Latter-day Faith

So many of us stumble through life without a genuine sense of who we are and what we should do. One of things that brings us the greatest joy and peace is when we finally connect with what our soul seems to be calling us toward. What are our gifts? What are the through-lines that seem to be showing up again and again in most things we do? Are there practices we can undertake that might help us dri...

LDS Church teachings about deity suggest that God is very actively engaged in our lives and the world more widely. Many members of the church pray to God for blessings large and small. They try to live in ways that will please God, and avoid those that won't. These notions and actions indicate that they believe in what might be labeled an "interventionist" God.  This sense of things sometimes pres...

Listen in on a conversation between three longtime confidantes, LDF board member  Terri Petersen  and her friends,  Nancy  and  Susan  as they discuss their changing relationships with the LDS Church and with their loved ones. As will become clear through listening, these three friends are at different places in their spiritual journeys, yet their love and respect for each other has not changed. B...

The question, "What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" might not lead many people to think deeply. For a large number of Mormons and other Christians, our answer is tied up with the messages of their religious tradition and its belief system. Instead of focusing on God and the kind of relationship Jesus modeled with the Father, so often our focus is on our "beliefs" about God and making sure we get i...

This episode is a joy. In it, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon chats with his friend Stan Bennion about Stan's life and experiences as a Latter-day Saint whose sense of adventure led him and his family to live in interesting places. Stan has had the good fortune to be able to marry his fascination with new and interesting things to his Mormon life in ways that allow him to be more fully himself in church...

This is a wise and inspiring episode, which uses as a springboard the recent emphases on garment wearing and its relationship to worthiness, including a new statement to be read during the temple recommend interview. It is a conversation between LDF board member Terri Petersen and show favorite Jody England Hansen that addresses these things through a tour of the history of garment wearing in the...

In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon shares something he delivered at the most recent Salt Lake City Sunstone Symposium. He spoke as part of a panel in a long-running Sunstone session titled, "Why I Stay." Instead of giving the "why" of his decision to stay actively involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Mormon life, he spoke about "how" he manages it. Ultimately, it...

In this wonderful podcast episode, LDF board member Terri Peterson interviews author and podcaster Noah Rasheta about Buddhist teachings that transcend faith boundaries and can help people live with greater clarity and equanimity whether they are formally religious or not.  With Terri's prompting, Noah shares his journey as a Latter-day Saint on through his introduction to Buddhism and how well it...

Most people who come to this podcast have likely, at some time in their life, wondered what their lives would be like were they to step away from Mormonism--and not just the church but, perhaps, everything else that one might call "religious" in nature. What if there is no God? What if there is no need for saving ordinances? What would it be like to not feel pressure to assent to specific beliefs?...

In this wonderful conversation, Latter-day Faith board member Mark Crego talks with Chris Kimball , the author of Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide (By Common Consent Press, 2023) about his experiences with the LDS temple recommend processes. Their focus is on the notion of "worthiness," which most Latter-day Saints view as the purpose of the recommend interview. Should it be? Are...

This episode, co-hosted by Dan Wotherspoon and Terri Petersen , brings to the forefront once again the insights and helpful ideas in Jon Ogden 's 2017 book, When Mormons Doubt: A Way to Save Relationships and Seek a Quality Life . Jon joins the hosts to discuss his approach to saving relationships through understanding the primary things that we and others choose to focus on in our lives. Are we d...

As someone is experiencing a shift of faith, it is very common to find a need to change their prayer practices. Likely, their view of God has changed, which leads to confusion about how to approach this new Being or Source. What used to be simple and connective no longer feels the same. Should they stop praying altogether? Many do. In this episode, Terri Petersen and Mark Crego join LDF host Dan W...

In this wonderful episode, Faith Journey Foundation board member and great friend of the show Terri Petersen speaks with her friend, Christy (pseudonym) about her church life as a active woman with children, who also happens to be divorced. As you can imagine, in a church that touts the vital importance of families, it is not always a comfortable experience when one's family is now differently con...

If we are not careful, it is very easy to become lazy in our scripture studies--reading but not pausing long enough to really see and understand what it is saying. In the course of our years as Latter-day Saints, we generally have developed ready answers to what this or that passage is about, and we groove those interpretations into our minds. But are the long-standing ways we interpret scriptures...

If we are not careful, it is very easy to become lazy in our scripture studies--reading but not pausing long enough to really see and understand what it is saying. In the course of our years as Latter-day Saints, we generally have developed ready answers to what this or that passage is about, and we groove those interpretations into our minds. But are the long-standing ways we interpret scriptures...

Latter-day Faith Podcast has just passed its 4th anniversary, and one of its early listeners who is now a great friend,  Terri Petersen , suggested we need an interview show in which she'd ask questions of LDF host Dan Wotherspoon  and his great friend and partner for the whole Latter-day Faith enterprise,  Mark Crego . Terri reached out to many other listeners and asks her own as well as many of...

Latter-day Faith Podcast has just passed its 4th anniversary, and one of its early listeners who is now a great friend, Terri Petersen , suggested we should do an interview show in which she'd ask questions of LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and his great friend and partner for the whole Latter-day Faith enterprise, Mark Crego . Terri reached out to many other listeners and asks her own as well as many o...

LDS general conferences are often difficult for Latter-day Saints who are experience shifts in their faith, but at the same time wonderful boons to others. Certain talks can be painful reminders of ideas and ways of approaching God and life that we who are in the midst of faith journeys have come to find unhealthy; just as many are exhilarating to others and and fill them with hope. The key determ...

At the Relief Society's Anniversary Conference held March 17, 2024, Sister J. Anette Dennis made a statement that ignited a firestorm online, including on the LDS Church's own Instagram page.  Here is the statement in question: "There is no other religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women. There are religions that ordain some women t...

The Book of Mormon has become a fraught topic for many Latter-day Saints who are in the midst of a faith shift. Those who are no longer certain what to think about this foundational scripture will often not feel comfortable studying it. And this is especially a problem this year, as the Book of Mormon is the Sunday School text for 2024. In this brief episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon , offers some...

In mid-December 2003, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints added two new entries to the Gospel Topics section of its website. One addresses those Latter-day Saints who have questions or doubts, or who are undergoing a difficult faith journey. The other offers advice to those who love them or are someone who has been approached by these persons as they wrestle with gospel things. These a...

In mid-December 2003, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints added two new entries to the Gospel Topics section of its website. One addresses those Latter-day Saints who have questions or doubts, or who are undergoing a difficult faith journey. The other offers advice to those who love them or are someone who has been approached by these persons as they wrestle with gospel things. These a...

Merry Christmas, everyone! For this week's show, we are replaying three previous Latter-day Faith episodes related to Christmas! Episode 168 is an encore of the episode released last December, "Looking Fresh at the Creche," featuring Jody England Hansen . Episode 169 is an encore of the episode first released in December 2019, "Christmas: Birthing the Christ Within," featuring Phil McLemore . Epis...

This episode celebrates Thomas McConkie's incredible new book, At-One-Ment--Embodying the Fullness of Human-Divinity , and dives into several of its topic areas that LDF Host Dan Wotherspoon chose as potentially helpful to this listening audience. In both a personal and descriptive tone they discuss the importance of training our minds to "concentrate," for it is the primary key that can unlock ou...

Note:  This two-part episode (Episode 166 is Part 2) is a departure from the usual focus of Latter-day Faith, which emphasizes teaching about and encouraging healthy faith development through introducing listeners to wise and powerful teachers in this area as well as to spiritual practices that can help us face our struggles with faith and church, families, communities, and with the world. In this...