DISSIDENT daughters

Where did your spirituality end up after your faith crisis? If you are like many of us, we are still trying to figure that out! Today I sit down with Celeste Davis, one of my very favorite ex-mormon content creators! If you don’t already follow Celeste, you should be! She is wise and witty and has officially become a spiritual companion to help those transitioning out of religion to find their own spirituality, even if that means you land on atheism (that’s still a belief)! We talk about her faith transition and her exploring her new beliefs and helping others do the same! You can follow her @celestemdavis on Instagram or go to her website www.celestemdavis.com to learn about what it means to be a spiritual companion and even schedule a session with her to explore your spirituality. She can help guide you towards whatever new spiritual beliefs you want to lean into or no spirituality at all! I love this conversation!

Today we get an inside glimpse into the barbaric practice of excommunication. Sophronia shares her story of being a life long, fully believing member of the church and how that church eventually kicked her out. Sophronia has written a book relating to her excommunication in which she tells the story of a woman named Samantha and through the writing of this book she helps heal herself from the trauma she experienced in being excommunicated from her church. She is looking for a publisher and literary agent to help her get this story published and bring a spotlight to this practice in the church as well as hopefully help others heal from similar trauma.

Do you ever think about whether you could ever go back to the church? What is the thing that keeps you from ever going back? In so many ways, the church is like an abusive spouse who makes you feel like you can never be happy without them. This episode is a light hearted look at all the reasons we will never get back together with the church. Sarah joins me for this fun conversation that you don’t want to miss!

Today I talked about a recent story in the news about a missionary in Colombia who was stabbed. I maybe should have titled this episode “Gross” because I used that word to describe so many stories in this episode. I am troubled by the whole missionary program in the church and the irresponsible behavior by the church in sending missionaries into dangerous situations, and places where they can’t get the medical care they need, they sometimes can’t communicate their needs because of language barriers and the shaming and judging that goes on in relation to things that happen to missionaries. How do we create faith promoting stories around others suffering? Why is this a thing?

This is part 2 of our conversation about the 7 things the church needs to do in order to heal the harm they’ve caused to the Indigenous People of Utah as well as all Native People which they have labeled Lamanite. Sarah helps us to understand the way the church uses its words to skirt their responsibility in the harm they’ve done. Consider the difference between the words denounce and disavow. Disavow is a word that the church often uses to say it’s not responsible for its harmful teachings and doctrines. She is asking for them to denounce their past teachings and change the lesson manuals going forward.