We’re excited to present Part 2 of the discussion between Caleb Jones and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon about deconstructing and reconstructing faith. The conversation in this one episode turns to some of the trends that are showing up in the religious world that definitely need attention if Mormonism is to have a better chance of keeping its young adults, especially, and also a wide variety of Latter-day Saints who come across difficult questions and/or are no longer moved by LDS worship styles and an “answers” approach to religious questions. Caleb then turns to a way of approaching the plan of salvation that he believes holds more promise for this generation that is exposed to so much information, including a strong dose of science. The discussion also includes Caleb’s stunning framing for “revelation” that argues that people, in particular those who are marginalized in some way, ARE revelation.
You do not want to miss out on this concluding episode of Dan’s interview with Caleb!
Poem recited in this episode:
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Adam Lindsay Gordon
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
B.H. Roberts quote referred to in this episode:
I believe “Mormonism” affords opportunity…for thoughtful disciples who will not be content with merely repeating some of its truths, but will develop its truths…. Not half—not one-hundredth part—not a thousandth part of that which Joseph Smith revealed to the Church has yet been unfolded, either to the Church or to the world, The work of the expounder has scarcely begun. The Prophet planted by teaching the germ-truths of the great dispensation of the fullness of times…. The disciples of “Mormonism,” growing discontented with the necessarily primitive methods which have hitherto prevailed in sustaining the doctrine, will yet take profounder and broader views of the great doctrines committed to the Church; and, departing from mere repetition, will cast them in new formulas…until they help to give to the truths received a more forceful expression, and carry it beyond the earlier and cruder stages of its development.
B.H. Roberts, “Book of Mormon Translation,” Improvement Era 9 (1906): 713
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Links:
“Navigating Discipleship,“ Caleb and Irene Jones’s blog
“LGBTQ Understanding: Doctrine and Science,” Navigating Discipleship blog. Caleb referred in this episode to his overview of both the Church’s changing views on LGBTQ persons and today’s scientific understandings regarding the topic.
Taylor G. Petrey, Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Mormonism (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
Happy to discuss this episode with people here.