Latter-day Faith

During faith crises/shifts, one the most difficult things to renegotiate is our relationship with scripture. For most of our lives we have most likely thought that they portrayed an accurate history of things that happened in the past and that they were inspired by God in special ways, allowing them to portray the Divine will for our lives. As we discover scriptural contradictions, begin to question the possibility of miracles portrayed within them, or stumble on parallel stories from other ancient civilizations, their character begins to shift in our eyes. How do we face up to such things and still maintain faith in their messages? Can we still learn from them? Value them? Do we want to, or might it be easier to simply abandon them and allow them no more sway in our lives? In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and primary partners in Latter-day Faith and the Faith Journey Foundation Terri Petersen and Mark Crego talk about these struggles and more! All three have gone through (and are still going through) these wrestles. What has been most helpful to each? Has their deep searching yielded perspectives that allow them to still value scripture? Perhaps even more than before? Listen in and find out!   

In this short episode, Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon reflects on this week's "No Kings" rallies and an idea that has begun to form in his mind that names something happening over the past decades (and specifically the last six years) that has led to the need for rallies of this type. Drawing very briefly on descriptions of James Fowler's second and third "stages of faith," he wonders if we are seeing an increasing number of people who had found purpose, optimism, and signposts for a healthy spiritual (hallmarks of a third-stage orientation to the world and others) move into despair and the kinds of preoccupations that are more characteristic of stage two: fairness, certainty, reciprocity and an ability to operate without a need for coherence in the stories they believe. Are there ways that this naming might help us clarify a way forward as we encounter and interact with those who seem to have forgotten those things that led to their earlier optimism? He offers one. We hope you have others!

As we announced a couple of weeks ago, the Faith Journey Foundation and Latter-day Faith Podcast are launching a new series of episodes with the title, "Women Outside the Garden," hosted by our wonderful friend and collaborator, Terri Petersen.  This episode contains a brief introduction to the series, with Terri outlining what she will (and won't) be doing with WOTG, and mentioning several of the key issues women face within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and why discussions like those that will be forthcoming in this new show are so important.  This is a compelling episode in itself and is also a fascinating preview for what lies ahead in the series. You will love it!

Many people feel unsettled these days. There seems to be a general unease in the air, some of it caused by the rapid changes the current president is making, many mean-spirited and cruel. For Latter-day Saints, add in the recent loss of President Nelson and the terrible tragedy in a Michigan chapel, and a sense of uncertainty and impending doom fills many hearts. In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and LDF board member Mark Crego speak to this general malaise felt by so many. What is it? How is it manifesting? Is anyone, anywherd feeling settled at all? Most of all, what self-care strategies might help us? Their discussion doesn't contain a lot of answers, but they elucidate the issue, share personal stories, and offer their sense of how we can regain equilibrium. Listen in!

In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon shares a few thoughts on very important step in our spiritual maturation processes: shifting from a preoccupation with the question, "What is True?" to instead evaluating how various ideas "affect us." Does this or that story or presentation or truth claim expand our vision, make us want to be less judgmental, or transform us in some other good way?  Another big focus is on "What can we know anyway?" Is it even possible to "know" what we so often hear people testify that they know? Religious ideas do not translate into knowledge of objective, factual things. Religion and spirituality play in the realm of myth, symbols, archetypes, not hard and fast claims about "this is really how it is." Using personal experiences, a powerful spiritual passage, and a bit of William James and Kathryn Schultz, he makes the case that we put too much emphasis on truth and not enough on growth.

In this episode, Latter-day Faith co-host Terri Petersen shares with us about her life and spiritual journey with all its ups and downs. We get to know her as a perfectionist who loved everything about the church because it had answers to everything and laid out a great set of rules to follow. We then get to know her as a confused and pretty mad Mormon when she encounters issues and has to wrestle with new ideas. She then shares her reasons for continuing to stay engaged while still navigating her spiritual life "outside the garden" that she had once felt so comfortable within.   Listen in!

As we refresh our energies after a long summer, Mark Crego and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon take stock a bit about Latter-day Faith, its mission, and what its plans are going forward, including new kinds of offerings ahead. This is an unusual episode in that it contains a conversation that the two were having that Mark suddenly started recording. In addition to reaffirming what they think the podcast and community is about, including why they think "Latter-day" is still an appropriate title, their discussion of faith took them into a detour about Jesus and in what ways his life and emphases can be empowering if seen in a broader way than as "Son of God." They move to the new things ahead, including a new series, "Women Outside the Garden" hosted by Terri Petersen, and then finish with a few reflections on spiritual practices and how their effect on us can help us maintain faith and centering in this changing, confusing, and unstable world. Listen in to this peek into the kinds of things Mark and Dan talk about when no one else is around and aren't planned out in advance. Enjoy!

As we refresh our energies after a long summer, Mark Crego and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon take stock a bit about Latter-day Faith, its mission, and what its plans are going forward, including new kinds of offerings ahead. This is an unusual episode in that it contains a conversation that the two were having that Mark suddenly started recording. In addition to reaffirming what they think the podcast and community is about, including why they think "Latter-day" is still an appropriate title, their discussion of faith took them into a detour about Jesus and in what ways his life and emphases can be empowering if seen in a broader way than as "Son of God." They move to the new things ahead, including a new series, "Women Outside the Garden" hosted by Terri Petersen, and then finish with a few reflections on spiritual practices and how their effect on us can help us maintain faith and centering in this changing, confusing, and unstable world. Listen in to this peek into the kinds of things Mark and Dan talk about when no one else is around and aren't planned out in advance. Enjoy!

This terrific episode features a conversation between Kimber Poon and LDF co-host Terri Petersen about moving past our fears about our changing beliefs, attitudes, relationships with the Church, family and friends, and more. Kimber is a teacher, writer, and artist who shares about herself through the somethingforsundays.substack, which is where Terri discovered her. As they talk, Kimber allows us into her heart and mind with regard to her shifting faith and how she is negotiating many new terrains "imperfectly" (are are we all!). It's a journey that involves her claiming power and deciding that she has the right to meet the world as herself, to make a dent in the universe. An especially powerful piece of that journey is the influence of careful and sustained reading of the New Testament in which she sought to find out for herself what Jesus really taught. She and Terri also talk beautifully about Alma's ideas of planting seeds of faith and "experimenting upon the word." You will really enjoy getting to know Kimber, and also a bit more about Terri along the way. Listen in!

Religious topics and types of conversations about them change through the years: folks are all abuzz over particular topics, and then a new buzzy one comes along and the types of conversations about the others begin to be transform, and then the cycle repeats. A great place to get some hints about what's animating Latter-day Saints right now, and to notice shifts in ones that had their day (their years) in the spotlight is at the Sunstone Symposium, held each year in late-July/early August, and in the pages of Sunstone magazine. To talk about this year's symposium and how it mirrors and doesn't mirror some of the trends in the wider Christian world, we invited current (and for the past seventeen years!) Sunstone editor and Director of Communications, Stephen Carter, to talk with LDF host Dan Wotherspoon (and previous Sunstone editor). It's a fun discussion. These two old friends are a bit funny when they get together but they also have long histories working on the edge of Mormon trends. Check it out! In this episode, you can also learn more about what is coming up at the 2025 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium being held at the University of Utah, July 31–August 2nd. But also learn about yourself as you examine what is going on with you right now by seeing what is capturing the attention of some fellow Latter-day Saints and others interested in Mormon cultural and historical topics. Listen in!