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174–175: The Chaplains on . . . Suffering

May 20, 2013
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174–175: The Chaplains on . . . Suffering

When we meet someone who is suffering, whether physically or emotionally, we naturally want to be of service to them. Sometimes our fears overcome us, and we avoid opportunities we’re presented with to “bear one another’s burdens” or “mourn with those who mourn” (Mosiah 18:8–9). Other times we step in but viscerally feel our inadequacies. Sometimes we realize our good intentions have gone wrong, and we have said something or done something that has caused even greater pain. Sometimes this happens without our even realizing it. Even with its many challenges, we are all called to learn compassion, to be…

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172–173: Proactive LDS Parenting

May 3, 2013
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172–173: Proactive LDS Parenting

Most Latter-day Saints who are negotiating a faith transition, including developing a new relationship with God and the church in which they were nurtured, naturally hope to create a smoother road for their children than they have had themselves. For those who find themselves in this new faith terrain and…

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170–171: Toward Expanding and Improving LDS Discourse about Sexuality

April 22, 2013
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170–171: Toward Expanding and Improving LDS Discourse about Sexuality

So often in Mormon discourse, the term “virtue” is treated almost exclusively as relating to sexual purity, chastity, and virginity, completely missing its much broader and wonderfully expansive meanings. Similarly, most talk about “morality,” “passion,” “modesty,” and “sensuality” are spoken about almost solely in terms of sexuality. We receive, without…

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166–169: The Couplet (and Teachings about Theosis) in Today’s Mormonism

March 29, 2013
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166–169: The Couplet (and Teachings about Theosis) in Today’s Mormonism

The 2013 LDS Priesthood and Relief Society manual, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, features a lesson, “The Grand Destiny of the Faithful” (Chapter 5) in which one of President Snow’s most famous teachings makes a fresh appearance. Often referred to as “The Couplet,” it states: “As man…

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165: Mormon Women Sharing Their Lives

March 21, 2013
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165: Mormon Women Sharing Their Lives

This past week saw the publication of a book, Mormon Women Have Their Say (Greg Kofford Books), which is comprised of essays drawn from research into Mormon women’s histories that have been prompted by or collected as part of Claremont Graduate University’s Oral History Program. In this episode, the book’s…

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164: New Version of the LDS Scriptures

March 15, 2013
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164: New Version of the LDS Scriptures

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has just announced the online release of a new edition of the LDS scriptures, with physical copies to be made available beginning in August. Although the new version includes some spelling and punctuation changes along with minor tweaks to fonts and layout,…

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159–163: An Easter Primer

March 12, 2013
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159–163: An Easter Primer

One of Mormon Matters podcast’s most popular episodes explored Christmas through a close examination of scriptural narratives and traditions related to the Nativity as they unfolded through the centuries of Christian history. One of the reasons for this episode’s popularity was the information it provided for Latter-day Saints about many…

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157–158: C.S. Lewis and Mormonism

March 4, 2013
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157–158: C.S. Lewis and Mormonism

C.S. Lewis is a towering twentieth-century figure, known especially as an author of fiction and meditations on Christianity and the work of God in human lives. His own life journey—he was born and raised within a Christian home and was a highly imaginative child who loved literature and mythology but…

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155–156: LDS Military Chaplains

February 21, 2013
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155–156: LDS Military Chaplains

This two-part episode offers a wonderful peek into military chaplaincy, a career unlike any other, and, in particular, experiences of LDS chaplains. Two active duty LDS Army chaplains—Nathan Kline and Jason Unsworth—and one retired LDS Air Force chaplain—Phil McLemore—share the history of chaplaincy and how it has evolved since even…

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153–154: Integrity with Self and Family: Parents on Sharing Their Faith Transitions with Their Children

February 14, 2013
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153–154: Integrity with Self and Family: Parents on Sharing Their Faith Transitions with Their Children

