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Series Title: "Tabernacles of Clay” Analysis with Taylor Petrey [Part II of IV]

Join Valerie and colleague Taylor Petrey in this second episode of their series studying Taylor's must-read book Tabernacles of Clay, a study of the movements of the LDS church in the realm of gender and sexuality spanning the time period beginning post WWII to present.  

In this episode Val and Taylor address the following: 

• How ideas about homosexuality evolved from a moral issue to a legal issue to a medical issue and then to a psychological issue.
• How under the leadership of Spencer W. Kimball,  LDS church leaders adopted (for the first time) the role of pastoral counselor, offering advice and guidance for a variety of issues for which they had no formal psychological training.
• How the LDS church’s stance on homosexuality and heterosexuality as "contagious" informed many of their various ideas about its cause and cures (many of which are listed in this episode).
• How the church attempted to scientifically prove their stance rejecting the scientific community’s formal depathologization of homosexuality. And later admitted failure.

Thank you for supporting Val's countless hours devoted guests on the podcast like Taylor Petrey to enriching your spiritual journey!  She is deeply grateful for you!!!

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Series Title: "Tabernacles of Clay” Analysis with Taylor Petrey [Part I of IV]

In this first episode in a fascinating four-part mini-series, Valerie and special guest Taylor Petrey break down the historical shifts in the theology of gender and sexuality in the LDS church beginning in the post-WWII era through the present as outlined in his excellent book Tabernacles of Clay (linked below).  Questions addressed in this episode [among others]:

• How historical racial oppression relates to the larger picture of gender and sexual oppression
• A paradox: If gender and sexuality is pre-mortal in nature, why it constantly seems to need human mediation, legislation, commandments
• How the LDS church’s post-WWII stance on gender/sexuality is related to these same issues within larger Christian culture and are seen as a matter of national security
• The connection between the church's post-WWII stance in strong support of the patriarchal order of marriage and their polygamy legacy

Friday's episode continues the conversation covering the following: 

• Culturally and religiously evolving stances on homosexuality 
• An exploration of the very fraught relationship between the psychological world and the Mormon ecclesiastical world in the treatment of psychological issues in general and sexual issues specifically
• Significant developments in the administration of Spencer W. Kimball, the "self-help" movement and his book The Miracle of Forgiveness
• An exploration of the proposed varying causes and cures for homosexuality throughout the years
• And more! 

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

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I see you!

You're missing your Friday morning fix with Valerie and the Latter Day Struggles Podcast!

Well, I gotcha covered :)

This quick bonus episode walks you through step by step HOW to subscribe to the Friday episodes of this podcast no matter what provider you use (you do NOT need to listen on Spotify but you DO need to subscribe THROUGH Spotify...just to answer a question asked many, many times!)

Here is the link on how to subscribe

This episode will walk you through what to do once you click this link!

If you want step by step WRITTEN and visual instructions with screen shots of each page in the subscription process, click here.

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SUBSCRIBE: All Friday episodes of Latter Day Struggles can be accessed through ⁠⁠⁠⁠a paid subscription ($9.99/month)⁠⁠. Thank you for supporting Valerie’s professional commitment to your LDS Faith expansion journey!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

     ⁠⁠⁠Click here to subscribe to all Friday Latter Day Struggles Episodes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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SUPPORT: Like what you’re hearing at Latter Day Struggles Podcast? You can support Valerie’s efforts by becoming a recurring donor on ⁠⁠Patreon.com!⁠⁠

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SUPPORT GROUPS: You are invited to join one of Valerie’s space-limited ⁠⁠⁠⁠Faith Crisis and Expansion Support and Processing Groups⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!  As a trauma therapist, she continues to help our LDS faith expansion community become psychologically healthier and spiritually well in and around the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Details about availability on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠latterdaystruggles.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  These groups ALWAYS FILL UP, so jump in asap!

     ⁠⁠Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to join a support group⁠⁠

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COURSES: Now available! “⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠A Couple’s Guide to Faith Crisis and Expansion⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠” parts I and II. See what else is offered on ⁠⁠⁠⁠latterdaystruggles.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

     ⁠⁠Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to purchase a course⁠⁠

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CONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work wit

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Series Title: End of LDS Growth Analysis [Part VI of VI]

Welcome to the final episode of this 6-part Latter Day Struggles mini-series featuring an analysis of the recent journal article titled, “End of Growth?  Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion” (article in full linked below).

