Latter Day Struggles

Send us a Positive Review!If the LDS faith expansion journey is messy, just add parenting to the mix and you've got more complexity than many parents feel they can tolerate!  That is why we produced this episode!  We get it! In this episode, Valerie is joined by Julie Hanks to discuss some of the challenges faced by parents of adolescents in and around the LDS church. They answer a handful of questions submitted by listeners to both of their podcasts including thoughts about making boundaries with well-intended but overstepping leaders, avoiding black and white thinking, healthy ways to talk about the temple and the garment, and how to address LGBTQ+ issues in church settings. Overall, this episode offers valuable insights and guidance for parents as they strive to support their children's growth and well-being.Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Join me for an hour learning about the body's response to painful words. This will happen THIS Monday October 9th, 2023 10:30a Central Time for a FREE virtual webinar. This gathering is especially for those wanting to know if a trauma, processing, growth, and support group through the Latter Day Struggles Platform is right for you. Those in my current or former groups of course welcome to jump in as well! Enroll HERE!https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrdu2gqjwsHd1NdcdewxlyebWmhfxQDaowSupport the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Valerie talks with Patrick Mason, a university professor and mentor for young adults in the LDS church. They discuss the fear of constructive conflict within the Latter-day Saint community, the challenge of finding spaces for open dialogue, and the need for creativity and transformation in the church. Patrick emphasizes the importance of conflict resolution skills and creating safe spaces for meaningful discussions.

Elder Corbridge, Speaker at BYU, proposes primary questions as the only ones that matter in spiritual knowledge. Valerie and Nathan challenge this idea and discuss the importance of scientific inquiry and doubt in spiritual questing. They explore discomfort with unsanitized data and shift attitudes towards love, emphasizing the role of truth in avoiding deception and restoring love in the church's doctrine and theology.

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part III of IV]In this episode Chris and Val talk about dangers of MAGICAL THINKING and how pervasive this is in the LDS church.  They discuss how compelling a transactional understanding of life might feel (as all people crave certainty) but how damaging this is when churches offer simple if/then promises that crumble for many of us when things fall apart. What follows failed promises made by well-meaning loved ones and churches?  Not only the despair of the loss (the death, failed marriage, etc.) but also the despair that the whole system upon which one believes in God does not work.  Friday’s closing episode of this series is a tender conversation about parenting on the edge.  Chris and Valerie talk about fears that they have or have overcome in raising their children on the edge, knowing that others may well see them and/or their children as failures on the Mormon scoreboard.Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!Helpful podcast-related resources:⁠Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide⁠⁠, Christian KimballSupport the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

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 showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ 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 showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ 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 showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website