Episode 114: This Is Your Brain On Church—a Conversation with Jill Evans Opdahl

At Last She Said It

Cynthia Winward

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2022

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Language is powerful. The words and phrases we use repetitively in church create well-worn pathways in our brains. Each time we think in a certain way, practice a certain task, or feel a certain emotion we strengthen and grow that pathway, making it easier for our subconscious to find again and again. Whether it's hearing male pronouns associated with deity or studying scriptural records written by and about men, without conscious effort there's a good chance we're reinforcing ideas about gender roles every time we sit through a lesson, hear a talk, or sing a hymn. In this conversation, Jill Evans Opdahl joins Cynthia and Susan to talk about the implications of "our brains on church," and consider the challenges and rewards of adding new pathways to our old ways of thinking.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Like we're supposed to every day walking the trail that links power authority
0:04.6	priesthood revelations angelic visitations the godhood you know all of these things is
0:09.2	linked with males we're wiring our brains to link all of those things with maleness by repetitively reading, studying, talking about the stories of males.
0:25.0	Hi, I am Cynthia Wynnward. And I'm Susan Hinckley.
0:27.0	And this is at last she said it.
0:29.0	We are Women of Faith discussing complicated things. The title of today's
0:35.0	episode is This is Your Brain on Church.
0:40.0	We think we're pretty clever with that title season.
0:42.0	I think that might Marcus's Women of a certain age Cynthia. Yeah, yeah, this is your this is your brain commercials from the 80s
0:49.2	Maybe some people know what we're talking about but yeah, this is your brain on church and if we're going to be
0:54.4	talking about brains and neuroscience, then you and I are not qualified, Susan, to talk about that. So we have a guest and we are super excited to have Jill Evans
1:05.6	aptal with us. Welcome Jill. Hi Jill. Hello, thank you for having me.
1:10.8	Jill, can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about you personally and maybe
1:17.9	educationally or employment wise that would give our listeners an understanding of who you are.
1:24.0	First of all, I don't really feel super qualified either.
1:27.0	I'm still in college studying, so I'm no expert by any means,
1:32.0	but I have been studying know studying this stuff in
1:34.9	school and I actually am fascinated by it so I study a lot of stuff on my own.
1:38.8	I so I'm an active LDS member I think sometimes people may wonder on my Instagram account, but I am active.
1:46.0	I come from a long family line of LDS members, like my mother and my father's side.
1:52.0	We go all the way back to Joseph Smith's time.
1:53.6	So it's big in my family. I served a mission in Washington DC. I have five young
	...

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