Episode 527: Jonathan Decker, Active LDS, Navigating Complicated Church Issues

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2022

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Jonathan Decker (active LDS, married father of 5, licensed marriage and family therapist) joins us to share his testimony which includes how he handles complicated aspects of church history and challenging current issues. It is beautiful testimony that includes the realities of difficult issues in our Church. I became aware of Jonathan when I read this testimony that was shared broadly on social media and asked him to be on the podcast. Here is a link to that testimony: https://www.facebook.com/JonoDecker/posts/10159801545877937 If you are in a faith crisis, trying to reconcile complicated issues, or helping others; please read Jonathan’s testimony and listen to this podcast. It will help you. For some, it might be the sustainable framework to remain in the Church—and I’ve learned that many in a faith crisis do want to find an authentic way to stay in the Church. You can read Jonathan's "Ask a Latter-day Saint Therapist" articles for LDS Living here: https://www.ldsliving.com/jonathan-decker You can also check out Jonathan's YouTube channels mentioned in the podcast: Cinema Therapy - https://www.youtube.com/c/cinematherapysolutions Mended Light - https://www.youtube.com/c/MendedLight Personal channel with Jonathan's performances for BYU's Divine Comedy - https://www.youtube.com/c/JonathanDecker Thank you, Jonathan, for being on the podcast. I was deeply moved listening to you and your insights into better living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I encourage everyone to listen to this podcast and read/share it along with your Facebook post. ** Please Check Out My Two Books At ** Amazon (LGBTQ): amazon.com/dp/1462135773 Amazon (Culture): amazon.com/dp/1462139566 ** Want to develop church-supported LGBTQ activities in your local area? Please join our FB group below ** https://www.facebook.com/groups/1433556613672143

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.2	My guest on today's podcast, joining me via Zoom, is Jonathan Decker.
0:14.5	Welcome to the podcast, Jonathan.
0:16.6	Hello. Do I call you Richard? Do I call you Papa Osler?
0:19.7	Richard? What do I call you? I know. That's Papa Osler? Richard? What do I call you?
0:21.1	I know. That's a good question.
0:22.6	Richard's fine.
0:24.1	Okay. That's pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
0:26.7	But I am known as Papa Osler. You're exactly right. but he shared a post on April 8th that sort of made the rounds about his own journey as a committed Latter-day Saint to navigate complicated, historical, complicated current issues and remain what a committed Latter-day Saint is.
0:49.2	I read this, I recognize that this is a framework that may be helpful for some listeners.
0:55.4	Some may say that Jonathan's on the slippery slope to leaving the church, being honest about his concerns,
1:00.4	but I feel differently. I think he's on the slippery slope to be able to stay in the church
1:05.2	because he's developed a framework to navigate complicated issues and still support and sustain the church, our doctrine,
1:12.1	our leaders, and be a committed Latter-day Saint. But then I think this also helps you,
1:17.6	listeners or those that are trying to help others, give tools to them and framework for them
1:23.8	to be able to stay in the church. I also, when I read Jonathan's post, I thought of Elder Ballard's talk back in October
1:32.0	of 2014, the talk called Stay in the Boat.
1:36.7	And I've thought a lot about that talk over the last eight years.
1:39.8	And I've thought about, and I was on Twitter kind of talking about this, and one of the tweets came back to me is, you know what we really need is a really big boat.
1:50.3	And I think there's a lot of people that actually want to stay in the boat.
1:53.4	They're not sure people like them are welcome or needed or valued or their framework for having a committed testimony.
2:00.6	Might be a little different from them.
	...

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