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Music Hello and welcome back to Big Mood, Little Moodood with your host, Daniel M. Lavery.

This week in the studio, I'm joined by Dr. Paula Stone Williams, an internationally known

speaker on gender equity, LGBTQ advocacy, and religious tolerance. She's also a pastor

and pastoral counselor in Boulder County, Colorado.

Paula, welcome to the show. Oh, it's so good to be with you. Thank you so much. This is,

I think I can say fairly decisively one of the first times I've spoken with a pastor in quite some time.

And I'm so glad that it's you. I'm so glad that these are the circumstances

under which I am speaking to a minister. Yeah, it's probably, that's probably a good thing that

you've not talked to a pastor in a long time. It didn't go great the last time. Religion in America

right now is a little strange. Yeah, I don't want to spend too much of our time before we get

into these questions, sort of diving into that topic, although I did seek out a few religion-themed

questions for us to get into today. But yes, it's a fraught subject, is it not? Would you

be so good as to read our first letter? Sure. And the subject of it is more

support. I am not close to my family, not for any earth-shattering reason. They're just very waspy,

small-town folks, and I'm a progressive city dweller. My sister only talks to me when she wants

something and is not interested in my life.

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