Latter-day Faith

This short(ish) episode contains the announcement of a change to the upcoming Latter-day Faith retreat for October 11th to 13th. Natasha Helfer Parker cannot be part of that event, so Jana Spangler, Jody England Hansen, and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon have re-designed it to focus more on spirituality, development, possibilities for reframing what we had previously experienced only in limited ways, various spiritual practices, and more. And though the episode was launched because of the changes needed for the upcoming event, the panelists all try to make what they share here relevant for those who might not even be able to consider coming to the retreat. What are some of the larger issues at play in LDS lives and faith journeys that serve as excellent jumping off points for our own spiritual reflections?

Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon goes solo this week to talk about some of the dynamics he sees at play in today's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Specifically, he utilizes the language of paradigm shifts to try to make sense of this current period, arguing that what we see fits the pattern often found when an all-encompassing vision of "the way things are" (a very strong, well-articulated paradigm that a majority of people think, react, and think out of) begins to show its limits when it can't any longer reach and satisfy the curiosity and priorities and values of people who have begun to operate from a different paradigm. Ideally, this is a natural process and does not have to fraught with conflict, with the result being the instantiation of a new paradigm that honors and builds on the strengths of the previous one even as it shows how much "more" can be discovered and explored via the new one. What cracks are beginning to show themselves in today's current LDS paradigm? What is happening to reassure members of the church that today's paradigm can explain and still inspire, protect, and bring peace at this time. What things are signaling that the current reactions are not at all satisfactory, and that the paradigm needs expanding to accommodate new data, events, trends, discoveries, and enrichments? If someone is experiencing tension with the old paradigm but does not want to abandon it or the church it dominates, what can they do to assist in a smooth transition from the one to the other? What are some of the values and methodologies and blessings that lie at the core of the new paradigm? This presentation is intended as a beginning to a discussion and does not pretend to be polished and well-articulated. Observations, hunches, sensibilities, and hopefulness are its hallmark, and Dan invites you all to suggest, challenge, tweak, and in any way you'd like become an active voice in identifying the issues and assisting in making a stronger case for the needs showing themselves in today's church dynamics. Or, again, fight back. Propose alternative visions that frame things differently. However you react, please share!

Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon goes solo this week to talk about some of the dynamics he sees at play in today's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Specifically, he utilizes the language of paradigm shifts to try to make sense of this current period, arguing that what we see fits the pattern often found when an all-encompassing vision of "the way things are" (a very strong, well-articulated paradigm that a majority of people think, react, and think out of) begins to show its limits when it can't any longer reach and satisfy the curiosity and priorities and values of people who have begun to operate from a different paradigm. Ideally, this is a natural process and does not have to fraught with conflict, with the result being the instantiation of a new paradigm that honors and builds on the strengths of the previous one even as it shows how much "more" can be discovered and explored via the new one.

What cracks are beginning to show themselves in today's current LDS paradigm? What is happening to reassure members of the church that today's paradigm can explain and still inspire, protect, and bring peace at this time. What things are signaling that the current reactions are not at all satisfactory, and that the paradigm needs expanding to accommodate new data, events, trends, discoveries, and enrichments? If someone is experiencing tension with the old paradigm but does not want to abandon it or the church it dominates, what can they do to assist in a smooth transition from the one to the other? What are some of the values and methodologies and blessings that lie at the core of the new paradigm?

This presentation is intended as a beginning to a discussion and does not pretend to be polished and well-articulated. Observations, hunches, sensibilities, and hopefulness are its hallmark, and Dan invites you all to suggest, challenge, tweak, and in any way you'd like become an active voice in identifying the issues and assisting in making a stronger case for the needs showing themselves in today's church dynamics. Or, again, fight back. Propose alternative visions that frame things differently. However you react, please share!

