756: Jen Parkinson - Living in a Mixed-Orientation and a Mixed-Faith Marriage Pt. 3

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2017

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We are excited to release an interview with Jen Parkinson that has many fascinating components, including:

*Her devout LDS upbringing and bout with perfectionism while a youth and as a missionary

*Her first marriage to a gay man, unbeknownst to her

*Experiences with LDS Family Services in addressing her husband’s sexual orientation

*Her resulting divorce and intense feelings of guilt and shame

*The experience of seeking a sealing cancellation and how it made her relive the nightmare of her divorce

*Dating and marrying her current husband

*Working for BYU-Idaho and the gender disparity she observed

*Her husband’s faith transition and her reaction to it by “quintupling down” on her beliefs

*How leaving her job at BYU gave her the freedom to learn and question

*Her own faith transition and hope for the future

Transcript

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0:24.6	building communities and programs of support for Mormons like you. Thanks for
0:29.3	supporting.
0:48.9	Hello and welcome back to part three of my interview with Jen Parkinson. It's
0:53.4	June 9th 2017. We've covered an epic story. Another epic story on Mormon Stories
0:59.1	podcast. Again, we've covered Jen's being raised by an Orthodox family. Her
1:05.1	dad was bishop. Then he was in a state presidency. Then he served as a mission
1:08.2	president. This is sort of a broaching Mormon royalty in terms of leadership
1:13.7	status from what she describes about her dad. Raised in the church served
1:19.4	a mission perfectionism, BYU, all the stuff EFY married a gay man, seven
1:26.5	years trying to make that marriage work with three kids, marriage ended in
1:30.5	divorced fighting for a ceiling cancellation, ugly stuff, tripling down with
1:36.2	righteousness for Jen, having also come home early from a mission because of
1:40.7	anxiety and depression and perfectionism. Then she meets her current
1:47.0	husband and they work hard to end up getting sealed. Then the November policy
1:56.2	happens while Jen's kids are living with her ex-husband who's with his
2:00.6	partner. All the stress that they deal with in dealing with that November 2015
	...

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