In this final episode Nathan and Val talk about perhaps the most fascinating finding of this article, where the researchers merge administrative issues with theological issues.

This episode answers the following questions:

• What is “Mormon Determinism”?
• How has Mormon Determinism potentially stimulated complacency and impeded accountability, institutional insight, and process improvement?
• What is “Authoritarian Positivism”?
• How might Authoritative Positivism be connected to the tendency for organizational leadership to disregard sound principles, relevant data and the lived experience of others who share insights contrary to cherished and long standing beliefs?
• How might any authority figure's claim that they are guided by the spirit of God be linked to confirmation bias and lead to one’s disinterest in other relevant data?

Thank you for supporting Val and Nathan’s countless hours devoted to enriching your spiritual journey by subscribing to Latter Day Struggles Friday Episodes!  They are deeply grateful for you!!!  Link to the article analyzed in this series:

• The End of Growth? Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion, by David G. Stewart, Jr., University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Series Title: End of LDS Growth Analysis [Part V of VI]

We’ve made it to episode #5 of this six part mini-series exploring LDS church growth struggles as studied in the recent journal article titled, “End of Growth?  Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion” (article in full linked below)

In today’s episode, the focus of analysis is on the following three points:

• The historical ‘gathering to Zion’ mentality has created isolationist culture to those gathered; has left many parts of the world with few members to grow the church; has therefore defaulted heavily on Utah-centric “world-view”, with secondary privileging of  US “worldview”; less so on the rest of the world
• Occupational hazard of itinerant missionaries with low investment to quality conversion and hyper-focused on number of baptisms
• The accelerated baptism program of the church which pressured all parties from mission presidents to missionaries to aggressively pressure lay people to quickly decide to be baptized with inadequate time to understand not only what they were learning about but also to acclimate to a new social network, belief system, an ideology

The next and final episode of this series tackles perhaps the most fascinating concept explored in this report: a proposal that the LDS church's stance as God's only "true church" is at the foundation of the various administrative struggles that have impeded the church's ability to grow.

Link to the article analyzed in this series:   https://jmssa.org/stewart

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Series Title: End of LDS Growth Analysis [Part IV of VI]

Welcome to episode #4 of this six part mini-series where we are diving into all things LDS church growth struggles as studied in the recent journal article titled, “End of Growth?  Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion” (article in full linked below)

In today’s episode, Nathan and Val work through three more reasons exploring why the LDS church has not grown into the "next Islam" as forecasted about 40 years ago.

This episode focuses on these three points:

1. Retention issues amongst specific demographics, especially adolescents and generation Z. Youth and young adult disaffiliation is increasing and youth age at disaffiliation is getting younger.  
2. Philosophical shifts in the missionary program including reduction in on-the-ground visibility between missionaries and the people in the communities where they serve; heavier focus on key indicators of success related to issues outside of the control of missionaries.
3. The impact of the leadership being a gerontocracy and how this organizational philosophy may exact costs in growth.

Link to the article analyzed in this series:

• ⁠The End of Growth? Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion, David G. Stewart, Jr., University of Nevada, Las Vegas⁠

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

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Friday Episodes Annual Access $89

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Series Title: End of LDS Growth Analysis [Part III of VI]

In the next three episodes of this six part series analyzing the article titled “End of Growth?  Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion” (article in full linked below) Nathan and Val work through 10 reasons social scientists postulate the LDS church did not grow (as forecasted about 40 years old) into the “the next Islam”. 

This episode focuses on the following:

• The church’s emphasis on “building from centers of strength.”  In the 1990’s the church rolled out a program redirecting missionary efforts and funds to parts of the world to "grow in leadership and capital before expanding to other parts of the world.”
• Multiple trends unfolded that were not expected based on early predictions: LDS fertility rates dropped significantly.  Marriage rates dropped.  New converts worldwide were frequently empty nesters.  Many international converts had less children than their neighbors attending other churches.
• A contracting LDS missionary force relative to early predictions.

