Mormon Church Alienated Me From My Family In India - Sirisha Shumway | Ep. 2051
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 227 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are very excited this week to release a first-of-its-kind Mormon Stories episode! Born and raised in Hyderabad, India, Sirisha Shumway converted to Mormonism at the age of 14, against the wishes of her family. She quickly became a very devout member of her LDS community, served a mission, and even worked for the church as a translator.
After moving to the US to completer her education, Sirisha faced increasing pressure to marry and raise a family in the LDS faith. But when her husband began questioning church history, she embarked on her own faith crisis, uncovering disturbing truths about Joseph Smith, polygamy, and other deceptions about church history.
Topics include:
-Sirisha's upbringing in India
-Structure of the LDS church in India
-Church interfetance in family relationships
-And the long-lasting impact of high-demand religions on personal identity
We are grateful to Sirisha for sharing her story with us, and hope you enjoy this very unique episode.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What is it like to convert to the Mormon church as a teenage young woman from India? |
| 0:05.8 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to Mormon Stories Podcast. |
| 0:09.5 | I'm your host, John DeLinn. |
| 0:11.0 | It's July 23rd, 2025. |
| 0:13.8 | We've done over 2,000 episodes of Mormon Stories Podcast, |
| 0:17.1 | and we, as far as I remember, have never covered the story of a convert from the country of India. |
| 0:25.0 | And today, we are going to be doing just that. |
| 0:28.6 | We have in studio, Sarisha Shumway. |
| 0:32.2 | Hey, Sarisha. |
| 0:33.0 | Hi, John. |
| 0:34.2 | Thanks so much for joining us. |
| 0:35.6 | Thanks for inviting. |
| 0:37.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:37.4 | Can you believe we've done almost well over 2,000 episodes? Oh my God. And we've never covered a convert from India. There's always a first. Yeah, there's all as a first. It's about time. It's about time. And, of course, we have Margie with us today as well. Hey, Margie. Hi. Hello. Everyone always loves it when you're here. |
| 0:55.8 | Oh, that is. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, today's episode is truly epic. Obviously, the Mormon church doesn't have a lot of converts in the country of India or China. And I want to understand why that is. But also, you know, this is going to be an episode |
| 1:12.0 | about defying your parents and your family of origin, what type of sacrifice it is to join a |
| 1:20.1 | church, an American church like the Mormon church in a country like India, where they take things |
| 1:25.9 | like that very seriously. So there's going to be some |
| 1:28.4 | familial and parental alienation involved. And we're going to be talking heavily about informed |
| 1:33.7 | consent and exploring whether people who convert to the Mormon church, especially in foreign |
| 1:40.0 | countries, receive all the information that they need to make an informed decision. But this is also |
| 1:47.1 | a triumphant story of courage and of resilience and of growth. And that's all I've got to say |
... |
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