Latter Day Struggles – Details, episodes & analysis

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Hey, amazing Friday subscribers! You have questions? Val has responses! For the next few Fridays (and other Fridays in the future) she’ll be answering YOUR questions. 

This episode’s questions:
- What are your thoughts about Gods controlling things and letting bad things happen to us? 
- How can I best support my significant other who feels he has lost all footing in or with the church? 
- What are the most life changing books you have read and why? 

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Join Valerie and fellow podcaster Aubrey Chaves of the Faith Matters podcast as together they discuss the vision and purpose of the Restore Conference. 

A common belief among these two brave and compassionate women? 
True growth and connection is about being welcome and accepted wherever you are on your faith journey.  No fine print. 

In their unique ways each are involved in efforts for their LDS and surrounding fellow travelers. Listen in to hear why they are so committed to this work! 

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Series Title: Redefining Spiritual Experiences [Part II of II]

In this episode, Valerie and Nathan continue making sense of the struggle that many faith-expanding LDS (and surrounding) people have regarding past and present spiritual experiences. 

Sharing personal experiences of their own faith journeys, they open up about how their relationship to spiritual impressions, prayer, and personal revelation has moved from isolated experiences to more of an acknowledgement of ongoing divine connection. 

The episode ends with a conversation about how families can continue to work toward unity and community even when different family members' perspectives and interpretations of spiritual experience and personal revelation vastly differ. 

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Series Title: Guiding & Trusting LDS Young Adults as They Navigate their Faith [Part I of II]

Welcome to a beautiful two-part conversation between Valerie and Patrick Mason, who talk about the often-unaddressed issue of conflict in religious congregations and how tough conversations can be turned around to propel spiritual growth. 

Patrick has a unique perspective in this issue as a university professor who has recently begun holding gatherings in his home, helping young adults in and around the LDS church feel safe in their honest enquiries around spirituality in general and the LDS faith in specific. 

Valerie and Patrick traverse complex terrain, discussing the fear of constructive conflict within the Latter-day Saint community that often stifles genuine spiritual ministering and growth. Patrick examines this cultural practice, arguing that conflict can and should be seen as an opportunity for growth rather than a threat to unity and peace.

Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!

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 Series Title: Analysis of E. Corbridge's BYU Devotional “Stand Forever [Part II of II]


In this second half of a series tackling E Corbridge’s talk titled “Stand Forever”, Val and Nathan’s address the following: 

• How in their opinion scientific and other academic inquiry IS spiritual in nature 
• Why all questions are viable, valuable, and ought to be welcomed 
• How doubt is evidence of spiritual questing and courage
• A proposal that if there *were* only one question guiding our discipleship, it ought to be centered in how aligned are we with Christ’s embodiment of love 

Helpful links for listeners:

• Stand Forever, Elder Lawrence E Corbridge, BYU Devotional
• The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our "Correct" Beliefs, by Peter Enns

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 Series Title: Analysis of E.Corbridge BYU Devotional “Stand Forever [Part I of II]


In the next two episodes Valerie and Nathan respond to a BYU address titled “Stand Forever” by E. Corbridge, where he proposes to university students that there are only four questions that even matter in one’s quest for spiritual knowledge in the LDS church. 

According to him, once these “primary questions” are answered, no “secondary questions” need be asked. 

In this series Valerie and Nathan challenge both the proposed four “primary questions” themselves and the premise that it is wrong to enquire about anything related to our unique faith journeys. 

FRIDAY’S episode tackles Val’s and Nathan’s responded to E Corbridge’s proposal that scientific and other academic inquiry is not spiritual in nature and explore why the experience of doubt is evidence of spiritual questing and courage.

Podcast-related resources:

• Stand Forever, by Lawrence E. Corbridge, BYU Devotional

Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!

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Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part IV of IV]

In this final episode in this mini-series featuring Chris Kimball’s book ⁠Living on the Inside of the Edge, Chris and Val close with a sensitive topic of so many of us on the peripheries of the LDS faith tradition.  

Both parents to children ranging from adolescents to mid-adulthood, Val and Chris share thoughts about the “Mormon Scoreboard” and how this scoring system hurts both parents and their children.

They share their own tender experiences navigating parenting, realizing that while their faith journeys complicated their parenting identities, ultimately they had no choice in the matter and their deepening faith was something that strengthened their ability to love their children and allow their children their own beautiful journeys too.

Chris and Valerie talk about fears that they have or have overcome in raising their children on the edge, knowing that others may well see them and/or their children as failures on the Mormon scoreboard.

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Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part III of IV]

In this episode Chris and Val talk about dangers of MAGICAL THINKING and how pervasive this is in the LDS church.  They discuss how compelling a transactional understanding of life might feel (as all people crave certainty) but how damaging this is when churches offer simple if/then promises that crumble for many of us when things fall apart. 

What follows failed promises made by well-meaning loved ones and churches?  Not only the despair of the loss (the death, failed marriage, etc.) but also the despair that the whole system upon which one believes in God does not work.  

Friday’s closing episode of this series is a tender conversation about parenting on the edge.  Chris and Valerie talk about fears that they have or have overcome in raising their children on the edge, knowing that others may well see them and/or their children as failures on the Mormon scoreboard.Info on how to subscribe to listen to Friday’s episode is directly below.  See you there!

Helpful podcast-related resources:

• ⁠Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide⁠⁠, Christian Kimball

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Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part II of IV]

In this second episode in the mini-series featuring Chris Kimball’s book Living on the Inside of the Edge, Chris and Val talk about the crucial role that personal differentiation plays in having a healthy relationship with the LDS church.  

Put simply, we must all grow up and practice having an adult-to-adult relationship in a culture that sometimes encourages more of a child-to-adult relationship.  They cover everything from Bishop’s interviews to managing the anxiety of breaking benign but significant social codes of this faith community, and doing so from a place that honors the ongoing tension that humans long for both belonging to a community and belonging to themselves. 

Helpful podcast-related resources:

• ⁠Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide⁠⁠, Christian Kimball

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 Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part I of IV]

Welcome to the first of a WONDERFUL four-part mini series with guest Christian Kimball, author of the beautiful book Living on the Inside of the Edge.   

In today’s episode Chris and Val will focus on the topic of how prone we as Latter Day Saints (as are others in early stage spiritual and psychological development) are to think in BINARIES:  good/bad, right/wrong, in/out. 

Their invitation is to break out of binary-thinking and begin to see your relationship with the church on your own terms, emphasizing that your relationship with your current spiritual practice WILL CHANGE, because our life’s experiences change us all.  

In Friday’s episode Val and Chris focus on finally *truly* growing up in our relationship with the church! This episode digs into the concept of obtaining a differentiated [read: adult-to -adult] relationship with the church and how this adult-to-adult dynamic might look on the ground in real life relationships, especially with your bishop. 

Helpful podcast-related resources:

• Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide, Christian Kimball⁠

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