Mormon Stories - LDS

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Jared, Gwen, and Madison Lusk. This episode is a continuation in our series highlight former Mormon bishops and their families who have experienced a faith crisis. Jared is set to be excommunicated on June 30th, 2019 for apostasy (details below).

The Lusks live in Farmington, New Mexico. Jared and Gwen were raised as devout Mormons, married in the Jordan River temple, had 6 children, and established a successful dental practice in Farmington, NM. Jared and Gwen devoted their lives to the Mormon church for 45+ years, including Jared serving as bishop from 2008-2013, and Gwen serving in multiple callings.

Jared’s faith crisis was triggered in 2015 when he began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays. Jared and Gwen experienced a mixed faith marriage for a few years. In April of 2018, while being released from a stake calling, Jared shared with his stake president and one of the counselors details regarding his faith crisis. The stake president immediately took Jared’s temple recommend away, and then released Gwen from her calling and took her temple recommend away a few weeks later. Madison (18) resigned from the church in April, 2019.

After Jared began expressing public support for Sam Young and the Protect LDS Children movement, along with expressing public feelings about the church’s truth claims, Jared was summoned to a disciplinary council. Jared faces excommunication on June 30th, 2019 at 6pm at the Farmington, NM stake center.

This is their story.

Direct download: MormonStories-1136-LusksPt6.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 8:37am MDT

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Jared, Gwen, and Madison Lusk. This episode is a continuation in our series highlight former Mormon bishops and their families who have experienced a faith crisis. Jared is set to be excommunicated on June 30th, 2019 for apostasy (details below).

The Lusks live in Farmington, New Mexico. Jared and Gwen were raised as devout Mormons, married in the Jordan River temple, had 6 children, and established a successful dental practice in Farmington, NM. Jared and Gwen devoted their lives to the Mormon church for 45+ years, including Jared serving as bishop from 2008-2013, and Gwen serving in multiple callings.

Jared’s faith crisis was triggered in 2015 when he began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays. Jared and Gwen experienced a mixed faith marriage for a few years. In April of 2018, while being released from a stake calling, Jared shared with his stake president and one of the counselors details regarding his faith crisis. The stake president immediately took Jared’s temple recommend away, and then released Gwen from her calling and took her temple recommend away a few weeks later. Madison (18) resigned from the church in April, 2019.

After Jared began expressing public support for Sam Young and the Protect LDS Children movement, along with expressing public feelings about the church’s truth claims, Jared was summoned to a disciplinary council. Jared faces excommunication on June 30th, 2019 at 6pm at the Farmington, NM stake center.

This is their story.

Direct download: MormonStories-1135-LusksPt5.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 8:36am MDT

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Jared, Gwen, and Madison Lusk. This episode is a continuation in our series highlight former Mormon bishops and their families who have experienced a faith crisis. Jared is set to be excommunicated on June 30th, 2019 for apostasy (details below).

The Lusks live in Farmington, New Mexico. Jared and Gwen were raised as devout Mormons, married in the Jordan River temple, had 6 children, and established a successful dental practice in Farmington, NM. Jared and Gwen devoted their lives to the Mormon church for 45+ years, including Jared serving as bishop from 2008-2013, and Gwen serving in multiple callings.

Jared’s faith crisis was triggered in 2015 when he began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays. Jared and Gwen experienced a mixed faith marriage for a few years. In April of 2018, while being released from a stake calling, Jared shared with his stake president and one of the counselors details regarding his faith crisis. The stake president immediately took Jared’s temple recommend away, and then released Gwen from her calling and took her temple recommend away a few weeks later. Madison (18) resigned from the church in April, 2019.

After Jared began expressing public support for Sam Young and the Protect LDS Children movement, along with expressing public feelings about the church’s truth claims, Jared was summoned to a disciplinary council. Jared faces excommunication on June 30th, 2019 at 6pm at the Farmington, NM stake center.

This is their story.

Direct download: MormonStories-1134-LusksPt4.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 8:34am MDT

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Jared, Gwen, and Madison Lusk. This episode is a continuation in our series highlight former Mormon bishops and their families who have experienced a faith crisis. Jared is set to be excommunicated on June 30th, 2019 for apostasy (details below).

