Latter-day Faith

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!

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!

We don't like it when situations get complicated. We hate being confused. We want everything to go back to making sense again--and right away. One way to make this happen is to find someone to blame. It's that person's fault. Whew!  We label that person and never again consider them in their wholeness. Reducing someone to a label is a sure way to turn them into an object lesson rather than a complex human being who may a different story to tell rather than the one me make up so we can feel better.  A great example of an attempt like this shows up in the Book of Mormon story of Korihor, labeled "Anti-Christ" and someone who had done evil at Satan's bidding. Through touchstones with personal stories of theirs and other ones we often meet in LDS culture, Terri Petersen, Mark Crego, and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon dive into the Korihor story to name and expand on this basic dynamic of Fear/Blame/Label/Dismiss, and how it can be so harmful in our lives and culture.  What if we interrogate this phenomenon? Might we flip the script on the Korihor story? Who is writing it? Why are they telling it in the way they are? What might be missing from it? With such questions in mind related to the tale of Korihor, could that help us dive deeper into the stories we tell ourselves? And wouldn't it be good to give others the privilege of being more complex than a cautionary tale? We hope you'll find this conversation thought provoking!

We are delighted to welcome Valerie Hamaker back to the show! Early on in the discussion between Valerie and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon, we get caught up about the shake up this past March that was started by church leaders who disapproved of the content of her podcast, Latter-day Struggles. They couldn't understand see how her work was actually a boon for the Mormon community through its forthright conversations about matters troubling Latter-day Saints, and how she worked with them, using her background and skills as a licensed therapist, to see broader perspectives and find healing. Faced wth looming excommunication from the church, she and her husband, Nathan, withdrew their membership. Our main focus in relating a short synopsis of these events is to talk about reactions to the news by Latter-day Struggles listeners and members of discussion groups. Has it affected her work with those seeking understanding and healing. The bulk of the conversation in this episode focuses on how a person can differentiate in healthy ways from family members, institutions like the LDS Church, and most of all our spouses or partners. How can we be ourselves in places and situations in which people don't see things the same way? Why is differentiation so important? Ultimately the conversation focuses on marriage relationships that have been affected by differing views, or from trauma that is hard for a partner to recognize and understand. As couples work through these things in healthy ways, their love and commitment allows them to fully accept each other. Everything about being partnered is a crucible for change and growth! Though it talks about hard things, this conversation is upbeat and optimistic about all of us discovering ourselves and bettering our relationships. Listen in! There is lots of wisdom in this episode.

Every person who finds the Latter-day Faith podcast has wrestled and is still wrestling with Mormonism in some way. We each find ourselves in in our own unique relationship with the LDS church, its teachings, and its members (often including our family members). How did we end up where we are now? If we are still attending meetings, why? If not, why? What factors have tipped the scale for us in making that decision. Whether or not we are attending, how are we feeling about our decision? Are we enjoying our interactions? Are we holding good or ill feelings toward the church (even for those of us who do remain actively engaged)? Are we angry, sad, at peace? What keeps us wrestling the way we do? Our Latter-day Faith virtual firesides for the month of May focused on these questions, and each one was well attended and featured lots of sharing and active discussions. For confidentiality reasons we never record our firesides, but because these two were so special, Latter-day Faith hosts Dan Wotherspoon, Terri Petersen, and Mark Crego decided to bring the discussion into a podcast episode, which was recorded early in the morning Memorial Day Monday (fresh on the heels of the Sunday fireside). Listen in! What follows is a combination of discussions of the main topics they noted during the firesides as well as each panelist sharing their own experiences and thoughts about these plus several other issues related to Latter-day wrestling. Enjoy!

The famous creeds of Christendom focus solely on who Christ is, including his relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, his resurrection and role in bringing about salvation. But the do not include any of this teachings or personal qualities, or the principles he focused on during his ministry. This show's guest, Russ Hinckley, recognized this and decided to try his hand at creating a new creed, The Christ Creed, that focuses on how he interacted with people, institutions, and types of power during his ministry. For instance, the first two parts of this new creed are "Eat with Everyone" and "Restore Sight and Promote Healing." Russ and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon discuss in depth these and several others emphases in his creed. Each is rich, encouraging us to see in new ways, reminding us to rethink why we act the way we do with each other and the institutional church. Russ's approach is fresh and mixes good scriptural study with experiences from his life.  Listen in on this insightful conversation!

