4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2021
⏱️ 114 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Jim Bennett is the author of "A Faithful Reply to the CES Letter." He is also the son of the late Utah U.S. Senator Bob Bennett.
In Part 4 of a multi-part series with Jim, we discuss in-depth his approach to maintaining belief in the Mormon church AFTER exposure to all of the historical and social problems currently vexing the LDS church, as highlighted in Jeremy Runnell's groundbreaking book "CES Letter: My Search for Answers to my Mormon Doubts."
Today's episode covers:
To thank Jim for his participation so far in this series, please email him at: [email protected].
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome back to part four of my interview with Jim Bennett, author of a faithful reply to the CES letter. |
0:10.0 | I have to say that this has been a very well received series. I was expecting it to be very good, but I think I'm pleasantly surprised by how positive this interview series has been received both by |
0:29.0 | progressive Mormons, liberal Mormons, ex-mormons, believing Mormons. There's obviously critics on both sides, but overall, people are, if you're a believer or a liberal progressive Mormon, you're super grateful that I brought Jim on and you're very happy with the things Jim has said. |
0:51.0 | And even if you're an ex-mormon or a post-mormon or non-believing Mormon, you're super grateful for Jim for coming on, for having a direct conversation, for the thoughtful way that Jim has comported and presented himself. |
1:08.0 | And of course, there's a lot of disagreement on the evidence and the facts, but overall, the reviews have been raving positive. |
1:21.0 | And I've just thrilled that it's my fourth sit down, third technically, but forced down with Jim. And then he's willing to come back for more. |
1:30.0 | So Jim, I can't shut up. That's the problem. |
1:33.0 | Welcome back to Mormon stories. I'll thrilled to be here. I've really enjoyed this. I can't emphasize just how much fun I find this. Maybe it's because I'm a glutton for punishment, but I just think it's I've really enjoyed how respectfully you've conducted yourself. And I just think these are the kinds of discussions. |
1:50.0 | People ought to be having. |
1:52.0 | So this is the first interview we've done since I actually released and you've been able to watch right two of the premieres for parts one and two part three has an aired yet in part three. |
2:04.0 | We talk about LGBT stuff and racism primarily and polygamy. So that's going to be that's going to be premiered on Monday after before this is going to be premiered. |
2:15.0 | But you've been able to watch the first two. Yeah, well, what are your reactions? So for or one? Well, I watch I've watched them both. |
2:23.0 | But the second one I watched while it was premiering. And it reminded me why you probably should stay away from the comments because I was watching the live chat throughout. |
2:33.0 | And this was not a group that was particularly enamored of anything I had to say. And I kept being tempted as to what would be a great way to jump in. I thought at one point I thought I'll just jump in and say, yeah, look how fatty is. |
2:45.0 | What a fat guy that guy is. You know, or something like that. But but that that was clearly a group of people that that you know, I don't know. |
2:57.0 | Well, it you know, if I what I was trying to encourage you is not to allow the comments to to discourage you because if if you know this these interviews were premiered on a fair Mormon website or on the Orthodox Mormon website. |
3:14.0 | The overwhelming feedback would be John's a bad person. John is evil. John your questions are unfair. People say nasty things about you. |
3:23.0 | I didn't realize. No, but I mean, but because it's on the Mormon stories podcast page and most of those people are are I believers and I would you know they're going to be critical of you, but that doesn't necessarily reflect the caliber, the quality of the interview or the average person's response, you know, well. |
3:43.0 | And I have been I have been very grateful for the people who have reached out to me. I've met some delightful people through this. |
3:53.0 | Who've reached out to me this one woman sent me a message saying I really enjoyed your perspective and it was wonderful. I'm going to send you a friend request on Facebook. |
4:00.0 | I know you think I might be an ax murderer or something, but I'm really not. You know, and I thought that's great. |
4:07.0 | I'm not doing this. I want to reiterate that I am not doing this to sort of convince people to come back to church necessarily. |
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