Losing a Child After Losing Mormon Faith w/ Jennie Latham Johnson | Ep. 2019

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 211 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this deeply moving and raw interview, Jennie shares her powerful life story—from growing up in a strict Mormon household to breaking free from the expectations that shaped her identity. She opens up about her parents’ conversions, her challenging marriage, the emotional toll of purity culture, and her gradual disillusionment with the church.Jennie also recounts the heartbreaking loss of her daughter Izzy, and how grief reshaped her spirituality and perspective on life. Through it all, she finds resilience, healing, and the courage to choose herself.A story of love, loss, faith, and transformation you won't forget.Topics Include:-Childhood in a devout LDS family-Marriage, purity culture, and incompatibilities in marriage -Crisis of faith and discovering church history-Navigating grief after the loss of her daughterSubscribe for more real stories about faith, loss, and rebuilding.

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<a href="https://www.mormonstories.org/mormon-historian-admits-issues-in-ces-letter/">Show Notes</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T13dVy3izM">YouTube</a>

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I remember the proposal like it was yesterday because I remember in my head, I was screaming, no.
0:05.9	And I just said, yes.
0:08.7	There's this thing in Mormonism that any two Mormons can make a marriage work if they're both righteous.
0:14.1	Yes. And I definitely took that to heart. I thought anything can be successful. So it's up to us.
0:18.7	The most important thing on deciding who to marry
0:21.8	was not how I felt about the person sexually, romantically. It was about, does God want me? Has he
0:30.1	given me the sign to marry this person? I remember at that time not having those feelings for him,
0:37.8	but I thought that was a good thing.
0:40.2	I thought that was the sign from God.
0:43.1	You'll be able to make it to the temple with this person.
0:45.1	I can stay pure with this person.
0:48.8	Exactly.
0:49.2	Because I'm actually, I mean, not attracted.
0:53.3	The church gives you a recipe for if things are not successful,
0:57.0	then do ABC. And the idea was that if those things aren't working, then maybe there's a problem
1:03.1	with you. Like, I was the problem. Leaving the church gave me courage to start deciding who I was and what I wanted. And I realized when I left
1:14.1	that I had never done that work. I want to talk a little bit about what it is to have a baby
1:20.3	who's being born with a severe medical issue because I think it's different than what people
1:24.7	think. You can't mother your baby the way that you want to.
1:28.6	You know, I wasn't nursing her.
1:30.5	I wasn't feeding her in any sort of way.
1:33.4	I wasn't holding her.
	...

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