My Mormon Bishop Dad was Excommunicated for Polygamy - Laurel Hell | Ep. 2038

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 331 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this raw and emotional deep-dive, Laurel shares her powerful story of growing up in an extremely orthodox Mormon household as the youngest of eight children. From uncovering her Danish-Mormon ancestry to dealing with abuse, purity culture, and her father's secret polygamist "revelation" that led to his excommunication, Laurel reflects on how early trauma, sexual repression, and church doctrine shaped her identity.She opens up about her mission to Poland, her battle with anxiety, shame, and identity within the church, and how the toxic dynamics of Mormon Young Single Adult (YSA) culture pushed her to the edge. Ultimately, Laurel's journey of deconstruction—triggered by political events, therapy, and research into church history—leads her to reclaim her sexuality, leave the church, and finally begin to heal.Topics include: abuse, purity culture, sexual trauma, polygamy, depression, and suicidal ideation. Viewer discretion advised.___________________

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories Podcast. I'm your host,
0:03.3	John DeLinn. It's June 3rd, 2025. I'm here with my co-host Margie. Hey, Margie.
0:08.9	Hello.
0:09.7	And today we have in studio, someone whose last name you may not have heard before on Mormon Stories
0:17.3	podcast. We have Laurel. Hell. Hey, Laura. Hi. Welcome. Thank you. Now, is,
0:24.6	is hell your, no, it's my chosen name? It's your chosen name. Yeah, well, I can't wait to hear
0:30.5	why you chose that name. But I'll just give a quick teaser. Laurel's story is so fascinating for so
0:36.6	many reasons. We're going to be talking
0:39.1	about, I don't know how else to say it, but sex trafficking with pioneer ancestors. We're going to be
0:45.2	talking about having a dad who's a Mormon bishop who receives revelation that he's supposed to take
0:51.8	one of his ward members as a plural wife while he's bishop
0:55.0	and the disciplinary actions that follow.
0:59.0	We're going to be talking about a faith journey like many that you'll see on Mormon Stories
1:05.0	podcast, mission experience in Poland, 10 years in the YSA program. What's it like to be a single woman
1:14.2	in the Mormon Church's single adult program? And just it's not working. Laurel's been
1:21.7	relief study president at least two or three times. And most importantly, I think we've got a really cool story about healing and growth
1:32.3	after you realize that the church isn't going to be necessarily meeting all your needs
1:39.5	to put it lightly.
1:41.1	How's that?
1:41.8	Yeah, that's exactly right.
1:43.5	You covered it. Any big, any big teasers I left
1:45.8	off, Laurel? Um, no, we'll just let everything be a surprise when it is. Okay. All right. Well,
	...

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