At Last She Said It

What would you say if you had the ear of the people in charge of designing garments? Afton Southam Parker came prepared with a 37 slide PowerPoint presentation, based on her own experiences and those of many other women who wear them. The meeting was a masterclass on many of the communication tips she talked about in Episode 138. In bonus Episode 139, she joins Cynthia and Susan to review her presentation, and break it all down!

Bringing attention to issues affecting Latter-day Saint women requires us to be opportunistic about using our voices. Even those in leadership callings don’t always find their ideas and opinions are welcome. And when chances to be heard do arise, the power dynamic of our culture and organization may make it hard for a woman to find the courage to express a non-traditional view. In Episode 138, Cynthia and Susan are joined by Afton Southam Parker, a woman who knows how to speak up about things that matter to her. It’s a conversation about finding ways to make individual opinions, ideas, and experiences known in a church where sharing them is rarely encouraged.

In close relationships, sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between a loved one’s side of the road and our own. We may develop unhealthy or unbalanced behavioral patterns. Codependency is one word used to describe what happens when we begin internalizing someone else’s emotions, or allow our well-being to become dependent on their behavior. We may try to fix, rescue, or control them. In Episode 137, Susan and Cynthia are joined by author Meghan Decker to discuss relationships and the challenges and rewards of establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries with the people we love.

“I know this church is true.” Many Latter-day Saints rely on this anchor phrase when bearing testimony, but what do the words really mean? What are the implications—good and less so—of believing an organization carries the divine stamp of approval? Could devotion to a label like ‘The One True Church’ come with a shadow side?

What’s religious trauma? For some Latter-day Saint women, church may become difficult or even unsafe because of it, yet many members have probably never heard of it. In episode 135, Jana Spangler joins Cynthia and Susan for a discussion of some of the ways trauma may manifest in our church experience, and steps we can take toward healing.

Many Latter-day Saint women have had similar experiences as lifelong Church members. We come up through Primary and Young Women’s singing the same songs, going to camp, and participating in correlated lessons and activities. But what about women who convert later in life? In Episode 134, Cynthia and Susan chat with KC Bramer about her experiences before and after joining in her mid 40s. What’s attractive about this church? What’s confusing? Against the backdrop of her personal conversion and religious story, KCs insider/outsider perspective provides interesting insight into things that are the same and things that set us apart, things we do well and things we might do better in the process of shepherding people into the Church.

Enjoy dessert with Susan, Cynthia, and Blakelee in this continuation of ALSSI's Ask-Us-Anything Third Anniversary podcast celebration.

Please join us for Episode 132 as we celebrate our podcast anniversary with an Ask-Us-Anything conversation, hosted by Blakelee Ellis and featuring listener questions with Cynthia-and-Susan answers! It’s a fun, wide ranging discussion packed with women’s voices, ideas, and experiences—a perfect way to commemorate 3 years of saying it at last. Bring your own cake!

It sounds simple to say I must love my neighbor as I love myself, but what does that really look like? We have an unfaltering example in Jesus, whose works offered a living reflection of his teachings about the nature of God. The scriptures may be full of unclear translations, contradictory ideas, metaphors that have lost meaning over time, and laws that have lapsed. But Christ’s actions show clearly who God is, and how God loves. In episode 131, Cynthia and Susan discuss the real challenge of discipleship: following Jesus’ example of compassion.

For ALSSI listeners, it’ll be no surprise that when Cynthia was asked to speak on the subject of atonement, she pivoted to an exploration of grace. In Episode 130, ideas from her talk inspire a conversation about the relationship between those two words, as well as salvation and healing. Do Latter-day Saints believe in grace? Or are we mostly just confused by it? As we study the New Testament together, what might change if our discussion at church shifted to focus more on the radical grace exemplified in Jesus’ ministry and teachings?