Mormon Discussion Podcast

The post John Dehlin Joins Mormonism Live!: LDS Church vs. Mormon Stories — Who’s Telling the Truth? appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

On this episode of Mormonism Live, we sit down with Rachelle and John Moyer, the creators behind “Ex-Mormon: The Musical,” to talk about how the project came together, what inspired the songs, and why music can be such a powerful way to process faith, identity, loss, humor, and life after Mormonism. We’ll dig into the story behind the album, the creative process of turning the ex-Mormon experience into a musical, and some of the themes woven throughout the soundtrack. We’ll also play and discuss several of the songs along the way. Whether you’ve left Mormonism, are questioning, still believe, or simply appreciate clever songwriting about complicated human experiences, this should be a fun and fascinating conversation about what happens when religious deconstruction meets musical theater. Listen to “Ex-Mormon: The Musical (Original Musical Soundtrack)” on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4OxkzS1jbuwicBjZkGw2TS Join us as we talk with Rachelle and John Moyer about the humor, pain, creativity, and lived experience behind Ex-Mormon: The Musical.

#ExMormon #ExMormonMusical #MormonismLive #Mormon #LDS #FaithTransition #ReligiousDeconstruction #PostMormon #MormonStories #musicaltheatre

Ex-Mormon The musical

John’s comedy Shows

The post Ex-Mormon The Musical appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave one of his most famous talks in history in 1980 named “The Seven Deadly Heresies.” RFM and Bill Reel break down this talk, exposing not only what Elder McConkie says, but why he says it; together with the things Elder McConkie doesn’t say at all! This one you won’t want to miss!

Support Mormonism LIVE! and its hosts Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon as take the deep dives into Mormonism and its history!

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Tonight on Mormonism Live, we examine a recurring pattern in Joseph Smith’s prophetic career: when he encountered something mysterious, incomplete, inaccessible, or simply unknown, he rarely seemed content to say, “I don’t know.” Instead, he supplied an answer—and often an extraordinarily detailed one.

A skeleton becomes Zelph, complete with a name, identity, history, and ancient associations. Egyptian papyri become the writings of Abraham. Egyptian figures become Abraham, Pharaoh, Shulem, Olimlah, gods, and cosmic teachings. The Kinderhook Plates produce an ancient genealogy. A stone becomes a seer stone capable of revealing hidden knowledge. Native Americans become Lamanites. Landscapes become Cumorah, Zion, the Garden of Eden, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and the “plains of the Nephites.”

And the pattern extends beyond objects and geography. Where scripture appears incomplete, Joseph supplies the JST, Book of Moses, Enoch material, and D&C 7’s hidden parchment. Where ancient language is unknowable, he supplies the “Pure Language” of Adam. Where the universe remained largely mysterious, Joseph supplies an elaborate Abrahamic cosmology involving Kolob and an entire hierarchy of named heavenly bodies.

But this raises a more important question than whether any single claim sounds strange: How reliable was Joseph Smith’s method of knowing?

We separate these claims into those that eventually became independently testable, those where some physical evidence exists but Joseph’s specific identification remains difficult to test, and those constructed around realities essentially beyond external verification. And a troubling pattern emerges: where later evidence allows us to check Joseph’s extraordinary claims, serious problems repeatedly appear.

So what should we make of the claims that remain safely beyond our ability to test?

This episode explores the possibility that Joseph Smith’s greatest prophetic advantage may have been the unknown—because the less anyone around him could verify, the more room he had to “know.”

