527: John Hamer on Community of Christ as a Church Home for Transitioning Mormons Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2015

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mormon Stories alumnus John Hamer returns to talk about Community of Christ as a viable spiritual home for transitioning Mormons in this two-part video series. John Hamer was raised LDS, but became a doubting teenager and left organized religion altogether as an adult. In 2010, he joined Community of Christ and currently serves as pastor of its congregation in downtown Toronto, Canada.

In part 1, John Hamer sits down with John Dehlin and makes the case for "non-literalistic" religion. (The presentation is illustrated with John Hamer's amazing diagrams, so the podcast audience is advised to watch the YouTube version.) John Hamer describes how a church with Restoration roots has evolved beyond doctrine and dogma to become inclusive of the LGBT community and a wide diversity of individual beliefs.

In part 2, John Dehlin challenges John Hamer with tough questions, including whether it is possible for some transitioning Mormons who feel real betrayal to join a church that traces its origin to Joseph Smith, or, indeed, any organized religion. The resulting dialogue was wide-ranging and intensely fascinating. Regardless of where you are in your own Mormon journey, you'll surely find John Hamer's case for Community of Christ thought-provoking.

In the course of their discussions, John Hamer referenced the "Latter-day Seekers" facebook group and the website Latter-daySeekers.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	More Mysteries Podcast is a production of the Open Stories Foundation. All donations to
0:10.6	More Mysteries are fully tax deductible and go directly towards keeping the podcast
0:14.9	alive and towards building a community of support for Mormons like you. This podcast
0:19.6	is also available in high-definition video at youtube.com slash more stories.
0:30.0	Now for some questions I've been...
0:42.1	Yes, please, sorry I brought it to you.
0:44.6	No, no, no, no, no, no, it's good. So let's start from the top I guess.
0:53.4	Over at, you know, from based on our research, our non-scientific survey at YMormonsQuestion.com,
1:01.6	you know, we pulled disaffected, you know, disbelieving Mormons about their beliefs in God.
1:07.6	And over half reported that they end up as either atheist or agnostic.
1:11.5	Yes.
1:12.5	So, you know, how do you get to the place where you want to join a religion again?
1:21.5	Yeah.
1:22.5	That not only bases itself on God, but also on Jesus and on Joseph Smith and on Scripture,
1:28.5	when you can't even get past the God point.
1:31.6	Right.
1:32.6	Well, in the very first place, the LDS Church teaches a very different conception of God
1:40.7	than is really normal and almost all religion in general because in some ways it by the
1:47.4	end of his lifetime, Joseph Smith is existing in this enlightenment time period, but he's
1:51.9	at a time period when he still thinks that you may be or he's still as hopeful that you
1:56.4	can thoughtfully react to it but still be saying things that are scientifically valid.
2:02.1	And so people in this time period in the enlightenment have started to become what, we've just
	...

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