Post Mormon Peace

What happens after the beliefs that once gave your life structure, meaning, and certainty no longer work for you? In Part 2 of our conversation with Corey Buse, we follow his story from a committed returned missionary and young husband to the moment his wife, Emily, tells him she may be ready to leave the Church. That forces Corey to examine his own faith from the ground up. We talk about the questions and church history that eventually changed his beliefs, but more importantly, we explore what came next. How do you rebuild meaning without a prescribed plan? Where do values come from when the rules are no longer handed to you? How do you raise kids, navigate uncertainty, deal with difficult emotions, and decide what parts of your Mormon upbringing are still worth keeping? This is a conversation about deconstruction, reconstruction, and learning to trust yourself enough to build a meaningful life without having all the answers.

What if loving someone means letting go of the need to change them? In Part 2 of our conversation with Torn author Jeff Strong, we talk about one of the hardest parts of a faith transition: what happens between the people who leave and the people who stay. Can a believing parent truly accept a child who walks away from the Church? Can someone who leaves make room for family members who still hope they return? And how do you stay close when neither side sees faith the same way anymore? Jeff shares what changed in his own family after three of his five children left the Church, why certainty became less important to him over time, and how fear, humility, and acceptance can reshape relationships. This is a conversation about loving people without fixing them, making room for different beliefs, and finding peace without requiring anyone to change their mind.

When Jeff Strong’s missionary son decided to come home and step away from the Church, it forced Jeff to confront questions he had already begun seeing in the lives of people around him. In Part 1 of our conversation with the author of Torn, we talk about what his research uncovered about why active Latter-day Saints leave, how those reasons have changed over time, and why Jeff believes Church culture can either soften those struggles or make them much harder. At the center of the conversation is a simple metaphor: culture is the soil we grow in. It can be firm enough to provide stability, but it also has to be nourishing enough for people to breathe, grow, and belong. This is a conversation about faith, culture, fear, curiosity, and what it might look like to create more room for people whose experience of the Church does not fit the traditional mold.

In Part 1 of our conversation with Corey Buse, we go back to growing up Mormon in Utah in the 1990s, where church, family, friends, and community were all deeply intertwined. Corey was raised with a strong emphasis on exact obedience and doing things the “right” way. That framework gave him discipline and conviction, but it also shaped how he approached friendships, differences, and eventually his mission. Serving in New Jersey exposed Corey to people who saw religion very differently than he did. For the first time, he began asking what the gospel looked like from the other side of the doorstep. A change in mission leadership also challenged his assumptions about rules, obedience, and what actually makes someone an effective missionary. Corey didn't come home from his mission having lost his faith. In many ways, he came home more committed than ever. But he also came home seeing more gray in a world he'd once understood largely in black and white. This is Part 1 of Corey's story. In Part 2, we follow what happened as those early shifts in perspective eventually became something much bigger.

In this episode, Chad describes the heartbreak and uncertainty of navigating a mixed-orientation marriage, divorce, single parenthood, and an entirely new relationship with the person who had been his closest companion. He also shares how he and Sierra eventually built a strong friendship and co-parenting partnership on the other side.   This is a conversation about accepting someone for who they are, finding stability when life comes apart, and allowing love to change shape instead of turning it into resentment.   Content Warning: This episode contains some strong language and candid discussion of past drug use, divorce, sexuality, and other mature themes. Listener discretion is advised.