This episode continues a series of conversations about parents and children communicating about changes in faith perspectives. Episode 146 featured faithful, committed Latter-day Saint parents whose children shared with them their movement away from their earlier firm beliefs in Mormon truth claims. This current episode also features LDS parents, this…

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151–152: Short Takes—Adventures in Spirit

February 7, 2013
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151–152: Short Takes—Adventures in Spirit

We are experimenting with a different type of show this time. Instead of diving into a single huge topic, this show features short takes: thoughts, stories, and combination of ideas that have been important to each participant, that have stuck with them, that have caused them to feel more oriented…

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149–150: Near-Death Experiences

January 29, 2013
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149–150: Near-Death Experiences

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) fascinate. Most share similar features that suggest the existence of a spirit or consciousness separate from the body that can continue to exist after the body and brain have ceased functioning in ways generally thought to be necessary for “life.” Those who have experienced a NDE also…

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147–148: LDS and Pacific Islander Layers of the Manti Te’o Saga

January 24, 2013
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147–148: LDS and Pacific Islander Layers of the Manti Te’o Saga

Very little coverage of the story of the cruel hoax perpetrated on Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o has focused on aspects of the Mormon and Pacific Islander cultures that helped shape him and how these might help illuminate and give context to what seems so baffling to so many:…

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146: Relationships First: Mormon Parents Face Their Child’s Faith Transition

January 21, 2013
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146: Relationships First: Mormon Parents Face Their Child’s Faith Transition

In this important episode that affirms love and clear vision, three LDS parents—Jeralee, Jim, and Teri—share their experiences in meeting the challenging situation of an adult child’s faith transition that leaves uncertain whether or not their future will include Mormonism in a significant way. In addition to sharing the outlines…

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144–145: The Kingdom of God is Within You—Believing It, Trusting It, Accessing It

December 17, 2012
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144–145: The Kingdom of God is Within You—Believing It, Trusting It, Accessing It

As we mature spiritually and are ready for deeper and more expansive experience, so much that religion focuses on—propositional statements of belief and messaging that leads us to believe “If we do this practice or that amount of good, we will be ‘saved’”—can begin to hinder our connection. Using the…

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142–143: Process Theology and Mormonism

December 10, 2012
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142–143: Process Theology and Mormonism

The term “process theology” refers to a system of thought that emerged in the early twentieth century and is based primarily upon the reflections of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. Both its name and its scope, however, engage questions that date to the beginning of formal philosophical thought about…

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140–141: A Christmas Primer: Exploring the Nativity in Scripture, Legend, History, and Hearts (Encore Presentation)

November 26, 2012
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140–141: A Christmas Primer: Exploring the Nativity in Scripture, Legend, History, and Hearts (Encore Presentation)

This is an encore presentation of a December 2011 podcast episode examining the Christmas story as it traditionally gets told—looking closely at what the scriptures actually say and do not say about the birth of Christ and all the pieces of this familiar story? How do the Matthew and Luke…

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139: A Beautiful Vision of Mormonism

November 14, 2012
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139: A Beautiful Vision of Mormonism

This episode was planned to be an exploration of the joys and perils of being a public face of Mormonism, especially as a woman, and in particular as women who write and speak about Mormon theology. What it ended up being is a rich, wise, affectionate, celebratory, pragmatic exploration of…

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137–138: Science and Religion

November 5, 2012
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137–138: Science and Religion

What is science? What is religion? What are the methods/disciplines and underlying assumptions that animate each? What does each investigate? What practices and institutions does each have in place that lead to self-correction and ensuring that they truly are working for truer, deeper understandings of the universe? Should science and…

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135–136: Racism and the Book of Mormon

October 28, 2012
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135–136: Racism and the Book of Mormon

This episode examines the status of the claim that the Book of Mormon teaches that dark skin is a curse from God, that because of their wickedness God cursed a group of people and actually brought about a miraculous change in their skin color so as to make them seem…

