Latter-day Faith

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...

This has been a tough week in Mormonism, with new rehearsals of old ideas entering the LDS universe that seem to portray God and we humans as less that loving and beautiful. In this environment, Latter-day Faith host Dan Wotherspoon shares his convictions, based on his own experiences, in an effort to encourage and celebrate everyone and the Love that is the animating force of the universe. God is...

It is often difficult for Latter-day Saints to understand the distinction between Jesus and Christ as they are used in many other Christian traditions. They also struggle to understand how God can be considered a person if God doesn't have a distinct and tangible body. Mormons often speak of knowing that God knows each of us personally, but don't fathom how this could be true if God is considered...

This episode features a wide ranging conversation between LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and his good friend and historian J ames Harris about the life and ministry of Elder James E. Talmage. Just before and then in the first few decades of the twentieth century (1862-1933), Elder Talmage served the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in myriad ways. He is among the earliest academics/scholars t...

This episode features a terrific discussion between Erik Walters and LDS host Dan Wotherspoon on how we can mine for greater meaning and impact wonderful scriptural metaphors and symbols. Here they focus on Lehi's vision (and Nephi's additions) of the Tree of Life, Iron Rod, Great and Spacious Building, and more. Next they take upon the ubiquitous metaphor in today's LDS church of "the covenant pa...

In this episode, Jana Riess and Kathryn Knight Sonntag join LDF host Dan Wotherspoon in talking about "worship." What is worship, or what does it mean to be in worship mode, and how do these differ from reverence, prayer, or gratitude? Do Latter-day Saint worship practices differ from those of other faith traditions? If so, in what ways? Have LDS forms of worship changed over the past 200 years? W...

We often use shortcuts in our daily interactions with people, events, and actions, simplifying what is actually far more complex. We decide this or that ahead of time, and we let that guide what we will focus on. We often label people in a certain way based upon some previous experiences with them (or descriptions given by others) and never really give them a chance to emerge in front of us as who...

The spiritual concept of "abiding" (in God and God in us) is quite rich. It means to "be here with," and its Greek origins and scriptural usage also suggest other meanings such as "remain," "continue," "endure," "be present with," and more. But even as much as we can understand the concept of through word study and through mental faculties, to really get what "abiding" means requires experience. W...

In this episode, we focus on ideas for building up spiritual communities that reflect unity, love, and acceptance. How might such become places in which everyone regardless of their theological positions, views about scripture or church strengths and weaknesses, or understandings and stances on today's big social issues can all worship and enjoy community together? We have help on this topic today...

It is Pride Month, and given the current and intense politicalization of the rights of transgender individuals, we are pleased to present here an encore of a conversation between Laurie Lee Hall and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon . Originally presented under the umbrella of how different people view God as gendered or not, Laurie Lee shares her experiences as a transgender woman and Latter-day Saint. Sh...

If we truly believe that all people in their essence are divine/good, why do we so often forget that in our interactions with others? Why do we make judgments that harm our relationships? Are there processes we can learn that will help us process things that happen without becoming defensive and, instead, meet these things with compassion for others and ourselves? In the 1980s and '90s, a psycholo...

President Russell M. Nelson's recent LDS General Conference talk, "Peacemakers Needed," focuses on the strong need for Latter-day Saints, and basically everyone else, to more actively strive for peace in our interactions in the world at large, and especially with each other personally. Noting the hostility and name-calling and dismissiveness of others dominating public discourse (as well as too of...

This episode is the second in a series of conversations LDF host Dan Wotherspoon had with Annika Rau about New Testament events, with this one focusing on insights in the stories of what happened Thursday through Sunday of Holy Week. In it, they begin with the Last Supper (and also an event that had happened six days earlier) and move through Gethsemane, the betrayal(s), and on to crucifixion and...

This episode features a conversation between LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and Abe Collier, who heads a small international aid NGO currently working in Ukraine. It is set up to be another in what will be a series of episodes on the way people discern what God/Life/the Universe seems to be calling them to do.  in this discussion, Abe shares with us his LDS background along with various inflection point...

"What do I want to be (or do) when I grow up?" Early on, our answers to such queries are the ones we pick up from our parents, wider family, friends, religious traditions, and important authority figures in our lives. If we are to have a truly fulfilling life, however, we must begin to find our way to what it is we are actually being "called to" by our life. Can we discern for ourselves what our p...

For some, the miracles of Jesus presented in the Gospels are problematic. Many question their veracity. Did these actually occur, or are they stories that sought to grab the attention of people living in a pre-industrial world? Perhaps "something" happened but surely there are better explanations today than Jesus healing, raising from the dead, and casting out evil spirits. In short, especially fo...

In this episode, therapist Julie Keanaaina speaks with LDF host Dan Wotherspoon about psilocybin, which has recently been legalized in Oregon for therapeutic uses, with many other states considering something similar. There have been many stories from studies of its use in television news magazines, newspapers, and other media formats, each affirming the positive effects it has had on patients who...

In this wonderful, wide-ranging interview, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon speaks with Michael Hicks , a recently retired professor of Music at BYU, about his life, and especially his growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60s and 70s. During this period, Michael became very active in the Jesus movement of the time, which has often been referred to as the time of the "Jesus Freaks." After severa...

Latter-day Saints the world over are studying the New Testament this year. Much of value can be gleaned from following the Come Follow Me lessons and questions, but it falls quite short for those wanting to explore Jesus from wider perspectives.  This episode, our first of 2023, teases a few of these additional perspectives as our guest, Mark Crego , examines the religious and cultural setting of...

The Creche (the Nativity scene) is a staple in many homes and public places during the Christmas season. We most likely were taught when we were young about each person depicted in the scene, learned that Jesus was born in a manger (hence the animals present in most creche's), and in all of that came to understand via osmosis how our individual families relate to Jesus's birth and the wider Christ...

When we struggle with previously held beliefs, various actions and teachings of authority figures, and/or religious teachings and practices that seem to not be loving--or even harmful--we can find ourselves wondering if all our work of pulling-apart and examining each element that has made up our worldview will ever end. It is a frightening process, full of many ups and downs. Part of the deep ang...

In Part 2 of this very powerful two-part episode, Jana Spangler  and  Jody England Hansen  join LDF host  Dan Wotherspoon  for a discussion of the close relationship between mental and spiritual trauma and our bodies. Much of what they offer is also true of physical trauma, but their primary focus is on how to recognize, understand, and find healing for our bodies and minds by exploring what is le...

In this very powerful two-part episode, Jana Spangler and Jody England Hansen join LDF host Dan Wotherspoon for a discussion of the close relationship between mental and spiritual trauma and our bodies. Much of what they offer is also true for physical trauma, but their primary focus is on how to recognize, understand, and find healing for our bodies and minds by exploring what is less obvious tha...

In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by the wonderful, gifted, powerful author Carol Lynn Pearson to talk about her most recent book and the ideas that underlie it. The book, The Love Map: Saving Your Love Relationship and Incidentally Saving the World , is the flowering of a more-than-forty-year interest that Carol Lynn has had in the deep energies of the soul and universe that are...

The title of this episode is the title of a poem written by this week's guest, Selina Forsyth . The poem, which she reads here, contains several wonderful metaphors that most of us can definitely relate to. In many ways, a work like this poem can aid us in actually coming to know our own selves better. The episode certainly contains conversation about the covenant path and spiritual journeys—rich...