Latter-day Faith

President Russell M. Nelson's recent LDS General Conference talk, "Peacemakers Needed," focuses on the strong need for Latter-day Saints, and basically everyone else, to more actively strive for peace in our interactions in the world at large, and especially with each other personally. Noting the hostility and name-calling and dismissiveness of others dominating public discourse (as well as too often our own family lives), he made a clear call for all of us to treat each other better. Yet, he and we all know that attaining the qualities of a peacemaker is not a simple thing. It requires a great deal of desire, inner reflection, and practicing if we are to meet each other in spirit and in the way we must if we are to ever heal our relationships--and, indeed, the world. His is a call for genuine transformation of our hearts. But, do we know how to be peacemakers? It is one thing to set it forth as worthy work, but it is another to actually know how we might actually begin to embody the spirit of a peacemaker. That's where this discussion begins. With the wonderful Selina Miller Forsyth, this Latter-day Faith Podcast looks at several of the "skills" that peacemakers require. It primarily looks at things we all need to work on in general but notes as well the places where Latter-day Saints might have extra difficulty. One of these is learning to differentiate between "healthy conflict" and "contention." The Book of Mormon phrase about the "spirit of contention" being of the devil (3 Nephi 11:19) is so well engrained in the LDS tradition that many of us are startled and react with fear whenever any sort of disagreement arises in church settings, and even within our own families. Often we don't really know how to discern between important conversations that involve disagreement, putting forth different positions, passion, and intensity with "contention."  Another skill of a peacemaker is "emotional regulation." We must learn to be good with ourselves, centered in a sense of security and safety as well as confidence if we are to ever be able to practice genuine peacemaking that does not dismiss or demonize persons who bring something into our world that we don't agree with or have been taught is wrong but that we haven't really wrestled with ourselves. If we allow our emotions to flood our consciousness, blocking out everything but our current discomfort, it's impossible to interact in healthy ways, impossible to be a peacemaker in such situations. Peacemakers must also learn the skill of "listening." So many of us simply do not know how to truly listen to each other, to put aside our own ego, our own agendas, and to actually encounter them and what they are saying in an interested, calm, centered way. What does "listening" actually mean? Are there ways we can learn to listen in the way peacemakers can? This is a terrific conversation. It doesn't come close to offering even a tenth of what there is to be said about each of these areas, and both Selina and LDF host, Dan, are well aware of that--yet it is a start. And it's a conversation we invite you to join in! Let's create more shows to share even more ideas about this really big but oh-so-personal topic, and especially how we might gain the skills to genuinely become persons of peace.  Join us!

This episode is the second in a series of conversations LDF host Dan Wotherspoon had with Annika Rau about New Testament events, with this one focusing on insights in the stories of what happened Thursday through Sunday of Holy Week. In it, they begin with the Last Supper (and also an event that had happened six days earlier) and move through Gethsemane, the betrayal(s), and on to crucifixion and Easter. As a capstone to the discussion, Annika shares a beautiful take on the miracle of the loaves and fishes and the multiplying of love. It is not to be missed. Please join in! There is so much here worth slowing down to consider as we move through our days leading up to Easter.

This episode features a conversation between LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and Abe Collier, who heads a small international aid NGO currently working in Ukraine. It is set up to be another in what will be a series of episodes on the way people discern what God/Life/the Universe seems to be calling them to do.  in this discussion, Abe shares with us his LDS background along with various inflection points that ultimately led him to his work. It's a beautiful story, but one also one that contains confusion and sadness and various trade-offs he was called to experience. But, as you will witness in his story, he has found peace and a beautiful sense of fulfillment in what he is doing. He has wisdom far beyond that of most people his age, and it is a real pleasure to introduce him and his work to the Latter-day Faith audience.  Listen in. As is always true, the very specificity of a life journey allows us to notice and connect with things in our selves that simply talking in general terms usually can't. Enjoy!

