1399: Contemplative Mormonism - Jana Spangler Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2021

⏱️ 137 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it possible to stay active in the LDS Church in 2021 after....

....learning all of the problematic history... ....becoming an ally for LGBTQ Mormons... ...becoming a feminist... ...becoming an "intellectual Mormon"... and after losing one's orthodox faith?

More importantly, why would anyone WANT to?

In Part 1 of my two-part interview with dear friend and faith transitions coach Jana Spangler, Jana told us the story of her Mormon faith journey, which includes:

Battling with perfectionism as an LDS teen and young adult.
Feeling broken and inadequate as a single Mormon woman attending the University Utah, struggling to meet the church's standards of "worthiness."
Being threatened with an LDS Disciplinary Council be a well-meaning Mormon bishop, and how that actually HELPED turn Jana's life around at the time.
Finding and marrying Rob - who "checked all the Mormon boxes" at the time.
Batting with infertility.
Experiencing self-doubt and depression as a Mormon Mom.
How Jana's passion for self-improvement and retreats/workshops led to a Mormon faith crisis.
Jana's shifting views of Christ's atonement, which include absolute, unconditional love.
Jana's courage to share her testimony struggles with her Holladay, Utah ward and stake.
How untraditional Mormon podcast hosts, authors, and organizations (such as Bill Reel, Gina Colvin, Dan Wotherspoon, John Dehlin, Thomas Wirthlin McConkie, Sunstone, etc.), along with a supportive husband and understanding church leaders, helped Jana find a way to stay ACTIVE in the LDS Church.
What factors led Jana to decide to stay active in the LDS Church...for now.

In Part 2, Jana provides a more detailed framework for how others can find a way to remain active in the LDS Church if they so desire, inspired by the works of Richard Rohr and James Fowler (among others).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to part two of my interview with Janice Bengler. I'm John DeLin. This is Mormon Stories podcast
0:06.5	We are here for part two of my interview with Janice
0:09.6	We just spent three hours talking about her story talking about her never feeling good enough in the Mormon Church
0:16.3	plagued by perfectionism then her massive faith crisis how
0:21.6	oddly progressive
0:23.6	marginal
0:25.0	alternative unapproved Mormon podcasts and
0:28.5	Sunstone and workshops of retreats actually helped her stay in the church along with a supportive husband and
0:36.7	a decently supportive warden stake and it was a great story
0:41.3	really inspiring and
0:43.3	We ended with this discussion about
0:46.8	How hard it can be to work on the margins within a religion like Mormonism and with Jada basically saying she wants to
0:54.8	And has been working to be a part of the solution on the margins and so what we're gonna do now is spend a couple hours
1:02.7	talking about why someone might want to do this and
1:06.7	how someone might approach
1:09.8	What we're calling
1:12.0	Contemplative Mormonism we're gonna try out the branding of a new term
1:16.6	We're not gonna call progressive Mormonism. We're not gonna call liberal Mormonism
1:20.2	We're gonna call today Contemplative Mormonism, but we're basically just gonna pick Janice Brain and
1:26.4	See if there's anyone out there who's wanting to stay in the Church of Jesus Christ on any saints
1:32.2	They've had a faith crisis or they're in a faith crisis or they're long past and faith crisis
1:36.8	Maybe they've even left and we're gonna explore why someone might want to
	...

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