167: Richard Packham and How the LDS Church Creates Unnecessary Enemies Pt. 4

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2010

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this 4-part series, we interview Richard Packham -- co-founder of the Ex-Mormon foundation. Throughout the interview and via Richard's own personal story, we explore 3 ways in which the LDS Church creates unnecessary enemies: 1) By not being honest about its own history (e.g. teaching accurate history), 2) By breaking up families (when one no longer believes), and 3) By harming the loved ones of those who have left the church. To conclude (part 4), Richard discusses the benefits of religious belief in general and the LDS church specifically, along with the mission of the ExMormon foundation, and bears a final testimony regarding the joy/happiness he has experienced since leaving the church. NOTE: The purpose of this interview is NOT to encourage people to stay or leave the LDS church. It is simply to: 1) Seek to understand and to validate the path of those who have felt compelled to leave the church, and 2) Explore ways in which the church can seek to no longer create unnecessary enemies.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mormon Stories podcast takes a ton of work and depends solely upon the listener's support.
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0:17.0	So, and some are going to get annoyed, but I want to be fair to all parts of my audience.
0:24.0	Absolutely.
0:25.0	You would acknowledge that this is all sort of functional and contextual.
0:31.0	What I mean by that is, for every instance of someone like Jane Ann or this friend of yours
0:38.0	who had this horrifically abusive experience within the church,
0:42.0	there are others who were raised in non-LDS abusive or destitute type situations
0:51.0	and it's the church that comes in and teaches them values and ethics and morals,
0:57.0	gives them a sense of purpose and helps them go to college and get married
1:02.0	and have a wonderful, fruitful family life, and it's very healthy and constructive
1:07.0	and the beliefs and the church system are all paramount to that incredibly healthy
1:15.0	and positive experience. Would you can see that?
1:18.0	Oh, yes. Oh, I have no problem at all in conceding that.
1:23.0	And I would even emphasize that there are some people for whom the Mormonism
1:28.0	and that way of life is beneficial and helpful.
1:33.0	In fact, as a matter of fact, as a corollary to Jane Ann's story,
1:38.0	I have no hesitation at all in saying that one of the things that helped Jane Ann
1:47.0	survive all of this as long as she did was her firm belief in Mormonism
1:56.0	and her acceptance of the gospel. As a matter of fact, on several occasions,
2:02.0	I've used Jane Ann as an example when people say,
2:06.0	well, you want everybody to leave the Mormon church and I say, no, no, for Jane Ann,
	...

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