Faith is Not Blind

Kristine: Personal Faith Crisis Survivor Who Is Now Thriving After being raised in an orthodox home where questions about faith were not encouraged, Kristine had to learn to revise her belief-system when she received an unexpected and unorthodox answer to a prayer. Kristine had grown up in a world with black and white thinking and had to learn to overcome her certainty in order to start to see nua...

Ben: Openly Gay and Openly Faithful Ben shares his captivating story about his experience of being an openly gay, active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through his experience of coming out to his family, he learned the astonishing value of unconditional love as his family allowed him to make his own choices without judgement. Ben also learned to wrestle with uncertainty...

Emily: Being Divorced in a Family-Centered Church Emily talks about how her expectations were seriously challenged because of traumatic experiences in her childhood. She also discusses how her difficult divorce and the judgments that accompanied it caused her to create complex versions of both faith and charity. Emily’s story is told with both sweetness and wisdom, and she’ll teach you how to see...

    Jenna didn’t realize that having a faith crisis could nurture her faith and help it to grow in productive, developmental ways.  It wasn’t until her sister chose to leave the Church that Jenna had to reevaluate her definition of what faith is. Jenna beautifully describes how she learned that healthy faith grows, matures, and progresses as we do. FULL TEXT Faith Is Not Blind:  This is...

Brian grew up in Liverpool, England in a poor family that was converted to the Church when young Brian met tall, American missionaries and invited his new “friends” to come to his house. His parents were completed committed to the Church, walking miles and miles each week to attend meetings and to help build a new church building for their congregation brick by brick. But Brian’s...

Bruce Hafen : My Story of How I Found My Own Testimony   Elder Bruce Hafen is co-author of Faith is Not Blind and is an emeritus General Authority for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this interview, Elder Hafen details the role of questioning in distinguishing between Gospel belief and knowledge in his own life. He shares his own experience with doubt and with his own ques...

Jenae Nelson: From Homeless to Finding a Home with God by Faith is Not Blind https://www.faithisnotblind.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Janae-Nelson-Faith-is-Not-Blind-Interview_-From-Homeless-to-Finding-My-Home-with-God.mp3 Conversion is not just a faith moment. It is the process that comes after the conversion story. As an agnostic and homeless sixteen-year-old, Jenae decided to search for her b...

  Linnette: My Reconversion and LGBTQ Identity by Faith is Not Blind https://www.faithisnotblind.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Linette-Faith-is-Not-Blind-Interview.mp3 For years, Linnette felt that she had to choose between her faith and her sexual identity. But eventually she found a way to strengthen her relationship with God while still identifying as a lesbian. Linnette’s story wil...

    You never “arrive” at a testimony. You’re constantly building it. It’s not a present-wrapped box. It’s a house you’re building, and you continue to do remodeling and refurbishing. Kate expected her faith to be something that was easy to maintain, but her expectations caused her to experience confusion and frustration when she started to have questions. She tells her story about...

Christian: A Modern Prodigal Son–A Story of Redemption and Reconversion Christian shares his remarkable story about leaving the Gospel at a young age and what prompted his return to the Church years later. He speaks openly about what led him away from the Church and then shares the incredible story of what led him to return to his family and to the Church and to then choose a life of complet...

Sarah: Women’s Studies: Finding Women’s Value Sarah’s questions about women’s roles that were raised in graduate school taught her how spiritually enriching and multifaceted her role as a faithful woman could be. She shares how her education enhanced her appreciation of unique Restoration doctrines about women and motherhood. FULL TEXT: Faith Is Not Blind: Welcome to the Faith Is Not B...

    by Faith is Not Blind https://www.faithisnotblind.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BETH-BARKER-FINB-INT.mp3 Like many teenagers, Beth rolled her eyes at the way the Law of Chastity was taught in her home and at Church, She just didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. As a young adult in England, she didn’t want to be different from her friends, so she decided she was...

Emily: Being Divorced in a Family-Centered Church Emily talks about how her expectations were seriously challenged because of traumatic experiences in her childhood. She also discusses how her difficult divorce and the judgments that accompanied it caused her to create complex versions of both faith and charity. Emily’s story is told with both sweetness and wisdom, and she’ll teach you how to see...

