applies to hierarchical structures in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, both through macro-issues such as their historical and current struggles with institutional patriarchy, racism, and issues around disempowering gender and sexual minorities.Their desire in shining a light on this phenomenon in this series is to help our community root out the multiple layers of hierarchy to create a community bonded not by the division between powerful in-groups and powerless out-groups, but by equality and Christ-like love.Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: "Tabernacles of Clay” Analysis with Taylor Petrey [Part III of IV]In this portion of their conversation exploring the history of gender and sexuality in the LDS church from post WWII until present, Valerie and Taylor Petrey do a deep dive into gender, sexuality and how the following historical developments, policies, and political engagement are each connected to the LDS Church’s attempts to keep in place heteronormativity due to the contagion theory of sexual orientation:Church Correlation MovementFamily Home Evening ProgramHome Teaching ProgramCollaboration with the Religious RightThe Equal Rights AmendmentProp 8The Proclamation to the World on the FamilyThe 2015 PolicyIn Friday's Final episode,  Val and Taylor wrap up this fascinating series responding to those out there who claim that “No doctrine has ever changed regarding gender and sexuality in the LDS church".  In short...nothing could be more false!They will walk you through a lengthy list of all of the ideas forwarded by various official leaders throughout the years on pre-mortal gender, post-mortal gender, birth control, sexually acceptable behaviors amongst married cisgendered people, and so much more.They also will walk you through a historical list of proposed causes and cures forwarded by the Church for homosexuality over the years.They conclude Friday’s episode on a personal note, sharing how work in this area has deeply impacted them and why they both care so much about shining a light on this history.  Its all about healing our community and helping expand our ability to love.Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: "Tabernacles of Clay” Analysis with Taylor Petrey [Part I of IV]In this first episode in a fascinating four-part mini-series, Valerie and special guest Taylor Petrey break down the historical shifts in the theology of gender and sexuality in the LDS church beginning in the post-WWII era through the present as outlined in his excellent book Tabernacles of Clay (linked below).  Questions addressed in this episode [among others]:How historical racial oppression relates to the larger picture of gender and sexual oppressionA paradox: If gender and sexuality is pre-mortal in nature, why it constantly seems to need human mediation, legislation, commandmentsHow the LDS church’s post-WWII stance on gender/sexuality is related to these same issues within larger Christian culture and are seen as a matter of national securityThe connection between the church's post-WWII stance in strong support of the patriarchal order of marriage and their polygamy legacyFriday's episode continues the conversation covering the following: Culturally and religiously evolving stances on homosexuality An exploration of the very fraught relationship between the psychological world and the Mormon ecclesiastical world in the treatment of psychological issues in general and sexual issues specificallySignificant developments in the administration of Spencer W. Kimball, the "self-help" movement and his book The Miracle of ForgivenessAn exploration of the proposed varying causes and cures for homosexuality throughout the yearsAnd more! Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!I see you!You're missing your Friday morning fix with Valerie and the Latter Day Struggles Podcast!Well, I gotcha covered :)This quick bonus episode walks you through step by step HOW to subscribe to the Friday episodes of this podcast no matter what provider you use (you do NOT need to listen on Spotify but you DO need to subscribe THROUGH Spotify...just to answer a question asked many, many times!) Here is the link on how to subscribeThis episode will walk you through what to do once you click this link!If you want step by step WRITTEN and visual instructions with screen shots of each page in the subscription process, click here.————————————————————————————————————— SUBSCRIBE: All Friday episodes of Latter Day Struggles can be accessed through ⁠⁠⁠⁠a paid subscription ($9.99/month)⁠⁠. Thank you for supporting Valerie’s professional commitment to your LDS Faith expansion journey!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     ⁠⁠⁠Click here to subscribe to all Friday Latter Day Struggles Episodes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠——————————————————————————————————————SUPPORT: Like what you’re hearing at Latter Day Struggles Podcast? You can support Valerie’s efforts by becoming a recurring donor on ⁠⁠Patreon.com!⁠⁠——————————————————————————————————————SUPPORT GROUPS: You are invited to join one of Valerie’s space-limited ⁠⁠⁠⁠Faith Crisis and Expansion Support and Processing Groups⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!  As a trauma therapist, she continues to help our LDS faith expansion community become psychologically healthier and spiritually well in and around the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Details about availability on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠latterdaystruggles.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  These groupSupport the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website