In this wonderful episode, writer Stephanie G shares with Terri Petersen her experiences as a Latter-day Saint in a patriarchal system. Together, she and Terri mourn what was lost to them through the church's purity and modesty culture, leading to body image issues, irrational notions that they are in charge of men's thoughts, and more. In another section, they discuss the frequent rhetoric from men about their needing women, but only for the service they provide, and never their ideas and self empowerment. They also talk about how many women feel "unsafe" in situations in which they are forced to counsel or be interviewed by men. A particularly poignant section is introduced by Stephanie G reading parts of an essay describing her feeling compelled to engage in a temple assignment while she was postpartum, with her body aching to be with her child, including having her breasts leak onto her body and through a temple shield. Her descriptions are powerful reminders about the war between what we think we must do and what women's bodies, their temples, are compelling them to care about. They also talk about what advice they would give to their younger selves, focusing primarily on claiming God's grace and giving grace to themselves. They talk about messages they inherited from having to face the prospect of living polygamy and how it complicates for the church its messaging about Heavenly Mother. Stephanie G also shares ways that she imaginatively inserts the Mother God into scriptural and other stories that have left her out. They close with a discussion about dealing with their anger over experiences stolen from them through their imbibing messages that support patriarchy and women's secondary importance in God's plan. How are they now trying to use that anger more productively as they continue to engage with Mormonism. This is a rich and powerful episode! Don't miss it!

Many of this show's listeners are aware of the incredible podcast, "At Last She Said It." Its co-hosts, Susan Hinckley and Cynthia Winward, are long-time friends personally and have been on this show several times. They are always insightful and well-spoken, but we are so excited that they now have moved from the spoken to the written word. In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and LDF board member Mark Crego celebrate with them the very recent release of their book, At Last She Said It: Honest Conversations about Faith, Church, and Everything in Between (Signature Books, 2025).   Through a great conversation, we learn what went on behind the scenes from conception to completion of the book, with a focus on what it includes and why. At every step, Cynthia and Susan give background on the book's five sections and the essays and dialogues within them. We discuss why they have chosen on the podcast and now in the book to discuss openly many of the "p-words" that women (and more and more, men) have long had difficulty with, among them patriarchy, priesthood, presiding, and polygamy. The book also features essays other difficult topics (and we have discussions on some of them), including God, Grace, Obedience, Fear, Worthiness, the Temple, and "when women are the problem." All in all, the book contains twenty-six essays, all of which discuss their subjects in ways that are personal and self-revelatory as well as insightful. Don't miss this conversation among old friends that not only features important things but also easy banter and laughs! Join in the fun!

We are in a time of profound divisions, where our religions and particularly our politics are tearing the very fabric of our society. How can we continue like this? How does our faith survive when so many within our religious communities are in conflict with each other? How do we heal this rift? In this episode, Terri Petersen interviews Ben Heaton, sharing their insights from years of meditation and yoga practice in the Hindu tradition. Terri was intrigued by an essay Ben wrote on a Facebook group focused on the "Inner Path", and it gave her hope that by embracing ideas in the Bhagavad Gita, we might find a way to heal our divides.

We had yet another LDS General Conference this past weekend--the semi-annual tradition of listening to the talks that will inform our sacrament meetings as well as priesthood and Relief Society meetings for the next six months.  Conference is a challenging time for many in faith journey originating in the Latter-day Saint tradition. While our Latter-day Faith podcasts have not tended to focus on Conference, Terri Petersen and Mark Crego were both affected by the recent conference with mixed feelings of the good, the not so good, and perhaps the outright challenging talks. In other words, it was in many ways typical. Terri and Mark take the approach that Conference is kind of a pot-luck dinner: there are some truly helpful talks--delicious dishes, and there are the ones to avoid. Part of the challenge is that we both bring to conference our expectations and hopes for something more, but in the end, we discovered that our attachment to our hopes and expectations can prevent us from truly connecting to the messages that can help us.  Take a listen!