The Lusks live in Farmington, New Mexico. Jared and Gwen were raised as devout Mormons, married in the Jordan River temple, had 6 children, and established a successful dental practice in Farmington, NM. Jared and Gwen devoted their lives to the Mormon church for 45+ years, including Jared serving as bishop from 2008-2013, and Gwen serving in multiple callings.

Jared’s faith crisis was triggered in 2015 when he began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays. Jared and Gwen experienced a mixed faith marriage for a few years. In April of 2018, while being released from a stake calling, Jared shared with his stake president and one of the counselors details regarding his faith crisis. The stake president immediately took Jared’s temple recommend away, and then released Gwen from her calling and took her temple recommend away a few weeks later. Madison (18) resigned from the church in April, 2019.

After Jared began expressing public support for Sam Young and the Protect LDS Children movement, along with expressing public feelings about the church’s truth claims, Jared was summoned to a disciplinary council. Jared faces excommunication on June 30th, 2019 at 6pm at the Farmington, NM stake center.

This is their story.

Direct download: MormonStories-1133-LusksPt3.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 8:33am MDT

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Jared, Gwen, and Madison Lusk. This episode is a continuation in our series highlight former Mormon bishops and their families who have experienced a faith crisis. Jared is set to be excommunicated on June 30th, 2019 for apostasy (details below).

The Lusks live in Farmington, New Mexico. Jared and Gwen were raised as devout Mormons, married in the Jordan River temple, had 6 children, and established a successful dental practice in Farmington, NM. Jared and Gwen devoted their lives to the Mormon church for 45+ years, including Jared serving as bishop from 2008-2013, and Gwen serving in multiple callings.

Jared’s faith crisis was triggered in 2015 when he began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays. Jared and Gwen experienced a mixed faith marriage for a few years. In April of 2018, while being released from a stake calling, Jared shared with his stake president and one of the counselors details regarding his faith crisis. The stake president immediately took Jared’s temple recommend away, and then released Gwen from her calling and took her temple recommend away a few weeks later. Madison (18) resigned from the church in April, 2019.

After Jared began expressing public support for Sam Young and the Protect LDS Children movement, along with expressing public feelings about the church’s truth claims, Jared was summoned to a disciplinary council. Jared faces excommunication on June 30th, 2019 at 6pm at the Farmington, NM stake center.

This is their story.

Direct download: MormonStories-1132-LusksPt2.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 8:31am MDT

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Jared, Gwen, and Madison Lusk. This episode is a continuation in our series highlight former Mormon bishops and their families who have experienced a faith crisis. Jared is set to be excommunicated on June 30th, 2019 for apostasy (details below).

The Lusks live in Farmington, New Mexico. Jared and Gwen were raised as devout Mormons, married in the Jordan River temple, had 6 children, and established a successful dental practice in Farmington, NM. Jared and Gwen devoted their lives to the Mormon church for 45+ years, including Jared serving as bishop from 2008-2013, and Gwen serving in multiple callings.

Jared’s faith crisis was triggered in 2015 when he began reading the LDS Gospel Topics Essays. Jared and Gwen experienced a mixed faith marriage for a few years. In April of 2018, while being released from a stake calling, Jared shared with his stake president and one of the counselors details regarding his faith crisis. The stake president immediately took Jared’s temple recommend away, and then released Gwen from her calling and took her temple recommend away a few weeks later. Madison (18) resigned from the church in April, 2019.

After Jared began expressing public support for Sam Young and the Protect LDS Children movement, along with expressing public feelings about the church’s truth claims, Jared was summoned to a disciplinary council. Jared faces excommunication on June 30th, 2019 at 6pm at the Farmington, NM stake center.

This is their story.

Direct download: MormonStories-1131-LusksPt1.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 8:30am MDT

Join us now on Mormon Stories Podcast as we interview Tonya Guest. Tonya will be sharing with us her story, which includes experiencing a Mormon faith crisis, expressing a public statement on social media - specifically regarding issues of women and the church - and then having her bishop question and shame her publicly for what she shared. We will also be discussing Tonya’s attempts to discuss the issue with her stake president, and we will read stories/experiences from others with similar experiences.