"What do I want to be (or do) when I grow up?" Early on, our answers to such queries are the ones we pick up from our parents, wider family, friends, religious traditions, and important authority figures in our lives. If we are to have a truly fulfilling life, however, we must begin to find our way to what it is we are actually being "called to" by our life. Can we discern for ourselves what our particular life experiences seem to be pointing us towards--a quest that when engaged with our whole heart and mind will bless the world in the way only we can do? In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon converses with Valerie Hamaker, the host of the Latter-day Struggles podcast about this sort of journey. It started out with a slightly different plan of talking about "faith journeys" through the lenses of various developmental models but ended up being more about Valerie's own discernment journey that led her to the work she is doing in the world with Latter-day Saints who are struggling to reorient their faith lives during a time when their journeys are taking them places they hadn't previously imagined they would go.  Valerie and Dan mention how faith development models have helped them as they have traveled into uncharted territories, and hopefully this element of the conversation will encourage others to look into such models themselves. But the true beauty of what you will encounter here is how God/Spirit/Life has worked in Valerie's life to bring her to this place where she has found a place to stand and do the work it seems her life was leading her toward. It's a thrilling story of a searcher who has looked both outward and inward to discern her calling. Please listen in!

For some, the miracles of Jesus presented in the Gospels are problematic. Many question their veracity. Did these actually occur, or are they stories that sought to grab the attention of people living in a pre-industrial world? Perhaps "something" happened but surely there are better explanations today than Jesus healing, raising from the dead, and casting out evil spirits. In short, especially for those in the midst of a shift of faith, the miracle stories are far more difficult to make peace with than are his teachings. But what if we didn't care about whether or not they occurred or how early Christians (and many contemporary ones, too) "explain" them? Are there powerful ways to view them through other lenses? In this episode, Annika Rau joins LDF host Dan Wotherspoon in such an exercise. Specifically, Annika speaks about the way she has learned to see them as "invitations." If we pay close enough to the various stories, each in its own context, we are able to see broader themes and concepts that illustrate the way that Jesus operated in the world.  Who did Jesus heal? In what ways were these miracles tailored to each individual according to her or his specific needs? Did Jesus require something of the individuals before healing? Why were there such a variety of methods through which he healed? And so many more things to notice. If we were to pay attention to such broader matters, how might that help us in our journey to be more like him? The conversation in this episode draws us into the person of Jesus as well as into much deeper looks at fundamental spiritual questions. Among other things, if features a wonderful discussion of a healing episode found in Mark 8: 22-26, and a broader set of things we might explore in the story of the woman taken in adultery (John 8). And it models ways that we might each seek for new things to notice in these stories (as well as in other events, settings, and details found the Gospels). Listen in! You will really enjoy this terrific conversation!

In this episode, therapist Julie Keanaaina speaks with LDF host Dan Wotherspoon about psilocybin, which has recently been legalized in Oregon for therapeutic uses, with many other states considering something similar. There have been many stories from studies of its use in television news magazines, newspapers, and other media formats, each affirming the positive effects it has had on patients who are suffering from the effects of trauma, as well as those with depression, including situational depression due to difficult health diagnoses. What is psilocybin? Where does it come from? How has it been used culturally in the past, and what does the future seem to hold? How does it work? What are its benefits? If someone were interested in exploring its use for themselves, what would the dosing and treatments be like--especially if they would like to work with Julie's group in Portland, Oregon? This being a faith journey and spirituality podcast, Julie and Dan also discuss how it can be used as a way to access the reality that embraces more than what we can access through our five senses or process through our conscious minds. And so much more! Enjoy this terrific and informative introduction to this spiritual tool that has been around for centuries but is just now coming into its own these past few decades. We think you will find it fascinating!