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133–134: LDS Spiritual Supplementing

October 21, 2012
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133–134: LDS Spiritual Supplementing

Studies are showing a huge increase in the number of people who claim hybrid spiritual identities, in which their religious lives include a combination of practices and emphases from different traditions. Mormons are no exception, with many, and for many reasons, supplementing their LDS lived religion with meditation, energy work,…

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131–132: The Word of Wisdom

October 15, 2012
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131–132: The Word of Wisdom

The Word of Wisdom has been in the news again, triggered by a claim about caffeine made on a network news show, which led to an official LDS Newsroom statement clarifying the church’s position, which led to fascinating discussions and events, including hilarity at BYU over its policy of serving…

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129–130: New Missionary Age

October 9, 2012
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129–130: New Missionary Age

The LDS Church recently announced changes in the ages that young men and women can now serve missions. Will this announcement usher in a new age in missionary work? A new age for Mormonism itself? In this Mormon Matters episode, host Dan Wotherspoon and panelists Adam Jacobsen, Hannah Wheelwright, and…

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Matters of the Heart 3: A New Story for Mormon Women

October 8, 2012
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Matters of the Heart 3: A New Story for Mormon Women

A NEW STORY FOR MORMON WOMEN  By Joanna Brooks In this episode of Matters of the Heart, Joanna Brooks reads an excerpted version of her Ask Mormon Girl blog essay about the October 2012 announcement that the LDS Church has lowered the age at which women can serve missions. As…

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128: The One True Church

September 30, 2012
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128: The One True Church

One of the most difficult things for many who have begun to think deeply about religion—their own as well as others and the relationship between them—and want to maintain a positive relationship with the idea of religion is the specter of exclusivism: claims that one’s views or one’s church is…

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127: Grace

September 23, 2012
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127: Grace

Grace is one of the central concepts in all of Christianity, yet also one of its most contested. What is it? How does it work? Do we as human beings have to do something first for it to perform its healing work? Can we even turn from sin without Grace…

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125–126: Mormonism and Politics: Historical Perspectives

September 12, 2012
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125–126: Mormonism and Politics: Historical Perspectives

Too often today’s political discourse reduces politics to partisanship, whether one affiliates with this or that political party. It’s a much broader topic, however, encompassing big notions about citizenship in a society, how we as a group of people make decisions, how we navigate our responsibilities to each other, to…

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Matters of Perspective 2: The Sacred Secret Open to All: Ye Are Gods

September 5, 2012
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Matters of Perspective 2: The Sacred Secret Open to All: Ye Are Gods

In this second episode of the “Matters of Perspective” series, Charles Randall Paul reads his May 2009 Sunstone article, “The Sacred Secret Open to All: Ye Are Gods,” a wonderful exploration about the concerns many people have with the secrecy related to Mormon temples and how Latter-day Saints might do…

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123–124: Emergence Christianity and Mormonism

August 29, 2012
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123–124: Emergence Christianity and Mormonism

It goes without saying that religion is intricately entwined with culture. And since this is so, when we find that the various ways of thinking and institutions that create culture are shifting, so will we find religion in all its forms asking new questions, sorting through “the way things have…

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122: Challenges in Making Church “Work” For Everyone

August 23, 2012
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122: Challenges in Making Church “Work” For Everyone

In this episode, sociologist Jim Smithson talks of the LDS Church and all of its programs and organizational systems as a vehicle for delivering the gospel message, and uses the metaphor of a minivan in describing Mormonism’s vehicle type. Minivans are great cars, but they fit best in middle-class and…

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119–121: The Problem of Evil and Suffering

August 15, 2012
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119–121: The Problem of Evil and Suffering

One of the most prominent and difficult issues in philosophy of religion addresses the dilemma that arises when one asserts the existence of an all-powerful God who is also perfectly loving, while also asserting the presence of genuine evil in the world. As David Hume puts the case: “Either God…

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