Joseph Smith Always Had an Answer: The Pattern Behind His Claims

The post How Did Joseph Smith Know All This? appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

What happens when a religious system spends a lifetime teaching you to trust authority, obey, forgive, sacrifice, endure, distrust your own doubts, and fear the consequences of leaving? In this episode of Mormon Discussion, Teresa Hobbs leads Bill Reel and special guest Wendi Wilcock Jensen through a difficult question: Can LDS teachings and institutional structures unintentionally condition members with some of the same psychological habits that make coercive control and abusive relationships harder to recognize, resist, disclose, and escape? We trace these patterns across the Mormon lifespan—from Primary lessons about obedience and following the prophet, to teenage worthiness interviews and sexual shame; missionary obedience and surveillance; BYU’s institutional controls; temple marriage, gender hierarchy, forgiveness and divorce stigma; and finally the enormous social, familial and spiritual costs that can accompany dissent or leaving the Church. We also examine how these dynamics have affected women, LGBTQ and transgender members, racial and ethnic minorities, and others whose personal judgment or identity has sometimes collided with institutional authority. The argument is not that every Mormon experiences abuse or that every LDS teaching was deliberately designed to facilitate it. The question is what happens cumulatively when obedience, authority deference, confession, shame, hierarchy, self-sacrifice, institutional dependency and high exit costs become deeply embedded in a person’s understanding of righteousness. Because the disturbing possibility is this: the qualities someone has been taught make them faithful may sometimes be the very qualities an abusive person can exploit.

Wendi Wilcock Jensen Wendi Jensen is an author, speaker, and identity reconstruction coach who helps people rebuild a relationship with themselves after high-demand religion, toxic relationships, and other systems that taught them to distrust their own inner knowing. Her work bridges emotional healing, nervous-system awareness, and embodied self-reconnection, helping people move beyond simply understanding what happened to them and begin creating a life rooted in autonomy, authenticity, and self-trust by reconnecting with the body. She is also the author of The Healing Questions Guide- relevant questions to ask the mind to activate healing in the body. To reach Wendi – [email protected]

Teresa Hobbs Teresa Hobbs is a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach, Pain Reprocessing Therapy practitioner, and Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) provider and founder of Monarch Integrative Coaching. Her work integrates nervous-system regulation, Polyvagal Theory, attachment theory, mindfulness, somatic practices and mind-body approaches. She also works with people rebuilding self-trust and identity following high-demand religion. Coaching and Chronic Fatigue support https://www.monarchintegrativecoaching.com/

This conversation ultimately asks something larger than whether Mormonism explicitly condemns abuse. What does a lifetime of religious conditioning teach a person to do when authority conflicts with intuition, obedience conflicts with boundaries, forgiveness conflicts with accountability, and “enduring to the end” conflicts with getting yourself to safety? #MormonDiscussion #Mormonism #LDS #ExMormon #ReligiousTrauma #SpiritualAbuse #CoerciveControl #DomesticAbuse #ReligiousDeconstruction #Trauma #HighDemandReligion #MormonChurch

The post Trust, Obey, Endure: How Mormon Conditioning Makes Abuse Harder to Recognize appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

RFM and Bill Reel are joined by Dr. Thomas Murphy to discuss what the presence of Native American myths, individuals, and stories in the Book of Mormon means. Are these evidence the Book of Mormon is true? Or do they give us an insight into some of the creative grist Joseph was using to compile his narrative of ancient American inhabitants? World-renowned expert in the field Dr. Murphy helps us find the answers!

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The post Native American Legends in BOM! appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

In June 1834, while marching with Zion’s Camp through Illinois, Joseph Smith and his followers came across an ancient Native American burial mound. Members of the group dug into the mound and uncovered a human skeleton—with what appeared to be an arrowhead among its ribs.

According to multiple members of Zion’s Camp, Joseph Smith then received a vision revealing the identity of the dead man. His name was Zelph. He was described as a “white Lamanite,” a warrior and “man of God” who had fought under a great prophet named Onandagus. Wilford Woodruff recorded that Onandagus was known across a territory extending from “the hill Cumorah” to the Rocky Mountains and that Joseph received this information “in a vision.”

But the story gets considerably more interesting when we dig deeper.

In this episode of Mormonism Live, we examine the earliest surviving Zelph accounts from Wilford Woodruff, Reuben McBride, Levi Hancock, Heber C. Kimball, and others. What did these witnesses independently agree Joseph said? Which details appeared later? And how did the story change as it was edited into the official history of the Church?

