131. The Burning Book — A Conversation with Jason Olson

Faith Matters

Faith Matters Foundation

Christianity, Ethics, Latter-day Saint, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints, Mormon, Mormonism, Morality, Lds, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For today’s episode, we were really excited to bring on Jason Olson, who, along with James Goldberg, is the author of a new memoir called The Burning Book.

Jason’s story is truly fascinating: he was born into a reform Jewish household with a Jewish mother and a Christian father. As a child and young person, he was always drawn to God and to religion, and found himself very involved in both study and practice in his faith. After his Bar Mitzvah at age 13, he eventually encountered some Latter-day Saint friends who, after many hours of religious discussions over a long period of time, offered him a copy of The Book of Mormon with no real expectations.

Afraid of what his family would think if they saw the book at home, and afraid of what his friends would think if they saw him carting it around, unread, he decided the best option would simply be to burn the book and destroy the evidence. But just as he was about to do so, Jason had a moment of remarkable spiritual insight — and that’s where his truly unique story begins.

Now a defense diplomat and policy officer with a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic studies, Jason came on with us to share his remarkable insights about faith, religious conversion, and God’s expansive plans across all faiths and religions.

The Burning Book was published by BCC Press, and you can find it on Amazon.

2023 Update: The Burning Book won the 2022 Association for Mormon Letters award in creative nonfiction.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, I just want to take a second to invite you to join me this year at Restore
0:06.6	a Faith Matters Gathering happening October 13th and 14th.
0:12.0	It's going to be at the Amount and America Expo Center in Sandy and it promises to be
0:16.5	an exceptional conference.
0:18.4	I attended last fall and found it to be a remarkably inspiring, hopeful two days of listening
0:27.2	to really well-prepared, thoughtful talks as well as inspiring music and really feeling
0:36.7	a deep connection with my other Latter-day Saint brothers and sisters around me in our
0:41.8	shared desire to speak to the best in our faith and to speak to one another and find a
0:48.3	sense of connection.
0:49.9	I'm also going to be one of the people speaking.
0:52.3	I'll be speaking a bit about eros energy and its connection to spirituality and to the
0:59.6	light of Christ.
1:01.1	And so I hope to see you all there.
1:05.2	Hey everybody, this is Tim Chavez from Faith Matters.
1:11.2	For today's episode, we're really excited to bring on Jason Olson, who along with James
1:15.6	Goldberg is the author of a new memoir called The Burning Book.
1:19.7	Jason's story is truly fascinating.
1:22.0	He was born into a reformed Jewish household with a Jewish mother and a Christian father.
1:26.6	As a child and young person, he was always drawn to God and to religion and found himself
1:31.1	very involved in both study and practice in his faith.
1:34.2	After his bar mitzvah at age 13, he eventually encountered some Latter-day Saint friends who,
1:38.9	after many hours of religious discussions over a long period of time, offered him a copy
	...

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