Expanding on several previous Latter-day Faith episodes that centered on scripture or the concept of Zion, our discussion this week revolves around several elements in LDS scripture and early church teachings that shifts our thinking regarding these areas in wonderful ways. Guided by the brilliant Brittney Hartley, we explore how we need to create a better balance between the scriptural teachings about Zion being brought down "from above" as well as up "from beneath." (D&C 84:100) The vast majority of teachings about creating Zion have been driven by church leaders and through top-down pronouncements, even to the point of talking about how Zion should be "administered"! Instead, Brittney asks what would it mean to take seriously gathering Zion from below? You don't want to miss this discussion! It is very frank about current failings, including really missing the point in how we understand 2 Nephi 29's critique about "A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible," but it is also full of optimism and very practical steps we might take to restore proper balance and become the kind of church needed today in this pivotal time of increasing disaffiliation among members, and especially among the rising generations.

Expanding on several previous Latter-day Faith episodes that centered on scripture or the concept of Zion, our discussion this week revolves around several elements in LDS scripture and early church teachings that shifts our thinking regarding these areas in wonderful ways. Guided by the brilliant Brittney Hartley, we explore how we need to create a better balance between the scriptural teachings about Zion being brought down "from above" as well as up "from beneath." (D&C 84:100) The vast majority of teachings about creating Zion have been driven by church leaders and through top-down pronouncements, even to the point of talking about how Zion should be "administered"! Instead, Brittney asks what would it mean to take seriously gathering Zion from below?

You don't want to miss this discussion! It is very frank about current failings, including really missing the point in how we understand 2 Nephi 29's critique about "A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible," but it is also full of optimism and very practical steps we might take to restore proper balance and become the kind of church needed today in this pivotal time of increasing disaffiliation among members, and especially among the rising generations.

For so many of us whose religious world views have begun to shift, and previous ways of viewing various elements of what we had been taking for granted start to become less stable, scripture is one of the components for which we can easily lose affection and appreciation. But rather than abandon our reading and study practices altogether, there are approaches to it that match well with what our journeys have prepared us be able to engage. One such method is the focus of this episode, an Ignacian spiritual practice/approach to scripture. (We'd already introduced another practice, lectio divina in Episode 014, but the Ignacian method is quite different from that.) Our guide into this practice is Mark Crego, a regular guest on Latter-day Faith podcast as well as Mormon Matters. In this discussion with host Dan Wotherspoon, Mark briefly introduces us to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, which came to be known as Jesuits and that is a recognized monastic order in Catholicism, one that places high value on education, scholarship, and science while at the same time nurturing deep self-reflection and enlivened spirituality. (The current pope, Francis, is the first Jesuit to receive that ordination.) Mark then takes us into a few more elements of the Jesuit worldview and what they hold as the highest goal of a human life, but his main focus in the Ignacian practice of imaginatively entering into scriptural stories (settings, persons, what and who else is there that the scripture isn't mentioning) that can lead into insights and personal transformation that can gained through a practice of this type. In the course of the conversation, he and Dan briefly reflect on ways we might shift our understandings of the Adam and Eve story, and then Mark shares a powerful piece he wrote about his experiences and transformations of insight and how he came to understand himself differently as he practices this approach during Holy Week 2017. It is gorgeous, rich, emotional, discerning, and not to be missed. From it and a closing few minutes that re-introduce the various steps in the Ignacian method, you will be able to gain both a delicious taste of and some know-how about this practice and what it can yield. Dive in!

For so many of us whose religious world views have begun to shift, and previous ways of viewing various elements of what we had been taking for granted start to become less stable, scripture is one of the components for which we can easily lose affection and appreciation. But rather than abandon our reading and study practices altogether, there are approaches to it that match well with what our journeys have prepared us be able to engage. One such method is the focus of this episode, an Ignacian spiritual practice/approach to scripture. (We’d already introduced another practice, lectio divina in Episode 014, but the Ignacian method is quite different from that.) 