Direct download: MormonStories-1130-TonyaGuest.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:00am MDT

Join us now for today's Mormon Stories Podcast episode as we interview ex-Jehovah's Witness Amber Scorah about her new book: "Leaving the Witness: Exiting Religion and Finding a Life." Building off of our previous interview with former Jehovah's Witness, Lloyd Evans, we continue to discover the parallels between the JW Movement and Mormonism, particularly surrounding the struggle to form a new identity after leaving the religion. In this interview Amber shares her experience leaving her religion. From the book's abstract:

"Amber's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness.

Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Amber was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery--with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone."

Direct download: MormonStories-1129-AmberScorah.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:00am MDT

In this episode, we talk with Crystal Escobar about her new book: My Life as a Wannabe Balanced Mom, specifically how she has navigated both motherhood and being a business entrepreneur. Those familiar with Mormon Stories Podcast will recall our earlier episodes with both Crystal and her husband Sean that detailed Sean's experience as a victim of sexual abuse and also detailing their journey out of Mormonism. Today's interview will expound on Crystal's experience as she learned to balance motherhood with her other life's interests, and how she rebuilt her idea of motherhood outside the paradigm of the Mormon Church.

We will also be joined by a few of her readers in the second part of the interview.

Direct download: MormonStories-1128-CrystalEscobarPt2.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:30am MDT

In this episode, we talk with Crystal Escobar about her new book: My Life as a Wannabe Balanced Mom, specifically how she has navigated both motherhood and being a business entrepreneur. Those familiar with Mormon Stories Podcast will recall our earlier episodes with both Crystal and her husband Sean that detailed Sean's experience as a victim of sexual abuse and also detailing their journey out of Mormonism. Today's interview will expound on Crystal's experience as she learned to balance motherhood with her other life's interests, and how she rebuilt her idea of motherhood outside the paradigm of the Mormon Church.

We will also be joined by a few of her readers in the second part of the interview.

Direct download: MormonStories-1127-CrystalEscobarPt1.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:00am MDT

Please join us now for our Mormon Stories Podcast interview with Spencer Nugent. Spencer, along with his parents and sibling, were the first Jamaicans baptized on the island into the Mormon church. Later Spencer’s family moved to Orem, Utah. Spencer attended UVSC and BYU, served a mission to San Antonio, Texas, and became an Industrial Designer. Spencer is a renaissance man of sorts. His many talents/interests include karaoke/music, art, travel, design, drawing, landscape architecture, teaching, etc.

After Spencer was married in the Salt Lake City temple and had two sons, he and his ex-wife eventually experienced a Mormon faith crisis and divorced.

Today’s episode will cover numerous topics, including Mormon cultural imperialism/whitewashing, being black in the Mormon church, Spencer’s mission, male eating disorders, parenting, divorce, faith crises, and finding identity, morality, and community as a black ex-Mormon man in Utah.

Direct download: MormonStories-1126-SpencerNugentPt3.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 3:00am MDT

Please join us now for our Mormon Stories Podcast interview with Spencer Nugent. Spencer, along with his parents and sibling, were the first Jamaicans baptized on the island into the Mormon church. Later Spencer’s family moved to Orem, Utah. Spencer attended UVSC and BYU, served a mission to San Antonio, Texas, and became an Industrial Designer. Spencer is a renaissance man of sorts. His many talents/interests include karaoke/music, art, travel, design, drawing, landscape architecture, teaching, etc.

After Spencer was married in the Salt Lake City temple and had two sons, he and his ex-wife eventually experienced a Mormon faith crisis and divorced.

Today’s episode will cover numerous topics, including Mormon cultural imperialism/whitewashing, being black in the Mormon church, Spencer’s mission, male eating disorders, parenting, divorce, faith crises, and finding identity, morality, and community as a black ex-Mormon man in Utah.

Direct download: MormonStories-1125-SpencerNugentPt2.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:30am MDT

Please join us now for our Mormon Stories Podcast interview with Spencer Nugent. Spencer, along with his parents and sibling, were the first Jamaicans baptized on the island into the Mormon church. Later Spencer’s family moved to Orem, Utah. Spencer attended UVSC and BYU, served a mission to San Antonio, Texas, and became an Industrial Designer. Spencer is a renaissance man of sorts. His many talents/interests include karaoke/music, art, travel, design, drawing, landscape architecture, teaching, etc.

After Spencer was married in the Salt Lake City temple and had two sons, he and his ex-wife eventually experienced a Mormon faith crisis and divorced.

