Hello and welcome to Mormon Stories Podcast. My name is John DeLin. I'm very excited

to have you with us again today for yet another edition of Mormon Stories. As always, it's

been a few weeks and I spend each day wishing that I had spent more time doing more podcasts,

but alas, life happens, I've been traveling too much. And here we are. But as a sweet reward

for your patience and endurance in sticking with us, we have a very, very special guest today

to share with you. The guest that we have today, his name is Buckley Jepsen,

and those of you who keep really current in the news and specifically in Mormon news,

the name may ring a bell because over the past day or two, newspaper articles about Buckley

have appeared literally in probably 15 to 20 newspapers worldwide, and it may be more and it's

definitely growing. But for those of you who aren't familiar with the story, let me just go ahead

and read a bit from the Associated Press article. Basically says the headline, the one that I first saw

on March 15th, the headline said, Mormon in legal gay marriage faces cutoff. And it begins by saying

a gay man who is a lifetime member of the Mormon Church could be facing disciplinary action

and excommunication after legally marrying his partner in Canada. Buckley Jepsen 57

said he'd been informed verbally by a senior church leader that his life is incompatible with

the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that a disciplinary counsel

will address the matter. Jepsen of Washington DC married Mike Kessler in Toronto on August 27th,

2004. It is believed that if Jepsen is excommunicated, it would be the first time a Mormon in a legal

same-sex marriage was punished by the Church, said Olen Thomas, executive director of affirmation,

an advocacy and education group for gay Mormons. And finally, Jepsen said that over the past five

months, Nolan Archibald, the senior leader or president of a group of Mormon congregations in the

Washington area, I believe that's his state president, has encouraged Jepsen to resign his

...