Our guide into this practice is Mark Crego, a regular guest on Latter-day Faith podcast as well as Mormon Matters. In this discussion with host Dan Wotherspoon, Mark briefly introduces us to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, which came to be known as Jesuits and that is a recognized monastic order in Catholicism, one that places high value on education, scholarship, and science while at the same time nurturing deep self-reflection and enlivened spirituality. (The current pope, Francis, is the first Jesuit to receive that ordination.) Mark then takes us into a few more elements of the Jesuit worldview and what they hold as the highest goal of a human life, but his main focus in the Ignacian practice of imaginatively entering into scriptural stories (settings, persons, what and who else is there that the scripture isn’t mentioning) that can lead into insights and personal transformation that can gained through a practice of this type. In the course of the conversation, he and Dan briefly reflect on ways we might shift our understandings of the Adam and Eve story, and then Mark shares a powerful piece he wrote about his experiences and transformations of insight and how he came to understand himself differently as he practices this approach during Holy Week 2017. It is gorgeous, rich, emotional, discerning, and not to be missed. From it and a closing few minutes that re-introduce the various steps in the Ignacian method, you will be able to gain both a delicious taste of and some know-how about this practice and what it can yield.

Dive in!

In this episode, Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon goes solo this time to talk about the aspect of "surrendering" or "yielding" or "allowing" the Divine to work in us. He asserts that if we allow the idea that God is all in all and in and through everything, including ourselves, and if we seek to abide in and be influenced by our spiritual center that exists "in" God and is God, we will be able to grow spiritually in ways our minds and plans and goals can't even imagine, as experiencing deep abiding in God is far richer than these can ever touch. From there, he moves into aspects of surrender and yielding, and reveals through various LDS scripture how deeply embedded this practice is, this stance of allowing something more than what our dualistic minds and beliefs can change us in our very core. If "ideas about" God or aspects of the universe as describe in religions language are increasingly feeling constrictive and impotent, let this episode and its focus on experiencing God sink in a bit. You'll be intrigued and hopefully motivated to trust the deepest calls of our soul.

In this episode, Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon goes solo this time to talk about the aspect of "surrendering" or "yielding" or "allowing" the Divine to work in us. He asserts that if we allow the idea that God is all in all and in and through everything, including ourselves, and if we seek to abide in and be influenced by our spiritual center that exists "in" God and is God, we will be able to grow spiritually in ways our minds and plans and goals can't even imagine, as experiencing deep abiding in God is far richer than these can ever touch. From there, he moves into aspects of surrender and yielding, and reveals through various LDS scripture how deeply embedded this practice is, this stance of allowing something more than what our dualistic minds and beliefs can change us in our very core. 

If "ideas about" God or aspects of the universe as describe in religions language are increasingly feeling constrictive and impotent, let this episode and its focus on experiencing God sink in a bit. You'll be intrigued and hopefully motivated to trust the deepest calls of our soul.

This episode features an interview with the wonderful Kim McCall about the concept (and small instantiations) of Zion, and especially how it activates and animates his soul and spiritual life. Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon gets into sharing mode about it, as well. Kim's recent reflections on Zion were prompted by his being asked this past year to give a sacrament meeting talk on the Second Coming, a topic Kim wasn't at all enthusiastic to speak on. (Neither would many of us, we suspect!) But then, as he further queried his heart and mind, he found a way into the topic: Zion and how it animated so many early Latter-day Saints' focus and efforts and unified extremely diverse people with genuine purpose and a sense of call to prepare a community to which Christ would feel comfortable returning. Kim shared his beautiful heart with his ward, at the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium this past week, and even more in this episode. The conversation here also explores what it means to have a "good will," as well as how we can each catch the vision of Zion and go about implementing it in our portions of this world despite a world and mindsets that do not (yet?) hold much space for such things, and even work against them.

This is a terrific episode! Please jump in and then share your own vision of Zion and tales of bringing these ideals into your spheres of influence.