Each person's life journey includes intense wrestles with the matter of "authority." When we are young, we are in a position in which we must defer to another's authority in order to survive. As we grow, we soon become self-conscious, taking into account how we are viewed by others. And in order to fit in, we will often defer our own authority to that of the group. At first it will be to our immediate friends and acquaintances. Heidegger noticed that we give away our authority to larger, more diffuse cultures and societies, referring to it as "the tyranny of the they." In our maturation processes, we hopefully will come to understand these pressures on us and begin to form a firm sense of our own self and can more easily walk our particular path without relying on others for the final word about what we should do and think.  Our religious lives bring extra complications with regard to authority. When we view certain texts or particular leaders as spiritually and ethically authoritative, it becomes even harder to stand our ground because we worry that we might be upsetting God should we stray from its or their directives.  This podcast discusses our views of God and how these are typically quite influential when it comes to whether we yield our authority to these texts and people. Do we view God as completely "other," external to us, and distant, or can we allow ourselves to believe that God is a part of us, intimately caring, compassionate, and ever encouraging us Godward? If the former, we are more likely to allow authority figures more sway, perhaps complete sway, over our thoughts and actions. If the latter, we can typically differentiate from these others and begin to trust our own experiences over their interpretations and directives. Certainly, these will align with each other at times, but when they don't, we will follow our own light. LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by board members Mark Crego and Terri Petersen in a li

In this terrific episode, Terri Petersen interviews Jana Spangler and usual LDF host Dan Wotherspoon about "mysticism." The ultimate goal of their conversation was to take this word and topic and drop it down from the clouds (how many people imagine it) and into our lives here and now.  Through great questions from Terri and sharing their personal experiences, Jana and Dan emphasize that mysticism basically means getting in touch with the Divine/God/the Universe directly. Instead of staying in the realm of talking about God with words that can't capture the depth and wideness of of the Divine, when we give ourselves permission and imagine that what underlies and gives life to all things can be accessed directly we are never again the same. When we are able to touch it, everything in the foreground changes. As the mystic and spiritual teacher James Finley says, what happens isn't that we can see more of the nature of things as much as it is we are able to see all things by utilizing more of ourselves. Mystical experience teaches us directly about our actual depths. A fun part of the discussion focuses on the question, "Can Mormons be mystics?" The answer, of course is a resounding "yes," but the perspectives everyone brings to that question reveal various layers to that answer. Listen in! You are a mystic, after all, just like everyone is, you just may just not know it yet.

Loneliness has been on the rise for the past few decades and has reached epidemic status. A widespread sense of hopelessness, helplessness, and depression is also pervading today's culture. We don't know if anything can be done to save our world, nation, and communities, with many of us wanting to throw our hands in the air and hide from everything. This episode dives directly into these issues, focusing on the ways that community and group involvement can help alleviate these severe issues and effect both external and internal change. In it, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined in conversation by three wonderful guests, Jordan Harmon, Laura Marre, and Becca Kearl, each of whom are working as activists in these areas. Each share their own journeys with these issues, as well as how their spirituality has aided them in this work and also how this work has returned the favor changing them spiritually in wonderful ways. It is an episode full of ideas! Learn about resources. Regain hope! Listen in! 

In this episode, Mark Crego, Dan Wotherspoon, and Terri Petersen explore how to approach the Doctrine and Covenants in this year's Come Follow Me curriculum. Acknowledging both the inspiring and troubling aspects of these revelations and church history, they discuss how to navigate our faith journey while engaging in the complex and difficult texts. Sometimes verses in the D&C can be triggering. What does it mean when we speak of "the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth?" When we read "by mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same," do we really think it means that they are the same words?  How do we handle the scriptures on polygamy? On the other hand, we can find verses that uplift and sanctify us, like from sections 88 or 93, where our view of god and humans is expanded to a shared eternal life.  This conversation explores the issues in a way that helps us understand the context and method of scriptures like the Doctrine and Covenants, and provides some tools that we can use to engage more meaningfully in this year's Sunday School classes, and in our personal exploration of scripture. Together, Dan, Terri, and Mark encourage approachtes that allow for faith and critical engagement, making space for personal discernment and growth.  Check it out!