This is Athoffal Faith, I'm James Patterson.

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Athoffal Faith. I'm your host today, James Patterson, and I'm so thrilled to be here as part of Athoffal Faith podcast.

We're cross-posting this episode of Athoffal Faith today as a part of Mormon Stories podcast.

Welcome to all the Mormon Stories listeners out there. We just invite you to come check us out at Athoffalfaith.org when you get a chance.

My co-host, Gina Colvin, is doing some really spectacular work on a lot of different topics over at Athoffal Faith.

But especially taking a real fascinating look at international Mormonism and people who are taking a thoughtful approach to their faith outside of the United States.

So certainly your perspective we need a lot more of. And it's a huge privilege to be here with with my guest. I'm excited to dive in and talk to our guest today who is Kirk Coddle.

A lot of you know Kirk as the host of Mormon Book Review podcast, which is just an excellent look at the world of Mormon studies.

But Kirk has also been in the quote-unquote Mormon news, so to speak lightly, because whereas before he was teaching as an online religion instructor at BYU Idaho,

he is not only not teaching there anymore, but he has also resigned from the church. And that's kind of part of the story that we're going to talk about today.

We're also going to talk a whole lot about a bunch of interesting stuff about Kirk. He's just a super interesting person. And I really appreciate his perspective on the world and the world of Mormonism.

So we're going to dig into that today.

So just a little more about Kirk for those of you who may not be more familiar with his work, he received his masters in interdisciplinary studies from Merrill Hurst University, where he wrote his master's thesis on Joseph Smith and the eternal possibilities of the immortal soul in Western philosophical and theological thought.

There's a mouthful. He also holds a bachelor's degree from Cascade College, which is a satellite campus of Oklahoma Christian University, so he has a very diverse educational background that's really interesting that we'll dive into.

You'll often find Kirk presenting papers at academic conferences on Mormonism and other aspects of religion and philosophy.

And he also co-chairs with Dr. Susanna Moral, who's an associate professor of religious studies. Together they co-chair the Mormon Studies section of the Pacific Northwest Region of the AAR.

And Kirk lives in one of my most favorite areas of the United States in Portland, Oregon with his wife and four children.

So, why don't you start off just telling us about your life growing up until up until around high school and specifically what kind of influence or role or maybe even lack of influence or role the church kind of had in your life?

Well, first off I was born in Portland, Oregon, but my parents were very nomadic growing up.

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