Fiona Givens: My Personal Crucible of Doubt   https://www.faithisnotblind.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FIONA-GIVENS-FINB-INT-PT-1-REMASTERED.mp3 Fiona Givens is a scholar, an author, a wife, a mother, and grandmother. And her faith is anything but blind. In this vulnerable interview, Fiona gives us a rare and honest look at her emotional conversion, and then shares why she loves the Gospel...

Erica: How a Questioner Learned that She Belongs and Can Thrive in the Church   Since she was little, Erica has always appreciated the value of asking sincere religious questions. Unfortunately, she has experienced a variety of responses to her questions, some of which made her feel like perhaps she didn’t belong in the church. Erica shares how her relationships with others have been both cha...

Janiece: How Becoming a Historian Helped Me Cope With Difficult Church History As a professional historian, Janiece describes the intertwining of her love of the Restored Gospel and her love for history. The challenge of her academic work on the Mountain Meadows Massacre helped her gain perspective and compassion. She shares her hard-won wisdom about how to engage with even the most complex aspect...

David P : A Historian’s Look at Church History   With a Phd in American History, David’s academic perspective on using meekness to understand Church History is enhanced by his personal connection to an ancestor who played a significant role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. David uses both his historical expertise and his personal spiritual experiences to discuss how charity and humilit...

Marcus : A Stanford Professor Uses Both Faith and Reason Marcus is a Professor of Bio-Engineering at Stanford University who studies Systems and Synthetic Biology. His faith has been strengthened as he has studied, asked questions, and learned to appreciate what he calls the “interdisciplinarity” of faith and science. He discusses how adopting a perspective of humility and a “growth mindset” as we...

Tyler: A Stanford Oncologist Shares About the Evolution of His Faith   An Oncologist and Professor at The Stanford Cancer Center, Tyler discusses how understanding the complicated reality of a life of faith, including dealing with church history, is similar to being vaccinated. He discusses how confronting complexity head-on, even though it was uncomfortable, helped him to handle and even app...

Terryl Givens Part II: The Importance of the Contemplative Life Terryl Givens continues his story about what he does in his own life to foster a meditative approach to his faith. He explores his fascination with the aesthetic beauty of the unique doctrines of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The post Terryl Givens Part II: The Importance of the Contemplative Life first appeared on Faith is Not...

Janae : Discovering That You Can Believe, and Then Doubt, and Then Choose to Stay Janae questions about her faith as a young adult were as surprising to her as the answers that came. She learned that doubt is not only developmental, but something that could help her faith thrive. Janae gives an honest, refreshing look at the beauty of having a “desire to believe.” The post Janae : Discovering That...

Loretta (Zimbabwe) : A Convert’s Struggle to Understand the Priesthood Ban   As a Zimbabwean convert Loretta relates how two encounters have built, challenged, and sustained her faith in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first experience was as a waitress in a restaurant and the second was as a missionary in England when a street contact asked her how she feels about the church’s...

Eric: A Mixed-Faith Home, Divorced Parents, and Loss : Choosing a Faithful Narrative Raised in a mixed-faith home, Eric shares how he discovered his personal conversion to the Gospel despite the tragedies he experienced in his childhood. As an English Professor, Eric has a unique perspective about the power of narrative and the power of God to influence our stories. He speaks with poetic wisdom ab...

Leif Mattsson (Sweden): Research Helped Me Nurture My Faith and Nurture Others For Leif Mattsson, building the kingdom has meant not only appreciating his heritage of faith and walking three miles to church when he was a child, but also finding out for himself that what his ”grandfather and father and mother knew and felt was true.” His father counseled him and his three brothers: “You have to get...

Bill: An Attorney’s Insights About the Burden of Proof and Weighing Evidence As a trial lawyer, Bill has a unique perspective about using the concept of the burden of proof when doing religious research. Drawing on their years of legal experience, Elder Hafen and Bill discuss how to weigh evidence and listen to both sides as a juror might in a court case. Bill also shares how his battle with cance...