Josh Coates studied computer science at UC Berkeley and is the executive director of the B.H. Roberts Foundation.

Links

The Unique Opportunity Local Leaders Have to Encourage Faith Among Latter-day Saint Millennials | An Interview with Jana Riess
Josh Coates articles at Deseret News
Stephen Cranney articles at Deseret News
BH Roberts Foundation
Mormonr.org
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Highlights

3:20 Introduction to Josh Coates, one of the founders of the B.H. Roberts Foundation and Mormoner. They write short articles on controversial topics.

5:45 Who is B.H. Roberts? Why is the foundation named after him?

9:20 Josh and his foundation began a research project surveying Latter Day Saints.

16:00 Creating the survey in order to have useful data. You have to be very careful when formulating questions.

18:15 What were they looking to find out in the survey?

21:30 It seems like people are leaving the Church in droves. Is that really true?

23:30 They have found that there are two types of Latter-day Saints according to their analysis.

• Cluster 1 – 80% are pretty orthodox. Follow closely to the commandments and are very active in the Church.
• Cluster 2 – 20% are scattered in their beliefs even if they identify as Latter-day Saints.

29:40 Millennials are dramatically represented in the 20% of members that have scattered beliefs. We worry about Gen-Z a lot but maybe we are overlooking the millennials.

33:30 The cultural evolution of the Church has improved over the last 20 to 30 years but there have also been things that have eroded the foundation of people’s faith.

34:00 The difference between the different generations in the Church. Why are millennials struggling so much compared to other generations?

35:15 How can leaders better approach or talk to millennials? Separating policy and doctrine.

39:30 The data that Josh found on marriage and divorce in the Church. They found that temple marriages are a big deal.

42:00 Research on moral foundation theory. The five foundational values that go into making a decision:

• Will it hurt someone?
• Is it fair?
• Loyalty
• Authority
• Purity

52:00 The survey data on LGBTQ members of The Church of those that have left The Church and their view on marriage

54:30 Resources and places to go to find out more about Josh’s work.

56:00 Josh’s encouragement to Church leaders

The Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts as part of nonprofit Leading Saints’ mission to help Latter-day Saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org.

Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Wendy Ulrich, Richard Ostler, and many more in over 700 episodes.

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