There’s a myth that leaving orthodoxy leads to a miserable life, so it can be common for those who are transitioning to feel pressure to prove that narrative wrong, that life is great and we’re happier than ever.  And that can be true, at times.  But everyone has bad days, and when hard times hit sometimes there’s an impulse to hide it given that false narrative about those who transition.   Sometimes it’s also hard to let go of the shame we internalized from our more orthodox days that we’re being punished: even if perhaps on an intellectual level we understand that’s not true, emotionally it can be difficult to let go of that nagging fear.   Join Kristy and Steph Lauritzen as we talk through these emotions.  Steph vulnerably shares about how she coped with postpartum anxiety and depression, how she and her husband are thriving in a mixed faith marriage and dealt with expectations onlookers had about what would happen to her and their marriage once she left the church.

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There are limitless reasons why people decide to stay active in the church (orthoprax), warts and all–after experiencing a transition from orthodoxy.   Some that come immediately to mind are because of where they live (Utah County), or their marriage, perhaps they work for the church, currently serve missions, or the community aspect.   All reasons are 100% valid and unique to the individual.

Greg Prince–historian and biographer of David O McKay and Lenard Arrington–and interviewee in PBS’ “The Mormons,” is one of these cases. A true scientist, he immersed himself for 20 years in thousands of pages of first-hand accounts on the inner-workings of church headquarters for his books.  “Power corrupts” surfaced as a theme as he followed the data in his work, and still he remains somewhat orthoprax for personal reasons.   Follow the data is how he naturally transitioned out of the orthodox framework he was raised with, and he described what that process was like for him.   We also talk about cognitive dissonance and how an insistence on orthodoxy will be problematic going forward for the church.  We end by discussing pluralism vs fundamentalism and the factors that might determine if church headquarters will embrace pluralism or dig it’s heels in even further (as in, sending the message to members: “if you don’t like orthodoxy, here’s the door”).    Regardless, we can choose to reject fundamentalism and embrace pluralism in our own lives,  as it’s much healthier not only for institutions but for individuals too

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