We also explore Joseph Smith’s own remarkable letter written during Zion’s Camp describing the group as wandering across the “plains of the Nephites,” examine the possible connections between Zelph, Cumorah, the Land of Desolation, and Book of Mormon geography, and look at what modern archaeology has discovered about the mound where the skeleton was reportedly found.

Was Zelph simply an unusual nineteenth-century frontier story? Or did Joseph Smith make a specific prophetic claim about an actual ancient person—one that potentially tells us where Joseph believed Book of Mormon peoples lived?

Zelph the White Lamanite: Digging Up Bones

This is where archaeology, Mormon history, Book of Mormon geography, and Joseph Smith’s prophetic claims collide.

The post Mormonism’s Zelph – The White Lamanite appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Why do intelligent, sincere women remain loyal to systems that often ask them to suppress their own intuition? In this episode, Bill Reel is joined by three thoughtful women- Jana Spangler, Julie De Azevedo, and Teresa Hobbs; for an in-depth conversation about the psychology of high-demand religion—not to criticize individuals, but to better understand the powerful social and psychological forces that shape belief, obedience, and identity. Together, they explore five well-established psychological concepts that help explain why leaving Mormonism can be so difficult: Pluralistic Ignorance Preference Falsification Cognitive Dissonance Identity Fusion Learned Helplessness Rather than remaining theoretical, these ideas are brought to life through personal stories, lived experience, and honest reflection. The discussion examines how mechanisms such as secrecy, surveillance, ritualization, conformity incentives, embodied obedience, fear of relational loss, and gendered hierarchy can gradually influence behavior and make resistance increasingly costly.

This conversation also asks difficult but important questions:

Whether you’re a faithful member seeking to better understand loved ones, someone navigating faith deconstruction, or simply interested in the psychology of belief and social influence, this episode offers insight into why intelligent, sincere people can remain committed to high-demand systems—and what healing can look like afterward. Please share your own experiences in the comments. Which of these psychological processes resonated most with your journey?

#Mormonism #LDS #ExMormon #FaithTransition #ReligiousTrauma #Psychology #HighDemandReligion #CultPsychology #Deconstruction #MentalHealth #WomenInMormonism #MormonDiscussion #BillReel

The post How Mormonism Breaks Down Women’s Resistance appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

RFM and Bill Reel host an august panel of Sunstone Symposium presenters and attendees, as they tell us fun and fascinating stories about what goes on behind the scenes of Sunstone! Join us! Mormon Studies were never so much fun!

The post Find Out What REALLY Happened At Sunstone 2026! appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

What if one of the most important events in early Mormon history never actually accomplished what it set out to do? In 1834, Joseph Smith organized nearly 200 armed men and led them almost 900 miles across the American frontier with one stated objective: redeem Zion and restore the Saints to their lands in Jackson County, Missouri. They marched. They trained. They carried muskets and swords. They expected confrontation. But they never fought a battle. Instead, they encountered political resistance, internal dissent, a violent storm many viewed as miraculous, a devastating cholera outbreak that claimed fifteen lives, and a revelation that abruptly ended the expedition. So what happened? More importantly… how did what appeared to be a failed mission become one of the greatest success stories in Mormon history? In this episode of Mormonism Live, Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon take a deep dive into the complete story of Zion’s Camp—from the revelations that launched it to the theological reinterpretation that followed its collapse.

Along the way we examine:

This episode also explores a broader question that reaches far beyond Mormonism: How do religious movements reinterpret unmet expectations while preserving confidence in prophetic leadership? Whether you’re a believing Latter-day Saint, a former member, a student of history, or simply interested in the psychology of belief, Zion’s Camp offers one of the most fascinating case studies in early American religious history.

Primary sources used include: Joseph Smith Papers Project Doctrine & Covenants 101, 103, and 105 John Whitmer’s History John Corrill’s A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints Contemporary journals, letters, meeting minutes, and financial records from 1833–1835

#Mormonism #LDSHistory #JosephSmith #ZionsCamp #MormonismLive #ChurchHistory #ReligiousHistory #FaithCrisis #MormonStudies #DoctrineAndCovenants #ExMormon #Religion

The post Zion’s Camp: Turning Failure Into Faith appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.