I Declined My Mormon Mission Call - Benson Lawson | Ep. 2062

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 185 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re sitting down with Benson Lawson, who made the bold decision to decline his Mormon mission call. In the LDS community, serving a mission is often seen as non-negotiable—an expectation placed on nearly every young man. For those who choose differently, the backlash can be overwhelming.

Benson is bravely sharing his story with us, opening up about the pressure, the stigma, and why a mission wasn’t the right path for him.

Join us as we explore the reasons why a mission is not right for everyone, and what affect this choice can have on a Mormon man in particular.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What in the world would cause a young Mormon man to apply to become a Mormon missionary and then to decline his mission call once it comes?
0:09.7	Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mormon stories podcast.
0:12.9	I'm your host, co-host, John DeLinn.
0:15.6	It is September 5th, 2025.
0:19.5	And today, we are going to be interviewing a young man who recently received his call
0:26.1	to serve a Mormon mission. And because of a series of events, once the call came and the time
0:33.1	came to serve, he decided not to go on a mission. His name is Benson Lawson, and he's joining us
0:40.6	here in studios. Hey, Benson. Hey, how long ago did you put your papers in? I put my papers in
0:47.2	twice, actually, and I got denied once, but the actual time I put it in and it got accepted was
0:52.6	in March of 2024.
0:55.2	Yeah, so like, yeah, a year or two ago, right?
0:58.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:58.8	So pretty current.
1:00.4	And if that weren't awesome enough, as always, we try to have my co-host Margie with us.
1:07.9	So Margie is in studio and she'll be co-hosting today.
1:11.1	Hey, Margie. Hi there. Thanks for coming co-hosting today. Hey, Margie.
1:18.6	Hi there. Thanks for coming. Yeah, my pleasure. Yeah. All right. Well, our audience loves missionary stories. And even though your story is maybe not a normal Mormon missionary story,
1:24.3	we found your outline and your audition video to be super compelling.
1:28.2	So anything you want to say as a disclaimer or as an intention before we jump in,
1:34.4	some people might want to know, why are you even doing this?
1:36.7	Do you want to state an intention or just jump in?
1:39.7	I mean, disclaimer, I didn't actually go on a mission, so I don't have any real missionary stories.
	...

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