Nathan and Val break down each of these topics and weigh in on how each each of these research findings represents (in their opinion) either an administrative situation, gradual and unable-to-predict-societal-evolution, or perhaps a subtle trending towards personal authority and spiritual autonomy that does not concurrently translate into LDS institutional nominal growth.

In the next episode Nathan and Val tackle topics 4-6 of the ten topics covered explaining lower than expected LDS church growth according to the journal article linked below. Stay tuned!

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Series Title: End of LDS Growth Analysis [Part II of VI]

Join Nathan and Val this entire series analyzing the article titled “End of Growth?  Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion” published recently in the Journal of Mormon Social Science Association (article in full linked below) where Nathan breaks down some incredibly fascinating data about the growth of several Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa to offer some context and critique regarding the "massive growth" that some claim is happening in this part of the world in the LDS church.

Questions answered in this episode:

• Are there a lot of LDS baptisms happening in sub-Saharan Africa compared to the rest of the world?
• How does the nominal growth of the LDS church compare to other missionary-minded churches  in this same area?
• What are some possible reasons why especially the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are baptizing and retaining exponentially more people in this area of the world than the LDS church?
• What might the LDS church’s tendency to bring the “American church” and it’s culture to Africa have to do with their relative struggles in membership growth and retention?
• What might the LDS church learn from other thriving religions in this same demographic about allowing locals to infuse their beautiful customs and culture into a basic structure of a religious system?

Link to the article analyzed in this series:

• The End of Growth? Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion, David G. Stewart, Jr., University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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

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Series Title: End of LDS Growth Analysis [Part I of VI]

Val and Nathan are so excited to jump into a VERY FASCINATING six-part podcast mini-series analyzing a recently published journal article titled, “The End of Growth? Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion”.

In the mid 80’s a team of social scientists predicted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was on track to become “The next Islam”, projecting that if the LDS church stayed on track with its current growth, it would achieve a membership between 36.4-121 million members by the year 2020.

At year end 2019 the LDS church reached a mere 16.5 million members, less than half of the number projected by these social scientists.

What Happened?

This is the topic of the next several episodes of the Latter Day Struggles Podcast.

In this specific episode, Nathan and Val offer an overview of six “misses” that the research team did not account for and then they break down each general area:  including (but not limited to) serious issues of member retention, a significant drop in child-of-record baptisms,  the shrinking size of the church’s missionary force, unexpected shrinking LDS fertility rates, and skewed membership record keeping practices.

IN FRIDAY’S EPISODE Nathan and Val tackle the topic of church growth specifically in Africa (the LDS church’s current missionary growth emphasis) and put the LDS church’s relative success in this geographic area in context by looking at the astronomical growth in Africa of two “cousin” church traditions—the Seventh Day Adventist’s and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Nathan and Val then discuss some valid reasons why these other faith traditions might be enjoying exponentially more growth in Africa and how the LDS church might benefit from learning from their religious counterparts, who seemed to have cracked some codes in multicultural membership growth and retention.

Link to the article analyzed in this series

• ⁠The End of Growth? Fading Prospects for Latter-day Saint Expansion, David G. Stewart, Jr., University of Nevada, Las Vegas⁠

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

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Series Title: Valerie’s Personal Journey [Part II of II]

In this second episode of this mini-series,  Valerie responds to a variety of personal questions including (but not limited to):

• How the podcast and accompanying work has impacted Val’s and Nathan’s parenting and family life.
• Val’s and Nathan’s asymmetrical developmental time line that prepared them for this collaboration.
• Their current relationship with local ecclesiastical leaders.
• Her current reasons for continuing to attend her own LDS church congregation. 
• Her feelings about those who choose to distance themselves from the church (temporarily or permanently) due her influence and her sincere encouragement for people to forge their own paths.
• The most impactful books Val has read that evoked her own “faith crisis”, but which also led to her decision to create a platform to address these topics in a healthy, more open way.
•  Thoughts and feelings about the potential of church discipline, personal surrender, belonging to ones’ self, and growing feelings of peace due to owning her journey and living in her integrity.

Books mentioned in this episode as most impactful for Valerie:

• Origins of Power and Extensions of Power, written by D. Michael Quinn
• Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism, written by Teryl L. and Fiona Givens

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

Support the show

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Friday Episodes Annual Access $89

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