1124: Spencer Nugent: A Jamaican Mormon Story Pt. 1
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2019
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Please join us now for our Mormon Stories Podcast interview with Spencer Nugent. Spencer, along with his parents and sibling, were the first Jamaicans baptized on the island into the Mormon church. Later Spencer’s family moved to Orem, Utah. Spencer attended UVSC and BYU, served a mission to San Antonio, Texas, and became an Industrial Designer. Spencer is a renaissance man of sorts. His many talents/interests include karaoke/music, art, travel, design, drawing, landscape architecture, teaching, etc.
After Spencer was married in the Salt Lake City temple and had two sons, he and his ex-wife eventually experienced a Mormon faith crisis and divorced.
Today’s episode will cover numerous topics, including Mormon cultural imperialism/whitewashing, being black in the Mormon church, Spencer’s mission, male eating disorders, parenting, divorce, faith crises, and finding identity, morality, and community as a black ex-Mormon man in Utah.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mormon Stories is a production of the Open Stories Foundation and relies solely upon the support |
| 0:09.1 | of people like you, its listeners. To help keep the podcast alive or to become a member of |
| 0:14.0 | the community, please become a monthly subscriber by visiting MormonStories.org and clicking on |
| 0:19.4 | the Donate button on the right side of the page under Support. All contributions to Mormon Stories |
| 0:25.0 | are completely tax deductible in the United States and go towards producing the podcast and building |
| 0:30.4 | communities and programs of support for Mormons like you. Thanks for your support. |
| 0:35.2 | This is my life you're making. There is love for the taking. It is May 23rd, 2019. We are again |
| 0:52.1 | broadcasting live to you today from the Mormon Stories podcast studios in Salt Lake City, Utah. |
| 0:59.5 | We are very, very excited for today's interview as always. This is something, this is an interview that's |
| 1:07.2 | special and personal to me. As I've gone to know this guest, I think this is a person, a personality, |
| 1:15.6 | a human, a soul that people in my community need to get to know and will benefit from knowing about. |
| 1:25.6 | Today's interview is with a dear friend of mine that I learned about through my cousin Thomas |
| 1:32.3 | Haddon or Wom as I like to call him. My sister, Julianne Haddon, her son Thomas is a dear nephew of mine |
| 1:39.8 | and he became friends with Spencer Nugent and Spencer has a fascinating Mormon story. Spencer, |
| 1:50.7 | along with his parents and siblings, were the first Jamaicans baptized on the island into the Mormon |
| 1:58.0 | church and actually Spencer's parents were baptized before he was born. Spencer was raised in Jamaica |
| 2:07.6 | as an active devout Mormon, along with his parents, went to high school there. Eventually, he and his |
| 2:14.0 | family moved to Oramuta where Spencer attended UVSC and eventually BYU. Spencer served a mission |
| 2:22.3 | to San Antonio, Texas and then he pursued a career as an industrial designer. I learned about the |
| 2:32.3 | term Renaissance man when I visited Monticello in Virginia to learn about Thomas Jefferson and all |
| 2:39.8 | the things that Thomas Jefferson was able to do and as I've learned a little bit about Spencer, |
| 2:45.8 | I have been incredibly impressed with all of his abilities. He's a singer, he plays the guitar, |
... |
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