Today’s episode will cover numerous topics, including Mormon cultural imperialism/whitewashing, being black in the Mormon church, Spencer’s mission, male eating disorders, parenting, divorce, faith crises, and finding identity, morality, and community as a black ex-Mormon man in Utah.

Direct download: MormonStories-1124-SpencerNugentPt1.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:00am MDT

On this episode of Mormon Stories Podcast, we travel to Davis, California to visit with the Purves family as they share their unique experience with a Mormon Faith Crisis.

In this interview we cover:

  • The goodness that Mormonism brought Scott and Joanna as youth, including a nurturing community and a sense of purpose
  • Scott and Joanna's decision to raise their family in Mormonism, culminating in the calling of Scott as Bishop
  • The rewards and challenges of serving as a Bishop, and how the demanding service impacted Joanna and the rest of the family
  • What made a Mormon Bishop question and then lose his testimony?
  • What happens when a Mormon Bishop's daughter comes out as lesbian and how does the family handle that?
  • How does the Purves family rebuild and regroup to find joy and fulfillment outside of Mormon orthodoxy?
  • And so much more...

Join us as this amazing and loving family becomes both strong and vulnerable to share the joys and challenges of their Mormon Faith Crisis!

Direct download: MormonStories-1123-PurvesPt4.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 3:30am MDT

On this episode of Mormon Stories Podcast, we travel to Davis, California to visit with the Purves family as they share their unique experience with a Mormon Faith Crisis.

In this interview we cover:

  • The goodness that Mormonism brought Scott and Joanna as youth, including a nurturing community and a sense of purpose
  • Scott and Joanna's decision to raise their family in Mormonism, culminating in the calling of Scott as Bishop
  • The rewards and challenges of serving as a Bishop, and how the demanding service impacted Joanna and the rest of the family
  • What made a Mormon Bishop question and then lose his testimony?
  • What happens when a Mormon Bishop's daughter comes out as lesbian and how does the family handle that?
  • How does the Purves family rebuild and regroup to find joy and fulfillment outside of Mormon orthodoxy?
  • And so much more...

Join us as this amazing and loving family becomes both strong and vulnerable to share the joys and challenges of their Mormon Faith Crisis!

Direct download: MormonStories-1122-PurvesPt3.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 3:00am MDT

On this episode of Mormon Stories Podcast, we travel to Davis, California to visit with the Purves family as they share their unique experience with a Mormon Faith Crisis.

In this interview we cover:

  • The goodness that Mormonism brought Scott and Joanna as youth, including a nurturing community and a sense of purpose
  • Scott and Joanna's decision to raise their family in Mormonism, culminating in the calling of Scott as Bishop
  • The rewards and challenges of serving as a Bishop, and how the demanding service impacted Joanna and the rest of the family
  • What made a Mormon Bishop question and then lose his testimony?
  • What happens when a Mormon Bishop's daughter comes out as lesbian and how does the family handle that?
  • How does the Purves family rebuild and regroup to find joy and fulfillment outside of Mormon orthodoxy?
  • And so much more...

Join us as this amazing and loving family becomes both strong and vulnerable to share the joys and challenges of their Mormon Faith Crisis!

Direct download: MormonStories-1121-PurvesPt2.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:30am MDT

On this episode of Mormon Stories Podcast, we travel to Davis, California to visit with the Purves family as they share their unique experience with a Mormon Faith Crisis.

In this interview we cover:

  • The goodness that Mormonism brought Scott and Joanna as youth, including a nurturing community and a sense of purpose
  • Scott and Joanna's decision to raise their family in Mormonism, culminating in the calling of Scott as Bishop
  • The rewards and challenges of serving as a Bishop, and how the demanding service impacted Joanna and the rest of the family
  • What made a Mormon Bishop question and then lose his testimony?
  • What happens when a Mormon Bishop's daughter comes out as lesbian and how does the family handle that?
  • How does the Purves family rebuild and regroup to find joy and fulfillment outside of Mormon orthodoxy?
  • And so much more...

Join us as this amazing and loving family becomes both strong and vulnerable to share the joys and challenges of their Mormon Faith Crisis!

Direct download: MormonStories-1120-PurvesPt1.mp3
Category:Religion -- posted at: 2:00am MDT

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