Mormon Land

2018 grad discusses the challenges and fears he had as a transgender student at BYU | Episode 79

Matt Easton made headlines around the world after stating during his recent valedictory speech at Brigham Young University that he is “proud to be a gay son of God.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its flagship school aren’t the easiest places to be an LGBTQ member and student. Belonging to those institutions can be especially challenging for transgender individuals, for whom the rules are even muddier.
Andy Winder knows that firsthand. He started undergoing hormone-replacement therapy during his sophomore year and lived, worked and studied in near-constant fear that he would be expelled.
Winder made it to graduation — in 2018 — but the path to a diploma didn’t come without bumps and bruises, twists and turns. The 21-year-old writer discusses his journey on this week’s “Mormon Land” podcast.
Listen here:

A Latter-day Saint therapist on why sex isn’t just about making babies | Episode 78

Latter-day Saints are taught time and time again that sexual relations are absolutely forbidden — before marriage. But after couples wed, all that changes, immediately. Sex becomes not only acceptable but also encouraged, even exalted.
Making that transition isn’t always easy for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That’s where Jennifer Finlayson-Fife steps in. A Chicago area Latter-day Saint and a licensed therapist who specializes in working with member couples on sexuality and relationship issues, she joins the podcast to talk about, well, sex in Mormonism.

Renovating Mormonism’s ‘Notre Dame’ and preserving historic LDS buildings | Episode 77

The world watched in horror this week as Notre Dame burned.
Now, with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints poised to announce Friday the details of a massive renovation project for its iconic Salt Lake Temple, perhaps Mormonism’s Notre Dame, thoughts turn to the Utah-based faith’s sacred structures.
Allen Roberts, a Utah architect who specializes in preservation, including work on Latter-day Saint chapels, tabernacles and temples, discusses the church’s historic buildings, their place in the design world and the faith’s high points and low points in preserving them.

The LDS Church’s LGBTQ policy: How it came to be and why it went away | Episode 76

Nearly 3½ years ago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stunned insiders and outsiders with a new policy labeling same-sex married couples “apostates” and generally barring their children from baptism until they turn 18.
Last week, Latter-day Saint leaders delivered another shocker by reversing those rules.
What happened? And why? And where does the Utah-based faith go from here?
Discussing those questions and more about the church’s evolution and, some say, devolution on LGBTQ rights is historian Gregory Prince, author of the newly released “Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences.”

How should missionary program be rebuilt and where might new temples go up? | Episode 75

After surveying thousands of returned missionaries, independent researcher Matt Martinich decided “urgent reform” was needed to help The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints achieve real growth.
He offered his suggestions in a recent post on his website, ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, and discussed them further in a Salt Lake Tribune story and this week’s podcast.

Former model Rosemary Card talks about life as a young single woman in the faith | Episode 74

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the ultimate ordinance is eternal marriage between a man and woman. It preaches the importance of rearing righteous children. It even published a proclamation to the world extolling the virtues of the so-called traditional, nuclear family. Although many, if not most, members do not have that at home, it still is pointed to as the “ideal.”
So it’s not the easiest faith in which to be single.
Rosemary Card, who worked as a teenage model in New York, later graduated from Brigham Young University and served a church mission, addresses that topic and more in her book, “Model Mormon: Fighting for Self-Worth on the Runway and as an Independent Woman.” She also is the founder of Q.NOOR, a temple dress company for Latter-day Saints.
Listen here:

Therapists unite in a quest for common ground on divisive LGBTQ issues | Episode 73

The recently completed session of the Utah Legislature appeared poised to ban so-called conversion therapy, barring therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation of minors.
The bill had not one but two Republicans championing it and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — seen as a potential stumbling block — had taken a neutral stance on the measure. But conservatives hijacked the bill and watered it down beyond recognition.
The clash highlighted once again the divisions on LGBTQ issues.
Discussing those issues on this week’s podcast are psychologist Lee Beckstead, a gay former Mormon who testified against conversion therapy in a prominent court case, and therapist Ty Mansfield, an active Latter-day Saint who has written about his same-sex attractions and his marriage to a woman.
Both Beckstead and Mansfield are involved in a united undertaking known as the Reconciliation and Growth Project, a joint effort that includes a far-reaching study, to find common ground within the LGBTQ community.

What President Nelson’s meeting with Pope Francis means for Latter-day Saints | Episode 72

Thirty-three minutes. That’s how long President Russell M. Nelson’s private audience with Pope Francis lasted at the Vatican.
But the first-ever face-to-face meeting between a Latter-day Saint prophet and a Catholic pontiff was months — if not longer — in the making, and its impact might be felt for years to come. Or will it? Was this historic encounter more about symbolism than substance? Or is that symbolism, ultimately, more important than any substance?
Patrick Mason, head of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University, discusses why this meeting and the recent events in Rome mean so much more to the 16 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic Church.
Listen here:

A new discovery sheds light on early black converts and the subsequent priesthood ban | Episode 71

Knowing who ordained whom to the priesthood in the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is seldom of interest to anyone beyond curious descendants and detail-obsessed researchers.
But a recent discovery solving the mystery surrounding the ordination of Elijah Able (sometimes spelled Abel), one of the most famous black converts in the faith’s fledgling years, excited historians and helped shed additional light on a religion with a tortuous track record on the issue of race.
W. Paul Reeve, professor of Mormon studies at the University of Utah and author of the award-winning book “Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness,” documented the discovery and discusses what it means and why it matters.

Jana Riess talks politics, LGBTQ issues and her landmark findings on LDS millennials | Episode 70

For months, Latter-day Saint leaders, scholars and rank-and-file members — not to mention a fair share of outside observers — have looked forward to the release of Jana Riess’ book about her groundbreaking Next Mormons Survey, a sweeping study of 1,156 members and 540 former members, young and old, male and female, across the U.S.
Well, that day is near. Her book, “The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church,” comes out next week.
Riess, a Religion News Service senior columnist, discusses her findings — covering everything from changing orthodoxy, shifting politics, softening LGBTQ views and a surprise or two (think coffee) — on this week’s “Mormon Land” podcast.