965: Jeanne and Jason Booth on Losing Your Faith as Bishop and Bishop's Wife Pt. 2
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2018
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What would cause a sitting Mormon bishop and his wife to lose their testimonies while he is serving as bishop – leading him to resign as bishop? Jeanne and Jason’s story is another in a series of episodes where we interview past Mormon bishops.
The two describe raising their four children in the church, their varied callings, and how inextricable Mormonism was in their marriage and worldview. Jason’s first call to a bishopric was not one he felt ready or spiritual enough for. Moved by the words of President Hinckley to “Forget yourself and go to work,” he accepted and immediately went to work. “He was a good bishop,” affirms Jeanne. Jason “upped his ‘spiritual game’” by eliminating hard rock from his music collection. Jeanne and their children made similar steps to fit the mold.
Once called as Bishop, Jason began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays, beginning with “Race and the Priesthood,” which caused him to reflect on 2 Nephi Chapter 5 as well as his own experience teaching individuals in New Zealand. “It shook my confidence in the scriptures. It never occurred to me that prophets could be wrong…in ways that affect people’s lives.” These essays served as the beginning of a series of events that eroded Jason’s testimony.
Jason was further shaken by being invited to interview as a candidate for Stake President, causing him to wonder if such callings were really the result of inspiration or perhaps the leadership were just ordinary people doing the best they could. Expressing these concerns to Jeanne caused her grief, wondering how her husband could still be a good in person if he left the church.
Around this time, Jason found Mormon Stories Podcast, which helped him learn more about challenging issues in the church. Issues for Jason began to mount as he learned about individuals who questioned doctrine and did not receive sufficient answers. Jason goes on to describe what it’s like to remain a Bishop after losing confidence in fellow priesthood leaders. As both of their testimonies crumbled, Jeanne and Jason describe being “heartbroken.”
What does this bishop do as he, his wife, and his family lose their testimonies?
Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast to hear the full story. You will not find more sensitive and thoughtful people than Jeanne and Jason Booth.
Transcript
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| 1:22.0 | I hope you'll be wasn't here. |
| 1:27.0 | Hello everyone and welcome back to Mormon Stories Podcast Part 2 of our interview with |
| 1:32.0 | Jeanne and Jason Booth. My name is John Delin. This interview is part of our series on how and why Mormon |
| 1:41.0 | bishops are losing their faith as bishops. And this is at least the second interview of |
| 1:47.0 | that sort. There may be more but we have more to come. But in part one of this interview |
| 1:52.0 | with Jeanne and Jason Booth who live in Syracuse, we talked about their lives as true |
| 2:00.0 | blue Mormons being raised in the church, serving missions, both of them getting married in the temple, |
| 2:06.0 | having four children within five years and serving in callings all the way up through the |
| 2:13.0 | point of where Jason gets called as a bishop. And now in part two we're going to talk about |
| 2:18.0 | what happened, how in the world, how does that go wrong from the church's perspective and what happened? |
| 2:23.0 | I guess feeling good. Good. Good. Yeah. So Jeanne, what do you think when he got called as bishops? |
| 2:30.0 | The old gosh, that was that was scary, right? |
| 2:34.0 | Were you hoping for that? Was there a part of you that like would feel validated if your husband |
| 2:41.0 | would be called as a bishop that that would mean you guys were doing a right? You had those insecurities |
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