Update on the churchistrue podcast and blog. This is hopefully not a dramatic YAGE (yet another grand exit).

I finished the last podcast episode Aug 18. My original plan was once I was finished recording the episodes, that I would push on the side of promoting the podcast and making it visible to reach the audience intended. Among those plans:

–appear on other podcasts to promote the podcast series. John Dehlin was gracious enough to invite me to come on his podcast Mormon Stories to promote the podcast series and discuss my approach to faith crisis issues. We met together and roughed out how the interview would go loosely. We both were initially apprehensive, as our target audience has some crossover, but there are elements of what I do that his audience doesn’t like at all. And there are elements of his podcasts that I and other active LDS don’t agree with. But John was very kind and accommodating in our interactions and meeting and we worked out a plan that would alleviate those concerns. I think the podcast episode would have been very beneficial to the Exmo-Progmo-TBM online community. (maybe someday we’ll still do it)

–finish and publish transcripts

–finish that last episode BOM Wordprint studies and polish up all the charts and graphs for that and maybe even try to develop it enough to publish it in a journal (major bucket list item)

–maybe transition the podcast into a regularly published weekly or biweekly podcast

–maybe get more involved in creating communities and collaborating with others in the same space to produce content for the Middle Way space

 

But, life happens. The universe gave me a gift in August 2020 to deeply reevaluate some areas in my life that needed my urgent attention. This opportunity has required me to devote all my extra time and resources. So, I have postponed all this. I hope to come back to it. I don’t know when. I do fully expect to be back. This work is something I want to devote my life to, and I still feel that way. I just don’t know exactly when that will be.

This sabbatical has nothing to do with things like church discipline or external pressure to stop my blog/podcast activities or my views and beliefs changing. Completely unrelated.

So, goodbye for now. Thanks to all the friends I’ve made and discussions we’ve had and support I’ve felt from so many. I’m still alive, so if someone wants to check in with me, send me facebook message or an email (churchistrueblog at gmail) or a reddit message (churchistrue). I love the personal interactions.

I’ll include a couple recent communications I received from people that were supported by the podcast. It’s great to see when this is helpful for others.

 

I just wanted to say that I found your blog after googling something which led me to your podcast and it has truly been a godsend for me. I’m in my own faith deconstruction/reconstruction process and I just didn’t have a great mentor to show me how to not just be angry at the church. I didn’t want to be angry, I didn’t necessarily want to leave the church but I didn’t really know how to put things back together in a way that worked for me where I could stay and be ok within myself. I absolutely loved your thoughts of how you put it back together and how to still find meaning in it. You also recommended jack Naneek’s podcast which I listened to every episode of and he became another mentor for me. In fact I emailed him and ask him for book recommendations that guided his perspectives so now I am reading eckhart Tolle and finding such a new depth of spirituality. So I just wanted to say thank you since you probably don’t get to always hear the effect your blog and podcast have on the people who hear it. For me, it set me on a path that I was craving but didn’t know how to find. It has truly transformed me, so thank you for your work and your authenticity and insights. You have been an important start to my reconstruction path which I am so grateful for. Thank you!

 

 

My name is (name). I live in (city) and am currently investigating joining the LDS church. I wanted to thank you for all the work you’ve done on your blog and podcast series. As a result of them I think I’m going to get baptized quite soon!

During the last few years I’ve been feeling a spiritual yearning that I tried to fulfill, unsuccessfully, by rejoining my birth religion (Catholicism), and various other avenues. This spiritual yearning was a result of my life experiences with atheism, and in large part a result of the writings and talks of Jordan Peterson, whose worldview has convinced me of the need of religion for the well-functioning of society and for individual meaning.

Three months ago I began to investigate the LDS church in earnest, and since then I’ve began to acquire a testimony of the dramatically positive effects it has on the world, and even in my life in this brief period. The only thing stopping me from joining were questions about being able to be a genuine member of the Church, while having different views on the historicity of scripture, and certain foundational events. Your podcast series has been invaluable in helping me see how one can be authentic and coherent with this worldview, and still be a normal member of the Church. Before coming across your work I felt like there was no solution other than ‘pretending’ for my entire life.

For the last few years I’ve been of the opinion that the most important problem humanity is facing right now is a way to stop the dramatic decrease of religious belief in the West. Many religions have tried to ‘water down’ their doctrine in order to retain members – with little success. Your solution of maintaining strict doctrine, while adopting a metaphorical worldview, seems like the best solution we have right now. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think you have the best solution to the greatest problem humanity is facing right now.