959: David Eccles Hardy - the Journey of a Trailblazing Activist Pt. 1
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 August 2018
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Eccles Hardy lived as an orthodox Mormon for years, serving as an LDS Bishop and raising his family "in the covenant." While serving as a Mormon bishop, David learned of his son's homosexuality and the difficulty/pain his son experienced being raised in the LDS church as a gay youth. This experience led David to re-evaluate his faith, and ultimately to resign as bishop. Soon thereafter, David launched a campaign to convince the Mormon church to eliminate several pamphlets for youth and adults that he felt sent damaging messages regarding sexuality.
In a 1999 letter to Boyd K. Packer, David outlined the heartache and damage these publications caused his son and countless others.
In our interview, David outlines his careers in music and law, his interactions with prominent LDS leaders, as well as his involvement in helping to secure Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. He also treats us to how he would have born his testimony in French as an LDS missionary in France.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Music |
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| 0:52.0 | for your support. |
| 1:23.0 | I hope you'll be wasn't that good. |
| 1:28.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories Podcast. I'm your host |
| 1:31.4 | John DeLin, it's July 31st, 2018 and we have a super interesting, epic, important interview |
| 1:39.0 | today and I'll say that every time I believe it and I believe it. So I'm saying it. Today |
| 1:45.0 | we are interviewing David Eccles Hardy, a name that may be familiar to some of you and may not |
| 1:51.5 | be familiar to some of you but it's a super important and epic story in my opinion for lots |
| 1:57.5 | and lots of reasons. You can't drive through a city in Utah without the Eccles name being on |
| 2:04.5 | one or several major buildings. David Eccles Hardy is a descendant, great grandson I think. |
| 2:10.5 | David Eccles. |
| 2:11.5 | David Eccles, who is the super wealthy influential Mormon way back in the day but there's interesting |
| 2:19.5 | pioneer stock but that's not why this interview is cool. David, we're doing a series on Mormon Stories |
| 2:26.5 | Podcast on bishops or former bishops who sort of started questioning a loss their faith while they're |
| 2:33.5 | a bishop and David Eccles Hardy is going to be the next of hopefully several of these interviews |
| 2:39.5 | over the next few weeks and months and so that's kind of cool but this story ties into so much that's |
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