Devout Mormon Couple Leaves Church - Clare and Jackson Adams | Ep. 1981

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2025

⏱️ 211 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this powerful episode of Mormon Stories, Clare and Jackson share their personal journeys of growing up in the Mormon church, struggling with shame, guilt, and anxiety, and eventually undergoing faith transitions. Clare discusses her challenges with modesty, body image, and mental health, especially during her mission, while Jackson opens up about his battles with pornography, shame, and a dangerous mission experience in Honduras. Together, they reflect on their experiences with church teachings, therapy, and the emotional toll of deconstructing their faith. This episode explores their healing process, the impact of questioning Mormonism, and the growth they’ve found in rebuilding their lives and relationship after leaving the church.

Show Notes

YouTube

00:01:35 Intentions for being on Mormon Stories

00:17:50 Modesty and Young Women lessons

00:23:30 High School years

00:32:34 Jackson’s Mormon upbringing

00:39:40 Adolescent years

00:47:13 Issues with pornography and masturbation

01:07:20 Claire’s mission

01:16:13 Having panic attacks while serving her mission

01:27:35 Someone proposed to her on her mission

01:28:25 Jackson’s mission

01:35:00 Jackson’s dangerous mission experience

01:47:25 Claire going to college after her mission

01:51:30 He went through a disciplinary council

01:58:20 He was assigned to the Addiction Recovery Program

02:04:55 Meeting, engaged and married was five months

02:17:40 Parenthood and the church

02:24:25 TikTok was her demise of her testimony

02:31:10 Why she didn’t tell her husband of her struggles in the church

02:40:16 Jackson’s journey with his testimony

02:47:40 What happened after the faith crisis?

02:55:50 Healing after the faith transitions

03:07:00 How will their friends and parents respond to this episode?

03:14:03 Rebuilding after their faith transition

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of Mormon stories podcast. I'm your host, John DeLinn. It's December 18th, 2024. And I'm here with Margie. Hey, Margie. Hi. And we are here to give you another one of those classic bread and butter everyday Mormon stories.
0:22.2	And joining us today in studio are Claire, Claire Howell Adams and Jackson Adams.
0:33.3	And it's just sort of a 20-something late 20 something Mormon couple who recently has gone through a faith transition.
0:45.2	And there's so many important stories that are common in the Mormon stories experience things like perfectionism, anxiety, scrupulosity, purity culture,
0:59.0	sexual shame, mission experiences, early marriage, childbearing, faith journeys, all the stuff.
1:09.0	What am I missing in core themes? Anything? That's everything.
1:14.2	Is that pretty good? Yeah, you got it. Anyway, but y'all always ask for kind of everyday Mormon
1:19.1	stories, and that's what you're in for today. So, um, so Claire and Jackson, welcome to Mormon stories.
1:26.5	Thank you for having us. Yeah, really happy to be Stories. Thank you for having us.
1:28.3	Yeah, really happy to be here.
1:29.3	Thank you, John.
1:30.3	So normally we start with an intention.
1:33.3	We like to give people a chance to kind of tell,
1:36.3	especially their believing loved ones,
1:38.3	why they would want to be on Mormon stories.
1:43.3	So Claire, why don't we give you a chance to go first?
1:46.4	Yes, sure.
1:47.9	I think for me, I have no ill intention whatsoever.
1:51.8	This is me being authentic and true to myself.
1:56.4	And Mormon stories was such a lifeline for me going through my deconstruction.
2:03.1	My hope is that if just one person can hear something that I have to say
2:08.3	and resonate with that and not feel alone and feel seen, that's really important to me.
	...

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