In this wonderful, wide-ranging interview, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon speaks with Michael Hicks, a recently retired professor of Music at BYU, about his life, and especially his growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60s and 70s. During this period, Michael became very active in the Jesus movement of the time, which has often been referred to as the time of the "Jesus Freaks." After several wonderful and exhausting years that included his playing the guitar and singing songs of Jesus at every school break, being part of a band made up of young Christians, joining a group that became known as Wineskins that served each Sunday at a state hospital and then opened up a gathering spot for anyone to come in an chat about anything (but especially Jesus) and then transforming into a home for alcoholics and addicts, Michael began to have conversations with a young Mormon woman and eventually joined the church. And that's when new adventures started! Very interesting ones. All of this is talked about frankly and revealingly in his new book: Wineskin: Freaking Jesus in the '60s and '70s, a Memoir (Signature Books, 2023). In this interview, Michael and Dan talk about many of these but also only hint at many parts that would be difficult to share in anything but the written word, especially how they all wove together in creating the Michael of today. Learn about his Jesus experience that set his life on an entirely new track. Learn how very difficult experiences with this family, Wineskins, and Mormonism have been transmuted into gold. Michael is someone very much worth getting to know! 

Latter-day Saints the world over are studying the New Testament this year. Much of value can be gleaned from following the Come Follow Me lessons and questions, but it falls quite short for those wanting to explore Jesus from wider perspectives.  This episode, our first of 2023, teases a few of these additional perspectives as our guest, Mark Crego, examines the religious and cultural setting of Judaism during Jesus's time, as well as in the regions in which he taught. Who were the Sadducees, Pharisees, Scribes, Essenes, Zealots, etc.? How did they form? What did they emphasize? What are their key teachings and motivations? In getting to these questions he takes us through the history of Judaism as it emerges from captivity, often quite changed from its leaders' encounters with Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Zoroastrian philosophies and teachings. It's a fascinating ride! The final third of the episode discusses what both Mark and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon believe is the key teaching of Jesus, and how it can be kept in mind as we engage not only with Sunday School classes, but also in our regular encounters with family, friends, and strangers. Enjoy! We think you will!

The Creche (the Nativity scene) is a staple in many homes and public places during the Christmas season. We most likely were taught when we were young about each person depicted in the scene, learned that Jesus was born in a manger (hence the animals present in most creche's), and in all of that came to understand via osmosis how our individual families relate to Jesus's birth and the wider Christmas story. For many of us, those impressions and story elements formed and hardened into "our" story.  But has that story gone stale? Does it still move our souls in the way it might have once upon a time? Has our growing into adulthood and experiencing faith shifts kept us from leaning into Christmas, allowing worries about historicity of the story and mismatches in the Gospel accounts to come to the forefront? In this episode, our wonderful guest, Jody England Hansen, shares ways that she has reanimated the season by various approaches to the use of the creche--Creche Afresh! She shares various rituals that can surround our putting out the pieces and figures, ones for just ourselves but also for involving children of all ages. The ultimate take-away from our discussion is that it takes more than just a mother to birth God into the world! We are all needed, and by reflecting on the nativity scene we can each find how we are called to that.  I think you will find this episode to be very interesting, informative, thought-provoking, and powerful. Perhaps your Christmas will be better from taking the time to listen in today!

When we struggle with previously held beliefs, various actions and teachings of authority figures, and/or religious teachings and practices that seem to not be loving--or even harmful--we can find ourselves wondering if all our work of pulling-apart and examining each element that has made up our worldview will ever end. It is a frightening process, full of many ups and downs. Part of the deep angst we can feel during these times of confusion is our concern that perhaps we will have to give up everything, including spirituality. In this terrific episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by Brittney Hartley, a spiritual director who specializes in working with folks who want spirituality “without the nonsense.” Brittney tells us of her own deep wrestles with faith, belief, religion, questions of meaning, including if anything means anything at all! Ultimately, however, she has emerged from the other side of these struggles with a greater and richer spirituality than ever before, just one that is not reliant upon beliefs, religious structures, or outside authority figures (except ones we might choose for ourselves). In course of the discussion, Britney works through nine important topics that provide grounding for a wonderful life—showing how each can come alive and add vitality to our lives even if we give up on truth claims and religious trappings. These are: Rituals Death Morality and Ethics Rewriting your sacred story Meaning and purpose Shadow and Inner Child Work Awe and Transcendence Community and Inspiration Self-Actualization and Human Flourishing This is an important episode that many listeners will connect with in deep ways, and if this path is not really for them, it will be for others in their circle. Formally religious or not, listen in!!!