Mormon Stories is a production of the Open Stories Foundation and relies solely upon the support of people like you, its listeners.

To help keep the podcast alive or to become a member of the community, please become a monthly subscriber by visiting MormonStories.org

and clicking on the Donate button on the right side of the page under Support.

All contributions to Mormon Stories are completely tax deductible and go towards producing the podcast and building communities and programs of support for Mormons like you.

Thanks for your support.

Hi, I'm Stephen Carter, the editor of Sunstone Magazine.

Like you, I'm addicted to blogs and podcasts that explore Mormon themes, but I also want to be with people, the kind who is curious about history, theology, and cultures I am.

That's why I've been going to Sunstone Symposiums for more than a decade now. I want to explore new ideas. I want to see Mormonism from other perspectives.

And, I'll admit it, I want to have lunch with my Mormon Studies heroes.

Sunstone has some great symposiums coming up, including one in Berkeley on January 30th, one in Mesa, Arizona on February 20th, and our first ever International Conference in Birmingham, England from February 26th to 28th.

Some of our speakers will include Wendy Montgomery, Dale McGowan, Natasha Helfer Parker, Christian Moore, Lindsay Hansen Park, and John Dillin.

Visit Sunstone.org to learn more about our symposiums in magazine. Come join us. It's good to be together.

Okay, I celebrate and agree with everything that's been said, and I'm going to tell you the biggest...

It's not a barrier for me, because I'm trying to do this work too in whatever ways that I can.

And here's the biggest barrier for me. And this goes back to Sean's comment about imperfect institutions. It goes back to Gina's engagement, my concerns, or questions about progressive Mormonism.

It really ties to your recent interview with Greg Prince. Gina, and it's this.

Certainly society has to make a lot of progress, and I'm committed to making that progress.

The challenge that I have now is to what extent does it make sense to try and make that progress in the church? And what does that mean?

And here's why I'm saying that. For me, what came out of New Mormon history and all the historical work that led to these essays,

was it was a, you know, whether it's Book of Mormon, Historicity, or Book of Abraham, or, you know, polygamy, name any of your big issues, to me, what came out of that historical and scientific sort of revealing,

is that, and I'm just going to be honest, and I know that these are trigger words for some people, is that the church clearly isn't what it claims to be.

And what I mean by that is it's pretty clear the Book of Mormon, for someone who's, and I get a lot of pushback on this, but for me, it's pretty clear the Book of Mormon wasn't translated,

...